She Who Bears The Wolf's Mark

Mate

Mate

I rarely felt faint. In fact, I boasted a health and immune system that was unrivaled, but in the moment that Xander's father announced their so-called union, she felt the blood draining from her face, her legs turning to noodles and her mind going blank.

"What...?" I breathed, and swayed.

"Carly? Carly!"

I felt warm arms around me, keeping me from falling to the ground. They enclosed around me and pulled me to an even warmer body. Shivers erupted up and down my spine, and goosebumps pebbled my skin.

"I can't believe this." I said to myself, staring at the ground with shaking, moist eyes as if the solution to my world-destroying dilemma lay at my feet.

"Breathe. Just breathe." He said into my ears. I shuddered again.

"Fuck you, dog."

I wasn't one to spit profanity all that much, but this was one of those situations in life that it was totally warranted and completely deserved.

I heard a muffled laugh right before I passed out.

****

When the fog cleared and I finally came to, the party in the forest was in full swing. Werewolves danced all around me, completely lost to the music blowing out of the sound system. The loud music reverberated in my skull, making it pound.

They brought a goddamn sound system to celebrate my forced 'union'? The fucking-

"You're awake."

I looked up from where I lay propped up against a tree to see Xander standing over me, leaning against the tree like a watchful guardian (or a guard tasked to keep an eye on me in case I ran). Our eyes met and I thought she saw concern in his.

Yeah, right. As if.

I was about to unleash a string of colorful vocabulary on him when my head gave a sharp pang and I groaned. Sniffing, I sat up straight and hugged my legs close to my chest.

"Look," Xander began as our eyes met, and then he stopped, as if lost for words. He looked like he'd rather be anywhere else but here.

That made two of them.

He ran a hand through his golden locks in a telltale gesture, ruffling it, and then looked away.

"I'm not the one who wants this," he said by way of explaining himself.

As if that would make me feel better. "But you're a part of this, like it or not." Then, with her last ray of hope shining through her eyes, she practically begged him, "Please, let me go. I don't belong here. I don't want to... marry you."

Bleak eyes met hers. "I can't."

Why did it feel like he said "I won't" instead?

She looked away before he saw the tears brimming to the front like a gushing geyser, threatening to spill.

How did she get here? Oh, right. Her parents made a deal to save her life. Yet how come she didn't feel saved at all?

"Can I meet your father now?"

I wanted to ask him how he knew me. Upon taking one look at me, he'd commented that 'I'd grown well.' So, he'd met or seen me before. How? I didn't recall ever seeing him, and the Supreme Alpha was not someone you easily forgot seeing. What with those golden eyes of his that burned like two colliding flint stones. I shuddered just thinking about them.

"He's busy." Xander said.

"But you said-!"

"Later, Carly," he said in a tone that brooked no argument.