by Mila Young
My stomach clenches at the thought, but it’s what finding your soulmate is all about, right? Consummating your connection. “How hard can it be?” Mother told me the basics after my first wolf transformation when puberty hit. Let the man take control as he mounts you. It will hurt, she said, but that will pass.
Kaira comes around to face me, pulling long strands of my red hair over my shoulder, where it tumbles down to my stomach. Like Jae, she has shorter hair, the color of acorns, with a slight wave in it. She keeps it always tucked behind her ears, her face covered in freckles, and with the palest hazel eyes. She is beautiful even at seventeen years old, she’s already caught the eye of so many Alphas in this pack.
I lick my dry lips and try to push the thought of what’s coming tonight aside. I’ll deal with it when it happens.
“Done.” Jae bounces to her feet and she rushes over to help Kaira pin the flower arrangements through my hair.
A heavy knock comes from our front door.
“He is ready for you,” a male’s voice says from outside our hut, and suddenly, I’m sweating and nerves are twisting me into knots.
I’m on my feet, and my long, deep blue dress falls to my ankles. It’s a simple outfit, cinched at my waist with elastic, and the sweeping V-neck decorated with dried flowers my sisters helped me create. The dress once belonged to my mother, and it feels like she’s still with me.
“You look beautiful,” Kaira says, eyeing me from head to toe. “Now don’t keep him waiting.”
“Mother would be so proud,” Jae says as she hugs me.
“That’s enough or you’ll have Narah changing her mind,” Kaira says, directing Jae to her side. “It’s just us tonight, so how about we play some games?”
“Wait, you’re sleeping over at his place, Narah?”
Kaira laughs. “I’ll explain it to you later.”
The bang at the door comes again, and I flinch in my own skin.
With quick steps, I head to the door, fiddling with the ends of my hair, curling them around my finger, not sure I’m ready to do this. With it, a faint spark of yellow energy crackles across my knuckles. Always happens when I’m nervous or scared.
Kaira slaps my hand playfully. “Don’t show him your magic,” she whispers so no one outside hears us. “Do you want to freak him out? First bond with him, and once he’s smitten, then you reveal it, all right?”
I nod. “I know, but I’m so nervous.” Wolves aren’t meant to possess magic, but I do. Witchcraft I’ve heard it called by witches who practice it in the mountains.
Being an Omega is a disadvantage already in this world, so my sister is right about not revealing that power flows through my veins until I’m certain he won’t report me to the Alpha and get us killed.
Why am I sweating so much?
“Go now.” She ushers me with a small nudge at my back.
I open the door to where the cool breeze sweeps over me, and it does nothing to take away the fire swallowing me.
A guard with short-trimmed hair and tiny eyes greets me with a wry grin. “Took your time,” he snarls as he swings away from me.
Wasting no time, I rush after him over the worn path that leads from my hut and down the middle of our small pack village. Small, stone homes like mine dot the area that is enclosed by barbed wire fences just in case zombies make it this far up north. A few have been spotted in recent months, and many predict they might migrate up this way for food.
The moon shines brightly tonight, and there aren’t many pack members outside. Only the cicadas singing in the fields surround us. Many nights, I sneak out to hunt in the woods beyond our perimeter for food. It’s when critters are out and on my own, I’m fast and silent. Guess that might be a thing of the past if I am now paired with a mate who will provide.
Eventually, we pause in front of a larger home with one window draped in curtains, and smoke curling out of the chimney. Three other guards are nearby, chatting with the pack Alpha, Lovis. He studies me with dark eyes. Cruelty is splashed over his expression and the healed scars from his previous battles, but he’s kept us safe for years, so I live with his sour disposition.
I lower my head on approach for respect.
“Narah.” He grips my chin and forces my head up to meet his gaze.
His guards sneer and whisper nearby, their eyes lingering over me. It’s not the first time they’ve leered my way, which is another reason this mating is needed. Most days, it burns me up with the way they stare, but there’s a reason I keep my mouth closed and agreed to attend the mating ritual in the first place. For my sisters’ protection. They’re close to the age where Alphas will consider them for rutting, and I’m the only thing left to keep them safe. To have a man who will fight for us.
“You look more and more like your mother every day. She was beautiful,” Lovis states, a heaviness sliding behind his gaze. I am no fool to know my mother offered herself to him in secret to secure our place in the pack. And now the way he stares at me leaves my skin crawling, but I have no intention of following in her steps. My soulmate is the answer to all our problems.
“Martell is a lucky man.” A hint of jealousy paints his voice.
He lets go of my chin and steps aside before pushing the door to the house open.
Head high, I walk inside, sensing their eyes on me and hating how they see Omegas for one thing. For rutting.
I pull the door shut behind me quickly and lift my gaze to a hut at least three times the size of mine. There’s a small table and chairs to my right with a bowl spilling with fruit. My mouth salivates. There are a line of cushions against the wall to my left, and straight ahead of me stands Martell.
