Fated

by R. L. Mathewson

  If only…

  “You have nowhere to go,” he needlessly reminded her since she was homeless, penniless and Pack-

  Shit!

  She was now Alpha female of his Pack, which meant that she could now go anywhere she wanted, including to her cousin Mick, who would happily take her in. Well, he couldn’t very well have that, especially with her marked and all. Then there was also the problem that someone was trying to kill her.

  Sighing heavily, he walked past her, deciding that it was time that he enjoyed some of the perks of being her mate and smacked her on the ass as he walked past her.

  “What the hell?” she snapped in outrage as his lips pulled up into a pleased grin.

  There were definitely some perks to being her mate, he mused as he grabbed a pair of sweatpants off the shelf in the changing room and quickly pulled them on.

  “Asshole,” his lovely mate growled as she reached past him, grabbed the last men’s t-shirt and pulled it on, all while glaring at him like she wanted to go for his balls.

  He wasn’t scared, mostly because common sense would stop her from hurting his boys and endangering her chances of having children. She might be fighting it now, but sooner or later she’d want to have children and she would remember that she needed him.

  Until then-

  “Oh, mother fucker!” he said, covering his poor injured balls as the little brat sighed with pleasure.

  “That was definitely worth the wait,” she said with a pleased little smile as he groaned and dropped to his knees, gasping for air as he cursed his father to hell and back for not kicking the little brat out of Boston when he’d had the chance.

  Chapter 11

  “Serves,” cough, “you,” pained cough followed by a groan, “right,” Drew managed to get out as she laid on the ground, hugging her arm to her chest and trying to breathe through the pain.

  Perhaps she should have just settled for giving him the finger and calling him a bitch again? There was definitely no perhaps about it. She’d seriously screwed up this time. While she’d been imagining how good it would feel to finally kick the bastard in the balls for all the bullshit that he’d put her through after he’d found his mate, she’d forgotten one minor detail.

  Mates couldn’t hurt each other without suffering.

  So, when she’d decided that it was a good idea to give in to temptation and finally gave the bastard what he’d deserved, she was hit with instant karma. The mark on her wrist, the one that proclaimed her as his mate and the one person on earth that couldn’t hurt him, had turned a punishing red as sharp agonizing pain exploded through her arm, dropping her on her ass and making talking a thing of the past.

  Every time she tried to tell herself that it was worth it, the pain radiating up her arm would prove her wrong. It felt like molten lava was swimming through her mark, branding her and punishing her, making sure that she knew what would happen to her if she ever hurt him again.

  She tried to shift, hoping that it would stop the burn before she lost her goddamn mind, but she couldn’t focus past the pain long enough to do it. It seemed as though every time she tried to shift to heal herself that the pain would get worse until finally she just gave up trying and focused on just breathing.

  “Payback’s a bitch, huh?” Drew managed to get out on a pained groan as he tried unsuccessfully to sit up and get back on his feet.

  “Shut up,” she whispered weakly, trying not to vomit from the pain since she’d already done plenty of that over the last two days.

  “I guess you won’t be doing that again,” Drew said smugly as he gave up on trying to stand and settled for sitting with his back against the wall, wincing when the movement caused discomfort for his abused balls.

  “I wouldn’t be so sure of that,” she said even though she was pretty damn certain that she was never doing that again.

  The momentary satisfaction that had surged through every fiber of her being when she’d finally given into temptation and went for his balls just wasn’t worth this much pain. Not at all and it pained her to admit that.

  *-*-*-*

  His poor balls, he thought miserably even as he smirked at the woman curled up, hugging her arm against her chest, pale as a ghost and glaring accusingly up at him as though this was somehow his fault. That was fine with him. Let her blame him for this bullshit just as long as she learned her lesson and realized what this meant, that she was his. She couldn’t hurt him without suffering right along with him, which would admittedly allow him to sleep better at night.

  Speaking of sleep…

  Since the pain in the ass had ruined everything, he hadn’t been able to get a decent night of sleep. Ryan was overseeing the club for the next two nights as planned. So, Drew decided that he was going to take advantage and a take a well-deserved nap.

  Biting back a grunt, he forced himself to his feet, closed his eyes and shifted. He ignored the sounds of his bones elongating and popping, joints shifting, his bones reforming and focused on his balls as they shifted and instantly healed. A pleasant burn surged through his body as it expanded, tripled in size as the rest of his body transformed until he was well over nine feet tall and more than ready to go take that nap that he’d been fantasizing about.

  Without a word, he stepped over his glaring mate, making sure to “accidentally,” hit her in the face with his large tail as he went and walked towards the back entrance that would take him to his private staircase and eventually to his loft apartment where he planned on spending the rest of the day sleeping on his very comfortable bed, something that he didn’t get to do a lot these days.

  Already imagining just how good that down comforter was going to feel over his body, he doubled his pace and took the stairs five at a time until he’d reached the landing above and shifted back to human. Knowing just how quickly a break could turn into a magnet for bullshit and catastrophes, he didn’t waste any time in getting to his room, shoving the door open and-

  “Get out,” his lovely mate said as she curled up beneath his comforter, closed her eyes and released a peaceful sigh, which for some reason made a muscle just below his jawline tick.

  *-*-*-*

  “Did you like getting kicked in the balls so much that you wanted an instant replay?” she asked sweetly as the big bastard climbed into the bed behind her.

