by Teagan Wilde
“I guess the house we fixed up isn’t needed,” one of the guys jokes and the rest of them laugh.
My cheeks redden in embarrassment. The alpha growls low in his throat, and everyone quits laughing immediately. I hide my smile at his protectiveness. He can sense my discomfort. You can sense certain emotions in your mate. You can tell if they are scared, in distress, or in danger.
From what I have heard, sex with your true mate is amazing, because they were made exactly for you, the other half of your soul. We women are all virgins when we find our mates, but we heal very quickly—so the pain is gone in a split second.
We can also only get pregnant under the full moon, which is kind of fitting, as we are shifters. We don’t shift under the full moon; we can shift any time. Our wolves are a huge part of ourselves. They are right under our skin, guiding us. Right now my wolf wants out, to run with her mate.
My mate.
His hand drifts from my back to my hand, intertwining our fingers. Maverick looks at our hands; then it’s like it sinks in with him. He smiles. “I am happy for you, sis. I knew this day would come, but I am glad that it is with him.” My brother nods at his alpha, not meeting his eyes.
“Want to go talk, Moon?” my mate says softly, and I close my eyes at that nickname, which is for the alpha female. It is a mark of the highest respect and honor.
“Yes,” I say softly, and he leads me away from the other men. Their eyes are burning into our backs as we head to a house right in the center of the field. All the cabins are big, but his is the largest. I want to roll around in the lush green grass in the field. He walks up the stairs and pushes open his door, and I follow him inside his house.
I love it already. It has beautiful cedar wood throughout the place, along with black leather furniture.
“Want to sit down on the couch?” he asks. We are alone, and I blush slightly under his gaze. Just because we are mates doesn't mean we are going to jump straight into our relationship. We will do the whole courtship thing even though, in the end, we know who we belong to. Why wouldn’t we enjoy dating, since we never got to experience it with anyone else?
“Tonight, I will take you to town for dinner,” he states bluntly. Like I said, we are dating. I sure as hell am not going to jump straight into bed with him, mate or not.
“You going to say please?” I wink, smirking at him. I will agree, of course, but that doesn't mean I am not going to bust his chops about it.
He laughs. “I don’t say please.”
Oh boy. I blush deeply, catching the double meaning. His hand touches my cheek, and instinctively I tilt my head to the side. Shifters love touch, and we crave it.
As shifters we have all been genetically blessed to be good looking, but he is beyond that. It’s like God had a direct hand in making him.
I lucked out for sure.
Damon
It’s really hard to believe that I woke up this morning thinking I was just adding the first woman to the pack, and now I have my true mate sitting across from me on the couch.
At times, when you’re waiting for your mate, it seems like that day will never come. You get lonely. It’s a curse, in a way, but also a blessing. You never have the baggage of an ex. I don’t have to kill a fucker for touching my mate.
Wait. It hits me, all of a sudden, the reason she is here. “Moon, tell me what happened with the rogue?” I ask her. I need to know so I can kill him for daring to touch what is mine.
She gulps. I probably should not have spoken of it so bluntly, but my beast is howling inside me, begging to know how to take out the threat to his mate. He will not rest until he is dead. I will not rest until he is ripped apart.
“His mate died. I don’t know how, but I was fifteen at the time. He was not affected at all. He walked out of the house the day of her funeral smiling.” She shivers.
I can already tell that fucker has something wrong with him. If you are not affected by the death of your mate, you’re fucked up. Most shifters don’t even survive the loss of their mates.
“Then it started. One day I walked by him, and he grabbed my ass. Hard. I fell to the ground, sick and in pain. The alpha threatened him and sent him out to the woods for a month. He came back a new person, or so he pretended.” She stops and looks out the window to the huge field in front of my house. “Maverick left and he changed. My brother didn’t know he touched me, because I begged everyone not to say anything. He never found out.”
