Mates & Mysteries

Quinn

“Mate?” I echoed, my eyes wide as I took in the man standing before me.

He was the kind of guy who could easily grace the cover of ~People’s~ “Sexiest Man Alive” issue, the one I kept hidden under my bed back at the cottage.

And now he was spouting some nonsense about me being his mate?

“How?” he repeated, his voice filled with confusion. “You haven’t even shifted into your wolf yet…”

Wait, sexiest ~werewolf~ alive? Not him too.

This had to be some kind of joke. A prank where I was the punchline.

“Why did you call me your mate?” I demanded, my voice rising. “I don’t even know your name.”

Anger surged through me, making my muscles tense, my hands shake, and my bones feel like they were splitting apart.

I was shifting, driven by pure, blinding rage.

“Hey, answer me!” I shouted.

His golden eyes snapped to mine and a wave of desire washed over me.

~How does he do that?~

I hated how easily he could make me want him. I was a virgin, for crying out loud. I’d barely left my bedroom, let alone had a boyfriend. My only source of pleasure was the steamy romance novels I borrowed from the library.

And now, here I was, wishing this Adonis would take me right here in this hospital bed.

My hand flew to my mouth as the word “fuck” echoed in my mind.

~Why am I suddenly so horny? It’s like my body is waking up…~

Judging by the way his muscles strained against his shirt and the sweat beading on his forehead, I wasn’t the only one thinking about sex.

“You need to rest,” he said suddenly. “You still have to heal.”

“Why won’t you tell me your name?” I asked again.

“Later. We’ll talk later,” he replied, clearly flustered.

As he left the room, I couldn’t help but feel that as strange as all this werewolf stuff was, the strange connection I felt to this stranger was even stranger.

Jaxon

I stormed out of the hospital and into my truck, slamming the door behind me.

I needed space. Time to think. To make sense of this mess.

I couldn’t believe this girl, who hadn’t even shifted yet, was my mate.

MY MATE.

~What the fuck?~

She was clueless about our world. She didn’t even know what a mate was.

How was I supposed to explain this to her? She was still human…

She wouldn’t understand our ways.

And with her transition looming…

She’d need to be prepared. To be trained.

Or her body might not be able to handle it.

Despite my frustration, I couldn’t deny the excitement bubbling within me.

~My mate.~

But who was she? Why was she wandering through the woods in the middle of the night with a backpack full of supplies?

Was she running from something? Or someone?

We couldn’t risk our secret being exposed to the humans.

If someone came looking for her…

I’d have to teach her how to control her shifting before that happened. We couldn’t afford to have a rogue werewolf on the loose.

Even though I knew she was going to be a handful, I couldn’t stop thinking about her.

“Quinn,” I murmured, letting her name roll off my tongue.

***

Quinn

“You’ll need to take it easy for the next few days until your leg is fully healed,” the doctor advised.

It was a relief to talk to someone who seemed sane.

That is, until I remembered that this hospital visit was going to cost me a fortune. And I was broke.

“Uh, Doctor,” I began hesitantly, “I…I don’t have…insurance. How am I supposed to pay for all this?”

He just laughed.

“Oh, you don’t have to worry about that, Luna. Your mate’s insurance will cover you.”

~I must be in the Twilight Zone.~

~Mate.~

~Luna.~

~This guy is just as nuts as the rest of them.~

I’d never been more confused in my life. Why did everyone seem to know what was happening to me except me? It was like everyone else had a script, and I was just winging it.

“Knock, knock,” Sky said, peeking around the privacy curtain. “Can I come in?”

“As long as we don’t talk about werewolves, sure,” I sighed.

“Pinky promise,” she said, linking her pinky with mine.

As the doctor left us alone, I wanted to ask more about this magical “Mate Insurance” I apparently had, but decided it was best not to question it.

“I’m actually here on a mission,” Sky said, a sly smile on her face. “To bust you out.”

“What do you mean?”

