Chapter 3. Mate

Nate

It’s Sunday, which means family lunch at my parents’ house. I love spending time with them and Gabriel’s family as long as our father keeps his opinion on how we lead the pack. Although that rarely happens. Most of the time, we argue about things he shouldn’t be concerned about anymore. 

“Hi, Gabriel,” I greet him as he walks towards me when I enter the house. I’ve never called him Alpha. He asked me not to when he took on the role. We trust each other, and he treats me as his equal. He always says this is our pack, not his. 

“Oh look, my Beta is here,” he calls out, and I frown. He had never addressed me like this before. “Fill me in on the details. What was the problem at the border?” he motions to follow him to dad’s office. I sit down and tell him everything I’ve discussed with the rogue: my suspicions and plans. We appoint a team to search their pack land. 

The family lunch goes as it usually goes, I sit with Clara, Gabriel’s oldest, and she explains every new technique she learned in school training. She is nine years old; she is a fighter and a princess. As she puts it: a warrior princess. 

We barely make it to dessert when our father asks questions about the pack expansion and the new school we are planning. Gabriel is answering all his questions calmly, trying really hard not to get upset. I know he doesn’t want to fight with his father in front of his children again. 

According to my father, we are failing the pack and destroying everything he and our grandfather built and worked hard for. This whole thing started even before Gabriel became Alpha. Our father was furious when he chose me as his Beta. This was Gabriel’s first decision that he disagreed with. Since then, there have been many, and he never misses a chance to voice his opinion. 

I sigh as our father goes on about how dangerous our plans are. He knows the pack has been growing in the last decade; expanding the pack’s territory is necessary. I look at Gabriel, expecting to see him upset, but he nods at our father’s not-so-gently put remarks. I cut him impatiently, explaining that we are not reckless. We didn’t just jump into this project; we planned everything, backed it up financially, and even involved the neighboring packs. When my explanation still can’t make him stop complaining, I shake my head and move to play card games with Clara and Junior. 

A few minutes later, our mother jumps in and successfully distracts our father with some urgent repairing task that I’m sure she just made up. “Nate, I wanted to talk about a young girl I’ve just met,” she says when she sits beside me. 

“OK,” I proceed cautiously, knowing all too well where this conversation is going. 

“She is an Alpha’s daughter and just turned 19. I don’t think you’ve met; she could be your mate. Or if not, you might fall for each other and become chosen mates.” Just as I expected. 

“I’m 29, mother. I doubt I’d be mated to a 19-year-old girl.” 

My destined mate… I’ve been longing to meet her for the last ten years. The search is way too frustrating at this point. I’ve attended many balls, parties, and ceremonies around the country, hoping to find her somewhere. My mother has introduced me to every unmated she-wolf she could get her hands on. But no luck. The Moon Goddess must hate me for torturing me for this long. 

“You never know. Please. I’ve already agreed, we’d meet them next week. They are coming over on Wednesday.” 

“Sure, I’ll be here.” 

She claps her hands at my answer with a huge smile. I try to match her enthusiasm, but it’s not happening anymore. Still, I’ll be here no matter what. I can’t give up on her, no matter who she is or where I will find her. 

*** 

Next day

I hate traveling by plane. My wolf gets claustrophobic. There is nowhere to go; there’s no escape on a plane. It would be the worst place to shift. 

Yet, Dante is acting weird today. He is happy that we are traveling, which has never happened before. He wags his tail and walks in circles like he can’t find a comfortable resting place. Or maybe he doesn’t want to. I feel something is going on with him. 

I meet with Gabriel and Lissa at the airport. She is one of the pack’s lawyers, coming with us to check the contract to ensure everything goes how we want. I worked hard on this project to make it happen, and things will speed up from today. We have expanded our pack lands intending to grow and are about to build an all-werewolf high school with new gyms and training facilities. 

That is going to be the first in our area. Kids from every pack go to human high schools now, which can be complicated because they must study werewolf history, biology, and physiology on the weekends. Plus, the training every day. It’s a lot. It’ll be much easier to study everything in the same place as it will make their schedule lighter. This is such a big contract, and we could not find constructors nearby, so we had to travel to the capital. 

We have just arrived at the office building where the meeting takes place. Dante pricks his ears and smells around, puffing his chest out proudly. He is too excited to talk to me, and so am I. I really want this project to go through. We can start training everyone at 14 and accept kids outside our territory with this werewolf academy. This will create more opportunities for growth and possible alliances among everyone involved. I’m proud that my brother loved my idea of doing this. 

We exit the elevator and turn right to the receptionist when I hear a girl’s voice, and my heart stops. She is explaining something, and I’m looking for the source of the voice in the sea of people around. Dante barks MATE in my head and turns me in her direction. I finally spot a dark brown hair as she turns the corner before I even have a chance to look at her. 

Fearing we are already losing her, Dante yells at me. ‘GO, GO AFTER OUR MATE.’ 

So, I urge my limbs to wake from the shock and walk after her. 