She pushes her hair behind her ear. “Then he started watching me, lurking outside my house, and being everywhere I was.” Her face falls like she is deep in thought. “Then he came to me and said he wanted me. I told him that I could kill him, but he didn’t care. He was going to take me anyway.” Her voice is soft as she relives that day.
I hear a huge ripping sound and see that my nails have ripped the couch. She arches an eyebrow at me, but I don’t say a fucking word.
I am pissed.
She smiles. “Then I kicked him in the dick and bit his ass, showed him not to mess with me.”
I laugh at her spunk, and I am glad that she stood up for herself. But I hate the thought of something like that happening to her. In the shifter world it’s not very common for a man to threaten a woman, especially in that way.
She smiles as she watches me laugh. She is beautiful and tiny. I am six-foot-five and she is around five-foot-three, with long brown hair that reaches her ass. She has freckles on her cheeks, full lips, large brown eyes, and a small nose.
She is fucking adorable.
“What time are we going to dinner?” She pushes her hair over her shoulder. My nose flares at the scent of her. It’s something that is hard to describe. It’s something that is calling to your soul, and it kills you at the same time. It drives you wild.
“Seven o’clock good with you?” I ask her. She nods just as there is a knock on the door. Maverick is standing outside the glass door with her suitcase.
Farren
I open the door, and Mav lifts the suitcase into the house. “I guess this will be needed here?”
Immediately, Damon is at my side. Once you find your true mate, it becomes hard to stay away from each other. Over a long period of time, it becomes painful. Damon towers over me, immediately making me feel safe. I just want to curl up in his arms, running my face up and down his neck, breathing in his woodsy scent.
Damon takes my bag. “Let me show you your room.” He walks down a hallway, and I wave bye to my brother.
I can’t wait for my brother to find his woman. I just want him to be happy, and now that it no longer feels like I’m missing a huge part of my soul, it’s like I can breathe. It’s so strange how your life can change just like that.
He leads me up the stairs. I love his house. It’s wood, but it’s so open with so many windows letting beautiful natural light into the house. My wolf wants to lie beneath a window, enjoy her new home, and rub up against everything, putting her scent in her mate’s house.
He pushes open a door and, right in the center of the room, is a queen-sized bed. I notice doors on the left and the right. “One of them is the closet and the other is your bathroom,” he informs me.
“It’s perfect, thank you.” I smile and roll my bag into my room, and he shuts the door behind me.
When I am finally alone, I let out a deep breath, allowing everything to sink in. I sit down on the edge of the bed and shake my head in pure disbelief as I look around the room. You wait for something your whole life then, in a blink of an eye, it just happens. It’s wild.
Now I have to get ready for my date. I look at the clock on the wall; it’s four o’clock.
“Damon, I am going to take a nap, do you mind waking me at six?” I know he can hear me from wherever he is in the house.
“I will. Sleep well, Moon.”
I smile at his endearment, and I change into a baggy shirt and fall onto the bed. I fall asleep with a smile on my face.
Damon
I listen as her
breathing evens as she falls asleep. My wolf wants to prance around the house because his mate is here and she feels safe enough in our presence to fall asleep. I sit back on the couch, closing my eyes, after setting an alarm, on my phone, to wake me up at six. I just want to close my eyes, for the first time, knowing my mate is here. She is safe and, most of all, she is mine.
That is a fucking blessing. She is a blessing.
My pack is my pride and joy. Many packs don't allow mates to be together if they are not the same breed. Everyone will be welcome here. It does not matter if you are a bear, lion, or wolf. Mates are mates, and mates’ bonds do not discriminate. It’s time for a change in the shifter world; it’s time to get out of the old and selfish ways.
I drift off to sleep as my mind wanders to a million different things at once. The most important thing is my hopes for the future, with my Moon.
