Ruby
I could hear muffled voices through the darkness around me, but I was comfortable. I didn't want to give in and wake up. I wanted to remain asleep, swaddled in the warmth around me.
I wanted to tell the voices to be quiet, but my eyes cracked open regardless. The talking around me stopped. I groaned as I swallowed. My tongue felt like sandpaper against the roof of my mouth and I sat up, rubbing at my temples.
"You're awake."
No shit, can I go back to sleep?
That's what I wanted to ask Xavier, but I remained quiet. The moment I had opened my eyes I remembered some of what had happened. I just wasn't sure if everything I remembered was from reality or a dream. I inhaled deeply and swung my legs off the sofa to curl my toes on the cool marble floor, my eyes wandering from Xavier to Mathieu. Xavier was standing beside the chair Mathieu was sitting in. Mathieu crossed his legs, his steady eyes watching my every move.
I preferred sleeping forever over facing what I'm about to. "What did your father mean by I'm your mate, Xavier?"
My eyes flicked to him and he shifted uncomfortably "I told you about mates. That is what we are. What you are to me. That's why you weren't killed."
I started laughing. I wasn't sure why, but the laughter bubbled to the surface and I was unable to hold it in. He was joking. There was no way I was his mate. But they didn't look amused.
I sobered up and a feeling of foreboding settled on my shoulders. "You're serious? You can't be serious!"
"A mate can't be harmed," Mathieu said calmly. I sat back, sinking into the sofa's cushions. "Under any circumstances. There has just never been a human mate before. We needed to handle this delicately."
"Delicately? Delicately as in keeping me here by telling me some crap about learning from each other. I knew that didn't make any sense. Why did no one tell me about this?" I looked at Xavier, my rage growing greater by the minute. "How long did the two of you plan on keeping this a secret? This affects my life too." I leaned forward and covered my face with my hands. "This can't be real."
"That's enough, Ruby. It's real and you need to accept it."
I looked up slowly. I didn't care if Mathieu could kill me with little effort, he was pissing me off. "With all due respect Mr. Blackwood, don't tell me I need to accept this. I'm not from this world. I just fell into this world! Now I'm his mate? Can you give me a minute to catch up?" I pointed at Xavier and shook my head as I stood up. "You're both lying." My hand fell to my side limply. "You're lying," I said more softly, and Xavier took a step toward me, but stopped himself from taking another.
He crossed his arms over his chest. Despite the sternness on his face, I could see regret within his eyes. "It's why you got sick the first time we were close to each other. You felt our bond."
His jaws clenched and my shoulders slumped as I lost what little strength I had to argue with him. Of course, he must be affected by this as well, but why keep a secret like this from me? Sooner or later it would be revealed. So why wait? This was all becoming too much for me.
My face smoothed out, the crease between my brows vanishing. That's why he had kissed me. That's why he had lost his cool that night and saved me. It all made sense now.
He inhaled and the sudden irritation on his face caused my fading anger to return. If anyone has the right to be irritated right now it's me. "So you've been planning this since then? That's what you're saying?"
"No. What happened that night wasn't supposed to happen, Ruby. Things were set into motion too quickly. We knew this would be too much for you to handle right now, with you just getting settled here. Maybe if you learned to be comfortable here telling you you're my mate wouldn't be such a devastating blow.
"I couldn't have you leaving the pack. If this were to get to the Council's ears before we had more information, you'd be unprotected out there. None of this was planned. The day you met Natalie in the library I picked up your scent on her. That's how I found you. But I didn't say anything to her until I visited the diner with her. Your scent seemed off
when I had smelled it on her, but I hadn't given it much thought until I saw you and you turned out to be human. That's why you got sick when I saw you. A mate bond being discovered is different for wolves, though. They feel it more. They feel a deep connection or pull between them and their partner, but it doesn't make them sick."
He exhaled as if he had been holding his breath and my headache grew worse. No wonder he had looked so pissed that day.
Natalie's known all this time as well, and she said nothing!
"This has to be a trick. This has to be a witch's doing."
I spun around to find the stranger who had attacked Xavier leaning on the wall by the door. My sanity was hanging on by a thread here. He was real, the fight was real. So does that mean… No, I can't be his mate too!
I looked around at Xavier, at the way he was staring daggers at the man, and I finally noticed his ripped shirt and the dried blood on it. I clenched my fists as I looked at the stranger once more.
He was wearing a black leather jacket with his arms crossed over his chest like Xavier. He was taller, however, and more muscular, with a brown complexion and long curly hair tied back in a low ponytail. Where Xavier was refined and polished, he was rougher and more roguish, and he had a leaf earring dangling from his ear.
With everything now calm, I could really stare at him. The dislike that I had for Xavier in the beginning was nothing compared to the disgust in this guy's eyes as he looked at me.
He looked older, mid-twenties maybe. But was that right? Mathieu looked to be in his mid-thirties and I was sure he was older. Was Xavier even twenty-two years old?
"This girl can't be real." He looked me up and down and I pulled a face. "A wolf can't have a human mate, let alone the same mate as another wolf. Not even wolves can have two mates. She's a witch." His hazel eyes narrowed at me and I looked back at him with the same intensity.
"I'm standing right in front of you, so I'm as real as your attitude, and I'm not a witch. Don't worry, I share your disgust, but don't speak as if I'm not standing right here."
He growled at me. In response, I raised a brow and placed my hands on my hips. This guy didn't scare me. Okay, who was I kidding? I was terrified. But he didn't need to know that. He pushed himself off the wall,
not satisfied that I hadn't cowered in fear at his little growl. I held my ground as he came closer.
