Page 16 of Alpha Mates

It’s like my brain hasn’t yet accepted the fact that the infuriating wolf I’ve known all my life is truly my mate and searches for some hidden evidence that I’m wrong, because thisiswrong.

There is no fucking way thatJulian Heilis my mate.

But there he is, with blue eyes shot wide and full of emotions I didn’t even know he was capable of feeling. Julian has always been a stone-cold wall, only ever expressing one emotion—hate—and always aimed at me. Now, that wall crumbles right in front of me as terror bleaches his skin.

“They must be mistaken.” It’s Ma’s bristling words that seep through the thick haze surrounding my mind, forcing me to focus on something other than Julian’s eyes.

“A hex,” Julian’s mother agrees quickly, horrified and still swivelling her sharp stare between Julian and me.

Despite wanting nothing more than their theories to be true, I find myself glaring at the pair as Max stirs to defend Julian as ours, but just that thought has my stomach knotting.

“Dear Goddess,” I mumble as I slide a hand into my hair. “I’m going to be sick.”

“No matter what it may or may not be, we can’t allow our packs to worry,” Julian’s father declares sternly as he points a finger to the door. “Beth, Maria, assure them that all is well.”

“But all is not well,” Ma hisses, a vein straining in her neck.

“We will pretend itis.” Julian’s mother replies sharply. “Goddess knowsour people need their Lunas’ comfort now more than ever.”

Not willing to fight that undeniable fact, Ma lets her panicked stare linger on me for a moment longer before she struts away with a curse, rushing for the main doors with Beth at her side.

Seeing them go has new worries bubbling to the surface. What on Earth would happen to our packs without Lunas of our own? Could a pack even function without one?

My fingers find my roots again, and I tug on them as I close my eyes and pray to Goddess to forgive me for whatever horrible sin I committed that led me here. I knew I wasn’t the most stand-up guy, but this surely is too much. This goes beyond a punishment. It’s a fucking nightmare.

“First,” Julian’s father, Michael, breathes once the doors shut again. “Are you two certain that you’re mated?”

The question has a growl building in my throat on its own accord, mixing with Julian’s as he bears his canines at his father. We both step forward, only to freeze when our glowing eyes meet. My blood runs cold as I watch horror flood him.

“I guess that answers that,” Michael mutters stiffly.

I force my eyes away from Julian’s because I can’t fucking look at him. I settle them on my dad instead, and he offers me a pained expression that only makes this all worse.

“Ma’s right. This must be some sort of mistake,” I say, as I take a lost step towards him. “There is no way we can be … he cannot be my—” I can’t even say the word.

“I know. I know,” he agrees, reaching over to give my shoulder a squeeze. “I’ve heard of many abnormal pairings, but never of two alpha mates.”

“Because it’s not possible!” Michael hisses, glaring at me as if I’m to blame for this. “They’re not just alphas. They are twomalealphas! Two alphascannotmate. They’d kill one another just trying.”

My heart jumps at the thought of mating Julian before my stomach knots uncomfortably. To mate with Julian would be … I swallow hard to work past the nausea that immediately follows.

“Even if they were to try, without children to carry our lines, how would the packs survive?” Dad sighs as he runs a hand over his thick beard. “Why would the Moon Goddess do this?”

“Do not question our Goddess,” Michael snaps with all his pretentious righteousness. “Just because we can’t see it now, doesn’t mean there isn’t a purpose to this.” He nods. “Everything will be fine.”

Michael could say whatever he wanted to play the perfect devotee of our Goddess, the panic is still written all over his face, and the stench of it risesfrom him like wolfsbane.

He wants to know the same thing we do. Why in all the realms would the Moon Goddess do something so wicked?

Seeming to remember his son, Michael faces Julian, who’s been unusually quiet, and my body urges me to do the same, but I refuse it. I don’t care if it’s the mate bond. I don’t trust this new connection that tries to convince me thatJulian Heilis someone worth worrying over.

But I am worried. It pricks my mind first and then blooms throughout my body in an instant. And when Michael whispers, “Son,” in a tone too soft and careful to be his, it overwhelms me.

My gaze lifts to the wolf who is now a magnet for my soul, and my heart lurches at the sight of him.

He’s wound tight by muscles that strain to keep him together. To keep him perfect and muted as always. He tries to, but his fingers tremble despite his efforts, and there’s a sheen over those crystal eyes. It’s like a knife to my heart.

To see Julian upset to the point of tears would’ve made me giddy ten minutes ago, but all I feel now is agony and the unfamiliar need to make it stop.