Page 7 of Make Me

“I won’t string her along.” Cody growled. “She doesn’t deserve that.”

“No, but you can be friends with her while you take a mate from the pack. Your mother is arranging some meetings with eligible female wolves.”

“I won’t disrespect Bethany like that,” Cody said, drawing himself up taller. Claws sprouted from his fingers as he flexed and drew them into fists.

“It won’t be disrespectful because nothing will change. You’ll remain friends with enough contact that your wolf won’t go feral, but you will not mate with her.”

“You can’t keep me from her,” Cody protested. “She’s my fated mate. I have to tell her. She deserves to know.”

His father’s eyes hardened. “I can, and I will.”

“No—”

“You are forbidden from telling anyone, including Bethany, that she is your mate. You will have enough contact with her that you do not go feral, but you are forbidden from mating with her or anyone without my prior approval.”

The Alpha command slammed into Cody. His wolf rose to fight it, and Cody released a howl as he tried to prevent it from taking hold, but it was no use. The command settled onto his wolf, who let out a keening howl as the mate bond muted. Devastation filled his body even as he glared at his father.

“I’ll never forgive you for this,” he snarled at his father, who simply stared at him.

“Maybe not. But one day you’ll understand that Alpha’s do everything for the good of their pack.”

He didn’t want to sit there and listen to anymore of his father’s self-righteous bullshit. He slammed the door to the office so loudly the house shook and stormed down the hallway.

“Cody, whatever is going on?” His mother poked her head out from the sitting room. “Come here, darling. I have people I want you to meet.”

He looked past her at the expectant female wolves she had assembled. Even without his wolf’s snarl of revulsion, he had no interest in them. “No thank you, Mom,” he gritted out.

He didn’t let her reply as he stormed up the stairs into his room. Growling, he kicked the trash can over, sending things clattering everywhere. Fuck, fuck, fuck! He had gone to his dad for advice and instead ended up with an Alpha command that prevented him from claiming his mate. His wolf paced, agitated at the betrayal and agony of being separated from his mate.

A glint of gold from the spilled trash caught his eye. It was an invitation to the Realm’s Academy. An invitation he was going to decline because it would take him away from Bethany and the pack, but now… A bit of separation might work out for the best. He pulled the invitation out from the trash and ran his thumb across his fang. Pressing a bloody thumbprint on the word yes on the invitation, he felt the magic take hold. Maybe after four years at the Academy, he would be strong enough to challenge his father and break the Alpha command that separated him from his mate.

CHAPTER FOUR

BETHANY

Age 18

A few months later

The empty clearing stared back at her. Mocking her for her false hope.

She didn’t know why she had come to their spot. It wasn’t even their spot anymore. She could count on one hand the number of times she had seen Cody in the last four months. And the times she did see him? He was growling more than usual, and her cat had taken it like a challenge, and that led to feeling even more irritation toward him.

She hadn’t expected him to completely ditch her after he’d turned eighteen, but he had. Threw away twelve years of friendship like it meant nothing to him. And maybe it had. Maybe she was the one imagining that they had bonded over shared pressure as the next Heirs and problems that only someone high up in pack politics could understand. He had vented to her about his dad, and she had vented to him about her mom. She thought it had meant something to him. But it clearly hadn’t.

Yet for some reason instead of being in a strategy session with her mom right now, she had sneaked away. All she’d thought about during her birthday celebration last night was that he should have been there, and she hated that she was so weak for wanting him there. And that weakness ruled her even now as her feet had carried her to their spot. Maybe the gods were mocking her for her weakness. Her mom would if she knew. Weakness has no place in our pride, her mother always said. Her mom considered any form of emotional weakness.

But here she was, anyway.

She sighed as she stared up at the sky, rubbing her chest.

Rustling leaves caught her attention. Someone was walking towards her. A stupid strand of hope sprang up inside her, but she squashed it down. It was probably someone else.

A few seconds later, Cody appeared. Tension in her muscles she didn’t even know she had melted away as she took him in. Her cat started purring in her chest. By the Realm, she had missed him, even if he was a butthead. It looked like he had been hitting the training arena. His muscles were larger and more defined, and Bethany hated how her eyes traced them. He looked good, like he hadn’t abandoned his best friend for four months.

His brown eyes drank her in like he had been thirsty for days. She’d had a growth spurt in the last few months and had filled out and even grown an inch. She looked good, and she knew it, but surely Cody wasn’t looking at her like that.

He came to a stop a few feet away, his hands in his pockets as he awkwardly rocked back on his heels. “Happy Birthday, hellcat.”

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