Clearly, I was mistaken.
My fingertips sharpen into claws as I think of the wild wolf. Is he the reason my mate and I hadn’t met sooner? Has he beenkeeping herfrom me? Bedding her as a lover, masking her scent, painting false promises of a future together?
My mind races as heavy footsteps sound behind me. I already know who it is and don’t bother turning around. “What’s her name?” I ask. Someone teleports my mate from the simulation, and the icy mountainside fades away along with the body of the deceased wolf. I don’t spare him a single thought, consumed only by thoughts of her.
Beautiful strands of ebony fall past her shoulders. The golden glow of her eyes matches mine, of course, but the frecklesdusting her cheeks are all her own. Pouty lips, full-bodied figure, legs for days—and a fiery temper I can sense from a distance.
All mine.
She doesn’t appear beside me despite the trials being over. My skin prickles from the knowledge that she’s standing among the rejects—or worse, with the wild wolf. I grind my teeth as the scope of possibilities for my future narrows to a razor-sharp point, either side as damning as the other. I didn’t anticipate finding my fated mate, and truthfully, I didn’t want to until I graduated. Yet here we are. She’s been tossed into my lap like an offering from the gods themselves.
I’d be a fool to look the other way.
“You will not mate with her,” my father declares, pushing power into his voice until the suggestion turns into an Alpha Order. It radiates down my spine like the poison that it is: a death sentence.
Though an average shifter can take another mate than their fated, alpha bonds are too powerful. That’s why any alpha presiding over a packmusthave a fated bond—a true mate is the only one capable of handling that level of power exchange. None of my forefathers bearing the title of Alpha Dire have ever mated with someone other than their fated. It doesn’t happen, because it results in the death of the pack alpha and their mate.
That lesson has been drilled into me since the day I was born.
I draw on every ounce of my power and push against my father’s order. It flares hot, raking down my back like sharp coals, but doesn’t dissipate. “You can’t make that demand.” I grit my teeth and meet my alpha’s eyes—a honey brown that matches my own—and refuse to back down.
“She isnotyour true mate.” My father attempts to turn the lie into an alpha’s command, like he has the power to change fate.
The second Alpha Order, the lie, doesn’t stick and rolls off my back like tepid water. That’s proof enough that she’s myfated. “Like hell, she isn’t!” My vision sharpens as my eyes shift, spurred on by the threat to my life—and my mate’s. “You’ll kill me if you keep us apart. You’ll kill us both.”
“She is not your true mate!” my father repeats, his muscles tensing so tightly that I hear the seams of his suit jacket pull loose. Being so close to shifting shows how much power he’s utilizing to speak such bold lies. “You will not die if you take another, and youwill.”
Breathing becomes laborious. “What did you just say?”
“Take another,” he growls through clenched teeth. “I don’t care who—but you willnotmate that female.”
“Thatfemaleis mine.”
His nostrils flare and his eyes flash a similar shade of gold as mine, though colder. “She is tainted, Alistair, and I will not have my son bonded to such filth! She is an evil that will corrupt whichever pack is foolish enough to accept her—which will be none, let alone my own. You willnotmate her.” He bares his fangs, exuding as much alpha influence as he can without shifting. Others within our pack would be forced to submit, but as his son and sole heir, I stand my ground better with each passing day.
It’s only a matter of time before my strength surpasses his, thenIwill be the one making demands.
“Choose another,” he growls, “or I will choose for you.”
“I am not mating until I graduate,” I obstinately remind him, “as is tradition for Dire wolves.” Something sharp snares inside my chest at the thought of waiting that long to claim my mate, but I push it down as deep as I can. My true mate will understand that I need to wait, and she will happily accept my promise and submit to me until then. It will be difficult sharing a bed without sinking my teeth into her flesh, but I’ve gone this long without succumbing to my baser instincts. How much harder can it be to wait a few more years?
My father takes a calming breath. “You will take a mate when I tell you to and not a full moon later.”
What a fucking hypocrite!
“Dire wolves graduate first in their class from Heartsflame Academy,” I mock, sneering as I quote one of our pack’s decrees, “or they do not deserve the title of Alpha.” I scoff. “I can’t take a mate before I graduate or I’m expelled from Heartsflame. Or are you disowning me? Did you suddenly sire another heir I know nothing about?”
“There is still time,” my father warns. “If you do not prove adequate.”
I roll my eyes. Here we go again. “Then let me fucking graduate, and I’ll snatch your title from you,Dad.”
The only way I’m rewriting this asshole’s plans for my life is by claiming his power, and the only way to do that is to become worthy of being his heir. The irony rankles like wild rot burrowing inside my flesh.
Recalling my claws, I rake my fingers through my hair. The insistent urge to flee and find my mate is a constant pressure inside my chest, the discomfort mounting with each passing second. I have to find her. I have to know that she’s okay—and away from that other fucking wolf.
His wildness will ruin her.
“I need to get her away from him,” I mutter, already devising a plan to separate them. If he was accepted into the academy without her, that should be a good enough start. I can keep her safe in Dire pack territory. When he gets himself expelled—because how could he not—and tries to find her her, I’ll kill him for ever daring tothinkhe can claim my mate as his.
