150. Go back to her
150. Go back to her
Kenny
Flashback: Pamyel, 58 years ago.
The wind howled through the hills of Pamyel, carrying the scent of wet earth and pine from the North. I stood in the central square, working another job as Alaester’s new beta. A beta in training.
The pack was restless this morning. After the battle, the prince had taken in an enemy. An outsider. An Aladian. He hadn’t killed her or interrogated her. He had welcomed her.
My blood boiled just hearing about them… Aladians.
Those bastards who burned our lands, who tore my family and my entire pack from me with their poisoned blades. I didn’t need more reasons to hate them. But then I saw her, and it was like everything around her froze.
The female strode through the stone arch of Eastburn village, her chin held high, drawing every eye. She was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. Petite, with fiery red hair dancing in the wind, each strand gleaming as if the Moon Goddess herself had woven flames into her head. Medium-sized breasts, toned legs and arms from years of training, a slender, delicate waist, and gray wings like an angel’s. My chest tightened, my wolf growled low, restless, and I couldn’t look away. She was… breathtaking. Her amber eyes hit me like an arrow, and for one damned second, I forgot who I was. I forgot the hate. I forgot everything.
My wolf howled inside me, not in anger, but something worse. The bond. That invisible chain, that pull the gods throw at you without warning. My vision blurred, my heart raced, and I felt her.
My fated mate was her… My stomach churned, and rage rose like bile. An Aladian.
Not just any Aladian, but the second daughter of the Aladian king, sent to Pamyel to die. I knew she was royalty because of the pendant around her neck. Only Aladian royals wore that emblem. Her sister had died two years earlier, and he sent this one to war?
My wolf knew she was the second princess. But no one else in Pamyel knew. Not even Aemon, who had saved her when she refused to kill him, proving she wasn’t the monster her father wanted her to be.
“What do you want here?” My voice came out like thunder, harsher than I intended. I needed to hold myself back, to remember who she was. An enemy. A threat. But her scent was ingrained in my nostrils.
She raised her chin, those amber eyes staring at me without flinching. “My name is Seraphine Northwest. And you’re my mate, aren’t you?”
The question caught me off guard.
I took a step forward, so close I could feel her warmth, the scent of herbs and cotton candy. My wolf wanted to get closer, to touch her and feel the softness of her inviting lips, but I forced him back.
I grabbed the female’s arm and dragged her to a corner where no one could hear us.
“Listen, never say those words again,” I spat. “Your hunters killed my sister, my mother. They burned our homes. And you think you can come here with two pretty words and say we’re mates?”
She didn’t back down. Her eyes softened, just for a moment, and she smiled angelically. “I’m not those hunters, Beta. I’m sorry for your loss, but I’m not to blame for the actions of others.”
What a lie. She was an Aladian, daughter of a king who had thrown her to the wolves, literally. I knew why she was here. The Aladian king didn’t want a truce; he wanted to get rid of her. And yet, there she was, defying death, defying me. My wolf growled, torn between the urge to protect her and the need to destroy her. The bond pulsed, a warm current running through my blood, pulling me toward her. My hand felt like fire as I held her.
I stepped closer, my face inches from hers. “I hate your kind. I don’t want you. And know this, Aladian: I will never accept you as my mate. You’re my enemy. You’re one of them.”
Her eyes gleamed—not with fear, but with something like… pity? Anger? I couldn’t tell. She held my gaze, pulling her arm free from my grip, which made my wolf whimper.
“The bond isn’t a choice, Beta,” she said, her voice trembling in a way that betrayed how much this affected her. “But your hatred is. If you want to reject me, do it. Just don’t expect me to bow to you for mistakes that aren’t mine.”
For a moment, I couldn’t speak. My wolf howled, begging me to pull her close, to accept what the gods had chosen. But the image of my sister, lying in the snow with an Aladian arrow in her chest, anchored me to my hatred. I couldn’t accept this cruel twist of fate. Not with her. Not with the daughter of the monster who destroyed my family.
But I couldn’t reject her either. I turned and walked away, leaving the Aladian in the corner, running into the forest as Pamyel’s cold wind swallowed me.
“Go back to her, you idiot,” my Lycan, always sensible and quiet, now chattered, urging us to turn back. “I want to nestle between my mate’s toned thighs, touch her wings, and bury my cock in her warm pussy.” His crude little fantasy flooded my mind.
“Stop it,” I growled, tearing off my clothes to head into the forest.
Her scent clung to my hand and hit my nose hard. It wasn’t helping at all. I needed to get rid of it, and fast.
She was my mate, but also my enemy. And even knowing she wasn’t what her father wanted her to be, I couldn’t forgive her. Not yet.