Our Mate Now

Despite all my soft thoughts about the males last night, Martha’s words still echoed through my mind. One night of raw aggression from them could suffice as my last.

~I don’t want to die.~ I was a survivor to the core.

~And I’m not ready to give up just yet.~

My hair blew behind me in a banner among brown trunks, green leaves, and glittering bits of sunlight dancing through the higher leaves. That hair chased behind me in the early morning light as I streaked through the woods.

I ran faster than I’d run to get to the walls. As I ran, I saw light glinting over the wall and peering through the leaves in the tree canopy above me.

It triggered something in me.

I felt myself being dragged backward in time. I saw flashes of a cottage I’d once resided in. I looked over and saw the bloodied, scarred face of a huge man I didn’t know.

~An alpha. A horrible one.~ Just seeing his face struck revulsion through me to the point of nausea.

With that vision I saw myself crawling elbow deep in blood while it matted my hair. My family had been slaughtered for living outside of a pack. I was sobbing and shaking my head in desperate denial.

That scarred alpha straddled me, staring down at me with a threatening smirk which told me what he intended for me.

“You will be my mate.”

Then I was running. Past trees and through bushes until I was scraped and cut from head to toe.

It was a memory.

~My first real memory since I came here.~

It was the only one that wasn’t just broken shards. It was something steady. A complete puzzle forming a real picture.

I was shocked and I must’ve slowed my pace.

I heard chuckling behind me. I looked back and saw Huntley catching up. He’d already caught my trail. And of course, he’d follow me at a dead run.

~Damn him.~

~I just have to outrun him.~

Chase stepped from behind a tree in front of me.

I skidded to a stop.

His arms were crossed over his chest as he stared chidingly down at me. “Did you think escaping us would be so easy?”

I veered around him and kept going.

“Really, Valerie?” His voice half-laughing. He tossed his arms. “Do you really think you’re going to outrun me?”

~He’s right.~

~If I have a prayer, it’s to outsmart him.~

I veered off toward the river. Pouncing sideways off two trees, I turned into a cream-colored wolf as I landed. In this form, I upped my pace to a long lope.

“She’s turned,” Chase called back.

“Where’s Vic?” Huntley shot back.

I leapt into the river and paddled across, knowing I was only a short distance to the wall. I turned back into a woman and headed the only direction I could go to outmaneuver them.

~Up.~

I shimmied up the tree. I went as high as I could until I was cloaked in the dense spring foliage to help mask my waning scent.

I eyed the blood on the shirt and straddled a branch to grab fistfuls of leaves. Scrubbing them along the blood, I tried to mask much of the smell with broken plants then shoved them into a nearby hole in the tree.

Victor was the first one to appear beneath me. Looking unworried, he put his back to the tree and inspected his nails.

The other two arrived across the river as wolves, giving him a long look.

“Haven’t seen her.” He shrugged. “Yet.”

They stared at him.

He pointed in both directions. “Peel off, go separate ways. I’ll watch for her to double back. Then we’ll have her back no matter which way she goes.”

They whimpered and complied, scampering off.

When the sounds of their hunting sniffs vanished in both directions, I wanted to sigh in relief but didn’t dare with him still standing straight below me.

“Why are you running, Valerie?” he asked.

I dared not answer, squinting my eyes closed and praying he was just guessing.

“Rather pointless, don’t you think? We’re the top three border guards in this pack.”

When I peeled my eyes open and looked down, I found him with his head tilted up to stare straight back at me.

~Dammit.~

“Just go away and leave me!” I whispered, trying to wave him away.

He scoffed coldly. “Don’t mistake my kindness for weakness, Valerie. I’m not going anywhere.”

My stomach dropped as hope fled.

“Now get your fine ass down that tree. Now.” He said it with such command I knew he had every intention of coming up after me. And if I didn’t obey him now, then he’d do what he’d always done.

~Make me so miserable I wished I’d obeyed when I had the chance.~ And after last night and all the things that’d been done to me, I feared now more than ever what that’d entail.

I hesitated, thinking over making him do it. But I feared that consequence more than the one I’d suffer now.

I reluctantly scooted back along the branch and made my way down the tree.

“Don’t hurt me, Victor,” I said quickly as I clung to the lowest branch just above him.

His green eyes were as icy and fierce as they’d always been.

My breathing quickened.

He reached up and snagged me off the branch, dragging me down despite me clinging to it. Still gripping my waist, he set me on my feet before him.

“Now explain to me,” he said aggressively. “Why the hell are you fleeing now? When the worst parts are over?”

I chewed my cheek feeling horribly uncomfortable.

“You’ve lost your virginity.”

“I was a virgin?” That did explain that first pain.

“You didn’t know?” His brows shot up.

I paused, floundering for an answer.

~No.~

“Of course, you didn’t. You can’t remember.” He did that strange, kind gesture where he stroked my hair back from my face and tucked his palm against my cheek. “We marked you, and the Mating Moon is done. It’s over.”

“I can’t survive that every night,” I whimpered.

“Every night!” His voice rose, humor entering it.

I shook my head.

“Valerie…” He chuckled softly. “Neither could we. We’d all die in a puddle of withered corpses.”

“What do you mean?” I studied his face, the honesty there made me want to look away.

“It’s the only night of the year we’re quite that extreme.”

“Then what would tonight be like?”

“Tonight, you recover. And however many nights it takes.” He swiped his thumb under my cheek. “We’ve traumatized your body. You need to heal. We hunt for you, we tend you. Until you’re whole again.”

“And after that?” I swallowed the lump in my throat.

“After that, we establish a routine of what will give you pleasure and not pain. How much you want and can receive in one night.”

“And what if one of you wants more?”

“We all will. Be fair and just in your decisions and don’t favor one more than the others.”

“What if I favor you more?” It was a test and truth in one.

“Then you decide if you want me to fight my brothers to relinquish their marks. Or they’ll try to kill me when I least expect it.”

“You love each other,” I objected. I couldn’t stand to be the cause of strife between them.

“More than breath. But we’re still wolves. And you’re our mate. We’ll fight to our death for our mate.”

“Why must I decide who lives or dies?”

“Because you’re the only one that gets to,” he said flatly.

It felt like an immense amount of pressure. And I was exhausted.

His gaze changed to sympathy as he saw it on me. “You haven’t slept at all.”

I nodded as I collapsed.

But I never felt the ground. I only felt his palm under my head and an arm over my back as he lifted me.

“You’ve got her?” Huntley called.

“Got her,” he said.

“How’d you find me?” I whispered weakly.

~I have to know.~

“I marked you first,” he whispered. “I’ll always sense your location.”

~Then I’ll never get away from them.~