Filed To Story: Secret with Betas Daughter: Skylar Story Series
“What do you mean burning off?” Mateo yells at me, but wraps an arm around her waist and the other is tilting her head back to his shoulder, stroking her hair.
“This is what happened to Mina when she felt her bond to Xander and Oscar.”
“Yeah, but I passed out.”
That garnered another growl from Mateo.
“You have two mates, double the sensation. Jena, breathe for me okay. I’m right here, Mateo is here. At least Mina was right,” I try to joke, “Mateo got a mate who would side with me in a fight.”
She smiles a small smile and then her whole face falls and she tries to get up, but her body breaks out into shivers and she’s sweating as she shakes her head. Mateo’s grip tightens.
“I don’t want a mate. I can’t be someone’s mate. You know I can’t, this isn’t fair to him.”
She’s looking at me, pleading, like we are the only two people here. I know what she’s talking about, we have had this conversation so many times. It’s her biggest fear after ever mes. It’s her she went through with Mike.
“Yes, you can, breathe.”
She takes a deep breath in and I know my brother’s scent is helping her as Elena walks out.
“Well, you and your friends certainly have no idea of what downtime means do you? Let me see.”
She pulls Jena’s arm towards her and she whispers a few words I don’t understand and then Jena’s body is calm, but she is still very upset.
She covers her face and I know she is crying, but it’s silent. Mateo buries his face in her hair. She has been so afraid of finding her mate and she probably thought the warrior brand would give her more time. “I’m sure I speak for everyone when I say what the hell was that?” Oliver asks. I didn’t realize they had all gotten up to surround us.
“We have partial brands. They were only designed to last until the end of this summer. That was the deal I made with Osiston when he let me have mine. Mina and Jena were the same. The Warrior leaders wanted us branded for missions, but we hadn’t completed training yet. Mina’s broke the night of the Alpha Games and she was basically in a coma for almost three days. We all have thoughts on why, but they’ve never done parital branding before or anything like that so it’s only theories.”
I shrug.
I look at Elena. “Will she be okay now?”
“She should stick close to her mate until the brand wound heals completely, but yes.”
I nod. “Jena, I’m going to head up. Mateo will take care of you okay. Get some rest.”
“No! I don’t want this. You know why I don’t want this.”
She’s angry and sad all at the same time.
“This is out of my control. Give it the night, sleep on it and we can talk in the morning.”
I look around for any kind of help and I see that I have been left alone with my brother and his reluctant mate. Bunch of traitors.
“I will just reject…”
Mateo claps his hand over her mouth.
“Stop talking, mate. You will not be rejecting anything, I won’t accept it. You are mine.”
He growls, and I see the fire in my friend’s eye reignite.
I am so out of here. This fight and more than likely make-up session is not something I want to be a part of. I head in through the patio door looking over my shoulder at them and smile. She is up in his face pointing a finger into his chest looking back to her normal Alpha self. I’ll hand it to my brother though, he’s taking her Alpha aura pretty well and gesturing just as wildly fighting her on whatever excuse she’s giving him.
I don’t make it two steps in the door when I run right into a hard chest. “Ompf. The hell?” I catch myself on the door frame.
“Is that what will happen to you, Smalls?”
I roll my eyes. I can’t help thinking ‘oh, now they care if something hurts me.’ I still don’t know if they are aware of what their parents think about me possibly being their mate. I can’t bring myself to ask though. don’t want to know right now. I’m still not done being angry with them and if they don’t know, I don’t want to put the idea in their head only for it to backfire later. I also want them to want to try and mend our friendship because they want to, not because they have to. I have at least gotten that far with how I feel about this whole damn thing.
“I hope not. We were only supposed to have our warrior brands until the end of this summer, like I said before. They are both over eighteen, which is my guess as to why the mate bond was able to override the partial brand. The brand was already weakening, they seem to itch like a montherf*cker, like a bad interaction with a wolfsbane plant. The mate bond probably speeds up the process. I will have a full almost ter months after my brand fades before I can even sense my mate. I should be fine.”
I go to move past Dakota and see Cameron standing not far behind him. “Why does she not want a mate?”
I take a deep breath and roll my eyes, then look behind me. They are still standing close, but they don’t seem to be shouting anymore. “This isn’t my story to tell, but I don’t think she really wants to tell it either. Come on.”
I lead them back to the Luna’s office and walk in to see Wyatt manning the controls. “I need the room for a few minutes. Don’t go far though.”
New Book: Returned To Make Them Pay
On her wedding anniversary, Alicia is drugged and stumbles into the wrong room—straight into the arms of the powerful Caden Ward, a man rumored never to touch women. Their night of passion shocks even him, especially when he discovers she’s still a virgin after two years of marriage to Joshua Yates.