Chosen By The Gods

Operation: Talk to Your Mate.

Xenos’s point of view.

I get out of the car and head toward the school, hoping to get away from Marina as fast as possible, but apparently, she isn’t done with me yet.

“See you later, babe!” Laura says and tries to kiss me, but I avoid her, pretending that I left my phone in the car. Marina. It was Marina. Anyway, irrelevant.

“Won’t you break up with her?”

“Apollo, do I look suicidal to you? Not that she could kill me, but I would kill myself if I had to be in her presence for two more minutes. I’ll break up with her through a text. It’s not as if she will suffer or anything. She has her own s**t going on.”

“Fine. Now go and find your mate.” Apollo pushes me again, making my blood boil because there’s the possibility that he’s with that little... yeah. And my poor heart races at the thought of seeing his gorgeous self, and I don’t think I can handle so many mixed emotions at once.

“And say what? Do what? What if he’s with his girlfriend? And besides, he doesn’t look like he’s attracted to me. And yesterday I acted like a maniac. I don’t—”

“STOP TALKING!” Apollo yells/growls, and I stop. He can be scary sometimes, I’ll give him that.

“As I said, go find him and talk to him. I didn’t say that you should jump into his arms and mark him on the spot. I said that you should try to be his friend. He’s as big as you are, so ask him if he wants to join the basketball team. Offer to show him around town. You know, what normal people do!” I think about it for a few minutes, and he does have a point. Apollo sighs heavily in exasperation at my thoughts, but fortunately, he doesn’t say anything.

“What if I reject him?” Apollo’s exasperation turns into anger, if his growl is anything to go by, but that’s not what makes me wince.

The pain in my chest is so sharp it f*****g knocks the breath right out of my lungs.

“You will live your whole life in pain. What you feel right now is nothing compared to what you will feel if you reject him. And I don’t know why, but it affects me as well.” He starts by angrily stating facts, but his voice drops to a whisper at the end, as if the thought hurts him, too.

Consider me shocked.

“What do you mean it affects you? And it’s not normal? I mean, for others, it’s normal. Their inner wolf is also suffering.”

“Xenos, I’m not an inner wolf. I’m THE wolf! I’m a God! I don’t suffer because of your mate. I don’t have a mate. You can’t have them all. I tried… it doesn’t matter.” Again, he goes through multiple emotions, and if I didn’t know him, I would say that there’s a little pain behind his words.

Again, I’m shocked and curious as f**k.

“Then why are you suffering now?”

“I don’t know. But what I know is that I am, and it doesn’t feel nice. So you’ll do what I say.”

“And if he rejects me? He doesn’t seem too fond of me.” We both sigh heavily as I lean against a wall, waiting for the bell to ring and looking for him.

“Maybe he’s trying to deny that he’s attracted to you too. Maybe he’s scared to admit it. Because there’s no other explanation.”

“You felt his aura. It wasn’t arousal. And it should’ve been, right?” I ask, hoping he’ll give me an answer that will solve all my problems, hoping that maybe he’ll say that it was a mix-up, and he’s not really my mate.

“Yes, something’s off, and I don’t know what. We need to find out. And he is your mate!!!” He yells the last part, probably more than exasperated.

“Okay, Sherlock. Our lives are in your paws! I’m officially handing you the case.” Apollo chuckles, and I join in. But maybe I’m lucky, and he’s not my—

“He is,” Apollo growls, and I sigh in defeat.

The bell rings, and I see the golden rope forming before I even see him. After a few seconds, he comes into view, again with that little—okay, deep breaths.

With that girl glued to him.

He stops in place, and the girl stops too. Of course, she does.

She—breathe in, Xenos, breathe out. Calm. You can do this. Murder is not the answer. Well, not always, but in this case—

“Don’t even think about it, you i***t!” Apollo snaps, and I roll my eyes. Spoilsport.

My alleged mate starts looking through his backpack, and I try to go to him, but it feels like my legs won’t move. I’m too mesmerized by his beauty, and too angry because of the girl.

I think Apollo might be right, and he’s really my mate.

“Wow! Really? You trust—”

“Shut it.” I don’t interrupt him just because he’s stupid, but also because I don’t want him to distract me from watching the guy who is supposed to be my forever—how he turns his gorgeous hair into a sexy mess by running his long fingers through it, seeing his biceps flex, and ultimately, how his lips curl into a charming smile that shows his pearly teeth.

The only problem is that the smile is thanks to that little...

Anger and desire. What a mix...

“HELLO! Staring at him like a creep won’t help! Move your feet, and go to him! If you forgot how to, let me freshen up your memory. Move your right leg forward, then put the left one in front of it. Repeat the action and you’ll—”

“Yeah, yeah! I got it! Damn!” I start walking, and with every step, my heart races faster and faster. My breath becomes uncontrollable, and my mouth gets dry as hell.

