The fire inside me from our bond crackles and boils my blood, forcing me to challenge him boldly. It’s a strange sensation to talk back, but Goddess, it feels like a relief, regardless of the situation.
“You’ll fucking regret it.”
The pain that races through my body is almost unbearable. I’ve never really thought through the process of meeting the person the Moon Goddess mated me with for life, but I didn’t expect it to be like this.
I gather the last remaining courage I have and square up to him, pushing against his hand until it falls to his side. I glare at him and shake my head. “Don’t hold your breath,” I murmur harshly, my eyes flicking between his. “The feeling is mutual.”
Without a second thought, I shove past him, shift back into my wolf, and run through the trees as far away from him aspossible. Every inch of me is vibrating, even though my wolf wants to go back.
Why?
It’s clear we’re not a match.
And if the rejection from the matebond doesn’t kill me, I’m sure he will.
4
CALEB
“That’s the third one today,” Felix, my Beta, says.
I blink at him in annoyance. “Already?”
He sighs. “I mean, we knew they wouldn’t like it.”
That’s an understatement.
They despise me for taking over their pack and replacing their Alpha. I should have expected people to run at the first chance. They’d rather risk their lives out there instead of being in my pack because of the reputation theythinkI hold.
Despite holding a formal meeting with them about the situation and reiterating that they’re safe with me, from the looks I received, I might as well have been dead to some of them.
“Where are they now?”
“Patrol guards have them.”
I graze my teeth over my bottom lip as I slowly twist in my chair.
“This isn’t going to work unless you earn their trust, Caleb.”
A cold laugh bursts from my chest. “Trust? Of course, they don’t trust me. They know this is the work of my father, and they want to get as far away from here as possible. This was a stupid idea.”
Felix leans against the wall, crossing one foot over the other. “Well…for one, it wasn’t your idea, and two, there’s nothing we can do about it now other than show them that you’re not like Ryker and you have better plans for them.”
My teeth grind together subconsciously before I roll my finger over my lip and let my lungs fill with air.
“What people hear about Ryker are mostly rumours,” Felix says as he pushes himself up from the wall and takes a seat opposite me.
My brow flexes. “You and I both know that man isn’t a saint, and most of those rumours are true.”
“Yeah, but they don’t have to know that.”
I close my eyes in defeat.
“Look, this isn’t an ideal situation.” Felix leans forward. “But we had to do this to get your father off your back, okay? If you keep him happy, nothing will happen to us.”
At first, I argued against taking Cole’s pack because it’s not something a respectable Alpha would do, but my father grew angrier and threatened to do things that had my blood boiling with fury.
A scoff falls from my lips. “Until he wants more power. Cole owed him a favour from years ago; do you know how many other people owe Ryker favours? It’s only a matter of time before he wants to take over—not just this district but our entire world.”
