I nodded, grateful thatoneof them was supportive. Starry grinned in agreement, too. Make that two of them.
Everyone else seemed apathetic to my broadcast. Fine. I didn't need them, anyway. I stormed out of the cabin and shook off my human form, running into the woods as a wolf. I ran until I came to the edge of a river and plunged into it. It was night now and stars glimmered above me, reflecting in the clear water so it felt like I was swimming in a pool of stars.
They're wrong,I thought.Even if it is rare, I'll do it. I won't be alone and I won't settle.
As my emotions flared, I growled and dunked my head underwater, paddling until I reached the bottom of the riverbed. The silt and sand were cold on my paws. I stayed there for a moment, shutting my eyes and letting the chilly water envelop me.
Thanks to my granddad, a water spirit named Nautilus, I had the ability to breathe underwater, even though I was otherwise a normal wolf shifter. But with this power, I wasn't normal. I was special. The fates had already blessed me once. If anyone deserved a fated mate, it was me.
It was then and there that I promised myself I'd find my fated mate, no matter what anyone said.
Zakariel
Present Day
Ten years passedsince I made the promise to find my fated mate. And guess what I didn't freaking have yet?
To say I was getting a little frustrated was an understatement.
My eyes opened to early morning sunlight streaming in through the window. My room had the same muddy pawprints and tufts of fur that it did when I was a teenager because, hey, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. I rolled off my bed of dry grass and feathery bird down, then stretched, taking a moment to appreciate my muscles as I did so. Damn, they were looking fine lately. All the running around I did was doing my body good, at least. I had to look sexy for my future fated mate, after all.
Wherever the hell he was.
I went to the basin of water in the shower room and splashed my face with it. Since our parents were wild shifters, we kept the place pretty bare-bones, but it was cool with me. I didn't grow up in human society so I didn't know any other way to live. I'd visited the nearby town a few times with Dad, since he was raised there and apparently owned this big fancy manor in the past, but it honestly seemed like an excessive bunch of junk. Did humansreallyneed all that stuff?
When I was sufficiently ready to face the day, I strolled towards the front door. The living room was empty and the cabin was quiet. Nobody else seemed to be awake.
I didn't understand it. Why weren't my cousins as impatient as I was to find their fated mates? Did they think one was just going to fall right into their paws if they sat around lazily? No. You had to go out and grab destiny with your own fangs.
As much as I loved them and was grateful for everything they'd done for us, I sometimes resented our parents for making their permanent home in the middle of nowhere. Dad was the legal owner of the wildlife reserve we lived on, and a long ass time ago a group of them got together and decided to live here. It was fine and all, but seriously, how did they meet anyone? Everything was so fucking far apart. At least my leg muscles were toned from all the running I did.
I shifted into my wolf form and strolled out the front door, shaking out my fur beneath the morning sun. I raised my snout and smelled the air. Dad's scent still lingered from his last visit. All of us kids--we were adults, obviously, but since our parents always called us that, the term stuck in my head--lived together in a cabin compound. It was built so we could have a taste of human culture as well as shifter. The compound was close to where they all lived, in some forest grove, but far enough to give us privacy. Now that we were grown up, I appreciated the distance more. If Ididfind my fated omega mate and wanted to bring him home, I didn't want my dads all up in my business.
Speaking of Dad... Why did his scent suddenly smell fresher?
I twitched an ear as a figure emerged from the trees. It was a small black wolf with a few gray hairs on his muzzle and bright yellow eyes.
"Hey, Dad," I said.
"Good morning, Zak. Out on another one of your quests?"
My pelt prickled with a flicker of irritation but I smoothed it down. I don't know why it bothered me when he said it that way. Maybe because it felt like the universe was mocking me at this point.
"Yeah," I said. "If I don't keep on my grind, no one else is gonna do it for me, you know?"
Dad nodded to be polite but I got the feeling he didn't quite agree with me. "How goes the search?" he asked.
"Bad," I admitted, trying to tamp down the disappointment that I didn't let show on my face.
"Zak, do you ever take a break?"
"A break from what? Finding my fated mate? Hell no. I can't afford to."
Dad snorted. "You're twenty-five. You're young. You have plenty of time to find a mate."
My eye twitched when he saidmate, notfated mate.It made me think of an old conversation I'd had with Lupa and Leveret, where they said it was rare for a shifter to be truly fated. Their words stuck with me like burrs clinging to my pelt. Even if that was true, that was forotherpeople. Not me.
"How old wereyouwhen you found Pops?" I asked.