Behind me, Xavier growled, and the stranger stopped in his tracks. "Axel, that's close enough."
Axel.
I narrowed my eyes at him and held my head up and he sneered and unfolded his arms. "I don't have time for this. The mouthy little secret is out now…" I frowned. Who was he calling mouthy? "And the Council is going to hear about it."
Did this fucker just call me it!
He looked Mathieu's way and his spine straightened as he did so. I was only human, but even I could feel the waves of dominance that radiated off him. Like Mathieu. Was this man an alpha?
"You're fools to think they don't have people placed in your pack to solely watch and report. I don't want any part of this." He looked me up and down again and this time he smiled, but it looked more like an evil sneer to me. "But I think this problem will solve itself. If she isn't claimed by time the Council finds out, we'll both be forced to reject her and then she'll die anyway."
◆◆◆
Natalie
I closed my eyes as I listened to Ruby's soft sobs.
I could tell she was trying to be quiet since she knew she could easily be heard. If I hadn't come to her door, I wouldn't have heard her crying. Instead of knocking, I pulled the door open slowly and entered the room.
With the evening sun lighting the room I easily found her. She was face down on her bed with her face pressed into one pillow and another pillow over her head. I sighed as I approached her bed and sat down. Despite her heart skipping a beat from her fright, she didn't physically jump. She fell silent and I waited for her to sit up. When she didn't, I tapped her leg.
"Ruby, it's only me." She sat up then, the pillow on her head falling to the floor, and I could see her swollen and bloodshot eyes. "I'm so sorry."
"You could have told me," she said weakly, and I shook my head.
"I couldn't babe. Alpha's orders. But I wish I could have." I reached out to smooth down her hair, but she suddenly swatted at my hand and I quickly pulled it away.
"You've known all this time, Natalie. You've known I'm Xavier's mate all this time. You all made me think one day I might die instead of simply telling me I'm Xavier's mate and can't be touched." She chuckled and hung her head. "But even that won't save me. Axel said I'll die when they both reject me. Is Axel really my mate as well?"
I nodded. It had been a shock to everyone when he had arrived for a meeting with Mathieu only to go ballistic after smelling Ruby. Mathieu had tried to calm him, but it had been no use because Xavier returned with her at that very moment.
"He is,"
She slid down to the edge of the bed and sat beside me. When we had first met there had been this spunk to her, a refreshing attitude, but now it was gone. "Every time my life seems to be making a change for the better, something goes wrong. Maybe both men should reject me, let me die, because at this point I don't want to know what's going to happen next."
I picked her hand up and squeezed it gently. "Over my dead body. He only said that because rejection is pretty harmful to a wolf, and if you get sick from just the mate bond being discovered," I made a face, "we think you might die from rejection. Everyone is as confused as you are, honestly; there has never been a human mate. Imagine a piece of string getting knotted and you try to unknot it, but you can't so the string snaps. That's what rejection is like for a wolf, a bond gets ripped apart. That won't just be hurtful to you, but to the guys too. The rejected feels it more than the rejecter."
Her voice was low and shaking as she said, "That does sound horrible. I saw Xavier kill that man who had lost his mate. It seems to me with wolves there is just too much that can hurt them." A sad smile appeared on her lips as she moved her hair to one shoulder. "I must be crazy for feeling sorry for Xavier and Axel if either one of them has to go through that. Well, Xavier more than Axel. I don't even know the guy, or like him."
"You just met him, and you didn't like Xavier at first either."
She arched a brow and turned to face me. "Why do you sound like you're on Axel's side, or sympathizing with him or something?"
"Trust me, I'm not. But at the end of the day he is your mate, Ruby. If you don't feel anything for him now, you will. And no matter how much of a dick he might be, he doesn't hate you."
I think.
I have yet to find my mate, and honestly it's not something I'm excited about. I've never been good with romantic relationships.
She just grunted and fell backward. "Yeah, you didn't see the way he looked at me." Her head lolled to the side and I leaned down and propped my head on my hand. "Tell me about him, who is he?" she asked.
"He's Axel Grimmwolf. Like Xavier, he's next in line to be alpha. His pack and ours have been rivals for a while. His pack had split from ours decades ago. I don't know why, but there has been bad blood for years." I took a deep breath and lay down beside her. No one was going to walk away from this unscathed. I could feel in my bones that a storm was coming. "He was here for a meeting with Mathieu. But while things have been peaceful enough, I think this may have just changed everything. Axel and his pack aren't like ours. They despise humans and are ruthless. To be honest, I can't be sure he won't try to hurt you."
"Now more than ever I won't be able to leave the house, huh?"
I nodded. "Xavier won't want you out of his sight. He might become overbearing, but try to understand why he's protective of you. You're not feeling the pull from the bond like he is. Axel said there might be spies in our pack for the Council, but that spy was found a long time ago. The Council won't hear about you from us, but now we have Axel to worry about. It's more likely that Axel will reject you than Xavier will, and we don't know what that'll do to you yet. So for now," I gave her the sternest expression I could, "don't leave the grounds unaccompanied."
She rolled onto her stomach and I did the same, watching her as she pressed her face into the pillow. We stayed like that in silence for a moment and I heard a wolf howling in the distance. It was too far for Ruby to hear it, but I knew it was Xavier.
I couldn't imagine the stress and worry he was now walking around with. He's the son of an alpha, and he'll soon be the alpha, which would make Ruby the pack's luna. No doubt he was worried about the impact that would have; a human as a luna is ludicrous.
"I should have seen something like this coming." Ruby's words were muffled before she turned her head to lie on her cheek. I could see the fresh tears she was desperately trying to hold back. "Things are only going to get worse from here on in. I just know it."