Condemned Mates (Destined Mates Book 2)

by James Wolfe

  “I do, that bar kind of in the middle of nowhere.”

  “That’s the one,” I said, “meet you there?”

  “I can’t wait,” he said cheerfully. “See you then.”

  “See ya,” I said, before hanging up the phone.

  Just like when I’d had to walk away from him at the farmers’ market, I found hanging up the phone to be excruciatingly painful.

  I was trying to be smooth, flirting like a human would so I didn’t scare him off, but I wanted to talk to him like a mate. I wanted to ask a million questions, to learn everything about him, to tell him of my passion for him… there was so much ground to cover.

  But I had to take my time and be patient, or I could ruin this whole thing. So, for now, I just had to step back. And allow things to move slowly.

  It was so goddamn hard.

  4

  Lyle

  I came a little early to our date, wanting to get a drink to loosen up before I met up with him.

  It was weird. I normally didn’t feel nervous before dates. I’d gone on a lot of them. I’d had a lot of hook-ups. I was great at dating. I knew I was good-looking, charismatic, and that men mostly liked me.

  But this time, I was nervous… and I think it was because of the way I actually liked him.

  Which was silly, because I barely knew him. And I was not the kind of guy to get attached, not even when I knew someone very well. But something about the way he’d chased after me, the way he spoke to me. He fascinated me. It was like he drew me in like a magnet, and I really couldn't explain it.

  I’d stayed away from serious relationships for so long because I hadn’t found anyone who really made me want to commit. Maybe that was all about to change for me.

  I ordered myself a beer and took a seat, anxiously awaiting the moment he arrived. To try to calm down, I told myself that maybe I had played this all up in my head, that really he wasn’t as intriguing as I’d thought he was at the farmers’ market. That I had just been having a weird, off day.

  But as soon as I saw him walk in through the door, I knew it wasn’t true.

  He was stunning. Absolutely, positively stunning. His dark brown hair, perfectly chiseled body, angular face… it was like god himself had built him out of clay.

  “Hey!” he said excitedly as he sat down next to me, placing a hand on my shoulder. “You’ve already got a drink?”

  “I have,” I nodded, trying to play it cool. But the simple touch of his arm on my shoulder was sending a chill down my spine. “You want one?”

  “Sure, whatever you’ve got,” he nodded to me.

  I waved at the bartender politely and ordered another beer, which Cecil started drinking slowly.

  “So, Cecil, that’s an interesting name,” I said, too nervous to think of a better way to start a conversation.

  “Yes, I know, very old-timey. I come from a very traditional family, our culture is pretty old-school.”

  Great, that was the perfect segue. “Tell me about your family.”

  “Well, I’m an only child to two amazing fathers—”

  “Wait,” I laughed, “your fathers are gay, too?”

  He gave a half smile. “Sure are.”

  “And you still consider your family… traditional?” I asked. “Usually traditional doesn’t mean gay. That’s considered, like, new-age or whatever.”

  “Not where I’m from,” he said mysteriously, not offering more of an explanation. “What about your family?”

  “Well, they’re traditional, too… in the traditional way that is super against homosexuality. So, we really don’t have a relationship. I cut them out of my life when I turned eighteen. I have a little sister, but my parents have her brainwashed into thinking I’m the devil because I fuck dudes.”

  He frowned. “I’m so sorry to hear that, that’s awful.”

  I shrugged. “It’s whatever, I’ve managed to build a pretty decent life even without their support.”

  “It seems like it,” he said. “Your card says you’re an accountant.”

  “Ahh, yeah, a currently out of work one,” I shook my head. “I’ve applied to the very few positions available in the area and have yet to get picked up by anyone. My company had to downsize not too long ago.”

  “Yikes, sorry,” he said.

  I realized after he apologized for the second time that I had somehow managed to talk about all negative things, which I really hadn’t wanted to do. This wasn’t first date material.

