She’s talking to Emily and a couple of warriors. Her long dark hair is tied in a high ponytail. It's straight tonight, and I miss her curls. A tight red dress hugs her delectable curves, ending slightly below her toned ass. Her perfectly round, toned ass. Her tan legs look amazing, her heels highlighting their already long length.She’s roughly the same height as my 6’1” frame in those shoes. Fate, I love how tall she is.
She’s not a dainty little thing, she’s powerful and strong. She’s a goddess.
Everyone else in the room fades away; the music and talking become white noise. My wolf pushes forward, urging me to claim her here and now, and the syllable slips out of me in a whisper without permission. “Mate.”
Sofia’s head snaps up. Her ponytail flips as she turns, and her deep brown eyes narrow at me. Her nostrils flare as she breathes me in, inhaling my scent and realizing what it means. Gold flashes in her eyes as her wolf registers me. Sofia’s chest rises rapidly above the red sweetheart neckline that encases her full breasts.
My wolf puffs out his chest with pride at having such a strong and beautiful mate but the human part of me is torn between a million racing thoughts.
Fuck. Ryan is going to lose his shit.
“No, no, no,” Sofia mutters under her breath while shaking her head. “This isnothappening,” she grinds out. She walks towards me with a look of fierce determination on her face—head up, shoulders squared, like she can will the world to bend.
“I, Sofia Rivera of the Lunar Eclipse pack rej—” Ryan lunges between us faster than I can register what’s happening, his hand clamping over Sofia’s mouth just as she was about to reject me. Blood rushes in my ears, and my heart pounds erratically. She was going toreject me? What the hell?
I stumble backward, falling into Jackson, who must have been standing right behind me. The room spins and I need to get off this ride. Gasps sound out, followed by muffled whispers I can’t comprehend. My heart hammers in my chest. None of this is how I imagined meeting my mate.
It’s supposed to be an undeniable pull.
I’ve seen others meet their mates. They’ve run to each other, kissing, running their hands all over each other. Magnetically drawn together, unable to be apart for another second. Mates from the same pack are usually drawn together before turning twenty-one.
Which explains why I haven’t been able to get Sofia out of my head since I got back. But she’s obviously fucking horrified by the thought of being with me. She clearly sees how messed up this is. How fucked it is that we are fated to be together. How I’m way too old for her.
“Come with me, both of you, and keep quiet,” Ryan orders, applying his alpha command so there’s no room to refuse. We move as we’re told. My feet drag like I’m wading through thick water. I want to run in the opposite direction. But the command doesn’t give me a choice. My wolf howls in the back of my throat—angry, baffled,wounded. Rejection is a blade that not only severs the bond but also causes unimaginable pain—sometimes even death.
But why?
She didn’t even give me a chance. She went straight to refusal, and the idea that she would risk the consequences of a rejection without a conversation—without even asking—slashes across me. Maybe there’s someone else. Maybe she’s afraid. Or maybe she hates me so much that she’d rather bleed than be linked to me. The possibilities ricochet around my head, and none of them feel like an answer I can stand.
Could she be angry that I didn’t wait for her? But surely not. I’m a thirty-year-old shifter, for fate's sake! Although maybe I should have been more discreet. My stomach clenches, and the memory that I brought a date to her birthday assaults me.
I’m a fucking idiot, and it’s a bitter pill to swallow. The sheer awkwardness stings, leaving a burning residue of discomfort. Unease settles into my limbs, and my feet feel as if they are made of concrete as I trudge along behind Ryan.
I didn’t know. She can’t hold that against me. Can she?
Sofia doesn’t glance at me once for all the times I look at her; her gaze remains fixed on some space ahead of her. The muscles in her arms tighten as she crosses them protectively, almost as though she’s creating a physical barrier between us. The air around her seems to crackle with the intensity of her emotions. Her whole fucking energy screams ‘don’t talk to me’ and I hate it.
The tightness in her posture is a shield she’s raised, and it burns to see the girl who used to come to me for comfort treat me like I’m the enemy. She used to come to me whenever she needed anything. Especially after what happened with her parents. Have I pushed her away to the point that we can’t even have a conversation?
I want to grab her and tell her the truth. Tell her about how perfect I think she is and how much of a damn coward I’ve been. But the words stick in my throat like I swallowed tar. How the fuckdo I tell Sofia—and Ryan—that I’ve been drawn to her for nearly three years without them thinking I’m a complete creep?
My head pounds as I try to make sense of the situation and what to do next. Because as much as I hate myself for it, I can’t deny how much I want her anymore. My wolf wouldn’t let me even if I wanted to.
Fate put us together, and we both need to accept that.
Sofia Rivera is mine.
Chapter Nine
Sofia
No, no, no.Hellno. Luca fucking Taylor cannot be my mate. This cannotbe happening. I pinch my arm to try to wake myself up from this nightmare, but it’s no use. Ryan leads us away from the party towards Luca’s cabin. I could almost laugh at the absurdity—this is the first time I will enter his home. He moved in about two and a half years ago, several months after he decided he hated me.
And I wasn’t allowed in under any circumstances. Not to the parties he invited all the warriors to. Not to the movie nights he used to include me in when I was younger. Not to anything. I’ll never forget the humiliation of going to a party with my friends and Luca pulling me aside to tell me I wasn’t welcome.“It’s only for adults, you understand, right?”
Yeah, I understood. Luca hated my guts and couldn’t tolerate being in the same room as me. What I still don’t understand iswhy. Because nothing actually happened between us. He was fine before he left to go to beta training, but at some point while he was away from the pack, or maybe even before that, he changed.
Luca and I walk quietly behind Ryan. I can feel him staring at me. Goosebumps prickle my arms, and the hair on the back of my neck stands on end, as they always do when I sense his gaze on me.
