Mated to the Enemy

Chapter 6 - Mine

— Jet —

Pacing the empty room, I couldn’t keep still. Not after finding my mate. I didn’t want to let her go. I didn’t even want to find her in the first place, I reasoned, but now that I have I couldn’t get her out of my mind.

She saw me at my weakest… barely able to stand. Any she-wolf would reject me if I couldn’t protect her, and I was a rogue… caught by another pack, and blackmailed into mating with another female. I cringed, for f**k’s sake… she knew that I slept with another she-wolf of this very pack like a rake. It was only one female, and I never even told her my name.

My name.

I didn’t even tell my mate who I was.

The wolf trying to steal her called her Danny.

It sounded like home on my tongue.

And yet she was already gone, and an ache filled my gut knowing it was only a matter of time before she formally rejected me. It was best for her to stay away from me, but the very idea of not being with her made my wolf angry enough to rip that other wolf’s heart out. He wanted her, I could see it in his eyes.

Mine, I growled.

How was I so far gone for someone I didn’t even know?

Wrong, I thought, the goddess knows her and picked her for me. She’s perfect.

I wanted to know everything there was to know about her, and lost in that goal I stayed close to the door, hoping I’d be able to hear her for as long as possible. I listened to the way her small feet tapped the floor as she walked away. Another door opened but it didn’t close, allowing me to hear her voice.

My hands half shifted to claws hearing that wolf admit out loud that he fully intended on making her his mate. Get to know him, I scoffed, I felt the way she tensed up when he came in the room. He wasn’t right for her.

I was, I growled out stopping myself before slamming my fist through the door only to have it meet with the silver bars on the other side. The bars clicked into place when she left, she had been right about this room. Despite it being a blood moon I felt weaker in this room, surrounded by silver.

This was what it felt like to find your mate… it was infuriating.

Distracting, and painful.

Closing my eyes to the sudden urge to shift, but there was too much wolfsbane in my system to fully transition surrounded by silver, I banged my head against the wall fuming at hearing her call that other wolf handsome. What was she doing to me?

Driving me mad.

She was mine.

— Danny —

When we left the packhouse, I saw that it was one of many buildings, like a its own small town, and there was a woman pacing in front, stopping the moonlit tour before it even began. Not that I cared much about that other than finding a time to sneak away.

She appeared worried, and looked up from her pacing allowing me to recognize that she was one the wolf that told Lauren to just take me with the rogue, and flirt with me later.

“Willow,” Lauren addressed, and I gaped at her, not having recognized who she was. She was so different now. Her long black hair was shining in the moon’s light, and those dark eyes reflected like a predator in the night. She was scary, but she was also gorgeous.

“You need to let me inside,” she demanded, while taking a moment to scan me up and down with a sniff. Willow lifted a judgmental brow at me, she came across as a bit snobbish now before she went back to ignoring me and glaring at Lauren. “She smells funny, but that seems like a good fit for you.” She gave him a wicked grin, and I was too much in shock at who she was to defend myself from her insult. Willow used to be my best friend, and she seemed so… bitchy.

Lauren growled at her, even his fangs protruded in warning. “You will not insult my—” he stopped himself before obviously claiming me as his mate. I wasn’t dumb, I could sense his possessiveness towards me. I stiffened, and slowly eased my hand from his arm, giving it an awkward pat to distance myself.

He twitched as if to prevent me from leaving his side, but he restrained himself to begin again, “You know I can’t give you permission to go inside, you were commanded to stay away from the holding cell, and the only one who can release you from that is Holden or Alpha Peyton.”

She gritted her teeth and her eyes flashed like she was about to shift. “You or Beta Tristen can release me from the command.”

He smiled gleefully. “That would go against the alpha’s wishes. You think I would risk punishment for you?”

“You’re risking punishment right now.” Willow motioned to me with a chin jut and a huff. “She’s meant to stay in the holding cell until Alpha Peyton decides what to do with her.”

I was tired of both of them talking about me as if I wasn’t even present.

“Great… well, take me back to my cell then.” I turned to go back inside the packhouse.

Lauren stretched out his arm to block my path to the door, then pulled me in close to his chest. The movement was so fast that my face mushed into his firm torso, and I was forced to inhale his scent. A tingling sensation prickled through my body the more I took in his smell. What was this? All of my limbs went a bit rubbery, and I blinked several times. Lauren nuzzled his nose into my hair and breathed in deeply as I gripped his shirt for support.