Farren
He woke me up, from outside my room, his scent sneaking in through the cracks around the door. My nose flares as I breathe in deeply, and his scent wakes and soothes me instantly. I climb out of bed, feeling much better than when I lay down. The eight-hour trip here had been exhausting. I’d been feeling so many emotions. Leaving the pack I grew up in was very hard, even though—since it was a small pack with few young people—I’d known it was time to move on. Especially with the mating coming up in a couple of months.
I stand at the door, smiling, knowing he is standing right outside. I hear him breathing deeply, and I know he is doing the same thing. We shifters crave the scent of our mates.
I find myself thinking about the yearly gathering coming up in several months. A lot of stuff happens during that time. Many men and some women are together, in one place, trying to find their true mates. Sometimes complicated situations arise. For example, upon occasion, a wolf mates with a bear. Talk about hell. Many alphas do not allow different breeds to be together. So the couple is banished to the woods. It’s a sad situation.
It happened once in my old pack. Randall, a male bear, and Olive, a female wolf, mated and were banished to the back of the property, but they are very happy. Randall works in town as a firefighter; he had to find a way to support his family. Maybe I should ask them if they want to transfer to this pack.
I take out my phone and text Olive. She is around thirty years old now, with a three-year-old son and daughter.
Me: Have you ever thought about transferring to a new pack?
I hit send and set the phone on the bathroom counter as I step into the shower. Letting the warm water massage my back, I hurry to wash my hair and body; then I step out.
The screen on my phone lights up, indicating a text. I wipe my wet hands on the towel and pick it up.
Olive: All the time, it’s hard to find a place where we are wanted.
I am hit with so much sadness that this has been her life for so long, being secluded from everyone.
Me: I just got to the pack where my brother is beta, this is different from the other pack. Everyone is accepted, and the alpha is my true mate.
After I dump all of that information on her, I blow-dry my long hair. I look at myself in the mirror, and my eyes glow as I think of my mate, who is showering in the next room. I smile and continue blow-drying my hair, and the screen lights up again.
Olive: Ask him, tell him the situation please.
I can feel the anxiety in her text, and I tighten my grip on my phone, pissed off that people can’t just be happy with their mates and accepted by their packs. After all, you can’t choose your true mate. I close my eyes, controlling my anger.
“Why are you upset, Moon?” Damon asks through the bedroom door.
I slip on some sweats. “Come in.”
He moves quickly to my side. “What happened?”
“I have a friend who I left in my old pack… Do you accept bears and wolves as mates?”
“Yes, one hundred percent.”
I smile. I can see that he is being real with me. “Will you accept the transfer? She is a wolf, her mate is a bear, and they have two kids. They have lived outside the pack, in the woods, for years.”
His jaw tightens. “I hate fuckers like that. We have a house available for them, if they want to come. I can send someone to pick them up.”
I grip his hand, wanting to soothe his anger. “I will tell her. Thank you, Damon.” I am so glad that he is the way he is. I am not sure I could have accepted an alpha or a mate with a different mentality.
“Now, out with you. I have to get ready.” I wink, and he backs out of the room. His hair and the back of his shirt are still wet. He gently shuts the door, and I walk back into the bathroom to call her. I would love to have a woman around here. An alpha female can’t be a true alpha unless she has her own chain of command.
She picks up instantly. “Hello?” Her voice is shaking.
“Hey, Olive. I talked to him.” She sucks in a deep breath. I can hear her kids playing in the background and Randall asking her what is wrong.
“What did he say? Kids, go play outside.” A few moments later I hear the door shut. “You’re on speakerphone.”
I fill her in on Damon’s offer, and she starts crying. “Are you sure? We are welcome to be ourselves?”
Damon comes back into the room and holds out his hand.
“Here, speak with him.”
Damon presses his hand to the small of my back, and goose bumps trail down my spine.
“This is Damon, the alpha of The Knights Pack,” he says. Olive quits crying, and I can hear Randall breathing through the phone.
“Alpha,” Randall says.
“You are welcome, your kids are welcome. We already have bears in our pack, along with other breeds.”
“We will join,” Randall says and I smile.
