> Run for me. We'll have to eat. Keep your attention out for scents and movement as we travel.
The word seared through my mind like a brand. An apparent truth that shook me to my core. This woman, this stranger of a wolf... she was my
fated mate
. The one I had
never dared to dream
I would find.
For a moment, all I could do was stare from the shadows. All I wanted to do was drink in every detail of her, committing the beauty of her very existence to memory. Locking the silhouette of her profile and scent of her pheromones in a place inside me I didn't know actually existed.
A spot that seemed to sit as high as the pack itself.
Yet, even as my wolf howled inside in triumph for itself, and for me... my thinly remaining control remained. The only part that had kept me from pouncing past the curtain
rebelled
at what was occuring. This was
impossible
.
Fated mates were already rare enough, even looking past the biggest issue.
Werewolves accepted or made 'lesser' marks on each other all the time out of need or desire. If there always was such a thing as a perfect match for another, then each time that happened we would be stealing the chance for our mate. Robbing the future for the present.
But our numbers would die out if everyone waited for perfect signs like this.
And as a CEO as well as leader of the pack, I understood that sometimes... getting things done was more valuable than doing them perfectly. There is a difference between short-sighted gains and snow-balling failure.
Business digression aside... for someone like
me
- a
lesbian
in our hidden world? Our culture. The traditions that all but demanded heteronormative compliance... it was an impossible dream. Literally.
There are no records of anything like this. I'd lived in fear because of that for so long.
Not that I would never find one. I'd accepted that idea the moment I fully accepted myself for who I am.
I'd been afraid...
always
afraid that the supernatural call
would
happen. Some day.
That a male would wonder close enough and that I'd
hate myself
for whatever this reaction made me feel. For any of the submissions it might make me
want
to give to him. That I would want to mark 'him' or let
him
mark me.
Like I do wish to do to her so strongly right now. Even trying not to. I'm so used to being
in control
, but this just proves I was right to worry.
Right to fear that a force would try and make me betray my own convictions. My own desires. My own sexuality.
That's why... this had to be some kind of unbelievable mistake. That there is some trick of my senses. A trap or... or anything. Because if I really let myself accept that it can be true...
I took a step forward through the curtain while hardly daring to breathe. Every inch of skin on my body wanted to shift and
take her
. Make her mine. Initiate the mark before anyone else could
dare
.
The
pounding blood
in my ears is deafening. I had to say something first before she noticed it too. Had to find some way to bridge the topic... or just hear her voice. Once. Forever.
To memorize that part of her. A place to start. Before I find a place to finish.
"Can I help you?"
Before I could even open my salivating mouth, she spoke. She looked at me. With pleasantly narrowed eyes that made my breath hitch. If she feels it too, she is so
unphased
.
Her voice was glum and cautious. My mate's voice.
Mine
.