I felt dizzy, and confused, but all of a sudden I didn’t feel like leaving his side.

Clearing my throat I forced myself to push away from him.

He grinned at me with twinkle in his amber eyes like he knew what he was doing to me.

Willow made a fake gagging noise of disgust. “She must not be that into you if you have to mark her with your scent like that.”

A rumble vibrated through Lauren’s chest in warning for Willow to stop insulting him. “You know as well as I do that our wolves don’t mark things with scent unless they are our mate. If I wasn’t compatible then she’d be making the same face you’re making right now.”

My face blanched, draining of blood from what he said. Was that true? The fact that I liked his scent meant he was my mate? I liked the rogue’s scent too… What was wrong with me?

Willow laughed. “Her face looks terrified.”

Lauren cupped my cheeks in his hands gently, and then brushed back my red hair with his thumb. “I would never harm you,” he soothed. Another wave of smells crashed over me, a heady spice, and a hint of floral. I clung to his arms to stop myself from fainting. Everything I was feeling was becoming more magnified. Leaning my forehead on him, I closed my eyes trying to refocus.

Was this what my mom was talking about when you found a mate? Or was this my wolf deciding to make itself known? Did I have a wolf now?

Would I finally be able to live my life without being afraid of being found out to be more human than wolf?

My head pounded in my skull, and when I opened my eyes I could more than sense auras… Colors swirled in the air like magic. I was magic. I turned my hand over and back, staring at it like I’d never seen it before in my life.

Blinking again, Lauren was still staring at me, but this time his amber eyes were glowing like he was holding back his wolf. He was breathing heavy, and he was holding me up by my shoulders.

“What was that?” I broke the silence.

He groaned, and behind me I could hear a howl echoing from the packhouse.

Lauren panted, and without turning away from me gruffly told Willow, “Shut him up.”

Without waiting for his meaning to change, she shoved past us into the packhouse quickly, disappearing behind the door.

“I’m sorry, Danny. I can’t hold back much longer. Under the blood moon…”

“You need to shift,” I finished for him.

He nodded, gritting his teeth before rubbing his face on the top of my head, nuzzling into me with a moan.

“Come with me,” he begged.

What was I going to do? I couldn’t shift. Shaking my head, I tried to be as truthful as possible, “I’m not ready.”

Sniffing behind my ear, he brushed his lips against my neck making me shiver. Another howl sounded through the packhouse, and he grimaced before pulling back. His eyes glowed, and his canines protruded before he turned leaping back from me. Lauren transformed mid-air landing on all fours before he howled back into the night sky. His wolf was large, with a beautiful brown coat, with white paws, and those golden amber eyes.

He slowly approached, and I backed up against the wall of the packhouse, scanning back and forth, wondering what I should do now that he was wolfed out.

Chuffing through his snout, he bowed his head down in a submissive stance to ease my worry that he wasn’t in control of himself anymore. Either that or his wolf was more honorable than I gave him credit for.

Another wolf ran up to him, and pounced making me shriek. They rolled on the ground as they nipped at each other, until Lauren’s wolf pinned the other down. The grayish wolf transformed and was laughing naked beneath Lauren.

“You’ve been b***h-whipped,” he wheezed with Lauren’s paw pressing down on his throat. I recognized him as the man who was just as insulting earlier that night… Rual.

“Excuse me.” My voice rose up with a high pitch.

Lauren pressed his claw harder onto Rual’s neck, and he stopped laughing to choke out, “My bad.” He scrambled out from under the wolf, shifting as he did. I realized he had shifted to a human on purpose because I wasn’t officially part of the pack yet, and therefore not expected to be able to mind-link with anyone. Yet another way for everyone to find out I didn’t have a wolf.

Snapping at Rual, Lauren paced in front of me protectively.

Tristen walked up, without my mother with him, probably lured back by the scene they were making. “Both of you, finish your patrol then you can come back for the blood moon ceremony.” Lauren’s wolf whined, but Tristen’s tone was firm, and I was pretty sure they were still talking through mind-link and he only spoke out loud like that for my benefit.

He averted his gaze from me until the two wolves rushed off to finish their rounds around the territory.

“I know you have no reason to forgive me, but being related to me put you in danger with the Red Claw pack… they were my pack before I joined the Blood Crests, and my brother only let me live because I submitted, and forfeited any rights to claim the pack as my own when I left. I refused to duel him… anyone with the alpha gene is required to submit or duel for leadership.

