Full Moon Rises

Chapter Ten

Daniel could only think of one word to describe Jia’s apartment. Small. There were only one bedroom and a small bathroom, kitchen, and living area.

Daniel personally could never live in a place like this because he simply needs the space. Jia, however, seems perfectly comfortable milling around the tiny apartment and shoving things inside the boxes.

“You’re really okay with moving?” Daniel asked, a little unsure about why Jia would be so eager to fly here, just pack up and move on like it’s nothing.

“I’m fine,” Jia assured him. “Trust me, Dan, there’s nothing left for me here. No friends, no family, and no real job. Just a shitty apartment I honestly can’t wait to be rid of.”

“No job?” Daniel found it hard to believe that Jia was unable to find a job. She was charismatic, fun, smart, and looked to be a good worker.

“I paint but that’s not really considered work seeing as I actually have to sell paintings,” Jia handed Daniel an easel and he went to load it into the truck.

“You must be good though if you’re able to live off it?” Daniel added once he returned to the apartment.

“I sell my paintings but they don’t really give me a lot of money. My parents left me a lot of money when they died,” she took a moment to take a deep breath before filling a box with clothes at impressive speed.

Daniel didn’t respond to that, after all, what could he say?

“You need some help?” was what Daniel said instead.

Jia laughed lightly, passing him another box labeled ‘clothes and s**t’, “You are helping.” she grinned and shooed Daniel in the direction of his truck.

***

Six long hours later I was finally packed and ready to leave my apartment.

I didn’t really have much in the way of belongings but it took a little while to terminate my contract with the landlord. Climbing back into Daniel’s truck, we started the half-hour drive back to the packhouse.

“So…” I started, “Will you ever going to explain this whole mate thing or just avoid it for as long as physically possible?”

“Uh… the latter.” Daniel decided and flashed me a grin that sent shivers through all the right places.

“Nope. Sorry big guy, but you got thirty minutes alone without other ears so spill.”

Daniel tried the puppy dog eyes on me but it didn’t work. He huffed in annoyance before considering how to start. “Mates are… when you find your mate… uh… a mate is… care to take a guess what a mate is?”

Wow, Daniel was really awful at this, I thought.

“Like a partner?” I eventually asked.

“Yeah, sort of,” Daniel agreed, smiling gratefully at me for getting through the hard part. “A mated couple is similar to a human married couple. Only better.” he smiled as if lost in thought and I couldn’t help smiling back at him.

“Better how?” I asked, genuinely curious.

“Well… uh…”

“How about you get it all out, I won’t say a word until you’re finished?” I offered, laughing softly at the relief that crossed Daniel’s face.

“Okay… well… when two werewolves meet and they’re destined to be mates then they can sort of feel this pull towards each other. Every day it gets stronger like our inner wolf is just screaming at us to make the first move and tie with this person. To make them ours. It’s stronger on the alpha than on the beta but they both feel the intense pull. Then when werewolves mate, it’s for life. You don’t break up and you don’t get the chance to be with anyone else, hell, you can’t even look at anyone else.”

“I know I said I wouldn’t interrupt...” I apologized, “But I was just wondering… can you choose your mate?”

“No.” Daniel smiled softly. “Your body will tell you when you find them and then you just go from there. If you don’t mate after so long in each other’s company then it can get dangerous for the beta.”

“Dangerous how?” I asked, inwardly slapping myself for interrupting again.

“The feelings become more intense day by day. The longer you take to mate the more built up on hormones the alpha becomes, then as they’re stronger than a beta they can get a little rough to get what they want.” Daniel took a deep breath, choosing his words carefully. “If they don’t mate within a week or so of meeting then the alpha could really hurt the beta because instinct overrules any logical thought process. The urge to mate becomes the one sole focus.”

“So it’s not something you can avoid then?” the thought of not even choosing who you got to spend the rest of your life with was something I didn’t really like the sound of.

“Nope,” Daniel replied simply.

“What if you don’t like your mate?” I asked, terrified that I may go through that.

“Don’t worry, Jia, you will always like your mate. Then once you’ve been together for a while you’ll love your mate. It’s not like human feelings, not really.”

“So I don’t get a choice?” I couldn’t stand the thought of loving someone simply because my body said so.

“Jia… if you weren’t meant to be with them then you wouldn’t mate with them,” Daniel assured, meaning every word he said. “Anyway… where was I… so a mating bond is something unbreakable. Nothing compares to the intensity. You can feel everything your mate feels. Emotions, desires, and fears all get shared between the two of you. I imagine it’s remarkable, being that close to someone you can almost see the world through their eyes.”

Daniel seemed lost in thought, excited at the prospect of finding a mate to share all that with. If I was being honest, it did sound a little exciting, being close enough with someone to literally share everything.

“What if one of them dies?” I asked, wondering what could possibly happen if werewolves couldn’t mate again.

“Then the other dies from the loss a few days later,” Daniel replied sadly. “It’s what happened to my mother when my father died.”

“I’m sorry,” I said. Because I truly was sorry that Daniel ever had to go through that. “How old were you?” my heart broke at the thought of a young Daniel losing both his parents one after the other.

“Not sure… it was like fifty years ago so I guess I’d have been around thirty.”

I waited for the punch line but it never came.

“Daniel, how old are you now?”

“Eighty years, give or take,” he replied earnestly. “Werewolves stop aging once they reach s****l maturity. Disease gets cured from our healing abilities and we can’t die of old age because we stopped aging. The only thing that causes a werewolf to die is if they’re killed.”

