Chapter 1 | My Mate
~Alpha Zane~
My mate is the most ridiculous person I have ever met.
A human with no prior training or idea about pack wars and warriors. And yet, she thinks she can win a fight against me using her tiny dagger. Me, the strongest alpha that any pack has seen in a century. I was already rocking it much before I took over the Storm Moon Pack from my dad recently.
As I lie awake in my bed thinking about my chosen mate, Adalyn, and wondering if I am doing the right thing by ignoring the Moon Goddess’s choice, I sense that my mate, Nyla, is somewhere near me. She probably wants to kill me once I fall asleep.
I killed everyone Nyla cared about when I attacked the Red Crescent Pack. She was Alpha Wyatt’s true soulmate; the Alpha who was going to be coronated the Alpha King, and she was going to be his Luna Queen. How could my dad and I let that happen? Why would we submit to a weaker pack than ours? Maybe if this happened two years back when the Storm Moon Pack was unknown and unheard of, sure. But not anymore.
Just like Wyatt had Nyla, I once had a true soulmate too, Leah. She was everything I ever wanted, and pack wars or claiming territories was the least of my concerns or interests. I just wanted to raise my pups with her. The day I lost her, I lost my humanity too.
My pack turned from being nameless to one of the most feared in just two years. I trained my warriors hard, and we took over lands far and wide. There is a lot of blood on my hands, but I have no regrets. I only carry one regret: failing to protect Leah.
As the next Alpha in line, my pack needs a Luna. My chosen mate, Adalyn, is a perfect fit. Smart, strong, and beautiful. I don’t feel a thing for her, which is great. She can’t be my weakness, and she is just like me.
“I don’t want my mate to be my weakness either. I will kill him when I meet him,” she said when I had my doubts. She was power-hungry, just like me.
Little did I know, I was going to meet Nyla one fateful day when my pack and I made a surprise entry to disrupt their coronation ceremony. The minute I killed Wyatt, the Moon Goddess with her cruel sense of humor made Nyla my second chance mate.
A mate who is seething with a vengeance. Being a human, she does not feel the mate bond like I do. I did well so far by avoiding her or deadpanning every time I saw her. But her scent is irresistible. It is very different from Leah’s, and yet, it has the same effect on me.
The smell of rain and raspberries assaulted my senses before I heard her footsteps. Not sure how long she lived with Wyatt, but she was clueless about werewolf senses. She wasn’t being particularly quiet and stealthy at this moment either. The door creaked open, and I closed my eyes immediately, pretending to be fast asleep.
I could hear the rustle of silk as she walked closer to my bed. She hesitantly raised that silly dagger again, ready to stab me. Seriously?
I grabbed her by the waist and slammed her against my mattress, pinning her arms above her head. Her eyes widened when she realized her dagger was in my hand now.
“Let go of me!” She writhed against my grip and tried to knee me at the same time.
“Did you really think you could take me down with this?” I felt like playing with my prey.
She punched me in the chest as I ripped her blouse with the dagger. A rush of emotions assailed me that I long forgot about.
“Please, let me go.” She covered her nakedness by crossing her arms against her chest.
Her blush pink lips glistened in the moonlight. I crushed my lips hard against her, kissing her deeply while holding her down in a tight embrace. She whimpered and stopped struggling. For a moment, it was like she could feel the way I did.
A low growl escaped me as I kissed her more passionately, pressing my lips along the side of her slender neck.
“Zane...” She moaned my name and pulled me closer.
“Do you really want me dead?” I whispered against her ear, cupping her breasts with my hands.
She moaned again, arching her back and giving me more access to her body. I lowered my mouth onto her chest as she tugged at my hair, gasping for breath.
I trailed kisses down her stomach, finding and nibbling at her sweet spots before going further down. She sat up as if a bolt of thunder hit her. I don’t think I would have stopped anytime soon if she hadn’t come back to her senses like that. My canines were elongated, and my wolf was urging me to mark her.
‘Calm down, Rex! I can’t mark her. You know that better than me.’
He wouldn’t stop growling and whimpering as Nyla got up and snatched my blanket to cover herself.
“Lend me your shirt!” She sounded pissed, but more like pissed at herself than at me.
I pulled her close again, straddling her on top of me. A moonstone pendant hit my chin and a golden light flickered inside it for a second before disappearing. She put it back inside the blanket to hide it from me.
I pulled it out again to look at it properly.
“What is this? Doesn’t look like a moonstone.” It had an intense blue color, but the golden glow inside it looked unreal.
Her voice faltered before she put together an audible response, “Nothing. It glows like that every full moon. Nothing special about it.”
Had I known what it was, I would have destroyed it right that moment and returned her where she belonged. Clueless as I was, I restrained her in my embrace and showered her with kisses, unwilling to let her go.
My mate.