“Yes? Can I help you?” he asks as he looks at me expectantly, and I realize that I’m standing in front of him, staring like a creep, not knowing what to say.

“Apollo, help.” I wait for Apollo to respond, but he’s nowhere to be found. Of course, he isn’t. Why would he be when I need him? He’s just the f*****g guardian who was supposed to—not now. I need to focus on my mate.

“Aaaa well… I w-was wondering if you… m-maybe want to join the basketball team? Y-you’re tall and all.” HOLY f*****g s**t! DID I JUST STUTTER?

Maybe he thinks it’s a condition. I sure f*****g hope he thinks that.

But yesterday, I wasn’t stuttering when I yelled at him like a complete lunatic. The good part is that he doesn’t seem angry about what happened yesterday. I guess he’s a better person than I am. But I’m only half human, so I guess that’s understandable. Although, I’m not sure it works that way.

“I don’t know,” he answers uncertainly, making my poor heart stop.

“I do. Join. It’ll be fun. Okay, most of the players are assholes, but the game is fun.” The little—yeah. She talked, and even if she did me a favor without knowing it, I can’t let myself like her.

I look at him expectantly, doing my best to hide the hope in my eyes, and he smiles.

I’m melting.

He is my mate. f**k, a guy is my mate. A gorgeous one, but a guy nonetheless. But there’s nothing I can do about it, so I might as well accept it.

“Apollo, so help me God, if you don’t help me—”

“I’m here. I’m here. There’s something wrong. Do you smell that?” I take a deep breath through my nose, and there are a lot of smells, but his scent overpowers all of them, and it makes it hard for me to smell any other scents.

“What? I smell him, and it makes it hard for me to keep my distance.”

“Okay, I’ll come and see,” my mate says in a nonchalant tone, and the girl squeals and jumps up and down.

“She’s Fairy. She’s always like this.” He points to the girl, who smiles widely, and I try not to grimace or kick her little butt to another tiny planet.

“Interesting name,” I state through gritted teeth and try to smile back so they can’t notice my mood or see the murderous intentions running through my mind, and the girl flashes me a huge proud smile.

“Apollo, do me a favor and roll your eyes for me.” I practically beg, and he laughs.

“It’s not my name. Silas calls me that. Because I’m small, and I always smile, and I wear a lot of colors, and God knows what else.” She talks so fast I can barely keep up, her small hands gesturing as she explains. If she weren’t all over MY mate, maybe I would’ve liked her.

P.S. Even his name is beautiful.

“What did I say? Don’t jump to conclusions. Ask first!” Apollo tries to reason with me, but... yeah, it’s hard with her all over him.

“Well, nice to meet you, Fairy. And thank you for convincing your boyfriend to give our team a shot.” I try to find out if she’s his girlfriend without actually asking if she’s his girlfriend, and Apollo laughs, making me wish I could roll my eyes at him.

“Smooth, kid, smooth....” He laughs even harder, and I make a mental note to tell him to f**k OFF later.

“Oh, he’s not my boyfriend. He’s my best friend! So if you want to steal him from me, you should know that I will put up quite a fight!” She squints her eyes and looks at me threateningly, and my mate, Silas, starts to laugh out loud, but I can’t react.

I feel like the weight of the world has been lifted off my shoulders. Whatever squeezed my heart just vanishes, and last but not least, I’m lost in his gorgeous green eyes and manly, rich laughter.

“Told you so,” Apollo says in an uptight voice, but I couldn’t care less right now. I can finally breathe.

“Well, see you later,” he says in a cheery voice and taps my shoulder. My whole body feels like it was dead until now, and his touch brings me back to life. I know he feels it too because he quickly pulls his hand away and looks me straight in the eye, trying to find an answer.

“See you later,” I reply softly with a big smile. Things are happening. I feel like a shy, teenage girl who loses her voice, powers, and mind when she talks to her crush.

They both go, but I feel like I’m rooted to the ground. My eyes are moving on their own, following him, and as he gets further away, the urge to follow him grows.

He looks back one last time, and I can’t help but smile. My heart grows bigger than Earth when he smiles back, and my body fills with millions of billions of trillions of butterflies.

As I was saying. Brain-dead.

“Sorry to disappoint, but that brain-dead situation is not because of him. You’re stupid all on your own—” I interrupt his condescending ass.

“f**k off!” And he starts with his old speech, saying how he’s a God and that I’m lucky he doesn’t strike me for talking to him like that, and so on. But I know he can’t kill me. Yeah, okay, he blinded me a couple of times and made me freeze, but those are prices I’m willing to pay.