Page 21 of Fated to the Alpha Warrior (The Wolf’s Forbidden Mate #1)
Kieran
My wolf is ready to fight to the death if any threat even so much as touches his mate. He surges and snaps beneath my skin, the shift like an itch I can’t quite scratch.
“Who goes there?” I bellow, and Aurora snorts below her breath, despite the tension. “Name yourself.”
She mutters, “Yeah, the Big Bad Wolf is gonna fuck you up if you don’t.”
“This is serious,” I hiss at her, although based on the fear rolling off her and the hitch of her breath, I know she’s aware of the danger we’re in. “After the village we just walked through and that damned lake, anything could be out there in the darkness.”
Throwing her shoulders back, Aurora retorts, “Anything except a ten-year-old scared of spooky stories you tell in the dark. Where’d you get that threatening voice from, a Spirit Halloween store?”
Before I can counter her, a man’s figure emerges from the shadows, the firelight flickering on his face. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”
Immediately, my hackles are up. He smells of shifter, but something about him is wrong. His eyes keep jerking back and forth, and he twists his hands in front of him nervously, like he’s hiding something.
My wolf doesn’t like it. Lifting a lip, I growl. Aurora elbows me in the side. “Stop it. He’s just scared.”
“And half-mad, I think.”
The lone male wolf takes another bold step forward, setting my wolf on edge even further. We’re both ready to fight when he holds his hands up in a placating gesture, submissive pheromones rolling off him.
“I’m just looking for he-help.” He shudders and twitches, hissing through his teeth. “I’ve come here from Pack Amber, which has been ravaged by this strange disease. It’s like some kind of a… a madness that spreads in the blink of an eye.”
Pack Amber is hundreds of miles north of here, not far from the Canadian border. Alarm spreads through me at the news that the madness is spreading faster than we can even investigate it.
Aurora moves toward him, saying, “I’m sure we can help?—”
“Wait.” I grab her wrist, gritting my teeth at the jolt of the bond that shudders through me at the physical contact.
She glares at me, but I override her, letting my wolf’s dominance roll out of me.
“I want to make sure he’s not a threat before we get any closer. You—Pack Amber male, what’s your name?”
I can feel Aurora rankle under my tight grip, her rebellious and independent nature resentful of my command. But I’d never forgive myself if I let her put herself in danger, so I ignore the growing scowl she’s shooting my way.
“Emmett is the name… Emmett Amber, actually.” He steps further into the firelight, revealing that his skin tone is a warm, reddish brown, his hair jet black and curling around the base of his neck.
. “I was an outcast among my pack before the madness came, and I guess they decided to make it final when I started to show signs. But I sw-swear I’m no threat to you. ”
“Of course you aren’t.” Aurora shoots me another glare, then twists her wrist out of my grip with some fancy MMA move that makes my fingers slip off her skin.
I try to grab her, but she dances away before I can.
“Let’s get a good look at you. Are those scars recent? They’re raised and red… come here.”
My wolf growls jealously as Aurora leads him closer to the fire, her hands on his arm.
She pushes the sleeve back to reveal long, deep scratches with an alarming infection coming from them.
I’m impressed by her bravery as she stands inches away from a possibly infectious, mad murderer, but at the same time it infuriates me to see her put herself at risk like this.
The damn woman is supposed to be safe, far away from any threats. She’s too weak for this kind of thing. I never should’ve let my father insist I take her—now she’s cleaning and bandaging this random man like touching him is nothing at all.
Meanwhile she won’t even touch me without flinching.
What’s worse is, she escorts him to the log, gives him her rations, and starts going over what happened to him without even looking at me. I have to insert myself into the conversation by looming over them. It’s like I’m eavesdropping on my own mate.
“I think I know a way to help cure this wound’s infection before the madness gets any worse,” Aurora says calmly to Emmett, her soft smile making a muscle in my jaw tick.
“We just have to get you to a shifter pack sooner rather than later, which won’t be a problem.
