Golden Destiny

Chapter 16. Substitute

I had been showing Veren around the school for three days. Harper, while respectful to him, kept on asking if Veren knew when Alexei was coming back. I think she was just missing Dimitri, which I knew I had to ask her about. In detail.

On Tuesday, I found out that Veren was very candid when he told me that he knew about the prophecy, that he was one of the players in it, and that he knew about my true lineage. It turns out that the four other ruling families had made sure to apprise their own about the roles they might play in it. That must have been nice.

At lunch on Wednesday, Harper and I were waiting for Veren by the tables outside school when Adam came up to us.

"Mia, can I talk to you?" He asked. "In private," he added, looking pointedly at Harper who rolled her eyes and stepped a few feet away when I gave her a nod.

"What is it?"

"I want to talk to you about our mating," he told me very casually.

My jaw dropped.

"What? You think it's a foregone conclusion?" I told him scathingly.

He looked confused.

"I don't understand. I had been very nice to you for the past weeks," he said.

I raised an eyebrow.

"And you think being a decent person to me for the first time in a long time makes up for the bullying you and your friends put me through? You think that makes up for the fact that you rejected me?" I told him in a very low voice.

"But when you stood between me and that rogue as wolf, I thought-"

Seriously? I cut him off before he could continue.

"What? You thought that me doing that meant that I was choosing you as my mate?" I laughed. Like belly laughed.

"You are obviously not acquainted with how decent people act, Adam. I protected you because no one else could at that time and because your father always told us to do all we could to protect your family. I was doing what I had always been taught ever since I was a pup. It had nothing to do with what you think I feel for you."

The confusion was still evident on his face.

"But you shifted. Dad said-" his voice tapered off.

"I know what your dad thought. That my desire to protect you was because of the matebond. He thought that because of that, my wolf came out to defend my mate. Newsflash, Adam. There is no matebond. You severed it, remember? When you rejected me. When you asked for the Moon Goddess to break that link between us."

He was silent. So I continued.

"And I highly doubt you really want us to be mated. I saw how you and Tawny were on Saturday night. It's clear to everyone that you still choose her," I told him.

"You jealous?" He smirked.

I wanted to claw that expression off his face. But since that was a very real possibility, I took a deep breath to calm myself.

"No, Adam. I feel nothing for you. There is nothing in me that an emotion like jealousy could possibly spring out of."

He stepped closer to me and I felt Harper do the same.

"Look, Mia. Cards on the table, even if I want to be mated to you, I still prefer Tawny. She's in my social circle and will make a great Luna to this pack because they respect her. Even if you can now shift, your mother still can't and that doesn't look good for me. But I need you. Let's not kid ourselves that a mating between us will be a love match. The fact is, I need you to bring my wolf back, that's it. If you agree to this, then I promise that all the taunts and jeers from my friends will stop immediately because I'll make sure they do. And when I'm Alpha, I might even lay down as pack law that no harm, verbal or otherwise will come to your mother."