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“Mate?” I shout at her in my head, “What do you mean ‘mate’?”
We had a mate. Todd. He rejected us a week ago. It might be longer now since I’m not sure how long I’ve been asleep. It feels like it’s been a long time. Considering how my body is protesting every movement and how deep the ache is, I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s been longer than a few hours.
My wolf continues to purr, content to bask in the scent of our alleged mate. I don’t understand it. Todd smelled like cinnamon and fresh rain. It wasn’t a bad combination, but I much prefer the berry-cedar scent I’m engulfed in at the moment.
Flashes of memory come back to me, slow at first and then picking up speed. I remember going to the Beta office and finding Samuel there. Kathy came in, mad as usual, and started to beat me. The Alpha stopped her and wanted to know what was going on?
The fierce growl and yelling from downstairs rings through my head and has goosebumps covering my skin. I remember that growl. I remember going downstairs and seeing the man responsible for it. I remember his deep green eyes.
Something started to snap and fall away inside of me the moment I saw his eyes.
He said something to me. He was defending me?
My memories start to get fuzzy right around that time. Did I pass out? I must have, Kathy’s beating was pretty brutal, and I still wasn’t fully recovered from Todd’s rejection and continued psychological abuse. Ever since he mind-linked me while fucking some she-wolf, he had been doing it every single night. It was almost more than I could take.
The bed beneath me is soft and I want to burrow deeper into it and rub the berry-cedar scent into my pores. That would probably be the wrong thing to do considering I don’t know the man who belongs to this amazing scent.
“I know you’re awake, sweet mate,” a man’s gruff voice, the same one I remember hearing yesterday in the deepest parts of my mind, has me sitting up suddenly.
I let out a small yelp of pain at moving so quickly, but it can’t be helped. I stare at the man sitting in the chair next to the bed. His shoulders are as broad as I remember them being. He’s imposing, but there’s something sweet and gentle in his eyes as he looks at me. It’s not pity, thankfully, I would hate to be pitied by this man. I want something else, something deeper, from him, but I’m not sure how to articulate it.
Wait.
I croak softly, “Mate?”
“Yes,” my wolf purrs, “isn’t he yummy? He will protect us now. We’re safe and no longer in that horrible pack.”
My wolf’s words have me blinking rapidly at this man. My wolf is telling me this is my mate. She’s telling me I’m no longer in Waning Moon. It’s a relief I’m no longer there, but then I have to ask—where am I?
What the fuck is going on?
“How can you be my mate? There’s no such thing as second chance mates? I recognized Todd as my mate on my 18thbirthday.” The man’s jaw clenches, and his hands make fits so tight that his knuckles turn white. It has part of me wanting to recoil, but there aren’t any warning alarms going on in my head telling me this man is a danger to me. He relaxes slowly and it has me doing the same. “I don’t understand,” I whisper.
“There are no second chance mates, Serenity.” When he says my name, a shiver runs along my body as if he’s caressing me with just the tips of his fingers. I realize I don’t even know his name and it makes my heart ache. “I knew you were my mate eight years ago.”
He stares intently into my eyes and the memories of a day, a certain day, one I’ve tried to ignore and not examine, tumble through my mind. It was the day everything changed. Everything.
It was a painful memory and I locked it away to avoid the pain. I had enough of that to go around as it was. I didn’t need to remember the moment when everything shifted because I had no explanation for it.
“Tristan,” I whisper, his name floating back to me like the scent of rain on the wind right before the clouds open up.
Tristan smiles at me and it lights up his entire face. He moves toward me and sits on the bed next to me. Even though he’s huge, I’m not scared of him. I was only scared of the wolves in my pack because they showed me that I should be. They proved I couldn’t trust them, but Tristan is different. He saved me. I think.
“You remember, little wolf?” His voice is gruff and strained, “I only got to see you for a few moments, not nearly long enough. I knew the moment I scented and saw you. You are my mate, but you were so young. My father spoke with your parents and told them to keep your importance to me a secret and protect you. Because of the power my pack holds, we were afraid someone would try and use you against me while I couldn’t be with you until you came of age. They knew I would come back for you on your 18thbirthday.”
I feel a tear slip down over my cheek and he’s quick to brush it away, the tingles from his touch make me gasp. They’re so much stronger than I thought they would be. It takes my breath away and gives me something I’ve been lacking for so long—hope.
“Tristan,” his name is a choked sob on my lips.
With one swift movement, he gently pulls me against his chest and cradles me in his lap. The way his body surrounds me, as if protecting me from anything and everything which has or could harm me, has more tears falling. I haven’t felt safe in so long.
My wolf is laying down in my mind, content with the feeling of being with our mate. Content. Safe. Loved.
So many things swirl around in my head. I don’t understand how this is possible, but it is.
Even though I’m scared of the answer, it needs to be asked. I whisper, “How did I feel the bond with Todd?”
“I don’t know, little wolf,” Tristan’s voice is thick with emotion. “I have a feeling that your parents didn’t or couldn’t keep the secret of who you are to me. Power hungry people would love to take advantage of any weakness Blood Rising has. While you were growing up and before I could bring you here, you would be a weakness.”
