Checkmate

Threat

I knew the moment he spoke.

My whole body reacted, a humming shudder going through me, resonating, echoing, pooling in my stomach, in my chest, flooding my senses, making my heart pound erratically. That scent, that heady, divine scent filled me, curling into and around me, whispering over my heated skin. The sensation was overwhelming, hitting me so hard and fast that I found it hard to breathe, hard to think. 

It was as if there'd been a shift, deep within me, body and spirit moving, realigning and refocusing with sharp clarity on the male standing in front of me. 

My mate.

Mate.

I stared at him, unable to speak.

He stared right back, and I felt the impact of that blue-green gaze rippling through my body like never before. 

I didn't know how long we were standing there, time seemed to have slowed. As the intensity receded, dimly I became aware of the gentle hushing of the windrush in the trees in the otherwise silent clearing. 

And then he spoke again.

"You are my mate."

His voice was husky, deep, raw, sending another shudder through me, making me inhale swiftly.

It took me a few tries to find my voice and when it came out eventually, I couldn't recognise it, it was so hoarse and thready.

"How?" I whispered and then swallowed, took a deep breath and tried again. "We met months ago. We've seen each other more than once. We've..." I waved a shaking hand between us. "How? After all this time?"

"I don't know." He said quietly, eyes still on me.

"There were no signs of this before. No matemark, no scent, no feeling of matehood, no sign." It was uncharacteristic of me to be so rattled, but I was struggling to understand how the hell this had happened. How the hell I'd missed it. 

"Does it matter?" He said softly. "We are here. And we are mates."

I had to turn from him then, running a hand through my hair.

Gods.

I have a mate. 

I closed my eyes. My chest was suddenly tight. 

"Wolfman." 

The name made me shiver involuntarily but I didn't look around.

"I wasn't expecting this either." He said softly. 

I exhaled, long and slow.

"Let's just take this slowly." He said, still in that same soft tone. "It's been a bit of a shock."

"Understatement of the year." The laugh that came out of me was strained.

I heard a sound and when I glanced to my right, he had moved to stand by the lake's edge, some distance from me, but close enough that I could see him. He was a dark angel in the shadowy night light, his robes gently billowing in the light breeze, white-blonde hair and ocean eyes bright in the darkness, ethereal, and his face looking like one of the many carved statues I'd seen around Galae, imposing, strong, beautiful, remote. 

It was as if I were looking at a stranger. 

It struck me then, with force, how little I actually knew of him - this male who was apparently the one I was to mate and live with for life.

Life.

I tried to swallow but my throat wouldn't comply, not with that word sticking in it.