It shouldn't have been a problem, we should've been rejoicing. So what was stopping us? What was stopping him?

My stomach clenched and it felt engulfed in flames from the panic and anxiety that was burning uncontrollably within me.

Breathe in. Breathe out.

It seemed simple enough, but at the moment it felt like the most difficult job to do. This bond was supposed to mean the exact thing that everyone wanted. Or at least the thing everyone thought was wanted. Peace.

No matter how freed my beast felt, the powerful being in front of us, replenished my mind who exactly was the dominant and alpha. And his reaction towards me, finding his mate, was uncharacteristic of the position. But I should've been the last one complaining about unusualness and mates.
This was a gift from the moon bestowed upon us, yet we didn't even acknowledge it.

What was he thinking?

I looked up from my feet, my eyes skimming over his moving lips and into his enchanting crystal eyes. His eyebrows furrowing as he spoke to me, and those crystal eyes burning an icy fire.

"What?" I asked, momentarily deaf with panic.

He cast a disapproving glare at me, before sighing and dragging a hand down his face, "My father will have to know about this."

My eyes widened at the thought, that would most definitely cause an uproar in the pack that I was staying in, it would be unsafe for me. And when Lennox knew, he and his son would definitely plot.

With a heavy heart and a clogged throat I looked at him almost pleadingly, "you know that that would only destroy any progress our packs have made."

He looked at me with those icy eyes, "and you don't think that the accusation of treason will destroy it?"

I looked away angrily, I wasn't planning on actually complaining to the Council about what that delta did, but the fact that my safety and well-being was uncared for hurt me more than I'd like to let on. It had only been moments since the bond was discovered but it strummed with the combination of both of our ferocity.

"I-I see your point," I said, my gaze still focused away from him.

"And?" He asked after I paused, obviously wanting me to complete my sentence with what he wanted.

I looked at him, "and if that's what it will cause, I won't file any complaints,"

A felt a pit in my stomach, it felt empty but inside the hollowness, it burned a harsh flame, searing my heart. Hurt.

At the base of my throat was laden thickly with self pity. The uncaring nature of my mate was already affecting me. But it wasn't like I cared for him either.

He seemed to be deep in thought when I turned my gaze back to him. I felt my eyes flash black in recognition and acknowledgment that he was my mate, once more.

"Will you tell your father?" I asked, almost hopefully, eyes peeking through my eyelashes as I worried about the fate of my pack.

"Yes, my father will have to know," he said.

"But-"

"It's better this way. If this pack knows you're my mate, it will be better for your integration," he paused.

I understood. I understood that the pack would be more accepting if they know my Luna position had been predestined and not forced. However, I was still a Soren and a reaction still could not be predicted. Only mild acceptance was what I could see possibly coming.

"When?" My cautious sound of my voice echoed from my mouth that was struggling to keep steady.

He looked at me with the same expression as before, furrowed brows and concentrated eyes. His freshly shaven, chiseled jaw set again in that clenched manner.

"Come," he commanded before turning and walking through the door.

I was curious with a question that tasted bitter, begging me to spit it out. However, I swallowed it down, and followed behind him like the obedient I was supposed to be. I watched him walk in front of me, down the hall and down the stairs; his corded muscles that strummed through his shirt made something within me gurgle with anticipation and a hint of something else I refused to admit. I shoved the dominant, that had risen slightly at the sight I was beholding, harshly compressing it, coercing it to disappear before I dug myself a hole.

He stopped at the front of a pair of large black double doors, opening it for me to enter. He motioned to a seat opposite the stretching ash desk that was centered in the room as he moved towards his seat behind the desk. Soon after, he began shuffling the papers on the desktop, placing them in drawer in what seemed like a random order, until the desk calendar was visible. He looked at it with his studious eyes again, before looking at me, I maintained eye contact.

He pointed to the Sunday that was set for our marriage ceremony. Well our mating ceremony now.

"The Wednesday is the day your family announced you were born. It will be best if we announced that we are mates on Sunday at our," he paused for the briefest second, "ceremony."

"Three days is less than five. The less time that my father thinks the Soren's lied for the less damage."

I nodded slightly before I had my own revelation, "That would mean the priest would have to have a descrying ceremony too-"

"Yes. To prove we're actually mates," He cut me off abruptly.

"Now it's just the matter of my father's reaction towards finding out. So I'll have to tell him before the entire ceremony. There's a high probability he's going to think that I found out we were mates before this Sunday. That's where you come in."

"What exactly does that mean?" I asked slowly at his vague command for me.

"I wouldn't usually be admitting this but my father still believes he's the most powerful man in the pack, and I've let him believe it for a while now. I don't usually engage with him either but he made this deal when he was alpha and he could be the reason for a massive war because of this petty problem. So I'm just going to let the doctor tell him that you just received your wild early, something that's rare but not impossible," he said to me seriously, with his strong chest facing me.

