Her Wild Mate

Chapter 2

"Go away," I gritted out with a restrained tone not to make him angry. I had no idea what he would do, except the crazy thoughts swirling in my head. And I cringed by them.

The wolf graced me with his teeth in a small snarl and my skin prickled in cold sweat. This was kind of... unexpected. A small part of me was surprised by the malice in his posture. I knew the turned respected their mate bonds and were in general monogamous, but what if the spouse left them to die and escaped on her own, not even looking back? But was he even that smart to realize this?

Why did I keep calling it him when the being standing in front of me was just an empty shell of a dead person? It was a beast.

The wolf took a step towards me and I noticed the scar running down his neck and furry chest. It was an old one, but if it hadn't healed, it had been deep. Was it from the time he had spent in the lab or from his life in the wilderness?

I clenched my jaw and eyed the darkness behind him. I could already see the turbulent water. I could feel the coldness seeping from it. So only if I avoided the wolf and jumped into the river... It could work. It could be my escape. My muscles locked, gathering my inner strength. I had to use this moment, his kind was terrified of water. He wouldn't follow me.

Glaring at the beast that was studying me, I sprinted towards him, using the momentum of the surprise to shove him to the ground. His heavy body crashed on the snow with a loud crunching sound. A giggle escaped my lips as I ran towards the end of the cliff. So the mate bond did come in handy.

Sliding down the slope, I gasped when something held on my backpack. I whirled my head back and saw that my fucking mate had clasped his dirty mouth over it.

"Really?!" I squinted in anger and my cheeks flushed, ignoring the freezing weather. "Let go!" I pulled my body down, but he growled, some of his spit sliding to my neck.

"Ew." I grimaced and glanced at my feet. I could see the water under them. I was so close. I wasn't giving up now.

"Mate, let go." Looking at him, I shuffled through my jacket's pocket, reaching for the pocket knife in there.

When I found it, my fingers pushed the small button to open and a wicked smile appeared on my face. This was it. Blood was stronger than resolve. And I was going to break his. I wasn't going to become his toy. In just under a second, the knife was stuck in his neck and I felt ready to fly. Just let go. The beast whined in shock and pain, and his effort to hold me shook the backpack and my shoulders. The straps sank into my flesh even further, but my pain was nowhere near his. Why wasn't he letting go?!

Pity shot through me as his amber eyes gaped at me. For a moment, he looked so broken and devastated and the knife connecting us made it for a very sad picture. Only if I cared... Come on, wolf, I was betraying you in the worst possible way! I was betraying the sacred mate bond! I had heard stories how much it hurt if it happened to the mated rational werewolves in my world, it had to be even worse in his! His kind relied on it for prolonging the generation and I bet it was the only moment they showed kindness to another individual. These monsters...

The mate bond was priceless. It had been for centuries. Getting tortured in a human lab wasn't going to change that.

I pulled the knife out, a few drops of blood falling on my cheek, and frowned. I had to stab him again, but I didn't want to. Something in me didn't want to kill him, even if I was more than ready to betray his pack's location to my people. They were going to do the job for me.

"Let go!" I snapped and forced a jump, hoping his wound would make him let go.

The wolf's paws slid forward a bit, but he still held back. I grunted and jumped again, this time using the strength of my whole body. I was getting away, no matter what! He wasn't going to stop me!

When a small part of the wet soil broke under his legs, the wolf fell forward and I yelped in excitement. I started sliding down, thinking this was my escape, but frowned when another figure pushed its heavy weight on me. Just when we fell from the edge of the cliff, I glared at my mate who was still clutching me like I was his best present ever. I growled and tried to push him away as we flew in the air, but the wolf wrapped his legs around me and bit into my jacket's shoulder.

Shit! I was going to drown because of him!

We splashed into the water and I started flailing my arms to keep my head over the surface. The shock from the unbelievably cold river burst through my senses and clouded my eyes for a second. The damned wolf was still clutching me, not dong anything to stay over the water. His body weighed on me like a ton. When I hit his neck with a hand, I realized I had dropped the knife somewhere, so nothing pierced him. As he was bigger than me and he couldn't swim, he started dragging my body down. If I didn't do anything, I was doomed. The stream was taking us further down the river, its dangerous waters getting into my mouth, nose, and eyes.

"No!" I tried to push his body away, but he growled, tightening his hold on me. "Damn it, beast, we're gonna die if you don't let go!" I yelled, my guts filling both with dread and water.

The stream led us to a heavy rock and I gasped. My mate's back was to it, so I hoped he'd get hit well enough to lose consciousness and let go. I rushed us to the rock, helping with my arms and legs, and when the wolf collided with it, he yelped, but still didn't let go. Quiet crying started reverberating through his body and mouth as the current led us even further.

Everything was moving faster as the water kept pulling us to something that sucked the river in. I could only imagine what it was, but I definitely didn't want to be met with it. No matter how resilient I was as a werewolf, the freezing coldness of the water still started seeping through my skin, making my body quake. I had been through so much since I started hunting the turned beasts, but trying to stay alive with one of them clinging to my body like a prized gold, was something I'd never imagined.

I tried to clasp my hand over the next rock we met and find something to hold on to. All I did was break my finger and twist it to an ugly angle. I gasped and squinted, the numb pain climbing up my hand. The wolf let go of the backpack and looked at me, as if pulled out of a trance by my pain-filled sound.

"Mate..." I trailed off, staring at his eyes. I gave him a stern look, knowing they communicated by looking at each other. "Let. Go."

The wolf whipped his head to the left and yelped when he saw soil. However, his uncoordinated movements in the water that surprisingly hadn't let us sink until now, did nothing to move us to it. He could stay over water but not swim. His shuffling changed our positions and now I was the one in the front.

"Ugh..." I fought to catch onto something before we drowned or something as bad as that happened.

Something collided with my head and back and I screamed out, my vision darkening. In less than a second, I was unconscious and not sure if I'd ever wake up again.