“No way!” I splashed my hands at the crazy werewolf and looked at my brother in the search for his support.
“You must be confused, Alpha Rowan,” Kieran clear his throat, “This is my sister Sienna and she is not a werewolf. Hence she can't be your mate.”
“My apologies, Alpha King,” the guy next to me said but didn't move even an inch and kept staring at me with his hazel eyes.
It was slightly uncomfortable, so I turned away to look at the window again and this time saw a couple rushing in the direction of the mansion while holding hands. I bit my lip. It was probably a false alarm after all. Yeah, I was still going to check it properly. I turned back as I wanted to say something to Kieran but Arthur on was still in the same place, staring at me as if he was mesmerised.
“Still not your mate,” I chuckled nervously, and he clenched his lips so tight that they formed a thin white line.
I walked around him to avoid this awkward encounter and moved closer to my brother who radiated confidence. Just how did he do that without actually doing anything?
“Excuse me,” Rowan returned to his desk and clasped his fingers together, “While we wait, will you allow me to ask you a question, my king?”
Oh, I did not like this at all. What did he want now?
“Ask,” Kieran sat down into one of the guests chairs and put one foot on top of his knee. He looked like he didn't give a care in the world. To the rest of the world. But not for me. I knew that something was up.
“Well, pardon me for overstepping…” Rowan really wasn't in a hurry to ask that question of his, “But there were occurrences in your family when witches were mated to werewolves and vice versa?”
“That's common knowledge,” Kieran said coldly, “our mother was a witch, and our father was a wolf. It's not a secret to anyone.”
“Then,” the Alpha looked at me with hope in his eyes and I only rolled mine to that emotional blackmail, “There is still a possibility that I am not mistaken. Trust me, what I feel now is very hard to mistaken with anything else.”
The ball was back in my gate and all eyes were on me.
“And yet you are confused with all of this,” I came closer to Theo this time, “Witch or no witch, I should feel at least something for you. Some kind of a pull or attraction. Yet I feel absolutely nothing.”
“Ouch,” Rowan placed his hand on his heart, looking at me like a hurt puppy. But in the next second his gaze changed to that of a tiger during a hunt. “And yet, the legend has it that your mother did not feel that pull. She was not aware that your father was your mate for a while, wasn't she?”
“That's the legend,” I confirmed, with a smirk, “but what the legend doesn't mention is that all mother’s witch powers were blocked. She had absolutely no access to her magical side and that was the only reason why she didn't feel the connection with my father. Moreover, my sister Aria is also a witch and had not one but two mates. And felt the bond with both of them as far as I know. So, let's close the discussion once and for all. We are not mates.”
Yes, I wasn't the one to kick around the bush. I always said everything that was on my mind. If that was in my interest of course. And I was really interested to get rid of that werewolf and his shady pack.
Someone knocked on the door and after updating permission the couple I saw outside walked in.
“Amanda,” Alpha Rowan said softly, “your family is worried about you. In fact, they so worried that they requested helped from the Alpha King himslef. He came personally to check on you. Would you be so kind as to answer his majesty's questions?”
“Of course,” the girl mumbled, “I apologise for the inconvenience, Alpha.”
Kieran and I looked at each other, smelling something fishy here. And he motioned for me to question the girl.
“Amanda,” I smiled at her friendly, “Of course, we see that you are alive and in one piece. Yay for you! Your family indeed will be happy, and you indeed made them worried. Why didn’t you call them or answered any of their texts, messages, emails, social media messages, letters sent through post, etc, etc. You name it – the sent it. What was the reason?”
The girl lowered her gaze and I noticed how her lips twitched as if she was about to cry.
“Goddess,” she sighed, “I… It’s just… The thing is…”
Too much stuttering.
“I met my mate, and it was so overwhelming,” she finally managed to finish a sentence, “We were… You know…”
“Mating,” the guy that came with her finished with a smug face. I did not like him. Somehow, I did not like any of it. And my gaze shifted back to Amanda. She was a skinny blonde girl, shaking like a leaf in a storm. She was wearing a dress with a denim jacket and my eyes travelled down to her exposed legs, looking for any kind of abuse traces on her. But there was none.
Then again, it was hard to find those on a werewolf. They healed too fast. Maybe she was naturally shy and really was just too into her mate to look at her damn phone? I looked at her face, most of which was covered with her thick curly locks. That gave me an idea and I came closer, taking the hair off and tucking it behind her ear, and revealing a huge bruiser covering the left side of her face. Theo growled behind my back and Amanda shuddered.