I swallow past the boulder in my throat.
He’s tall, broad, and gripping the neck of a bottle in his hand, staring at me with hunger. Thick stubble coats his jawline, his mouth a thin line. Everything about him screams powerful. He isn’t the most handsomest of men, but I’m looking for someone who will protect us. And my wolf picked him. I need to keep reminding myself of this.
His dark eyes are glazed over. How much has he had to drink? This isn’t the picture of the man I’d encountered at the mating ritual. Sure, he’d been quiet most of the time, but I assumed he was nervous.
“Come. Join me,” he demands.
Unease curls in my stomach at the way he beckons me, and my legs don’t want to move. The reality of what’s coming slams into me. Suddenly, I can’t do this. My earlier bravado is now an illusion.
Outside, I hear the men talking, and the room seems to close in around me. They’re just standing out there, not offering us any privacy.
“Come,” he yells.
I stiffen, but he’s my mate. I felt it earlier. And as much as I hate to admit it, that means making this somehow work.
“Tell me a bit about yourself,” I say with a strong voice, still stuck to the dirt floor where I stand.
He snorts. “What for?” He takes a long swing from his bottle before setting it down on the floor. Behind him waits a large bed covered in fur rugs. Bile climbs up to my throat. This is happening too fast.
“We should get to know each other if we are soulmates.” I recoil a bit.
He barks a laugh and takes three long strides to reach my side, his hand lashing out toward me.
Instinct has me jutting my hand out to block him, which has him narrowing his eyes. “You’re a fighter.” He growls, and in his presence, my wolf comes to life within me. A single damn touch, and she’s there, pining for him.
“Good. I like someone who can keep up with me,” he announces.
I smile, just as my mother had said to do with men. They like to see women happy, so I force my mouth wider. I can do this.
Martell studies me, the corners of his eyes crinkling as he grins. Then his hand falls to my shoulder. In seconds, he tears the fabric down my arm, material ripping, ruining my dress.
I gasp and shove him away. “Stop!”
Running away, drills bore into my skull,
and he’s triggered a button in my head. One where I suddenly see myself abused by this man, used like I’ve seen others treat females.
I’ve been wrong and so stupid to think he was anything but a brute. How the hell can he be my soulmate?
But with meaty hands, he snatches me by the waist and swoops me off my feet. My heart pounds too hard.
“If you want to play hard to get, that works for me.” He growls and tosses me onto his bed.
I bounce and rush to frantically scramble off his bed on the other side.
He snatches my arm and yanks me back. His hands grab at my skirt, tugging it up, tearing more of the fabric.
A scream wedges in my throat, and I fight him, throwing a punch.
He catches it with his hand, and he makes a tsking sound. “I’m going to have fun with you.” His hand grabs the back of my neck and wrenches me toward him. “Can you feel our wolves? They are calling each other. You aren’t going anywhere, soulmate.”
My fingers grasp on to his arm, digging, but it makes no difference against someone this strong.
My wolf rises as if called, and there’s no denying we’re paired by the universe.
“I can smell your slick. You have no idea how insane you make me.” He releases me and I drop onto the bed. My breaths are coming too fast, and I’m clamping my legs closed. This isn’t how I pictured this. Not like this.
Martell tugs off his shirt, tossing it behind him, revealing a hairy chest covered in cuts and bruises. The bulge in his pants makes me dizzy.
I shudder. “Look, can we please take it slower?”
His laughter is like claws dragging down my back.
“Strip,” he demands.
I curl my knees up to my chest and hug them, while scanning for the nearest window at the back of the room. That looks big enough for me to climb through if I’m fast enough.
He kneels on the bed, the whole side indenting from his sheer mass, and he snatches an ankle and drags me closer, my dress riding all the way up to my waist. He breaths heavily, too fast, and hastily slides a hand up between my legs.
“Please, no.” I push him away, but in response, the bastard backhands me across the face.
The strike has me flinging back down on the bed, and I’m clutching the side of my face, tasting blood. It burns like someone’s pressed fire to my skin.
His hand also shoves up my legs before I can clench them shut. His fingers find my heat. I scream that time and jump to get away from him.
Rage jolts through me, and with it comes sparks of power racing down my arms. My stomach drops as the yellow threads of my magic skip over my body and strike his hand like vipers.
He jerks backward, retracting his hand so fast, the shock on his face startles me. The earlier smile dies on his face as he stares at the dark burn marks on his hand from where my magic touched him. I can’t control it and most times, it lashes out based on my feelings.
But this wasn’t meant to happen.
My heart pounds.
Gods, he’s going to report me, kill me.
Wolves don’t possess magic.
Witches are feared and loathed.
“What the fuck are you?” He scrambles to his feet, unable to get away from me quick enough.
