Page 6 of Becoming the Alpha

Laura’s face drained of color and her mouth dropped open. Her knees buckled and Dean caught her around the waist. He helped her sit in a chair that was leaning against the wall. I threw the blanket off my feet and pushed off the bed. I knelt in front of Laura, grabbing her hand. She gripped it as tight as she could.

“It’ll be okay, Laura.”

“You’re fucking kidding, right?”

“Language.”

“Shut the fuck up and be serious right now. You issued the fucking Alpha Challenge? I just lost my mate. I can’t lose you too, Jason!” Laura screamed. She pushed up from the chair and paced up and down the room. Dean shot me an alarmed look. I sighed, rubbing a hand down my face.

“Lost her mate? What the fuck is she talking about?”

“Goddess-damn it. There’s too much going on and none of us are up to date on what’s happening. We should wait until Lily and Amara get here and go over everything together.

“The fuck we will. You’re going to tell me exactly what the fuck is going on, right now!” Laura snapped.

I stood up slowly and sat on the edge of the chair, sighing, and rubbing the bridge of my nose. “Laura, take a fucking breath. Dad threatened Lily and I had to protect her. The only way I could do that was to challenge him. So I did. The challenge takes place in three days. Dean, Callum was Laura’s mate. She may not have had a chance to fall in love with him - thank the Goddess Leto for that - but she felt him die and is now without the other half of her soul. We need to work on reaching out to anyone who may be able to help her deal with Callum’s death and not have to walk around with half a soul for the rest of her life.”

Dean’s eyes widened the longer I spoke. Laura scoffed, folding her arms across her chest and narrowing her eyes. I took a deep breath, waiting for her to explode. I knew it was only a matter of time. She couldn’t really hold her tongue very well and I knew she wasn’t going to let any of this go. I folded my hands in my lap, waiting.

“Are you fucking insane?” Laura screamed.

7

Lily

As I exited the shower, I wrung my hair out of the towel, trying to get as dry as I could. I needed to get back to Jason as fast as possible. My wolf was pushing me to be with her mate and honestly, I missed him too. I pulled on the clothes I had laid out earlier and combed my hands lightly through my hair. I put it up in a light bun. I would get the tangles out of it later when it was dry. I turned around, fully intending on heading back to Jason when I noticed that Amara was staring at my shoulder with a horrified look on her face.

“Amara?”

“He claimed you?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you even know what that means?”

“It means we’re mates.”

“It means you’re stuck together forever!” Amara yelled, throwing her hands up. I frowned, rubbing my shoulder. I remembered a bit of my conversation with Jason about this topic, but honestly, I had been so out of my mind with having a wolf inside my body and dealing with Callum that I didn’t really remember what was said.

“And…that’s a bad thing?” I asked, my voice sounding unsure. Amara blinked, reeling herself in a bit. “No, of course not. It’s just…did he even ask you?”

“Ask me what?”

“If you wanted to be claimed.”

I opened my mouth to assure her that he would never do anything without my consent when I paused. I shut my mouth, replaying what had actually happened on that field. “H-he must have. He would never…”

Amara simply stared at me, pity filling her eyes. I jerked away, pacing the room. I shoved my hands into my wet hair, pulling at the strands lightly as I tried to sort out the problem in my mind.

“We’re mates. He would never do anything against my will. Right? I mean if I wanted out of this, he would let me go.”

Amara cleared her throat, her sad and reluctant face catching my eye before I turned to start another lap around the room. “Technically, he wouldn’t be able to, Lil. He’s bound to you now. His wolf is going to force him to be around you for the rest of your lives. Once a bond is completed, you two are linked. Forever.”

I stopped pacing and slowly turned around to face Amara. “What?”

“You two are never going to be able to be apart from each other. You can never ‘find someone else’ or take some time away from each other. You’ll be attached at the hip forever. It will cause you physical agony to be away from him. That’s why it’s such a big deal for mates to ask each other if they want to complete the bond before they go through with it. Completing a bond without permission is grounds for imprisonment or worse.”

I sucked in a shallow breath, my chest feeling like someone had stabbed me. I wasn’t able to breathe. I stumbled over to the bed, weakly lowering myself onto the quilt. Amara rushed to my side, grabbing my hand and lightly rubbing my back. I squeezed my eyes shut, not wanting the tears burning the backs of my eyes to fall. I didn’t want to cry anymore. I wanted to be stronger than that.

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