Pack Sapphire’s lands are nearby. Do you happen to know anything about bike engines? ”
“Do I? My adoptive father was a mechanic.” Emmett grins at her, and I swallow a growl, clenching my fists to hide the fact that my nails are turning into claws. “What do you need help with?”
I watch from a distance as they get to work on Aurora’s bike, fixing it up enough for it to at least run by the time the sun rises.
With a grunt, I step away and shift into my wolf form, along with Emmett—who is, I have to admit, at least an easygoing enough man, despite being an interloper who has no business standing so close to my mate.
The sooner we get to Pack Sapphire, the sooner we can leave him behind with them. That’s the only thing that gets me racing down the path toward our destination.
Thankfully we aren’t on the path for more than an hour before it opens up onto a main road.
Unlike many packs, Pack Sapphire is located not far from a large city.
Emmett and I race along beside the road as Aurora gains speed on her bike, her joy so big and infectious I can feel it even through our broken bond.
We take a small, curving exit, then head down an even smaller private driveway to get to Pack Sapphire land.
We’re halfway down the drive when we hit a snag—there’s construction up ahead, with very human construction workers diverting traffic.
Emmett and I duck behind some trees to shift, then join Aurora where she waits on her bike.
The first thing she does when she opens her mouth is make a cooing noise at Emmett. “Your arm! It looks worse. Bring it here.”
He obediently lifts the blooded arm and she prods at the wound, then cleans it for him. Jealousy surges through me, hot and fierce. The past hour in wolf form has only made my wolf that much more demanding. He wants me to stake my claim over my mate.
Without even realizing it, I step between them, standing close to Aurora and staring down at Emmett. “Don’t get too close,” I snap, baring my teeth at him until he shrinks away. “You’ll infect her with it.”
“Sorry,” he says at the same moment Aurora snaps, “Kieran! Calm down.”
“You don’t know how it spreads?—”
“I absolutely do,” she interrupts with a scowl reserved solely for me. “Fae magic needs consent to spread, remember? And I’m not going to make a bargain, eat or drink fae food or wine, and I have no open wounds on my body. So you’re being an asshole for no reason.”
My nostrils flare at her words. Her scent overwhelms me, sweet and floral as well as pissed as hell. Emmett takes a step back from her, clearly uncomfortable, and the primitive man inside me crows in victory.
Until Aurora shoves past me and grabs him again anyway.
I have to get this thing inside me in check, damnit. I rejected her for very good reasons—reasons that still stand now more than ever. Jerking away, I struggle with the pain of the broken bond inside me.
It gets worse as she tends to the other man’s wounds, reassures him with her soft voice, and shoots me yet another glare.
We get to the blockade in the road and wind up hitching a ride in the back of a truck with a human who hauls Aurora’s bike up a ramp.
Sitting in the pickup’s bed, she shoots warm smiles Emmett’s way, her scowls and glares reserved for me.
There goes that smile I got out of her earlier. The laughter is gone too.
My frustration increases with every swerve of the pickup that sends her sliding toward him.
“Emmett and I should switch positions,” I argue, reaching out to snag his uninjured arm. “His wound keeps bumping up against you.”
“That isn’t?—”
“Sure,” Emmett says, giving me a friendly, if nervous, smile. “I don’t mind switching.”
That puts me on the same side of the truck as Aurora, but she somehow manages to grab hold to the bench and keep from sliding toward me at all.
I want to grab her and pull her to me, to remind her that she is my mate, even though I rejected her.
The pain of the rejected bond intensifies with each smile she gives him.
It’s like a hot knife searing through me with every bump in the road.
We get dropped off not far outside the pack lands. Aurora gets on her bike again, so Emmett and I shift to wolf form once more. I’m so full of energy that I overtake both of them—my wolf is like a feral creature just aching for a fight.
When we get to the edge of the pack lands, tension is high.
There’s an entire line of warriors and what smells like the alpha waiting for us just at the border.
Aurora parks her bike nearby, while Emmett and I shift and get dressed.
He has a bloodstain on his shirt, so I begrudgingly give him one of mine.