  “I’m sorry, I may have gotten a little too personal here—” I laughed awkwardly.

  “No, no!” he insisted. “Personal is good. Don’t hold back. I want us to be able to talk openly and honestly. Say whatever is on your mind. Trust me, I’ll be interested.”

  He was looking at me so intensely that I couldn’t help but blush.

  “Okay, well, good…” I said. “I really don’t like to play games when dating, either. Seems like a waste of time, you know?”

  “Exactly,” he agreed. “Have you dated a lot?”

  I shrugged. “Well, I’ve met up with a lot of men for dates. But I’ve never really gotten serious with anybody since… ever,” I smiled. “What about you?”

  “Oh, I’ve gotten serious with someone, but I have no experience dating around. Suppose we’re opposites in that regard.”

  We drank a few more beers, continued to chat about random pieces of our lives. It was a lot more talking than I’d done on any date before, that was for sure. Talking to him just felt very… effortless.

  It was like I really could say any little thing that popped in to my head. I didn’t feel like I had to hold back for any reason.

  “You are surprisingly easy to talk to,” I told him. “I know this is a weird question, but, like, is it like that for you, too?”

  It really was an awkward question, but I’d had a few drinks by this time and was feeling a bit brave. I just wanted to know if he was also feeling the connection here, or if it was just me.

  “Yes… yes, it really is,” he smiled softly, looking a little drunk, too.

  “You know, this is actually really weird for me,” I told him. “I don’t usually get like this with men.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “Like what?”

  “Like… I don’t know… interested? Just intensely interested in someone else. I’m usually able to brush dates off really easily. But with you… I don’t know, there feels like there’s this weird, magnetic connection between us. Do you feel that, too?”

  “More than you know,” he sighed.

  I gave him a weird look, because he seemed disappointed at that. “Sorry… is that a bad thing? I mean, for me, this is actually really fun. I haven’t had this experience before, so I’m really enjoying it.”

  “This is a first for me, too, but… I don’t know. It’s not a bad thing, meeting you was definitely not a bad thing. But at the same time, I just… my life is complicated.”

  “Complicated how?” I asked.

  “I… I really can’t say.”

  “Seriously?” I teased him. “I’ve been pouring my heart and soul out to you, basically telling you every damn secret I’ve had since I was a child, but you can’t share back?”

  “I want to,” he said, a hint of desperation in his eyes, “I want to so bad, but once I share with you…”

  “What?” I asked. “Once you share with me, what?”

  “You might run,” he said.

  “Oh, come on, I’ve told you all about my neglectful family. What secret about your life is so dark that I’d run? You’re not a murderer, right?”

  He let out a short chuckle. “Nope.”

  “Secretly married?” I continued to tease.

  But then his face sunk.

  “Wait…” I said slowly. “You’re married?”

  “No… no, it’s not…” he looked toward the door, like he was considering running out of it. “I think I need to go. I thought I’d be able to handle alcohol and keep myself in control, but…
they weren’t exaggerating the affects of alcohol. It’s making me want to tell you everything, and that would just be… so wrong.”

  “Who exaggerated?” I asked. “Wait, is this your first time drinking?”

  “Yes,” he answered.

  “Wow…” I nodded. “You weren’t exaggerating that traditional culture, I see.”

  “No,” he said seriously. “I’ll, um, I’ll see you later, Lyle,” he said, as he got up.

  “Wait!” I grabbed onto his shirtsleeve. “You can’t just leave like that. You don’t need to be this worried. Whatever the issue is, you can tell me. Just talk to me.”

  He shook his head “I really can’t. And trust me, it’s hard to leave you right now, but… I need to. If I’m going to avoid ruining this whole thing, I really have to go now. And you have to let me go.” He jerked the sleeve of his shirt away from me and started to head towards the door.

  “Wait, Cecil, stop!” I called out, following him outside.

  “Lyle, I’ll see you later,” he repeated, as he shuffled away from me.

