Page 10 of Alpha’s One-Night Stand (Shifters of Clarion #3)

I ’ve been lying in bed staring at the ceiling for the last few hours, thinking of her, trying to figure out why she was so quick to leave. She’s my mate. She should have been compelled to stay with me.

It doesn’t make sense. I fell asleep thinking that I would awaken to her amethyst tresses spread across my pillow, glowing in the morning light. She’d look at me with her sapphire eyes and smile, the knowledge that she’d found me making her feel complete.

Instead, I woke up at three in the morning alone with her trying to leave me a goodbye note. I’m completely thrown by her behavior. I’ve never been na?ve about sex, but this wasn’t supposed to be the same thing. Being with her was supposed to be different.

I mean . . . how she felt in my arms was different than any other woman I’d known. Is it possible that she didn’t feel the same way about me?

Orange sunlight seeps through the windows of my room and spills onto the bed beside me. She had been lying right there not that long ago. I can still smell her scent on my sheets.

I almost claimed her. I’m surprised I had enough self-control to stop myself, though I’m not sure why I did. She’s meant to be mine. It’s only natural that she be marked as so.

I sit up in bed and run a hand over my face. Today’s going to be a bad day. Hopefully, Mother will forgive me for missing the Awakening. I don’t know if I’ll tell her about Yarra. The way Yarra left last night . . . I’d rather not get Mother all excited for nothing.

My mind goes over everything I know about the mating bond as I get up and take a shower. The way it was explained to me, an Alpha’s connection to his Luna is biological. I can’t resist her any more than she should be able resist me. And yet, she walked away last night as if it were just another one-night stand. It just doesn’t make sense.

Maybe, somehow, she’s not my Luna. Stranger things have happened.

Or maybe it’s the lycan within me. Still poorly controlled after all this time. Never was that more apparent than when I was in bed with Yarra. It was only by the skin of my teeth that I didn’t change last night. I shudder to think what might’ve happened if I had changed and she hadn’t. My wolf would have torn her to pieces.

I hate being out of control, and nothing makes me feel more out of control than the animal inside me.

As I get out of the shower, I hear my phone ringing in the next room. I leave the bathroom and grab my phone on my nightstand. Mother. Of course, she’s calling at first light to find out where I was.

“Mother,” I say. She takes a breath before speaking.

“Well, at least I know you’re alive,” she growls. “Why weren’t you at the Awakening Ceremony last night?”

“I got in late,” I lie. “The trip was exhausting, so I laid down to catch a nap. By the time I woke up, it was midnight.”

She scoffs. “You lie worse than your father used to,” she says. “I swear, if he’d spent one minute teaching you some manners—”

“‘Young wolves need no restraints,’” I say, quoting him.

“You are on thin ice already. I’ll thank you not to throw his idioms at me.”

She is pretty pissed. Still, I need her help. If last night was any indication, I need it much sooner than I originally thought. “Listen, Mother, if you’re free today, I’d like to sit down and talk to you about something.”

“I’ll be busy with classes all day,” she said. “You know, if you wanted to talk to me so badly, you should have sought me out last night. You knew where I was then.”

“I realize that, but Mother—”

“You really don’t care very much for me. I ask you to do one thing in coming here, and you couldn’t even do that.”

“I overslept. You can’t blame me for that, can you?”

“Not if it was true. I’m not a fool, Chadwick, and I won’t be made one. If you have something to say to me, then I would advise that you find me if you want to meet with me.”

The line goes dead, and I stare at my phone for some time, as if by some sorcery I can summon her back. I suddenly feel like an asshole. Mother is great at wringing the guilt out of me when she needs to.

Now I’m going to have to “find her,” as if I can’t track her scent in a matter of seconds. It’s hard enough to track anyone on this Lycan-laden campus.

I go through my closet of clothes and pick out a black dress shirt and jeans. I don’t have any intention of drawing any attention to myself. I might as well blend in.

A knock at the door echoes through my room. “Mr. Robertson, breakfast is served in ten minutes.”

I don’t bother responding, and whoever is by the door pauses for a minute before I pick up the sound of retreating footsteps. I’m in a shitty mood this morning, and the last thing I want to do is be anywhere where I might have to hold casual conversations. I’ll go down and grab breakfast whenever I’m done looking for Mother.

***

The morning Labors were beginning. The familiar clang of the bells rolling down the hills and through campus sends chills down my spine. When I was a young wolf with impossible hopes and dreams, the Labors were my worst Lycan exercises. Being introduced to the beast inside you, especially that first time, I can’t even fully explain the terror and pain of it breaking free from me.

I make my way to the academic building, where all the lecture rooms are. All around me, students walk by in their pitch-black uniforms, on their way to different destinations. As I move through the crowd of students, I catch a tinkle of laughter, then the unmistakable scent of pine. My mother’s nearby.

I start to move in her direction when I’m hit with the sweet, heady scent of my Luna. I stop, compelled to follow that instead. I raise my nose to the air and realize that it’s getting stronger. It’s coming toward me.

A surge moves through me, my wolf awake and alert. My claws come out, piercing through my fingertips before I can stop it. I gasp and immediately become aware that my fangs are out as well.

Fuck me. I was triggered easily by her scent and now . . . now . . .

I need to find Mother. My stomach roils with pain, the feeling of my wolf scratching and kicking its way out. I look around frantically for the direction I last smelled my mother. Her scent is so faint under Yarra’s.

I pick up a hint of it and bolt in that direction.

A new hunger is upon me. I push it away as I rush toward the academic building.

The hallways are packed with students. Everyone is going about their day without a care in the world. Lucky them. They’re not combusting in the middle of campus. I continue down the hall, pushing past a group of laughing students, trying to ignore the fact that my pulse has quickened and a noise rushes in my ears.

If I don’t find my mother soon . . . I don’t want to know what happens if I don’t find her. I’m trying to steady myself to find her scent, but Yarra’s scent is overpowering my senses, making it hard for me to focus. Where the hell is she?

My vision abruptly blurs to a hazy red for a second before coming back to normal. That’s new. I’ve never experienced that before.

I hurry past a row of classrooms, everything going by in a hazy blur. I’m lightheaded and my arms are starting to ache from the coming change. I push it back, but I’m losing this fight with every second.

Finally, I spot my mother in the library, surrounded by books as usual. I rush over to her, a sense of relief washing over me the second I see her.

“Mom,” I say. She looks up, and for a split second, she’s scowling, annoyed at me for interrupting her.

Then her eyes soften. She stands to meet me and puts her hands on my face.

“You’re burning up.”

“The wolf,” I try to say, but she puts a hand over my lips.

“Don’t try to talk. Come on. Let’s go to my office.” She places her hand lightly on my lower arm, leading me. The wolf was breaking loose inside me, but I’m still holding the reins, however slippery they are. My mother is here now. If there’s anyone who can stop me from conducting a massacre, it’s her.