I hear the receptionist welcoming us, but I am already walking in the opposite direction, reaching the turn in a few strides where I saw her. As I reach the end of the hall, Gabriel asks the receptionist for a moment, and I can hear their footsteps behind me. 

“What’s going on? Nate, where are you going?” I ignore Lissa’s questions. 

I can’t see my mate in the next corridor. Has she already entered a room? My heart is heavy with the loss of something I haven’t even owned. I hear voices and faintly smell an alluring scent, so I follow that. I reach a conference room with glass doors, and without thinking, I open the door and step in. 

I know she is in there. 

I know I have to meet her. 

The fact that we are amongst humans doesn’t register in my brain at all. My gaze is immediately drawn to the woman sitting at the table, with her back facing me. I know it’s her. Dante nudges me, but I halt as I notice the movements of all the individuals in the room. All their heads snap to me, except my mystery woman. She focuses on opening her computer when she sneezes and then sneezes again. 

A woman asks, “Can I help you, sir?” But I can’t answer or look at her. I’m staring at the back of my mate and waiting for her to look at me. 

I step forward into the room, unable to keep Dante steady anymore. The same woman realizes whom I’m looking at and calls her. “Sarah?” She turns, “Yes?” with a smile, and my heart rate speeds up. 

The woman points at me without saying anything, and Sarah finally turns to me. Her smile instantly falters, and she says, “Shit,” so clearly, it breaks my heart. 

Do I know her? It looks like she knows me. She reminds me of someone, but it’s just a vague memory I feel I can’t access. 

She stands up, ignoring her colleague’s “Do you know him?” question, and steps towards me. 

“Hi,” I hear her voice again and see that she is trying to put a decent smile on her face, but she is clearly not happy to see me. Her eyes wander behind me for a brief moment, and anger shows up in them when I finally say ‘hi’ back. 

“I saw you walking in the hall and just followed you here.” I try to explain, but it sounds weird. I’m not sure what is going on. Dante says she is my mate, but I’m confused. I don’t feel what I’m supposed to feel. 

Sure, she smells good, but not in a way everyone explained. She doesn’t feel anything like that either. Why can’t we feel the mate bond? I have so many questions running through my brain. 

She hisses me out into the corridor with her hands and says, “OK, let’s talk outside” So, I step back from the door and let her leave. 

She says “Hi” to Lissa and Gabriel and “Just a sec.” to the receptionist and starts walking away from the room and everyone towards a window at the end of the corridor. She does not wait for me, so I walk behind her, shamelessly checking out her curves as she walks with confident moves, rocking her hips. Yet, her clenched fists on her sides give away her real feelings. 

She swiftly turns before reaching the window, glancing briefly at the others who stayed behind, giving us privacy. The anger in her eyes burns through me, leaving me completely speechless. Everything I’ve been planning to say to my mate when I meet her is out of the window. Why is she angry at me? 

“What are you doing here, Nate?” she asks. “What do you want?” 

She knows me; my first instinct was sound. My stomach twitches into a knot, and I open my mouth to say something, but as I don’t understand the situation, I don’t know how to solve it. 

She has the most stunning face, shaped like a heart with peach cheeks, sculpturing down to the perfect point of her chin. As She presses her lips together with such force, they almost turn white. Her scent brings forward a memory of my favorite places in our forest. I used to run there often as a teenager. I stopped going there in the last couple of years. Something changed, and it wasn’t the same. I don’t remember the reason, though. “I … mmm,”… I mumble, with no idea what to say. I’m still in shock, trying to figure this out. “Ummm, we came to sign some papers. I had no idea you worked here.” 

I can’t tell her; I don’t know who she is. Her face softens, and I sigh, glad she is no longer mad. An involuntary smile appears on my face with newfound hope that I might be able to turn this conversation around. Her eyes flicker over my face, and she shyly smiles and looks away. That is the moment when I remember her shy smile and observing eyes. She grew up in Black River. 

“Oh, OK.” That is all she says. I see the wheels spinning in her head as she glances at me briefly, trying to figure out the situation. 

“I saw you from the hall and thought we should talk.” 

“OK, how are things at home?” She whispers the question, locking her hands in front of her. “Are my mums OK? Or is it Avery?” her eyes get scared in a sec. 

“No... I mean, yes, they are fine,” I reply as quickly as I can, but nothing again. My brain only has questions, but I can’t ask them here. I have to pull myself together because we have much to discuss, but it is hardly the right place. I have to convince her somehow because she doesn’t look like she is interested in being my mate at all. It’s clear that she doesn’t feel the mate bond. But there’s something else, like she has a pent-up lesion toward me. Or not specifically me, but maybe toward the pack. 

I always thought that when I found my mate, she would be happy to see me, feel the bond instantly, and feel the sensation everyone was talking about. But this is nothing as I imagined. 

Out of the blue, Dante whines, 'I don’t feel her wolf.' I didn’t even realize that he stopped jumping from happiness. But this makes everything clear. Of course, she doesn’t feel the bond. How could I forget? She doesn’t have a wolf.