“It’s not what you think!” she pleaded, grabbing my hand, her nails digging into my leather jacket, “I can explain!”
“Calm down,” I said in a reassuring voice, “No one is accusing anyone. Yet.”
Although if that was your mate, I would personally burn his balls off.
“Tell us what happened, Amanda,” Alpha Rowan came closer and removed her hand off mine, “Please, refrain from hurting my ma… guest.”
Seriously, was he still on about all that?!
“Speak freely,” I added, “If someone did this to you…”
“I did it to myself,” she blurted out and I prepared to kill that mate of hers. This abused victim mentality was not something I was going to overlook.
But at that moment Rowan took my palm in his and squeezed it gently, making me stare at him in shock. I pulled slightly away, taken aback.
“What I mean,” the girl corrected herself in the meantime, “It was my fault. Rogues attacked and I foolishly ran to help… And one of them punched me in the face. That’s about it.”
“A rogue attack?” I glanced at Kieran.
“It was registered,” Rowan interfered, “Just a small one and we dealt with it. You should have all the information in our report already. But, Jared, I am hearing for the first time that your mate took part in the defence.”
“That’s because she didn’t, Alpha,” the wolf stood straight and confident, “She saw me fighting and ran to help me. One of them hit her and she lost consciousness. I killed him and took her back. She was neither defending nor a victim since it was just a little bruiser.”
Theo was checking his phone and then nodded at Kieran, confirming that everything was correct, and we indeed received the report they were talking about.
But I still did not like it.
“You will go with us, Amanda,” I said, still wishing to get to the bottom of everything, “Your family wants to see you.”
“Of course,” Alpha Rowan smiled, “If that’s what you want, Amanda, you should go and see your parents and little sister.”
“No, Alpha,” the girl exclaimed, and we all looked at her in shock. Just what did she mean by that?
“Oh?” Rowan shook his shoulders, “As you wish. We wouldn’t force you, of course. But call them at least.”
“Of course, Alpha,” she mumbled, “Can we go?”
“Not so fast,” Kieran interfered for the first time and stood up from his chair, coming closer to Amanda and taking her chin into his palm, which made her mate growl. He examined her face and only then let her go. No wolf could scare my brother easily. “It is in your right not to want to see your family, Amanda. But that does not mean that we are not going to keep an eye on you. I want weekly reports on how your are doing in this pack and you are also invited to my birthday celebration in one week. If you don’t arrive, I will consider it an insult from your pack. And if there is another bruiser anywhere on you, we will have a problem. But I think we already established that you are not a warrior, so there shouldn’t be any new injuries. Right?”
“Right,” the girl responded meekly.
I couldn’t say that I was happy with the result of our investigation, but it was better than nothing. Kieran did the best thing that we could in the given situation.
“It’s a great honour for us, Alpha,” this Jared guy even bowed, although he did not look happy at all.
“You are free to go,” Rowan dismissed them and they rushed outside.
I sighed. That lingering feeling was now inside me about Amanda and her mate…
“We are done here too,” Kieran stated and simply went to the exit, Theo and I followed his example.
“It was a pleasure to have you here,” the Alpha of the Silver Crescent said to us, “All of you.”
I ignored that, but then he added, “I can’t wait to meet you again at the birthday celebration. I received my invite, thank you, my king.”
I turned to look at him and saw him smirking, but then Theo obstructed my view and I decided to get out of here as soon as possible.
Back in the car, I relaxed into my seat.
“Can you believe that guy?” I said, rolling my eyes as far as they would go.
“Well,” Theo chuckled, “are you really sure that he's not your mate? A ruthless Alpha and a Princess - sounds like beginning of a romance novel.”
“Don't start!” I wanted to slap the back of his head but he was driving now and I wasn't into self-harm, “I think I would know if I had a mate!”
“I don't know,” Kieran looked slightly tense, “you know that al family never has it the easy way. Us fighting mates is always slightly… unusual.”
“That's one way to put it,” I snorted, “it's not that I didn't feel anything the words him. It's more the fact that what I did feel wasn't on a positive side at all. This pack is shady as hell since he became the Alpha.”
“It wasn't much better when your new friend’s father was in charge,” Theo chimed in, bringing me back to thinking about Hunter.
“Why exactly did his father not want him to be the Alpha though? Surely it wasn’t just because he lost his mate?” I asked the question that was really bothering me and they both shifted their gaze away from me. They definitely knew more than they were telling…
Aksara