Page 4 of His Mate

We all knew the stories, passed down from those who had seen it happen. No one escaped the wolves. You could try, and some did, but they always came back broken—if they came back at all. They always made examples of the ones who ran, and I had no doubt that I would be any different.

Running wasn’t an option.Everyoneknew that.

Mariah shuddered, her eyes darting to the shadows cast by the skeletal remains of an overturned bus, its rusted frame half-buried in a tangle of ivy.

“How do you think they do it?” she asked, quieter this time, like she was afraid of the answer.

“Enough.” My voice came out harsh again, but I couldn’t stop myself. I couldn’t let them talk about it, not when I was just hours away from finding out for myself. I clenched my fists, nails digging into my palms, the pain grounding me and keeping the panic from swallowing me whole.

We turned a corner, and the wind shifted, carrying with it the scent of rotting wood and something faintly sweet, like the remnants of a long-forgotten fire. The buildings here wereeven worse—great, hulking structures that leaned against each other like drunks in an alleyway, their concrete walls cracked and bulging, their metal supports twisted and rusted. Trees had sprouted through the floors of some of them, their branches spilling out of shattered windows, reaching toward the sky like fingers grasping for something they’d never reach.

“I’m sorry,” Mariah said quietly, falling back a step. “It’s just… it’s hard not to think about it, you know? We’re going to lose you tomorrow and we can’t be sure you will even come back.”

I sighed, running a hand through my hair, feeling the dirt and grime that had become a permanent part of my life. I knew what they were feeling. The three of us had grown up together, had always had each other’s backs through thick and thin.

I remembered nursing Lia back to health after she’d caught the black sickness, a horrible evolution of the bubonic plague ages ago. Mariah and I had ventured out into the far reaches of the city, to the places where the seedy underground prospered, just to buy her the antibiotics she needed. She’d almost died, but the medicine had saved her just in time.

She’d been only thirteen.

The world wasn’t a kind place, and it hadn’t been for a very long time.

“I know,” I said, softer this time. “I just… I need tonight, okay? I need tonight to be normal. Just one more normal night.”

“Normal,” Lia echoed, her tone tinged with bitterness. “Nothing’s been normal since the Collapse, Kendra.”

She was right, of course. But it didn’t change the fact that, for a few more hours, I wanted to pretend that the wolves weren’tout there. That they weren’t waiting for me, counting down the minutes until they could drag me away.

We walked in silence for a while longer, the only sounds the crunch of broken glass beneath our boots and the distant creaking of the wind through the overgrown skyscrapers. It was a city frozen in time, decaying slowly, piece by piece, just like everything else.

Ahead of us, a flock of crows took off from the ledge of an old office building, their dark wings cutting across the sky like jagged shards of obsidian. I watched them go, a knot forming in my throat, and tried to imagine what it would be like to fly. To have wings, to just lift off and leave everything behind.

To escape whatever tomorrow might bring.

“You’ll be okay,” Mariah said, so quietly I almost didn’t hear her. She reached out, touching my arm, and gave me a sad, hopeful smile. “You’ll make it out okay, Kendra. You know it.”

I wanted to believe her. God, I wanted to believe her more than anything. But as I looked out at the city—the ruined buildings, the twisted metal, the overgrown streets—I felt the weight of tomorrow settle over me like a shroud, and I knew that once the wolves came, nothing would ever be the same again.

“Let’s keep moving,” I said, my voice barely more than a whisper. “We still have a few hours left.”

We reached the mall just as the first streetlights flickered to life, the soft hum of electricity filling the air all around us. This sector was one of the few that still had power, though it was rationed to certain hours and shut off after midnight. Officially, the place was locked down, sealed off after some fool got themselves electrocuted trying to tamper with the grid a few years back, butMariah knew a way in. She always seemed to figure out some way in, no matter where we needed to go.

“Come on,” she whispered, tugging at a piece of plywood that had been halfheartedly nailed over a side entrance. It shifted with a groan, and she slipped through, her dark silhouette melting into the shadows beyond. Lia went next, moving with the kind of grace that always made me feel clumsy by comparison. I took one last look at the empty street behind us, half-expecting to see glowing eyes watching from the darkness, then slipped inside, letting the plywood slide back into place.

We stood there for a moment, just inside the doorway, letting our eyes adjust. The air smelled stale, thick with the scent of dust and mildew, but there was something else beneath it—a faint, metallic tang that made my skin prickle. The mall stretched out before us, its lengthy corridors lined with glass storefronts, some shattered, others smeared with grime. Ivy had worked its way in through the cracks, snaking across the tile floors and wrapping around the skeletal remains of old mannequins that stood half-dressed in tattered dusty clothes no one would ever wear again.

“Feels like a tomb,” Lia muttered, crossing her arms over her chest. “I hate this place.”

“It’s not that bad,” Mariah said, already moving ahead, her fingers trailing along the wall. “I mean, sure, it’s creepy as hell, but at least we’ve got power. Come on, Kendra, don’t just stand there.”

I followed her, keeping my footsteps light. I’d been here before, a hundred times probably, but it felt different tonight, heavier somehow. Maybe it was because I knew it’d be the last time in what would probably be a very long time.

If I even came back at all…

“Let’s not stay too long,” I said, my voice sounding too loud in the empty space. “The patrols?—”

“—won’t be here for hours,” Mariah finished, rolling her eyes. “We’ll be gone by then, I promise.”

“I know,” I said, but even as I said it, I felt the knot in my stomach tighten. I wanted to enjoy this, I really did, but all I could think about was tomorrow.

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