Page 1 of Met Your Mate

Chapter One

FREYA

Dreading reality, yet needing to know what's going on is a complicated thing. Time doesn't exist and hasn't existed in... I don't know how long.

It feels like it's been too long since the beta in a suit left me with his threat to my mates. In the wake of his threats, the man's order to have me forced down and drugged doesn’t feel so dire.

The need to know how much time has passed has my muscles twitching with anxiety, but it only serves to aggravate the excruciating pain of the drugs burning through my veins.

Have they caught my men? Will I ever see them again? Maybe they got away. The idea of them escaping a fate similar to mine is my way of clinging onto hope.

The fancy beta's voice taunts me once again as I writhe on the cold tile floor. "No worries. There are cameras in every nook and cranny at the academy. I'll figure out what controls you."

The possibility they already have my mates detained tears a scream from my raw throat. My back bows in agony, just as the door opens and a bucket of freezing cold water slams into my overheated skin.

"Can't have you overheating and dying before the fun starts." An eerie chuckle adds to my shivers. "Night night, whore."

The pain of another syringe being shoved into my neck is muted in comparison to the torture of my heat being forced into suppression. The pulsing ache in my core is the last thing I feel before my head droops against the cold ground.

Please be okay. I urge the universe to hear my plea for my mates right before my body succumbs to darkness.

Chapter Two

RONAN

She's gone.

The mate I've been waiting for my entire life is gone. I can't tell them, but I have to, right? I don't know how to do this. How do I lead a pack that shattered the moment we realized we were meant to be a family?

We are meant to be together, all five of us in our own way.

Lucas and I, we've grown closer because of Freya. Lucas and Elliott are friends; better than friends. They're like two sides of the same coin that never realized they needed each other to be whole. I'm envious of their relationship because I can never be that for my baby brother. I can't relate to him as he fights to keep hold of his alpha, all while going against everything he's been taught. Our differences aside, I am so glad they have blown past their tough exteriors and seek the comfort they need from each other. Lucas and I may never be best friends like him and Elliott are becoming, but I'm happy to have my brother back, even if we are falling apart right now.

And of course, there's Casey and Elliott, the chosen mates of our pack. Their love for each other is something I will always admire and encourage.

We complete each other in different ways, and I hope so badly that we will have the future we are meant to have. A long, happy, healthy future with our fated mate far, far away from this place.

I look forward to seeing how we'll grow together and what we'll become once we make it through this hell. Because we will. I will ensure it.

Without reluctance from my fellow young alphas, I was automatically appointed pack lead, and my first job is making sure we don't fucking crumble before we even begin.

The guys trusted me to take charge and find her after she bolted last night. Freya ran from me and just... vanished.

Except, that's not what happened, is it? When an omega is in heat, they are taken elsewhere. For what? I don't know.

A growl gets lodged in my throat at the thought of other alphas helping her ride out her heat. But what's worse, having someone else take care of my mate in the most intimate of ways and keep her comfortable or having her writhing in pain for days on end, alone?

My hands shake as I wait outside of the omega quarters like an idiot. I know she's not fucking here. My mate was taken away again, and I let it happen. I let her bolt from the safety I could provide.

Crying and panicked with an apology on her lips, Freya, my love, ran from me. I was the last one to see her and I can't tell you where she is now. She sure as shit isn't about to walk out of the double doors I'm staring a hole through.

The guys are waiting for me in the cafeteria. Waiting for Freya. I should be walking her to breakfast right about now. And yet, the doors stay firmly shut, the last omega having come out minutes ago with his head ducked low in submission.

The same beta enforcer that leered at the young omega hasn't taken his eyes off of me. The evil smirk on his face and calculating look in his eyes makes me uneasy and pissed off. He's acting like he knows something I'm only able to guess at, leaving the bastard with the upper hand.

It takes every ounce of effort I have to walk away from the omega quarters and the enforcer who most likely knows where my mate is.

I can't waste my time trying to wish Freya into existence when I have her other three mates waiting for me to take charge.

---