Claimed by the Alpha

Chapter Eight

Kai's POV

On instinct my hand ran over my mate's hair, smoothing it down. I felt a shiver run through her body even in her sleep. I pulled myself from my desire to stretch out beside her and pull her towards me and hold her. After so long of waiting to claim someone, I was fighting my basic needs to mate her. My wolf Ade was chomping at the bit for me to fully claim what was ours, but I wanted to give her time.

It wasn't lost on me the way she had struggled against my hold the night I made my claim on her. No she-wolf would dare try to resist a claiming. In fact, many of them were practically begging to become my Luna. Especially because I was 30 and still unmated. That topic was a sore one with my parents and with the Elders of the pack. However, they knew that they had no say in what I did and how I ran my pack. I listened to their advice and then made decisions from there. They had all been shocked when I attended my first Full Moon ball after turning 18 and had returned home without a mate on my arm. That disappointment continued to cloud their faces every Full Moon after, until last week.

I didn't have much of a reason to not claim a she-wolf all of the previous times I could have. I just never felt like it. That fact grated on everyone's nerves, none more than my Beta. Troy suffered the most because he wanted nothing more than to have a mate. So, he continuously claimed a she-wolf and soon mated her thereafter. His attempts always ended the same. Unless I claimed my mate, my leaders would not be able to hold onto theirs. Really, his impatience was the result of all of his anguish.

We all knew of the rumors that circulated around the pack about Troy and the three previous mates of his. No one knew the truth and we all chose to keep it that way. Like the rest of the leadership, Troy had the pressure of creating an heir hanging over his head. Alec and I suffered the same constant pestering from our parents and the Elders. The difference was, as the Alpha no one could dictate what I did. I would have an heir when I was good and ready to. It wasn't like as werewolves we couldn't procreate for as long as we wanted to. There was no timetable hanging over our heads like full humans. Unless of course you take into account rogue attacks and loss of life, but I had full faith in my pack and my warriors to keep everyone safe. Alec and Valerie had that same faith in me, and while they had mated years ago, they didn't take that final step to seal their bond into place to ensure that Valerie would fall pregnant.

Troy just couldn't escape the pressure of his father and had been convinced that it was because he just hadn't found the right mate. It didn't matter how many times Alec and I had told him the truth, driving home what we had known for years and had been taught when we were young. The former Beta believed that I was being selfish, maybe he was right. He had convinced Troy that he just needed to try harder. Every curse had a loophole and if I was going to take my sweet time claiming a mate, then Troy had to take matters into his own hands. His words, not mine.

I get where he was coming from, but that didn't give him the right to continuously put my pack member in harm's way. What none of the pack members knew, outside of leadership, was that I had to claim and properly mate with a she-wolf in order for them to be able to do the same. I guess whoever cursed us wanted to be sure that we wouldn't be able to find love, let alone procreate. Past leaders had long since figured out how to save our female leaders and since then, the Alpha claimed their mate and the Beta and Gamma would soon follow.

Troy, Alec, and I were all the same age so we attended our first Full Moon ball together. Troy and Alec had quickly claimed their new mates, but I didn't. Since I was a young boy, I had always wanted my mate. My fated mate. A Chosen just wouldn't do for me. The guys knew that and they always tried to talk me out of what they called my fantasy of ever breaking our curse. The only reason I had even attended that damn ball was because they had convinced me to try. I just couldn't though once we got there. The idea of sinking my teeth into a she-wolf who was not gifted to me from the Moon Goddess made me almost sick to my stomach.