“The less you look like you just came in from the cold, the better,” I tell him. “Pack Sapphire isn’t the most friendly. There’s a reason why they’ve grown so large without the humans noticing—they don’t welcome outsiders.”
“I’m a pretty friendly guy, but I’ll keep it in mind,” he says with an affable smile. “Maybe I’ll get lucky and this will be my new home.”
Aurora, overhearing him, walks up and gives him a friendly pat on the shoulder that makes me growl beneath my breath. “I’ll do whatever it takes to convince them to take you on, Emmett. You deserve a home.”
I have to block out what he says to her in response, because every cell in my body wants to step between them, throw Emmett to the ground, and claim Aurora as mine.
Thankfully I get my wolf in control by the time we step up to the alpha and his warriors. Facing each other in human form, we give a nod of the head—and he looks at me with familiarity.
“You’re Cade’s boy, aren’t you?” His eyes appraise me from head to toe. “Last I saw you, you were a scrawny thing. I’m glad to see his heir has grown up.”
“Alpha Thorin. It’s good to see you again. Hopefully you have some idea why we’re here.”
Beside me, Emmett twitches noticeably, and the warriors begin to growl. Thorin gives him a displeased look and says, “I have some idea.”
“We’re investigating the madness.” Aurora takes a step forward, radiating confidence. “I have reason to believe it’s linked to fae magic, and I’ve already cured one shifter of the signs. With your help, I believe I can cure Emmett here of it as well as keep your pack safe.”
Alpha Thorin gives Emmett another deep, penetrating look, his eyes narrowing. Emmett does his best to meet his stare-down, only to cower and look away, his wolf instinctively submitting.
“What’s your name?”
“Em—Emmett Amber.” His soft is soft, and he winces, rubbing his temple. “I’m—I’m sorry, sometimes it’s hard to hear over that voice yelling. Do you think you could ask her to stop?”
Aurora and I exchange glances. The madness is already getting worse. Emmett pushes up my borrowed shift sleeve to scratch at his irritated and inflamed skin, which smells of fae magic and infection.
Despite all that, Alpha Thorin says, “We’ll help.
” There’s grumbling from his warriors, which he silences with a single motion of his hand.
“But in exchange, you have to stay to discuss the spreading madness. We’ve kept it out of Pack Sapphire land, and I intend to keep it that way.
I won’t have it take my pack like it’s taken others. ”
“I’ll tell you all that I know,” I reassure him, stepping up beside Aurora to give a solid show of strength—and to separate us visually from Emmett as much as possible. “My father and I want to make sure that the packs are united in preventing the spread of the madness and fighting its threat.”
Thorin looks at me for a long moment, then nods sharply. “Good. Come this way. I’ll show you to the guest quarters.” To his warriors, he says, “Bring the mad one to Elder Caya. She’ll check over him first.”
Aurora steps up to argue, “Alpha, if you will, I can heal him?—”
“After Elder Caya looks at him.” Thorin’s tone allows no argument. “Once I’m sure he’s not a threat to my pack, I’ll let you treat him, then I’ll consider sheltering him in exchange for your knowledge.”
She has the good sense, stubborn woman though she is, to lower her head in acquiescence. “Thank you, Alpha.”
Emmett doesn’t look terribly pleased to be escorted away from Aurora, but I couldn’t be happier. Especially as it leaves room for me to walk close to her as we’re escorted to the alpha’s house and the guest quarters within.
She takes the first bedroom, and I take the second. As I undo my pack’s strap and stretch my tired muscles, I can feel her, even through the walls between us.
Her emotions are bleeding over into mine more and more these days. She’s tired, hungry, and… aroused?
My lips lift in a snarl as I consider the possibility that she’s aroused for him. When it’s me who should be touching her, tasting her?—
No. I shake those thoughts out of my head and shut Aurora’s emotions away, stuffing them into a corner of my mind. That same mind replays my father’s words over and over again: weakness is a danger. Only strength can lead a pack.
The truth is, I can’t keep denying my true feelings anymore.
And I won’t be able to resist the allure of my mate for much longer.