  “Go for it,” he dared her as he had the balls to not only get under the covers and join her, but also curled his large body around hers and when she went to move, because apparently she wasn’t going to win this little war of theirs, at least not tonight, he wrapped his arm around her body and brought her body back flush against his very naked one.

  This had been an incredibly stupid idea, she silently berated herself, wondering what the hell was wrong with her? She should have just gone back to her cell or the room that they’d placed her in the other night, but something about his cocky attitude and smug reaction to her punishment had just triggered something inside her, something that needed to taunt him and piss him off.

  So, of course she had to do something incredibly stupid like try to claim his den as her own. She should have realized that he wouldn’t let her get away with anything, especially right now when she wore his mark, the same one that now declared her as the Alpha female of this Pack.

  They both knew that he hadn’t done it to claim her, but that wouldn’t matter to the Pack. To them he’d marked her, claiming her as his and letting everyone know that he would die for her. Being marked meant something special, meant that you were your mate’s most prized possession.

  On the flip side of that…

  The fact that she hadn’t marked him in return said a lot. It told everyone that he was unworthy of her, that she didn’t consider him her mate, her male or her Alpha. It was the ultimate insult and one that was going to make his life a living hell if it wasn’t already. Other Alphas would use the excuse to try and grab her, thinking that by right the Pack was hers and could be taken along with her, which was possible. The
other problem, his Pack would probably go without complaint now.

  They would no longer respect him and would start testing him, challenging him on nights of the full moon and some dumb moron would try to slit his throat and steal his blood, hoping to steal Drew’s Alpha status by killing him and drinking his essence. From what she’d heard, there were probably a few members of his Pack that were already happily planning on doing that.

  By saving her life, he’d risked his own and he probably hadn’t even realized it yet. His Pack was already watching him for weakness, looking for reasons to run to other Packs, to challenge him and take him down and thanks to her, she may have just given them the perfect excuse and surprisingly, she couldn’t live with that.

  He still annoyed the hell out of her and she wasn’t happy that she now wore his mark, but the arrogant, bossy bastard had saved her life and she was indebted to him.

  That just wasn’t going to work for her, because she didn’t like owing anyone anything. She couldn’t stomach the idea that, because of her, he’d put himself in danger and could lose everything. She would not let the bastard die a martyr over her, because that would really piss her off.

  Never in a million had she thought that she would even consider doing this for a mate that she didn’t love, but he’d gone ahead and taken the choice out of her hands, now hadn’t he?

  Silently cursing him to hell and back, she sighed heavily, pushed back the covers, shoved his arm off her and allowed her fangs to slide down, before he could figure out what she was doing, and she really didn’t care if he wanted this, because she refused to owe him anything more, she leaned over him and sank her fangs into the side of his neck where everyone would see.

  “Son of a bitch!” the ungrateful bastard hissed while she did what she had to do in order to save his life and his Pack.

  Just for a little special touch, she shook her head a bit, making the bite look like she’d been out of her goddamn mind with passion for him and taking away any possibility that anyone would look at him as anything more than the controlling pain the ass that he’d always been.

  As soon as she was done, she retracted her fangs, wiped the blood off her mouth with the back of her hand and climbed off the bed while he laid there, pressing his hand to his neck and looking at her like she was psychotic.

  That was fine with her, because now they were even.

  “You’re welcome,” she said dryly as she sauntered out of his room and headed for the kitchen, needing something to wash down the taste of shifter blood in her mouth.

  Chapter 12

  “Thank. You,” he finally managed to say after twenty minutes of standing there, resisting the urge to wring the little trouble maker’s throat for what she’d forced him to do.

  He hated owing her and he knew damn well that he owed her now. They both fucking knew it. As much as he’d love to say that they were fucking even, he knew that would never be the case. She’d just saved his Pack and his ass and he had absolutely no idea why, which honestly terrified him.

  She could have left him to his fate and no one would have blamed her, but she hadn’t. She hadn’t made him ask, beg or plead for the mark to give him a chance. She’d simply shoved him away, dropped her fangs and tore into his neck.

  A bit roughly if you asked him, but no one would question whether or not the mark was real and that alone would make his position as Alpha stronger. A strong mating between Alphas was ideal for a Pack. It meant that they had each other’s backs, were devoted to each other and the survival of the Pack so that their children would be protected. A devoted Alpha couple would do everything they could to ensure the survival and growth of the Pack for the sake of their children. An Alpha male would also make his Pack strong, because he would want his mate well protected.

  “No worries,” the woman that had made his life a living hell said with a careless shrug as she took another bite of ice cream.

  “Nice mark,” Ryan said, not even bothering to look up as he reached over with his spoon and took a big spoonful of ice cream out of the half-gallon of ice cream that he was sharing with Kara.

  Drew’s eyes narrowed on the cozy scene before him, his mate and Beta, sitting across from each other, quietly sharing a container of his mint chocolate chip ice cream. Even though he knew that his Beta was mated and didn’t pose a threat, he still didn’t like it. He didn’t like the fact that she still went for his balls, but seemed to tolerate Ryan, the betraying Beta bastard, now.

  As he reached over and grabbed Ryan by the back of his neck and tossed him across the room, not really caring where he landed, he told himself that he wasn’t jealous. Not in the slightest. So, when he took over the freshly vacated chair, grabbed the spoon and took a big unsatisfying bite of ice cream as he locked his eyes on his