Page 25 of Kidnapped By the Wolf

My voice reverberates in the cold, elegant house, and something inside me seems to settle. My wolf stops glowering and lies down, mollified by my admission.

Sebastian is glaring at me with a sharp-edged look of triumph, and I blink.

Cassie isn’tjustanything — not to me.

“She’s the one, isn’t she?” he whispers. “She’s your fated mate.”

I let out a shaky exhale.

Fated mate?

Cassie can’t be. A shifter’s fated mate isthe one. The one he’s meant to spend the rest of his life with. The bond between mates is more than chemical — it’s a soul-deep connection that cannot be severed.

It seems insane that the female who makes up the other half of my soul is the one woman I can’t have. And yet I can’t think of any other explanation for my insatiable urge to mark her.

“It doesn’t matter,” I croak. “Cassie’s a McGregor.” I give a rough shake of my head. “I could never mate her.”

Sebastian chuckles. “I’m afraid your wolf’s not going to give you much of a choice, mate.”

I bare my teeth to remind him who he’s talking to, but Sebastian’s not wrong.

I know better than most how strong the mating urge can be. I’ve watched it take hold of my pack brothers one by one.

Once a wolf finds his fated, the drive to mate with her is undeniable. Ignoring the urge is enough to turn a shifter feral.

But I can’t mark Cassie. An alpha’s only loyalty should be to his pack, but when a wolf finds his mate, she becomes his whole world.

“What do I do?” I ask, the question barely more than a whisper.

It goes against my alpha nature to show weakness. But my wolf has already decided that Cassie is ours, and I am on my knees.

“What would you tell any of us?” Sebastian demands. “What did you tell Silas when his wolf was acting like a total psycho?”

“You know there was no other option for Silas.”

Sebastian rolls his eyes. “Fucking Mad Dog Maddox then. Surely he wasn’t fit to mate with Paige.”

“That was different.”

“Why? Because they’re not you?”

“No, because —” I break off, frustrated. “Silas was in trouble. He was losing time whenever he shifted, and I was going to have to put him down. Finding Malorie saved his life.”

“And Maddox? Did his going for a human seem like a bright idea at the time? What about Damon? Or fuckingNick?”

I raise my eyebrow. Certainly allowing the pack’s only delta wolf to mate with a traumatized submissive had had me worried, perhaps more than any of the others.

In every scenario where one of my wolves found his mate, I knew there was a risk. But there was no alternative but to allow them to follow their instincts.

“You claim her,” Sebastian tells me.

“You know I can’t do that.”

“Because she’s a McGregor?”

“That’s one reason.”

“Why else? Give me one more good reason why you can’t.”

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