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"His mate?" Ismena's eyes widened, "Is that supposed to be a joke?"

"I'd hope so, but you're scenting like our King, so I wouldn't understand what kind of joke that will be if it was one."

Ismena laughed, she couldn't help herself. The woman looked all too serious with this joke of hers.

She might not understand everything about this world yet, but at least Wolfariane has told her a thing or two about mates. "I'll have you know that your King does not like me at all. So, there's no way I'll be his mate."

"People are blind, but fate is not. The moon goddess has the future all planned out. Sometimes, mates don't like each other at the beginning, but fate has something beautiful stored for them together." Eline thought about it worriedly, pain masked her features, "I don't understand this one at all. You? For the Alpha King?"

Ismena arched her brow upwards, "That sounds insulting. You say that like I'm not woman enough for him?" She snorted, "I'll have you know that men find me very attractive, and very womanly too."

"Please, don't take offense. That is not what I meant." Eline was quick to assure her, "I'm just worried about you, about him, and about the situation, that is all. Changelings are very different from humans you see, our ways are not the same."

The woman looks genuinely worried. Ismena placed a hand on her shoulder, "Don't worry yourself to death, Eline. I have no intentions ofmarrying anybody and the only fate I know now is my death...which is coming in the near future."

"I can barely scent death on you. How are you feeling today after your obvious intimacy with the Alpha King?" Eline asked curiously. Her eyes went to that red spot on Ismena's neck.

"We didn't have sex." Her cheeks warmed. Quickly, she used her hair to cover her tingling neck. "We...uhm...we made out."

"Made out? What does that mean?" The other woman asked, her brows creased in confusion.

"You don't know what it means?" Ismena asked incredulously, then went ahead to explain in simple terms.

"Oh." It was Eline's turn to blush, "It is your wording that confused me. Okay, so the Alpha King touched you intimately? How do you feel now?

Ismena shifted uncomfortably on her feet, "You mean how I feel about the...uhm..."

"No, no," Eline let out quickly, "I mean how your heart feels after the...uhm... experience. Not how you feel emotionally, but you know, you have a bad heart so...uhm..." The young woman snapped her mouth shut, she is too distraught with the situation she was having problems making sense of her own wordings.

But Ismena came to her aid. "Oh, you mean how my chest feels now?"

"Yes! Exactly." Eline let out a huge breath.

Ismena's hand went to the chest in question and rubbed it absently, "I don't feel any pain since I woke up this morning. That's surprising because I was expecting a very mean pain."

"It is not surprising." That confirmed Eline's suspicions. This woman here is the Alpha King's mate. "Woah."

Ismena shrugged and started back to the sitting room. "Well, I'm grateful it's cutting me some slack, I wouldn't be looking a gift horse in the mouth. The pain will come back later in the day, and worse...since I don't have my meds."

"If you keep having intimacies with the Alpha King, you wouldn't be needing those meds ever again."

"Yeah, right." Ismena snorted. The young woman is even more romantic in nature than her best friend, Sandra.

"I'm only thankful that he's trying to replace my meds for me. Wolfariane told me that he'll send the big Cougar guy back to New York City to buy them for me. I just hope my heart sustains me till he returns. I've not taken my meds in four days." She added worriedly.

"Alpha Alphose?"

"That's the one."

Eline nodded, sitting beside her. If the Alpha King said that, then that means he hasn't accepted her as his mate. Will he even be able to accept her in the future? Or will she die?

“What about Nalaila?”

"There goes that name again. Please tell me who this woman is?" Ismena asked her, softly.

Eline bit her lips hard. She didn't know she'd said that out loud. She snapped her mouth shut.

"Who is she? Is she his friend? Or his wife? Or his lover?" Suddenly, she wanted to know this. There is this urge in her chest driving her to know this.