Page 19 of Unwanted Fate
“Luca, they’re gone,” I hiss, pushing against his chest. “Do you want to maybe, get the fuck off of me?” But he doesn’t move. His gaze drops downwards, and he smirks. As though he has only now realized the predicament we are in, and... he doesn’t hate it? I flush with heat. Fates, this is painful. Like literal agony. My skin is tingling, my pussy is throbbing, and I’m sure he can smell my arousal.
Fuck. My. Life.
I hate the mate bond. It’s the only reason I’m feeling this way right now. The fact that this is ticking off every single fantasy I had as a teenager has nothing to do with why I’m so turned on.
“I’m good here,” he whispers, his voice a low growl as he lowers his hips. His cock is hard and pressed against me. My mind short-circuits, and my core clenches. “If you wanted to get naked, all you had to do was ask. No need to pretend to be interested in other males.”
He runs his nose along the column of my neck, and I can barely hold in my groan. Want coils low in my stomach, and this cannot be happening.
“What the hell, Luca?” I yell and shove him harder. He rears back, giving me enough space to slide out from under him. I don’t shift back. I can’t trust my wolf will leave right now because she ispurring at how close we just came to our mate. She fucking loved that display of possessive dominance.
And that’s how I find myself running through the forest, naked as the day I was born.
My life is a disaster.
I can’t believe I got so easily pulled in by that stupid territorial show. It’s complete bullshit. I do not want him. My wolf whines, and my pussy would too, if it could.
Ugh, this isn’t fair. He is way too attractive. His messy jet-black hair, his piercing blue eyes, his lean, muscular build, and the tattoos that cover his chest and snake down one of his arms.
But I’ve been around beautiful people before and never felt this attracted to them. It’s the stupid mate bond. It’s fucking with my head, and I need to get rid of it. I need to reject him and be done with how drawn to him I am.
I grab a shirt and a pair of shorts from the basket outside our house before storming inside. I’ve lived here my whole life. This house used to hold so much love. We used to be such a happy family before everything went to shit.
Dad lost the will to live after her rejection. He practically went rogue, moving to a cabin on the very outskirts of the pack and checking in as little as he possibly could while still staying sane. I haven’t gone to see him in two years, and he’s never made the effort to visit me. Not for my high school graduation, not for any of my birthdays, not to teach me to drive the way he did for Ryan. Not for anything.
We stopped celebrating the human holidays like Día de los Muertos, and he never came to the Solstice celebrations again. Ryan goes to see him once a month or so, enough to ensure that Dad is still technically part of the pack and doesn’t get lost to moon madness.
But he’s not pack to me. I don’t see him as my family anymore. It stopped feeling like a relationship when I was the only one making an effort.
And then there’s Ryan. I’ve done everything I could over the last few years to help out with the pack, and it’s brought us closer. But I’m not sure how I can listen to him right now. He never said a thing to Luca about how he excluded me. He stepped in when Luca talked down to me from time to time, but even though he’s the alpha—and should be able to connect to all pack members' feelings—he never seemed to notice how much Luca was hurting me. And now he expects me to simply accept the mate bond. It’s making me question everything about our relationship.
“Ryan,” I call out, anger evident in my tone. “Ryan, I can’t do this!”
“What’s going on? What are you talking about?” he asks as he joins me in the living area, concern etched all over his face.
“You can’t make me accept him. It hasn’t even been a day, and I’m losing my damn mind!” I yell as I pace back and forth. I run my hands through my hair, finding twigs and leaves from my stupid, sexy scuffle on the ground with Luca.
Not sexy. Just stupid.
“Maybe it’s this hard because you’re fighting it so much?”
I scoff. This is ridiculous. What, now that the Moon Goddess has decided to put us together; I’m supposed to forget that I hate him? Forget he has trampled all over me for years?
“Of course I’m fighting it! I need to reject him, Ryan. It’ll be fine. I’ll get a second chance mate, and everything will be fine.” I’m rambling, but I can’t think straight. I need to break this bond and be able to move on with my life. Ryan grabs my hand and pulls me over to the couch, and sits me down beside him. He keeps holding my hand as he stares at me.
“I need you here, Fia. You saw what the rejection did to Dad. I don’t want that for you or Luca. I’m aware Emily came out of it okay, but we don’t know what will happen. You and Luca make sense.”
“No, we don’t! He has been awful to me. He doesn’t even like me.” My voice cracks, and I hate that. I hate that after all these years, it still gets to me. He still gets to me.
“That’s not true.”
“What are you talking about?” Of course it’s true. Why else would he have turned on me the way he did?
“Ever hear that thing about how little boys pull the hair of the little girls they like?”
“You arenotserious?” I gape at him as he smirks and raises an eyebrow. I can’t believe my big brother is spouting this patriarchal, misogynistic bullshit at me.
“Boys will be boys? Really Ryan? Ugh, this is un-fucking-believable!” I mutter, pushing up from my seat and pacing away. “First, he is not a little boy. He’s a grown-ass shifter. Second, how are youokay with that? Do you think that’s all I deserve? Someone who treats me like shit because he can’t cope with his feelings?”