Chapter 7: Mate
Alaric stood by the podium, completely caught off guard and unable to move. All of a sudden, all his five senses were on high alert, and the hair all over his body was standing, the most delicious feeling of goosebumps overwhelming him. He blinked after a split second, totally at a loss for words. His mind was entirely and utterly muddled after catching the delicious scent of sweet green apples, spice, caramel, and cinnamon. It had him drooling almost instantly, albeit after sensing it very briefly.
*Mate.*
Max looked at him, confused. Alaric knew better than to mind-link Max in front of all these unsuspecting humans looking at him expectantly to give his speech. Luckily for him, the audience was purely captivated by his presence on stage, and they never even noticed his change in demeanor, so he delivered his short and brief speech without any unnecessary delays.
Nobody must have noticed except for Max, whose eyes grew visibly rounded when he saw how Alaric tried to conceal his hands now with half his claws out behind the podium and how his nose flared as the scent enveloped his senses and entire being for a nanosecond before completely dissipating into thin air.
*Mate.*
Leif, his wolf, is now agitated, and he undoubtedly is pacing restlessly after having caught the delicious scent of their mate.
"Mate!" Leif now growled, letting Alaric know he would no longer be ignored.
"Patience," Alaric whispered to Leif.
"She's here! Mate! Our mate is here!" Leif said it almost like a chant, and Alaric could only see him jump with excitement in his mind.
"I know. I caught our mate's scent, too, wolf." Alaric acknowledged his wolf.
"She smelled divine," Leif replied, almost like a whimper mixed with a bit of his own frustration, obviously drooling. He did not even retort to Alaric calling him a wolf.
Alaric could not help but chuckle at the eagerness he was hearing from Leif. It felt like a lifetime since he heard Leif with this much excitement and vigor. He sounded happy, and joy was just overflowing from him. Alaric could already tell that he was totally captivated by that sweet scent, by far the most delectable scent they had ever caught, albeit briefly. So was he.
If he is being honest, he has been concerned with Leif for a few years now. Alaric feared the madness would get to them after being unmated for too long. Alaric and Leif have even come to the understanding that if the Moon Goddess decides that they succumb to the madness by not letting them have their mate in this lifetime, one way or another, they will both find a way to surrender their existence to the moon rather than live a few more decades without a mate and later on become unfit to lead the clans under his protection and care because of undoubtedly and deliriously caving into the madness of being unmated.
But here we are. Since Alaric turned sixteen and came of age as a Lycan, he has been told that he will meet his fated mate sooner rather than later. It has been twenty years since then, and it has almost led him to believe that the moon goddess did not give him the blessing of having his fated one. Most nights, he wished and prayed to the goddess that she would provide them mercy and let them both meet their fate, even for the sake of Leif.
You see, an unmated wolf could not survive very long without a mate, but to an unmated Lycan wolf, that is tragic and fatal. A Lycan wolf becomes rabid after some time of being unmated, thus causing irreversible madness in its human mind.
The symptoms are well known in their kind. At first, the Lycan wolf will become rabid, bloodthirsty, and wild. He will be uncontrollable, so much so that Lycans are known to be ten times stronger than werewolves. When this happens, it is advised that the Lycan get chained in one of the pack's dungeons, ensuring he can't harm anyone. The Lycan will also refuse to transform into human form as the wolf retreats and burrows deep into its own space. Eventually, when it returns to its human form, it will refuse to show itself, even for the nightly hunts and moon runs. After some time, it will no longer communicate with its human or have its voice heard; it will grow silent, which is the final sign that it has broken the link between the spirit of the Lycan wolf and its human, driving them deep into irreversible madness.
The Lycan and werewolf histories only record two incidents of unmated Lycans; both ended in their tragic deaths amidst their madness.
It's almost comical that Alaric and Leif were already on the brink of exhaustion and almost out of hope of finding their mate. Here we are, in one of the most common of all their afternoons, like any other Monday, in the middle of a crowded room full of humans in a business acquisition, where they finally caught her delectable and sweet scent, not even having the chance to have a simple, tiny, teeny chance of having a glimpse of her. Just her scent, but a clue enough for him to track her down to the ends of the earth. He can never erase that particular scent from his senses or mind now, even if he tries. Somehow, in the few seconds after he experienced catching his mate's smell, it left an indelible mark on his soul, one that he could never ignore or forget.
How cruel could fate and the Moon Goddess be that she had to torment them with this anticipation and almost painful excitement about meeting and joining with their mate? Knowing their mate did exist and is out there is enough to bring them both into a heightened frenzy, especially with Leif. He had been waiting for this moment for a really long time.
To werewolves and Lycans alike, a mate is more than just a life partner. They only mate once in their lifetime, and a mate does more than complete one's existence. A mate complements the other. A mated pair does not have any weaknesses other than one another. Together and at their best, coupled pairs are strong, and their connection is profound. When mated pairs are away from each other, they protect each other through their unbreakable bond. In return, they make powerful and perpetual foundations for their families, packs, clans, and kingdoms. In other words, being mated is the ultimate gift from the Moon Goddess, and she never makes mistakes with her fated mates and pairs. This is also why rejecting your fated mate is frowned upon, though it is not against the pack law.
In this modern world, werewolves and Lycans are more self-aware than supernatural beings. Females are encouraged to live as independently as they want. In olden times, females were tasked with only bearing children with their mates and running the household. Modern Lycans and werewolves have adopted some of the human culture and practices to thrive and prosper in the current times. Both males and females can have corporate jobs, a career, or run a business independently and still be part of a pack or clan. Females can be Alphas, too, and had been leading packs and clans for centuries before a woman was allowed to vote for the first time in human history. Mated pairs are not limited to females and males alone. All throughout history, Lycans and werewolves have mated with couples of the same sex. However, it is rare with humans and other supernatural beings, but it is not something deemed impossible. The Moon Goddess does not make mistakes in pairing fated mates.
This understanding also helped, in one way or another, in keeping all supernatural beings existence under wraps. For humans, their existence or that of any other supernatural beings, in fact, is just not plausible in their world, and these beings are only a figment of one's imagination, something that came out of bedtime storybooks.