Page 5 of Reclaiming His Lost Mate
Marissa’s voice dropped, her next words coming out softly. “All you have to do is stay away from her and we’ll be good. We’ll be a powerful couple together, I promise you.”
From my evening here at Nightwing Pack, I gathered that Marissa wasn’t anything like her sister, Selina, but she shared my perspective on all the topics that had come up during our conversations. She cared about the wellness of our packs, wanting our unity and safety, and she fit my views on marriage, the two most important things to me. It clicked.
Marissa is the ideal wife.
Even though a significant part of me didn’t believe this, I managed a curt nod. “I will speak to your father now.”
“Excellent,” Marissa said, letting go of me, trailing behind as I turned.
I found Lucian in the crowd, sitting behind a long table and shoving a spoon in his mouth with Selina standing beside him. That electrifying feeling returned with full ferocity once my eyes locked with Selina’s green ones, which resembled the priceless gem around her delicate neck. I reminded myself of all the negative effects the fated bond has brought about in my life, and I recited them until it stuck.
I approached the table, ignoring how her neck was outlined in a held breath and as the spark in her eyes. Having made my decision, I slipped my cold mask of indifference in place.
“Alpha Alexis,” Lucian called, rising to his feet as he saw me.
I got right to the matter. “Having spoken to Marissa, I have come to see that she is a good fit for me and, as such, for the unity of our packs. On that note, I have made my decision. Marissa and I will wed,” I said in one breath, watching Lucian nod vigorously with a triumphant smile until someone spoke.
It was Selina.
“No. Why would you choose to wed her? That makes no sense. We are fated mates, and we both know it because I can tell that you feel this pull between us,” she said, gesturing shakily between us. I shook my head, fighting to see past the melody of her voice.
My heart began to pound furiously in my ribcage as the words flowed out. “I will not be bound to anyone by the fated pull,” I ground out, hoping that my tone showed my distaste for anything surrounding the concept. “So I cannot marry you, Selina.” The words came out strangled, as if sandpaper leaves grated the roof of my mouth, and my heart felt dislodged by a vicious force.
“No,” Selina muttered with a gasp, and I watched her take a step back, a fisted hand raising to clutch her chest, but the pained look in her eyes didn’t stop me. I went on. “I reject the fated bond with you, Selina.”
The weight of what I’d just done settled on me. My breathing became jagged, and it was with so much practice that I was able to suppress the urge to double over in pain.
“Marissa and I will wed,” I said, turning my back to Selina and a smiling Lucian and Marissa. I searched for the nearest drink to quench the sudden drought in my throat. Each step was painful, but I’d put up a wall in my mind, and I was not looking back.
The ball went on, music and chattering filling every corner of the room, but even the unfamiliar and chaotic atmosphere was not enough to get to me. Hours and many drinks later, I still did not feel the hollowness in me reduce into something less, and my mind kept wandering back to Selina.
‘Mine,’ my wolf crooned, reminding me of the energy that buzzed between us only a while back, exhilarating to the point that I still felt it deep in my bones. She was something else, Selina, with beauty that transcended anything on this plane. I could see her having me in a chokehold.
“But all of that is a mirage,” I said, low enough for my ears only. “I feel nothing other than a forced attraction,” I bit out, willing myself to believe it.
It seemed that Igaluk decided to play games on me at my wordbecause just then, a commotion sounded from the far left corner of where I sat, and my eyes snapped to see Selina crashing into someone holding a tray of wine glasses.
On reflex, I shot to my feet, but reason ground me in my spot. How could I suddenly care for a mate I just rejected?
Chapter 3
Selina
Since Alexis’s rejection, I’d walked around with an unyielding tightness in my throat, making every little activity almost impossible to carry out. I couldn’t stop thinking about how void of emotions Alexis’s face had been when he gutted me with his words, making me wonder if he felt the fated pull as I did or even only a little.
The image of him and Marissa plastered against one another on the dance floor, looking perfect together, tasted even more bitter than waters from the Black Moon Pack’s swamps, and it didn’t make things easier that almost everybody had something to say about Alexis, oblivious or uncaring about the way his being tormented me.
Alexis was staying with Nightwing Pack for a while, and the purpose was to get some aspects of the alliance with our pack started. It was said that Shadow Moon Pack operated facilities that were more advanced than ours and the others combined have ever produced or even seen, making them one of the strongest packs. With the new cooperation with our pack, some of those technologies were going to rub off on us. Alexis had begun drawing building plans for a sub-level safe house for us, and it could hold at least a hundred people at a time,women, children, and the elderly, with enough supplies to last for days, if necessary.
A new morning came, and I found my wolf’s restlessness multiplying in folds. I’d been on edge since my eyes opened, and even after rolling my shoulders so much that the joints shifted, I still couldn’t shake the prickly feeling off my skin. The mate bond manifested every minute when my wolf pressed so hard against my surface, itching for her mate’s presence—his scent, his breath, just him—and the urge was overwhelming till it was almost physically painful.
Tossing on my bed and pacing my cabin didn’t help. Spending time in my garden didn’t either, so after an hour of being unable to control my and my wolf’s desires for Alexis, I got ready and found my way to the kitchen.
Once I stepped in, someone addressed me.
“Breakfast is ready, Selina. I plated one for you.”
That was Sireen, one of my father’s royal maids and an absolute Angel. Sireen worked in the pack kitchen and was one of the few people in Nightwing Pack who was kind enough to be civil with me, regardless of the hostility I faced every day. We weren’t best friends but just two adults who cared for and respected one another as packmates.
