The Huntress - The Hunt #1 (COMPLETE)

21. Matebond.

Ella stared at Becca, hardly able to believe what the she-wolf was doing. She was literally fuming. Ella took another sip from her coffee mug, enjoying the show. She felt much better after telling her new friend about what Dorian had done. It didn't hurt her self-esteem to see the she-wolf so angry at her own brother.

"You know, you might combust, if you don't calm down," Ella suggested, trying to lighten the mood a bit.

Becca stopped pacing around the living area and simply stared at Ella, "Are you joking? He... I could murder that idiot!" she cursed.

"Yeah, I don't think that would help me, but thanks for the offer," Ella smirked. She was feeling much better. The bond was working hard to smooth things over for her and she was kind of glad to let it happen. Hating Dorian seemed like an impossible feat anyway.

"He should be punished. You need to make him sleep on the couch for a year or something. It's completely unacceptable to treat your mate that way," Becca kept fuming.

"Actually, I wanted to talk to you about that. The matebond, I mean. We have never really talked about it, how it works and why and... well you get what I'm getting at? All we've done is mate and he marked me once upon a time. There's still a lot I don't really know about it. Dorian told me that the bond wants to forgive and forget, like whatever the other mate does. That's why he's just accepted me back into his life like nothing happened. And I can't help but feel less and less angry about this morning. I don't know if I'm totally on board with this thing. I mean, I'm a vampire. Vampires also have this mate thing, but it's different from werewolves and I'm not sure which side of our bond is making me so forgiving and meek. You know what I mean?" Ella ranted, getting all her insecurities about the bond in the open.

"Well, the bond is a tricky thing. Most wolves only concentrate on the simple aspects: my mate, my life and my fuck. You know? It's actually more meaningful than my one true love bullshit. That's for humans. Werewolves have half a soul in them. The other half is in someone else. That's what the bond signifies, your soul is finally whole. Usually, the wolves are complete opposites and that in itself creates amazingly entertaining love stories. But that makes sense, you know. It's two halves of a whole, if they were the same then they weren't halves. Am I making it more confusing for you?" Becca asked, probably noticing Ella's confused stare. She shook her head, motioning Becca to continue. "I don't know how it feels for vampires or humans, but for us, finding your mate, it feels like there's this magnet in you that pulls you to your other half. When I recognized Mick as my mate, I could barely stop myself from crushing him. He's older than I am, obviously, so he'd been out looking for his mate for a couple of years. Dorian just took over the pack after our parents handed the titles over to him. They didn't want to do it before he found his mate, but it's hard being an alpha and our dad's health was a mess. I don't know if Dorian told you what happened to them?" Becca's spark had dimmed. Ella wasn't sure if she wanted to know everything about Dorian's life from his sister. Maybe she should talk to him about these things. She was about to say as much, when the idea of talking to him made her slightly nauseous. She needed more time to get over it.

"No, he hasn't. I mean, all the time I've spent with him, we've been in bed, eating or talking about me. He always seemed more interested in my life, and I didn't want to force him to open up to me," Ella admitted.

"Alright. Good thing this isn't just his past. It's mine too and I can talk about it if I want to. Anyway, our dad was really sick, some form of cancer. He died after fighting the disease for two years. Mom didn't last long after his death, that's just how the bond works. You either go mad or die form the heartbreak," Becca explained.

"I'm so sorry that happened," Ella tried to convey her sorrow for their situation.

"Don't be sad. We got to say goodbye to them both, it wasn't sudden or overly dramatic. I mean, I miss them all the time and wish they'd be around to see their grandchildren, but it's actually not the worst way to go. Mick's parents were killed in a rogue attack when he was ten. He's not from our pack, originally. But where was I? Oh, right, how we noticed the bond. So, Dorian was the new alpha and dad was sick. Mick transferred into the pack to take the beta position as our own beta didn't have any kids and was too old to hold the job. Mick has two older brothers, the oldest is beta for his former pack and he really didn't have any future plans before Dorian invited him here. They'd became good friends in boarding school. Mick had traveled a bit after school, trying to find his mate, but no luck. Usually we don't recognize our mates until we turn 16 or 17. And that's when we kind of found each other. It was my 15th birthday, he was handing me my present and I felt it. The magnet. I grabbed him before he could process what was going on. The purrs from his wolf were almost too much for me, I wanted to get all my clothes off and have him claim me, right there, besides my cake. Dorian was confused. And when he realised what had happened, he set down strict rules for us. No sex until I turn 18, no marking until I'm 17. No sleeping in the same bed until I'm 17. And so on. We of course didn't wait that long. For my 16th birthday, I asked for my mark and he couldn't say no to me. The bond makes him my slave. Females always have the upper hand, don't forget that. They do as we want, they need to please us as we are irreplaceable to carry on the bloodline and so on."