This couldn’t be happening. Rafe dropped his head into his hands outside of the door.
“Is everything okay?” Damon asked.
Rafe shook his head. “No. Nothing’s okay.” His mate was behind that door—and she was the daughter of his number one enemy. How the hell was he supposed to deal with that?
He pointed to the door. “I’ll be back. Do not leave her unaccompanied, even for one second. In fact, move more enforcers here to guard this building.”
“Understood.” Damon acknowledged with a nod.
Rafe climbed up the stairs to the lodge two at a time and headed outside. It was still nighttime, and no one was around.
What a prize he’d captured—Kane’s daughter.
His body trembled with rage—and something more bittersweet.
He’d been waiting for his mate for so long. He’d longed to find the one person in the world who would complete him. An alpha ruling his pack without a mate was not whole, and he’d felt that missing piece in his life. Last year, he’d left Franconia Mountain to venture where other shifters might be in the hopes of finding her.
And where was she? Living adjacent to his territory on another pack’s lands. Enemy territory.
No, he could never permit that pairing. He had pride. No way would he succumb to fate’s prank that made him desire his forbidden enemy.
Screw it. He didn’t need a mate. He’d gone for over thirty years without one and had seen all the trouble Damon and Grayson had encountered when they found theirs. Damon had tracked his mate into Sacco territory, sparking the strife between the packs. In Grayson’s attempt to find a mediator, he’d met his mate, Aurora. It had further exacerbated the tension as the Saccos thought she was biased and setting them up. Rafe expected a mate to make him work to be worthy to claim her—but that would not include catering to his enemy.
His shoulders sagged. He couldn’t think about it now. His mind and body were in shambles, conflicted with the warring emotions between his wolf’s more primal desires and the logic in his head.
He woke Grayson with a telepathic connection and quickly filled him on the situation, leaving out the part about Mila and mates and how his life had just been turned inside out.
After ending the conversation, Rafe paced in agitated circles in the snow. To hell with it, he would let his wolf run to relieve some stress. If they focused on something else, hunting prey, that could give him a brief respite from the turmoil in his head.
He shifted to wolf form. As he expected, his wolf turned to head back to Mila.
No,Rafe commanded.
She’s our mate,his wolf declared.
She’s enemy,he responded.We will fight this pull. If we yank on it enough, it will have to break.
You know that a connection between mates is harder to destroy than that.
Rafe growled.Regardless. We will not submit to our enemy.
His wolf attempted to ignore Rafe’s command and return to Mila. Rafe exerted all his influence to resume control.I said no. I shifted so you can run it out. If you can’t control the yearning, I will change back.
His wolf howled in protest, but complied and turned to run up the mountain. Since he spent much of his days as a human, he let his wolf roam free most nights to hunt in the forests blanketing the mountain.
What was paramount was to ignore the pull to return to Mila. Ignore the vision of seeing her naked. Dismiss how his body responded to her with such potent attraction.
He’d force himself to forget everything about her.
Rafe couldn’t remembera night he’d spent in such anguish. What could he do to fix this catastrophic discovery? Meeting his mate was supposed to be a magical moment, not one that twisted him with agony.
After a rough night with little sleep, he drove down to the lodge, too restless to ski. Plus, he couldn’t deal with cumbersome skis and boots if he needed to shift at a moment’s notice. Tensions were at a peak, and he had moved more shifters in close to guard the lodge where Mila was being detained. The Saccos could attack at any moment.
He checked in with the enforcers and forced himself to walk by the main lodge where Mila was. The agonizing urge to go to her almost overwhelmed him, but he pushed himself to stick to his resolve and avoid her. This magnetic connection was already difficult enough to ignore.
Rafe entered the octagonal lodge adjacent to the main one and walked up to his office. Soon after he entered, Grayson stepped in and greeted him.
“Any more developments since last night?” his beta asked.