"And you will have to play along," he continued in an even graver voice.

I opened my mouth to speak, me, myself not even sure of whether I was about to agree or disagree before he interrupted me.

"For the sake of our packs, of course," his strong voice trembled my body with its finality.

"What if he finds out? Wouldn't that be worse?" I asked curiously.

"We'll make sure he doesn't," his tone was stern, it's stiff, "are we clear?"

At the base of my throat was a choked response that was fighting to be regurgitated. The battle of dominance in me didn't understand the situation. A mate is an equal but an alpha mate required something else.

He got up from his seat almost menacingly, walking his way to the front of the desk, bracing on the front, leaning against it with a show of dominance raised eyebrows of surprise, he repeated, "Are we clear?"

"Yes, we are," the words tumbled out of me from the proximity and the dominance of this male. I nodded for a definite show of truth. But my hands were sweaty with fear and panic, which he was not the direct cause of. His father was what terrified my family and I. And I'm sure he knew why. The fact that the Soren's were now capable of possibly defeating this pack at the lest inconvenience of me, kept replaying in the back of my mind.

As treacherous thoughts circulated my mind, I noticed his eyes were narrowed at me, more specifically at my neck. I stared back him, questionably with furrowed eyes.

"Come," he instructs, ordering me.

It was said in a somewhat gentle tone, but the demand of it kept me rooted in my seat, in defiance. It was a simple command but with my new sense of freedom and vitality convinced me to stay in the seat.

"Why?" I asked this powerful alpha, as I began to question my sanity.

I could almost see the annoyance that flashed on his face for second, "The bruise on your neck, let me see it."

"The bruise your warrior caused," I corrected as I got up, wondering how I didn't notice the bruise.

I stopped directly in front of him, he had now straightened his posture, standing tall and looking down at me. I turned around, my back facing him, I moved my hair to one side to reveal the bruise spiraling from the base left of my neck. I felt his fingers move the fabric of my shirt down lower, I harshly suppressed a shudder, biting my lip hard.

He pulled at my shoulder, turning me around. I looked up at him, still holding my hair. He looked at my neck with that same scrutinized look that he had been wearing all morning. When I felt his warm fingers touch the bruise, my skin heated up with excitement, tingling from his mere touch.

Right before it seared from excruciating pain shooting up my neck and down my body, making me hiss in pain as my eyes watered from the intensity and my knees instantly buckle. I felt my hand on instinct reach out to grab something, that object being the fabric of his dress shirt. His hand simultaneously being placed at the small of my back to hold me up. The hand that was at my neck now steadying me by my shoulder. My eyes were closed as I tried to regain my composure and make the pain dissipate. I quickly open them, and unhook my hands from his shirt.

"I'm sorry," I said softly looking at the ground, still in horrid pain causing my voice to tremble and my throat to cease. I breathed harshly in attempt to bear the pain, my mind flashing through memories of when last I felt such searing  pain causing my heart and breath to quicken.

"Are you alright?" I heard him ask with what sounded like worry and concern.

I didn't answer. I couldn't answer.

My eyes were closed as I tried to even my breathing. I felt his warm hand, that was on my shoulder, take my chin and lift it up to face him. I was in too much pain to even acknowledge his hands were on me.
My eyes opened when he raised my head up, I could felt that they had watered, making my vision blurry. His face has softened and concern was obvious on his face. He turned my face away from him to look at my bruise once more.

"No, I'm sorry," he replied softly before he released me to go behind his desk. Was he apologizing for hurting my neck or for his warrior?

I stood up straight with my fists clenched at the side of me, my eyes scrunching from the pressure I was applying from my agony. He returned quickly to my side, brushing my hair to one side. My eyes flashed open instantly, widening at whatever he had in his hands.

Panicked, I stopped his wrist that was proceeding to apply some kind of ointment to my neck by grabbing it, "what- what is that?"

"It's a healing ointment specifically for the neck made for alphas," he answered quickly, I withdrew my hand.

I felt the cool cream being smoothed onto my neck, stirring up pain that I had managed to make disappear before. A small gasp escaped me, making me clutch onto the arm he was using to steady me, holding it tightly.

The cream was spread from the base of my neck to the back of my ear. When he was finished, I had felt indescribably better, physically. My mind could not forget when exactly I had last felt pain like as horrible as this. I quickly released him, and wiped the two tears that had escaped each of my eyes and was halfway down my face. I felt a particular fear and doom in that moment that had been triggered from my neck. And I felt the same feeling I had felt all those years again once more, of impending doom and despair crashing down on me. I turned to my new alpha.

"No, the Soren's won't find out and neither will your father," I threw back the things he had proven he cared the most about back in his face, before I turned around to rush back into my room, flashing to be out of there in an instant. So he couldn't question why exactly I was crying.