Page 4

"So," I prompted, crossing my arms over my chest, "How long have you been hiding your little secret, witch?”

She froze, glancing up at me. There was indecision on her face for a long moment, but finally, she came to terms with something inside of herself and took a long breath.

"The magic manifested when I presented as an Omega.

I'd barely even started to mess with it by the time our mating bond became clear, so that's why you didn't know back then.

" She was vulnerable, but with her next words, anger crept in.

"You might have known had you not rejected me right after kissing me. Asshole."

Her tone made my wolf stir, but I pushed it down, knowing full well that I deserved her anger. "Guilt-tripping me isn't going to change the fact that whatever you did to us is not a normal mate bond."

"It wasn't a guilt trip. I was just stating a fact.

" She began to light candles and crystals around me, then sat across from me, taking my hands in hers.

They were warm, and I could feel her pulse thrumming beneath her skin.

"And I don't know what it is, either. I'm not experienced enough to be able to identify the kind of magic that we're dealing with.

Now shut up, and let me try to fix this. "

I shut my mouth, watching her as she closed her eyes, took a few deep breaths, and started to speak in low, melodic tones.

It was the same language I'd heard before, but now it sounded less like a spell and more like a lullaby.

I couldn't look away from her, even if I'd wanted to.

The room felt warmer, somehow, the scent of her filling the air until it was all I could smell.

My wolf settled down, content, as Nayeli's voice washed over us.

There was a faint glow where our hands were connected, and I was sure I'd never seen anyone as beautiful as Nayeli was at that moment. ..

Then she stopped, shoulders slumping. "I can't..." Tears formed in her sapphire eyes. "I think I'm too weak. I don't know what I'm supposed to do... This magic doesn't feel right."

I snorted, which made her glare at me. "That sounds like an excuse, Omega."

"Then why did the spell backfire like this?

" Her voice broke on the last word, and she pulled her hands from mine, hiding her face as she started to cry.

I winced, knowing that being short with her wasn't helping anything, but I was so messed up inside I couldn't control my mouth.

I was angry with her for messing with things she wasn't experienced with, and pissed off that I had to be dragged into the fallout of her mistakes, but I also knew that if I hadn't tried to sneak up on her, then this would have never happened.

I watched her helplessly, not knowing how to comfort her. Standing, I moved around the table, knowing nothing except that I needed to touch her in some way, both to ground her and to quiet the pounding need in me, but Nayeli jumped to her feet and moved away before I could reach her.

"Don't," she held up her hands, shaking her head. "Don't touch me, Scott. I mean it."

"Why the hell not?" I snapped, frustrated with her attitude, with the whole situation, and with the fact that her tears were making me want to gather her close and kiss her until she felt better.

"Because you've made it clear that you want nothing to do with me, and I'm not going to let you confuse me again." Nayeli wiped at her cheeks and glared at me. "I've got too much to deal with now without you trying to play mind games with me again."

"You're right. I don't want anything to do with you, Omega," I said, my voice hard even as my palms started to burn with the urge to feel her skin.

There was a buzz in the air, something between us unlike anything I'd ever felt before, and I was drawn to her like a moth to a flame.

Nayeli always drew me in, but this was something different, like the start of an addiction.

It had to be a side effect of the spell.

"But now we're bonded. So what the hell do we do now, Nayeli? "

She swallowed thickly and shook her head, looking just as helpless as I felt. "I don't know."

For a moment, she looked up at me, lips parted, and she took a step towards me. I knew it would feel so damn good to hold her, to quench this new found thirst, and I could tell it was the same for her.

I moved forward, too, all logical thoughts fleeing my brain, replaced by the driving need to have her in any and every way.

I wanted to taste her skin, her mouth, that sweet spot between her curvy legs.

I wanted to make it known to everyone that she was mine and that no other wolf was to ever touch her.

It was everything I’d been fighting against since I rejected her, and in the cloud of lust I was feeling, I couldn’t fathom why in the hell I hadn’t wanted her.

Nayeli lifted a hand, as if she was going to lay it on my chest, but at the last second, she curled her fingers into a fist and dropped her arm, looking frantic.

"I need some air," she blurted out, skirting around me and heading towards the ladder. "Just...stay here. Don't follow me. I need to think."

Wait—" I said, but it was too late. She was already gone.

I groaned, scrubbing my hands over my face, and sat on the cushion in front of the table.

It wasn't that I wanted to be bonded to Nayeli, but I sure as hell didn't want to be left in the dark.

She didn't seem confident in her ability to undo her spell, but I also didn't want to break her trust by going to another magic user and sharing Nayeli's secret.

If she wasn't able to figure something out, though, it would have to come to that.

I wasn't going to live the rest of my life with some twisted, unnatural connection making me obsessed with Nayeli.

Fuck. I was already halfway obsessed with her before the spell.

It had been a shock when I first felt the call of a mate, only to find the cousin of another Alpha at the end of it.

I'd known Nayeli before she presented as an Omega, and the bond snapped into place.

While I'd always found her sexy as hell, I'd never imagined anything between us.

Then the bond came, and Nayeli was in heat. I wanted nothing more than to take care of her, guide her through her heat, and give her all of the relief she needed, but something stopped me.

I was the Alpha of the Shadowbay pack, and Nayeli was the exact opposite of what I imagined in a mate.

She was too bubbly, too talkative, too awkward, and I'd always pictured my mate as someone who could stand at my side and help me lead the pack.

My mate was supposed to be polished and composed, not a computer geek who completely bucked the idea of a traditional pack structure.

I'd heard stories of how she'd rejected the idea of being submissive to the males in Samson's pack, and then once Samson and Kiera mated and Samson had gone soft, Nayeli's idea of being equal only solidified.

She'd never submit to me, and that confirmed my initial feelings about her.

Nayeli wasn't mate material, so I had to reject the bond.

Not before I fucked up and kissed her, though.

Soft and eager, the memory of her lips under mine had played through my head so many times since that night.

And while the scent of her heat had made me desperate with need, Nayeli herself had drawn me in, making me lose myself in that kiss.

Her scent had bloomed under my touch, ripe and ready, and I'd lost my mind in wanting her.

I wanted to pin her against the wall and sink my teeth into her neck as I fucked her, marking her as mine and only mine. ..

I had to stop my train of thought and remind myself of all of the reasons I wasn't going to be with Nayeli. My wolf snarled, pissed off with my logic and longing to break through and mate her regardless, but I was an Alpha. I couldn't risk a mate that wasn't a perfect fit for my pack.

By the time I'd wrestled my thoughts under control, I realized that Nayeli had been gone for over an hour. I stalked over the trap door and looked down, inhaling deeply. There was no sign, and no scent of her.

Dammit, she'd run off, and I knew she wasn't coming back. She was avoiding me, which was probably the smart move, but it was infuriating. I wouldn't let this thing between us linger on for days. No way. We would get to the bottom of this now, and then she would find a way to break this new bond.

With a muffled curse, I climbed down the ladder and shifted. I had an Omega to hunt.