  But, no, I wasn’t going to let the night end like this. We’d been having such a good time, things had felt so right, and then… just, no. It wasn’t going to happen like this.

  “Goddammit, Cecil, wait!” I yelled, as I finally grabbed a hold of the back of his shirt.

  He whipped around. “This was a mistake, Lyle!”

  “What?” I asked. “Why?”

  “Because… because I knew how I felt about you! When I set up this date, I knew how I felt, and I thought even if I came here, I’d be able to walk away. That my feelings for you wouldn’t grow more intense… but they did. They did to the point that it’s become unbearable to not talk to you, to not spill everything to you! But I haven’t even figured out what the hell I’m going to do, so how can I tell you about it?! I shouldn’t have come here without a plan!”

  “A plan for what?!” I snapped back. “Cecil, relax, it’s a first date! It doesn’t have to be some big, serious thing.”

  “It’s a first date for you, it’s casual for you, but not for me. For me, it is fucking everything. And even that kills me a little… the fact that this is nothing for you, but it means the world to me.”

  “I… I don’t understand,” I said, confused.

  “I love you!” he blurted out.

  My jaw dropped. “What?! But… but I mean, we don’t even know each other! Don’t get me wrong, I really like you, but… but how can you love me when you don’t even know me?”

  “Because that’s just how my species works!” he said bluntly.

  At first, I wasn’t even sure I’d heard him right. In fact, I was positive that I hadn’t. Because that just didn’t make sense.

  “See!” he snapped. “This is what I mean! Now you have me telling you these things that I shouldn’t be telling you, that are going to scare you off, and… shit! This is not how I wanted this to go!” he turned around to walk off, and, again, I grabbed his wrist.

  “Cecil, stop! You’re not scaring me off, you’re just… confusing me. So just explain.”

  The weird thing was, that wasn’t a lie. He wasn’t scaring me. He should’ve been for sure; there was no rational reason for me not to be running for the hills right now. And yet… I wasn’t. I just wanted to know more.

  “I… I don’t know how to explain this,” he said slowly, “but I’m not like you, Lyle. I’m not…human.”

  “What?!” I laughed. “Of course you are, I mean… look at you! I’m looking at you right now, and you look completely human.”

  “In this form,” he began to explain, “in this form, I look exactly like a human would. But in my other form… I do not.”

  “Your other form?” I asked.

  “…As a wolf.”

  “I… I don’t understand,” I said slowly, “are you trying to claim you’re some kind of werewolf or something?”

  “That’s exactly what I’m saying,” he said definitively.

  “But that… can’t be possible,” I shook my head. “That’s not a thing, I mean, werewolves… they just aren’t real, Cecil.”

  Now, I lightweight thought he might have been crazy, and, still, I stood here for some reason. Waiting around to see what would happen next. What he’d say next.

  But, he didn’t say anything. Instead… he began to undress.

  Now, he really seemed crazy.

  “What the hell are you doing?!” I asked, as he began to walk behind the bar and towards the dark forest, taking off his sweater, shirt, and even beginning to unbuckle his pants.

  This was for sure the point at which any sane person would walk away. I shouldn’t have followed a man who was swearing that he was a werewolf in to a pitch black forest.

  But, I guess I was not a sane person because here I was, continually following him until we were standing in the woods, he in his boxers.

  “What the hell are you doing?!” I asked again.

  “Just watch,” he insisted.

  Then, out of nowhere, he jumped into the air, and, when he landed, it wasn’t on two feet… it was on four paws.

  My heart was pounding because I couldn’t believe what I’d seen. Was he seriously… had he just actually turned into a wolf?!

  It was beyond belief. It couldn’t be real. I was going crazy, insane… just… I’d lost it.

  But I hadn’t. I knew I hadn’t, because, a second later, he was standing in front of me, quickly reaching for his pants and shimmying them back on.

  “You’re really… it’s really true,” I muttered.

  “It is,” he said.