That broke my heart a little more, not only did Daniel lose both his parents suddenly but his father was killed. It made me angry, how dare anyone hurt Daniel like this. I reigned in my anger and tried a joke, to lighten the situation. “So I’m moving in with a bunch of oldies?”

Daniel laughed, humoring me at the very least. “Yep. How does it feel to know you woke up next to a naked old man?” he winked as I flushed, the memory of Daniel in my bed overwhelming.

“I think it’s the least of my problems,” I replied truthfully. “Anyway… you were supposed to be talking about mates… how do you mate with someone anyway?”

“Um…” Daniel blushed. I bit my lip to hold back the grin. It felt so good to make Daniel blush.

“Well… uh… to start the mating bond you have to… um… have… uh…” he waved his hand in the air in a circular motion which really didn’t explain anything. “You know… they have to… um…”

“Have s*x?” I really couldn’t watch Daniel stumble his way through it anymore, no matter how entertaining it was to let him suffer.

Daniel focused very intently on the road. “Um… yeah… that. But, uh… alphas… we… we don’t have a normal… you know,” he gestured towards his pants.

“Oh god, you’re a woman!” I tried to clear the tension but only got a half-hearted glare in return.

“No… um… have you ever seen a dog’s… you know...” he gestured again towards his pants, but ended up cringing at his own comparison, “s**t. That sounded awful.”

“Yes, Daniel, that was awful,” I replied. “And, no, can’t say I’ve ever perved on a dog.”

“No! I meant… biology-wise!” Daniel was getting frustrated and I really wanted to help him out…

Unfortunately,  I wasn’t an expert on the biology of a dog’s reproductive system and therefore was of no use at all.

“Just spit it out, Daniel!” I didn’t care what I had to say as long as Daniel shut up and said it.

Daniel was a little stunned but quickly composed himself. “Well… aesthetically I’m all human, I am wholly human,” he tried. “But like a dog... I have a knot and in order to mate with someone... my knot has to be… uh… inside them”.

I tried to process that. I have heard of a dog’s knot before, god knows how, and that maybe makes sense given that Daniel was part canine. “And how big is your knot?”

Daniel flushed an adorable deep shade of pink. “Uh… that’s kinda private...” he stuttered over his words.

“Humour me,” I raised an eyebrow towards Daniel and grinned in victory as he gave in.

“I’m not sure… maybe the size of a baseball?”

I winced, “And that goes inside someone?!” I unconsciously closed my legs at the thought, because damn that must hurt!

“The beta wouldn’t hurt if that’s what you’re thinking,” Daniel answered easily. “Your mate is built to take your body, my mate wouldn’t have a problem with my size.”

“Oh thank goodness for that... So, you’re like big for a werewolf?” I couldn’t have ever guessed how easily our conversation shifted from educational to s****l.

“Very.” Daniel waggled his eyebrows, trying to lighten the mood.

It worked, and I laughed, feeling very embarrassed at the same time.

“So you have to put your knot inside them… then what?” I pushed, wanting to know exactly what happen.

“You know, you’re awfully forward, Jia,” Daniel noted before continuing. “While you’re tied to them… um… the knot gets wedged inside your mate for around an hour or so. Not exactly a quickie,” Daniel laughed at that statement and I almost gulped at the thought of being connected to someone for an hour… by something the size of a baseball.

It just wasn’t happening.

“But you can’t exactly argue with an hour-long orgasm… anyway… as soon as you’re tied the alpha will seek out your throat, extend their canines and bite down to claim you as theirs. It will draw blood and it will leave a permanent scar. You may have noticed them on the mated members of the pack. The beta can bite the alpha too if the alpha lets them. The first time is the only time a bite will scar so if the alpha wants to be marked by their beta then they would tell the beta before they tied.”

Daniel paused for a moment, “Now to explain how two betas such as Nina and Noelle can mate, they each have scars from their bite but obviously, none of them have a knot. You don’t have to have an alpha in a mated couple. It’s really the bite that does it for beta couples but if an alpha wants to mate, then it has to involve a knot too… am I confusing you?”

“Only a lot,” I mumbled, trying to take it all in.

“Beta matings are a little more confusing, a beta’s body seeks out a knot and beta couples just don’t have that. I personally don’t know how their bodies can adapt to life with another beta but apparently, they can. Sadly though, only alphas are fertile while all female betas can carry pups. Beta couples tend to never have biological children.” He smiled sadly. “A shame but it’s the way of life.”

“That’s a lot to take in.” My head hurt a little from all that information, but I tried to absorb as much as I could. “Mates are really important to each other aren’t they?”

“Nothing comes first,” Daniel replied honestly, meeting my eyes for a second before turning back to the road. “Anything else you’d like to know about mates?”

I already knew the only thing about mates that concerned me, but I had to voice it anyway… I had to know.

“I’m your mate, aren’t I, Daniel?”

Daniel stayed silent for a long moment, eyes fixed firmly on the road.

“Yes,” he replied, a little sadly, and my heart squeezed painfully inside my ribs seeing his expression.

“You don’t... want me?” I felt my insides shatter at the thought of not being wanted by my mate, by Daniel.

“Of course I want you,” Daniel replied instantly, eyes flicking between me and the road. “I just wish you didn’t have to learn all this and have a mate to deal with at the same time.” he sighed.

Daniel wanted me and that meant more to me than it probably should but after everything Daniel explained today, I guessed it makes perfect sense. If this is how I felt then I dreaded to think how much worse Daniel must have felt.

“So we have… what… five days before you become a danger to me?”

I tried to act cool but I was maybe more than a little scared of what Daniel could do to hurt me.

“Yes,” Daniel whispered softly, clearly sad it was all happening so fast.

“Fuck.”

It was all Jia could think of. f**k.