UNDENIABLY DESTINED

CHAPTER 2

All eyes in the room turned toward her, and her heart raced faster than it ever had before in her life. The collective gaze of those present bore down on her, waiting for her response. The barrier of contact lenses remained, stubbornly blocking any connection between them.

Aadaya struggled to maintain her connection with the world, forcing her wolf deep into her subconscious to shield herself from the overwhelming scent of her mate. She stared intensely at him, her thoughts racing at breakneck speed, all while a faint furrow spread across his brow.

The assembled groups fixed their eyes on the newcomer as a turbulent storm of anxiety raged within her mind. She moved her mouth, attempting to form words, but her blank mind couldn't grasp the situation. She had never dared to dream of a possible mate, believing her cursed fate precluded such a possibility. Amidst the chaos that had dominated her life, the notion of a mate bringing responsibilities had never crossed her mind.

Damien began sniffing the air, detecting Aadaya's scent wafting toward them from a window behind her. His sniffing sounds only intensified her unease, redirecting attention away from her momentarily. They stood in the hallway, staring at Damien with puzzled expressions, waiting for him to stop.

Unable to take any action, Aadaya felt herself trapped between the realms of nightmare and reality, shivering uncontrollably. Her body began to shut down as her wolf entered a state of seizure due to the distressing situation. She suppressed her scent, her aura, and utilized her powers to conceal their presence in plain sight. Her mind raced through the myriad possibilities of what might happen to him, and, more agonizingly, to his pack. The screams and pleas of pain echoed in her ears, and she felt herself slipping back into that same nightmarish abyss, realizing the horror she was bringing upon him and his people.

But a glimmer of hope pierced through her despair as her mind wandered into the painful memories of the past. His words echoed relentlessly in her mind: "I will follow and hunt you down and kill whoever keeps you from me," he had declared with deadly determination in his eyes, making a solemn promise. As she gazed upon her mate's gentle smile and the gleam of happiness in his eyes that she had once known, but which had been tarnished by this cruel world.

For the first time in years, Aadaya felt the possibility of being loved for all that she was. Her flaws, her dark deeds, her killings—all of it might be forgiven and accepted for who she truly was. Aadaya stood like a statue amidst the watching crowd, lost in a reverie of the past. Trauma gripped her body tightly.

She looked into his cobalt blue eyes, sparkling with joy as he laughed at something his friends had said. Her wolf howled the word "Mate" repeatedly, like a broken record, as a glimmer of hope and happiness ignited in her heart.

Still sniffing around with his brows furrowed, Damien's friends asked him, "What happened, man?" He brushed past his friends and the group, making his way to the end of the hallway and the window. He peered out, unresponsive, and then stuck his head through, taking a deep breath. Pulling his head back inside, he turned to his friends and asked, "Did you smell that?"

Aadaya swiftly pieced everything together and, using her powers, opened the other window flap. With her psychic abilities, she summoned a gust of wind from outside to disperse her scents from the forest into the hallway.

She attempted to use her psychic powers to erase any memory of her scent from Damien's mind. However, she encountered a formidable mental barrier, as if there were a wall protecting his thoughts. She tried to breach that barrier but was forcefully repelled, causing her to stagger. Her wolf sensed her distress and responded by relentlessly battering the walls of her mind, howling and resisting her efforts.