“I will send a car for you, when do you want to come? We have a house for you, furnished, and everything you will need.”
He is just perfect. I can tell that he is mean and badass when he needs to be, but he will not lead with an iron hand. He gives respect and compassion. This makes him the most deadly of alphas. He will be loved, and that makes him dangerous—because his pack will follow him to the end.
“As soon as possible,” Randall says.
“I will have a car for you in the morning.”
“Thank you,” Olive says and I smile, hearing her sweet voice.
“You’re most welcome, we need some pups and cubs around here,” Damon says. I sense that this makes her feel better; she was worried about her children. Alphas can sense someone’s emotions. I’ve always had this ability—so, deep down, I’ve always known I would become an alpha female.
Damon says goodbye and hands me back my phone. “Rough life for them, wasn’t it?”
“I can’t imagine being secluded like that, not having a proper bond with the pack and being forced away from everyone.”
He nods and touches my cheek. “You have a good heart, Moon.”
I smile, blushing slightly at his praise. “So do you, Alpha.”
He bows his head, letting me see his throat exposed. That is a sure sign of trust.
I tilt my head to the side, giving him my trust.
Many people would think we are moving too fast, but when you meet your true mate, it’s like you have known them your whole life. It’s like you finally get a part of yourself back. This is what is meant to be, and we have prepared for this moment our whole lives. Our ways are much different from humans’, but this is natural in our eyes.
He leaves and I hurry to finish getting ready. I dress in jeans, a green plaid shirt over a white T-shirt, and boots. I don’t care to dress up too much; I’d rather be warm and cozy.
I walk down into the living room and see that he is dressed in the same way. I smile, admiring the way his jeans hug his thighs, hips, and butt. His plaid shirt is black, the top four buttons undone, exposing his chest a bit. His hair is down; his eyes are dark and boring deeply into mine. Oh jeez. He is beautiful.
“Ready, Moon?”
“Sure am, Pha.”
He sucks in a deep breath. Just as Moon is a sign of high respect in the shifter world, Pha is an endearment that only an alpha female can call her mate.
I open the front door, and he takes my hand and leads me down the stairs. A truck is sitting in the middle of his driveway. I watch as he walks out the truck, his muscles bulging, his massive body looking badass and mean. He opens my door for me, being a complete gentleman, and I thank him as I climb inside. When he gets inside with me, his smell envelops me. I know he can hear me breathing in deeply, but it can’t be helped. He smiles, takes my hand, and smells the skin on the back of my hand. We don’t say anything because it’s not needed—we just know. The gate opens as we approach, and then we are out on the main highway.
“All of this is our land.” He motions toward a huge strip of woods, miles from civilization. Our land. I close my eyes.
Twenty minutes later we finally reach the town. It’s a small town, which will provide just the basics we need. I prefer the classic small-town feel and it’s safe. It’s too hard to be in a pack close to a big town. It eventually expands, encroaching on our territory, and people tend to wonder about us.
Damon pulls up outside a steak house and bar. I slide across the seat and get out on his side. He holds my hand as I slip out of the truck, and he never lets go as we walk into the restaurant.
The hostess tilts her head, staring at Damon. I growl deep in my throat, possessiveness swarming me. Her eyes widen and she turns around. “Follow me.” I walk in front of Damon so she can’t turn around and stare at him.
She sets the menus on the table, and I slide across the seat, keeping my eyes on her the whole time. Damon sits down beside me. “Your waiter will here in a few minutes.” As we look at our menus, Damon laughs.
“What, Pha?” I ask him, and his smile widens.
“I love that you’re possessive.” He runs his hand down my forearm.
“She was staring at you. You’re my true mate, and she needed to know that.” She can get her own man, and it will not be Damon. She is human. It’s very rare for a human to mate with a shifter. It has happened, but only because the human had dormant shifter blood in their line. And old-timers will not accept it. It’s fucked up that they are the way they are.