She glanced at the hospital gown I was wearing and my messy hair.

“You’ve been cooped up in here all day. I’m taking you shopping!”

~Finally, someone is making sense.~

***

As I stood in front of a mirror, wearing a dark green sundress, I couldn’t help but smile.

My mother had never taken me shopping or bought me new clothes, so this was a new experience for me. And I loved it.

“Anything you want, it’s on me,” Sky said, slipping into a pair of heels I could never pull off.

“Why are you being so nice to me?” I asked.

Sky bit her lip, as if she wanted to say something but was holding back.

“Here, you have to try this on,” she said, handing me a pricey leather jacket.

It was the perfect finishing touch. I’d never seen myself look like this before.

“We’ll take the whole outfit,” Sky told a sales assistant. “And these boots, too.”

Sky held up a pair of leather boots that matched my jacket. She glanced at my injured leg, then at the splint.

“Actually, let’s just take one boot. You can wrap the other one up.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. Sky was an oddball, but I found myself drawn to her.

She looked at me warily, then took my hand and guided me to a couch.

“Quinn, we need to talk.”

“Alright, I’m all ears. Unless it’s about…”

“It is,” she interrupted. “Just hear me out.”

Was this whole clothing thing just a ploy to get me to listen to her spiel about “joining the pack?”

“Quinn, you were bitten by a werewolf. Not a regular wolf. A werewolf. And you’re lucky to be alive.”

“Sky, not this again…”

“Not everyone who gets bitten survives,” she went on. “You need to have a werewolf gene in your DNA, either dominant or recessive. If you didn’t, the bite would’ve killed you. I’m guessing someone in your family, maybe distant, or maybe even someone you know, was a werewolf.”

Her previous statements were strange, but this was just absurd.

A werewolf gene in my DNA?

“This is crazy,” I said, my anger rising. “I’m not a werewolf. I’m a human. Sorry to burst your bubble. No fur or fangs here.”

“Not yet,” Sky said cautiously. “But you’re going to shift. It could be soon. Maybe in a few weeks, maybe a few months, but when the recessive gene becomes dominant…you won’t be able to control it.”

I tried to get up, but Sky held my hand.

“Quinn, let us help you. Believe me, you don’t want to go through this alone. You’ll need training to make your body stronger, to handle the transition.”

“Now you’re trying to sell me a gym membership, too?” I said, disbelief in my voice. “Sky, I’m done with this. I don’t get the joke and I’m done with it.”

“Shifting is an extremely painful process,” Sky said seriously. “You think your ankle hurts? When you shift for the first time, all of your bones break. All of them. Do you think that’s something you can handle on your own?”

That was it. This was getting too weird.

“I’m leaving,” I said, standing up and limping toward the door. “Don’t follow me, or I’ll scream for help.”

“Quinn, I put my number in your phone. If you come to your senses and realize you can’t leave, know that I’m here if you need to talk.”

“Can’t leave?!” I asked, feeling like I was losing my mind. “What are you talking about, Sky?!”

“You don’t understand,” she said, shaking her head. “Leaving is physically impossible. Now that you’re bonded to the Alpha, you’re connected to him. Where you go, he’ll go. Your bodies will crave each other when they’re apart and it will become unbearable.”

“Sky, I hope you get the help you need. I really do. But I can’t be the one to help you.”

I pushed the door open and hobbled away as fast as my injured leg would allow.

I didn’t know where I was going, but it had to be far from here. Far from these lunatics.

Suddenly, I was lifted off my feet and pulled into an alley. I tried to scream, but a large hand covered my mouth.

I was pinned against the wall, with no escape, by the man from the hospital.

My supposed ~mate~.

He looked livid. I could feel his anger radiating off him.

His golden eyes began to glow.

His shirt started to rip as his muscles expanded.

His fingernails grew rapidly, turning into sharp claws.

Fangs jutted out from his snarling mouth.

~Oh my God.~

~They’re real.~