Mate

Lilith:

Kieran was eyeing the three men and based on their stance, they were in for a fight. I could already see another bloodbath and this time, it would happen right in front of my eyes.

There was no way I was in for that trauma, being that I knew the three men, even if it wasn't to a personal level.

I had to act fast.

If the fight was to ensue, I doubted that Alpha Zander and the rest of the pack would even notice. And even if they would, there was no chance that they would get to where we were in time to do anything.

They would likely just come to pick up our mutilated bodies.

Thinking back to when Kieran attacked, I wondered why he had picked me and taken me as a hostage. Why did he want to take me out of the pack border so much that he risked jumping the trench with me in his mouth?

Perhaps I would come to know later and I was already thinking of how I would find it out. Kieran took a step forward and I rose to my feet, making sure I stood between him and the three men.

"Look, you don't have to kill them," I tried reasoning with him. Immediately I said this, I heard low growls coming from behind me.

'Are you kidding me?' I asked myself, wanting to bash my head against the hard ground. I turned around, with rage and asked them,

"Are you trying to get yourselves killed? You saw how he killed your brothers the last time he attacked! Do you think the three of you have any chance?"

They paused and were probably contemplating the outcome of what was to be their actions. Then one of them eyed me with a scornful look before asking,

"He'll still kill. Or do you have a better plan?"

For a fact, I did have a plan. Not the best one I'd ever come up with my entire life, but it was a plan. So, I turned and proposed to Kieran, who was still growling as he stared the four of us down.

"I do. Why don't you take me and let them live?" I asked him. Despite his wolf form, I could see the 'Huh?' look on his face.

"You said we were trying to get you killed, while in fact you're the one who's actually doing it!" One of the men shouted from behind me. I didn't know why, but I felt like Kieran would actually consider the deal, for an exile branded as a rogue.

"He took me once before, perhaps he just came back to do it again," I said while looking deep into the eyes of the wolf in front of me.

One of the three men, the one who had carried me, grabbed me by the hand aggressively, trying to pull me back. I immediately knew that it was a bad idea.

Kieran, who seemed to have calmed down, snarled loudly and bared his fangs at the man while he moved closer so that his mouth was close to the guy's head in response to him grabbing me.

The man immediately let go of me and was basically shaking at the knees with Kieran about to bite his head off. "I'll go with you," I repeated, getting Kieran's attention and making him retreat. "Just, don't kill them."

Kieran opened his mouth, perhaps waiting for me to position myself the way he did when he carried me the first time. If I was going to allow him to take me again, I wasn't going to be carried like a pup.

Pointing to my hand, I said. "You're not carrying me like a pup, again. The last time you did that, I ended up nearly dead and my hand has barely healed. I'll follow you, not in your mouth but next to you,"

Before he could do anything, I walked past him and stood on the path that he had followed to get into the village. “Let's go before those three decide whether they want to go back running and report your presence,"

Kieran looked confused but he didn't seem to mind. He just turned and started walking behind me, nudging me with his nose. After walking for around an hour and being sure we were far from the others, I stopped. Kieran walked closely behind me and nudged me when I came to a stop. This had become the habit over the last thirty minutes that we were walking in the forest.

The only difference was that this time, I was not going to allow him to keep nudging me. So, when he did it, I moved to the side and stood my ground.

With his large stature, Kieran was looking at me like a giant looking at a mouse.

I could see the irritation in his eyes but I didn't care. My feet were hurting, my hand was still aching and I had questions.

"Why me?" I asked him, not scared of the big bad wolf anymore. He just stood there, looking at me in silence.

"Why take me the first time, and the second time? And also, why does my wolf get hyper everytime she senses your presence?" I pushed further, showing him that I wasn't going to move until my questions were answered.

In the dimly lit forest floor where little light reached, the huge black wolf was standing with its red eyes staring at me.

After a long silence, the huge wolf started to shrink down. The fur that covered its body fell to the ground and I could make out the soft skin that replaced it in the darkness. Standing under a huge tree that had so much shadow cover that literally hid Kieran, I could make out the structure of a tall and masculine figure that was now standing in front of me.

I could barely make out his face in the darkness, but one thing was for sure, I was in the presence of the Exiled Alpha.

A man who's name was forbidden from being mentioned out loud.

I couldn't explain it, but for some reason all the fear that I had when he attacked the first time seemed to have evaporated.

What had me confused was that fear was replaced with some kind of admiration. I couldn't deny that I felt an unexplainable attraction towards this stranger and monster.

'We finally found our mate,' Dione squealed to me, shocking me right to the core.

I stumbled backward, caught off guard by Dione's words. My mate? There was no way. Not him. Not this rogue exiled by his own pack, who had brought nothing but chaos to our lives.

But as I looked up, meeting his intense gaze, I felt an undeniable pull in my chest.

Kieran’s eyes were locked onto mine, no longer wild or filled with rage. Instead, he looked at me with pure, utter confusion, like he was wrestling with something beyond his control.

His brow furrowed, and his lips parted as though he wanted to say something but couldn’t quite find the words.

Finally, he spoke, his voice a low, gravelly whisper, “Why can't I stop thinking about you?”

His question hit me harder than any attack ever could. My heart skipped a beat as I realized he was just as thrown by this as I was.

This wasn't some planned capture or a cold-blooded move on his part—he was confused, unsure, and, perhaps, just as trapped in this as I was.

"I... I don’t know," I stammered, feeling my cheeks heat up, "I don’t know why either."

We stood in silence, neither of us daring to move, as if the smallest shift might shatter whatever strange connection we were discovering between us.