Page 29 of The Worst Mate Ever

Brady, on the other hand, is a different matter. How can I ever trust that he really has changed? No matter how much everyone tells me he has, for all I know, he asked them all to do it. They only care about his wellbeing. He is their family, after all. I’m merely a visitor and no longer hold any blood ties to the pack.

I let out a howl of frustration as I continued to run, the relaxing tempo of the night now riddled with the confusing matter of my bond all over again. No matter how hard I try to suppress it, no matter how many distractions I find, the thoughts of finding Brady always resurface, growing stronger with each passing day.

Shouldn’t it be easier now? Hadn’t his mother claimed that her hiding from Orion had gotten easier when they completed the bond, despite him being unaware of it? Why does it feel like my body and soul are at odds with my mind and pulling me apart from the inside out now?

I let out another howl; the pack responding in kind, but no one came to check on me. It was clear to everyone that the problem I had during this run was something they couldn’t assist me with. And again, I wasn’t a member of their pack, not by blood, and so long as I pushed back against my bond with Brady, I wasn’t bound by him either.

As I rounded the next bend to come back to the house, an unfamiliar scent flooded me. The scent drove out all of my thoughts of my inner turmoil. It drove out the fresh scent of the forest and the familiarity of it sent alarm bells throughout my mind.

Death. Decay. Vampire.

Edwardo! Vampire on the eastern border! I shot through the mindlink to my teacher.

I didn’t have any time to hear his response, the form of a man jumping out towards me. He knocked me back several feet, my body shifting as I landed hard against a tree.

My lungs screamed for the air that rushed from my body, my head dizzy as I looked up at the beautiful monster who stalked towards me. His eyes glowing red behind his glasses as he pushed his hair from his face with a grin spreading across his fangs.

“Well, you are certainly prettier than I was led to believe. Must just be that Tristan is jealous. He can be such a little girl sometimes.” The vampire chuckled as he walked closer to me.

I coughed and wheezed, doing my best to get enough air in my lungs to run, but my limbs felt detached from my body. No matter how I tried to move them, I remained frozen in place against the tree.

“What’s the matter?” he asked with a chuckle. “I didn’t hit you that hard, did I?”

“Fuc..,” I let out a wheeze and cough.

“What was that? I didn’t quite catch it.”

“Fuck you.”

The packhouse reverberated with distant howls as Edwardo received my message, putting the pack on high alert. The vampire furrowed his brow, massaging his chin, then turned his gaze towards me.

“They’re quite a way away still. They’ll never get here in time to stop me from taking you. But nice try.”

I held back my whimper as reality sat in. My life flashed before my eyes and all the while, Paige’s words circled my brain with images of all the moments I was now going to lose with Brady. All the moments I had pushed away and the ones when I had given into the bond.

To my horror, I understood exactly what my friend had meant when she told me to not risk the same mistake as her.

I was going to die here, and all I could think about was the mate that I had fought so hard to push away. The mate that I now longed to see, just one last time.

The vampire reached me as tears threatened to blur my vision, and just as he bent down to take me, a red-coated wolf leaped from the trees and crashed into him. The vampire let out a hiss of rage at the sudden impact, his glasses knocked from his face as he turned towards the large wolf.

“Brady,” I gasped, pain shooting from my chest as my lungs finally began to fill with air. It was a miracle, as if I had summoned him with my thoughts. Part of me could hardly believe that he was there, yet I could sense the bond between us pulsing now, his anger at the threat towards me over taking all other emotions. And I realized then that I had never actually seen Brady angry before. Not even as we were children, and he was tormenting me, he had never shown this much emotion about anything.

“Well shit,” the vampire cursed as he pushed himself back off the ground. His blond ponytail flipped through the air as he pulled out a dagger and threw it directly at Brady, the sharp point embedding into the tree just above Brady’s head.

It was enough to distract Brady, his earthy brown eyes turned to the dagger just as the vampire lunged at him and my eyes widened as the vampire’s fangs aimed for his neck. I let out a scream for him to watch out, my heart pounding in my chest as I watched helplessly, my limbs still not responding to any of my commands to move.

Brady narrowly evaded the vampire as he tumbled through the grass. I watched in horror as the vampire continued to lunge at him. Each time making it closer to Brady. Somehow, he had gained more speed and soon the taste of his dark magic tickled my nose.

I turned my head to try and find the source, a scent nearly as suffocating as the deathly scent of the vampire. There was a call in the distance that I could only just make out. A woman’s voice calling out a name.

“Thorne.”

The vampire’s body reacted to the call; his body stiffened as the scent of magic grew stronger still.

I looked at Brady and found him paused in the battle as well, his head turned to the direction of the magic and voice. His hackles rose on end as his lips peeled back into a much stronger snarl than before.

“Well,” the vampire sighed. “I guess we’ll just have to finish this later. My lady calls.” Before either of us could comprehend what the vampire was saying, he darted into the forest, the scent of magic receding with him as he went.

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