  “But… how? How can werewolves exist, and I don’t know about it?”

  “Because we keep our species a secret. We live secluded from the humans, in our own village. There are several tribes of us scattered across the country, but we all live far away from other humans so they can never find out about us. And we do everything in our power to not allow you humans to know.”

  “But… you’re telling me now,” I said. “You barely know me, and you’re telling me.”

  “Yes, because you’re my mate,” he said softly.

  “Okay… you’ve lost me again,” I said.

  He sighed. “I know, I know, I’m springing so much information on you right now. I swear, that wasn’t initially my intention at all. I did not want to share all of this with you. I wanted to keep you guarded from it, blissfully unaware, but now I cannot. It’s already out there, so I might as well explain that you’re… you’re my mate.”

  “What does that mean, exactly?” I asked.

  “In my species, we do things differently than humans do. We do not date. We do not have to, because, when we find our mates, we are overwhelmed with feelings of passion and love, and we know that they are ours. And we begin our life together.”

  “And you… feel those feelings with me?” I asked.

  “Ever since I saw you at the farmers’ market, yes. I knew you were my mate.”

  I shook my head. “I just… this makes no sense.”

  “But doesn’t it?!” he asked quickly. “You said it yourself. You feel a magnetic connection with me, and you’ve never felt a connection like that with anyone else. You don’t wonder why that is?”

  “I mean, I do, but I just assumed I liked you, so—”

  “You like me. And you’ve never liked anyone else, because… because you’re fated to be mine.”

  I didn’t want to believe him, it sounded too crazy, but I had just seen the damn man change in to a wolf before my eyes. Why wouldn’t I believe this?

  “You weren’t kidding when you said things were complicated…” I said softly.

  “And that’s not even the half of it,” he said, defeated.

  “Seriously?!” I asked. “So, what’s the other half?”

  He looked shifty. “That… that I really can’t explain right now. It’ll be too much. What you have found out is already too much. I don’t want to overwhelm you tonight. I just… I want yo
u to sit on this knowledge for now.”

  “Come on,” I pushed him, “just tell me. I just saw you become a wolf, so I’m pretty sure whatever it is, I can take it.”

  “I’m not so sure,” he said, “and even if I wanted to, I do not have time. I need to start going back to my village now.”

  I was overwhelmed with sadness as soon I heard that. I didn’t want him to go. We’d just had such a good night, I had just discovered so much, and now I was supposed to watch him walk away from me?

  “When can I see you again?” I asked immediately.

  “Tomorrow, if you’re available?” he asked. “Same time, same place? And I promise, we’ll talk more then. Just think on everything I’ve told you so far, and… tomorrow, we’ll talk.”

  “Okay…” I said sadly, but there wasn’t much more I could do. If he had to get back, he had to get back.

  He stepped toward me and wrapped his arm around me, tightly, as if he’d been hugging me for yeas. Like I was someone who meant everything to him, and, according to him that was the truth.

  He kissed me on the top of my head. “I’ll see you tomorrow night. Please, please be careful getting home. Do not drive. Take a cab. Be safe. Take care of yourself. Because if something happened to you…”

  I could feel the intensity in his voice, and warmth rolled through me. These feelings were all so strong, so vivid, so overwhelming. I could feel how much he cared about me, and it overwhelmed me completely.

  “I’ll be safe,” I told him, as he began to lighten his grip and turn away from me.

  “See you tomorrow,” he said, and he looked like he was forcing himself to turn around now.

  “See you tomorrow,” I nodded, as he suddenly turned into a wolf and began to sprint away.

  And then there was just me… drunk, standing next to the bar where I’d just apparently met my soul mate, unsure of where to go from here.

  I did as he said and got a cab ride home. It was probably better that I did, even if I was completely sober because my head was spinning with thoughts of him. I just didn’t know what to make of any of this.

  It was insanity. I should have been scared. I should have been running for the hills. No sane person would have been okay with any of this. And, somehow, I just… was.