“If I dueled my brother, my wolf would have killed him… he knows that, and he knows any child of mine has the right to return and potentially take the pack from him or his cubs. You were too young, and I couldn’t risk some of the more zealot of the pack defending their alpha by seeking to drag you back to the pack and force you to submit or duel.”

“Are you saying you thought I had the alpha gene?”

At eight years old?

“You were displaying senses for things before you even reached your teens, before your wolf ever presented itself… I was more sure than ever you had an alpha female in you,” he admitted, his fists were clenched inside his jogger sweat pants.

“If you’re looking for forgiveness I’m not giving you any. You aren’t my dad, so you can move on, and I can continue to dislike you for being a jackass for abandoning your presumed daughter.”

Tristen flinched at my harshness, but remained where he was.

“Not for me… for your mother,” his words bit back like I’d been stabbed in the heart. “I may not know the whole story yet, she’ll tell me when she’s ready, but I know she wouldn’t have done what she did without a good reason. And that reason must do with your safety. You mean more to her than anything in the world.”

I scoffed, trying to ease the hurt in my chest at knowing he was right, but not being ready to forgive her yet.

“I’m not going to mate with someone just because they smell nice,” I challenged.

He grinned back at me, taking my small olive branch for what it was. I was trying to lighten the mood, and without actually saying so, giving my acknowledgment that I would forgive her eventually, and maybe even him because he seemed to care for my mom a lot.

He wasn’t the one that abandoned us, I reasoned, that douchebag was still out there somewhere. And technically speaking… my mom was the one that abandoned Tristen… and he still stuck up for her. In my book that’s a keeper.

“I’ll make sure to have a word with Lauren about giving you some space, but I will say from experience that the impulse grows the more you’re around them. It’ll intensify until neither you or your wolf can function until the mate bond is formed. He obviously feels it more strongly than you do right now, but he’ll be annoying to deal with until you reject him or claim him.”

“It’s as simple as that?” I quirked my head sideways at him. That was the farthest thing from my mind that it didn’t even occur to me. All I had to do was formally reject him and all these sensations would just disappear.

I grinned at Tristen. He wasn’t half bad after all, if he was offering me this information.

Tristen looked pained, and nervous about what he was going to say next, “Before you decide to act rashly I should warn you. Rejecting a potential mate is very painful, and it’s easier to just find the one you do want to mate with and claim them.

“The best way I can describe it is like a rubber band stretched out to connect you both, and it becomes stronger and harder to break the longer you’re around them until the claiming transforms it. And if you sever it sooner sure it hurts less when it snaps, but you can’t reconnect it easily if you change your mind.

“Lauren is a good guy, give him a chance, or at the very least just keep your distance, and find someone else so he isn’t a wreck. The pack needs him.”

I glared at him. Of course he wasn’t on my side about this, he was just protecting his pack as the beta of Blood Crest.

“Trust me when I say he’d rather deal with the resistance, and longing, than to feel the absence of a mate,” Tristen’s voice was filled with a twang of emotion evoked from true experience… that I realized was because of my own mom.

I hadn’t really thought about from his point of view, he literally just found out that his daughter isn’t his daughter, and that his mate was gone for no reasonable explanation that he knows of yet.

“Whatever,” I dismissed trying to shove that guilt, and pity I felt for him out of my mind. “Where is everyone anyways?” The pack grounds were fairly empty, with only a few stragglers here and there. I remembered the blood moon being a bit more lively than this as a kid, but I was in bed before the real fun ever began.

“The pack grounds are a bit too upgraded for our tastes in recent years, too industrialized. Which is great most of the time, but for celebrations like this we prefer the feel of wilderness. If you head north a bit more you’ll run right into the festivities,” he explained before a howl in distance made him smile. Even I recognized that howl…

“You can go.” I waved him off to go join my mom, who was obviously already there.

He nodded gratefully.

“Your mom wanted me to tell you to stay close to the pack tonight. She says she smelled fae in the air, and I agree with her. Alpha Peyton has extra patrols securing the pack grounds, but the fae are tricky creatures.” Tristen ran off into the woods leaving me in the clearing having second thoughts about abandoning my mom here.

If the fae were around, the pack was in danger, and yet they had no intentions of cutting the blood moon short. I sat on the steps of the building I came out of, and a deep voice interrupted my thoughts.

“You grew up, Red.”

Out of all the wolves I might not have recognized it was hard not to know who he was… waves of alpha energy radiated off of him, a display no doubt that he performed for every she-wolf.

Holden.