I wrench my gaze to the dark stains on his fingers as he tries to rub them clean. “It’s nothing. It will go away in a few days. Please, let’s try again. I’ll cooperate.”
He stares at me with an empty gaze, like he no longer sees me as his soulmate, but as a stranger. “I asked you a question.”
I don’t have a clue what I am or why I have messed up magic that I can’t control. I hurry off the bed on the other side, putting something between us. I can’t stop shaking as I pull the torn fabric of my sleeve back up my arm. “I’m a wolf. Your soulmate,” I answer, unsure of what else to say. My parents always told me to hide this part of myself, to not tell anyone, but with time, it feels as though the power in me has billowed. It sparks on its own accord.
“Like fuck you are,” he snaps, grabbing his top off the floor and rubbing his fingers on the fabric. “I don’t want no fucking freak as my mate. You’re a filthy witch. I don’t know how, but we’re going to find out.”
“No, please.” I rush to his side, well aware that if Lovis found out, he’ll most likely kill me and my sisters. Nothing with magic is accepted. “It’s just me. There’s nothing unusual about me. Please, I want to make this work.”
I reach for his hand, but he flinches from my touch, his lips twisting with disgust. “Get the hell away from me. You are not my mate. I reject you.” He turns and marches to the front door.
He’s rejecting me?
Coldness sinks right through me, tearing me to shreds. My shoulders slump and sickness hits my stomach.
My soulmate rejected me?
His thumping steps are like a drumbeat to my own demise. I can’t think of anything but what’s coming for me.
Death.
I don’t wait a second, sprinting to the rear window and shoving it open. Glancing back, he swings open the front door, and I hop up and throw myself out of the window in a rush.
I land on my back in a shrub, but there’s no time to waist or wipe the tears threading down my cheeks.
Why the fuck should I care if he rejected me? He’s an asshole who’d beat and rape me, but that’s not what I mourn, but for my wolf, who pines on the inside. Her agony splinters through me. Soulmates meet only once, I’ve heard, and I’ve just been pushed aside by mine.
My heart thunders in my chest that I’ll never feel that bonding.
Dread lashes over me
Sticking to the shadows, I dart around the rear of the houses, sprinting in and out until I reach my hut. I burst in through the rear door, startling both Jae and Kaira, who are on the blanket playing cards.
“Narah.” Kaira’s panicked voice adds to mine. She’s on her feet, as is Jae, both of them eyeing my torn dress. “What happened?”
“We need to leave the pack right now,” I say. “He saw my magic and rejected me as his mate.” The words taste sour on my tongue.
“He what?” Kaira’s eyes bulge.
“Are we going to be in trouble?” Jae asks. Her hand, still holding a card, is quivering.
“Baby, we need to leave now as they will be here any moment,” I say. “Grab a coat and boots. We go now.”
Jae’s face pales, and Kaira runs to quickly grab their stuff. I do the same and put on my heavy boots. My mind is too busy racing with fear to really make sense of what we should take. I quickly grab the firestarter on the table and hurry to the pantry, where I grab my hunting knives. That’s when I see all I have left from Mother. Her a gold bird-shaped brooch with a large emerald. It might come in handy for payment.
Then we’re off. The moment we slip out the back, there’s a pounding on the wooden front door.
Sweat coats me, but I won’t let them catch and hurt us.
The cold seeps into my bones and I’m trembling. I stay at Jae’s back as Kaira takes the lead. Night conceals us.
This is us surviving, I keep telling myself.
Kaira slides through the hole in the fence that I use to head out hunting. Jae is fast to follow and I hurry right behind her.
“Hey, stop!” a male barks.
Fear punches me in the gut. I jerk my head up to see a dark form standing in our backyard. Another joins him from around the house.
Shit!
I shove through the gap, and the three of us are running.
Breaths racing, I stick close to Jae. Foliage crunches under our feet as we cross the open field. We close in on the woods, but I can’t let my sister get caught.
“We separate.” I gasp. “We meet up by the blue gorge. No matter how many weeks, months it takes, we wait for each other there.”
“We’re not going to get split up,” Jae insists, her voice shaky.
“Are you sure?” Kaira reaffirms.
I glance back over my shoulder and several dark fo
rms are now chasing after us, and I need to do this.
“Kaira, you and Jae straight into the woods. Don’t you dare stop.”
We’re running at full bolt and she glances at me, the moonlight revealing the fear on her face. She knows what I’m saying. She takes Jae’s hand instantly and they burst into the woods. My heart bleeds to split up, but I know Kaira will take care of Jae. She has to.
I swing left and turn through the field to the woods heading to the north, hoping to lead these bastards away from my sisters.
My feet pound the ground while my wolf wines in my chest.
Somehow in the span of a single night, I’ve managed to reveal myself to our pack and put my sisters in mortal danger.
Fuck!
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Night Kissed
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