The Reluctant Mate

Porter

I finally had my mate in my home where my wolf wanted her, and nothing was right. She was shaking with fear and burning with rage and unwilling to listen to explanations. She was injured, so I could smell her blood. The place was a mess, because we’d been so busy we’d barely been home between the work site, the challenge, training, and other pack responsibilities. My wolf had been depressed, so I hadn’t been motivated to take care of the mess even when I was at home.

The only plus side to the disaster was that she probably was happy we lived like pigs because it gave her such a large choice of weapons to throw at me.

After dodging a few projectiles, my wolf getting increasingly agitated, I grabbed her wrists and forced her to be still. She shrieked again in a way that made my ears feel like they were bleeding while she tried to wrench her hands away from me.

“Let me go!” She yanked harder.

“Stop, you’re going to hurt yourself!”

“I don’t care!”

“Amanda, settle down.”

She pulled harder. I released her and she fell backwards, but I caught her, my hand under her back. Once steady, she scurried away, giving me a death glare. “Don’t think I’m going to thank you for that.”

“I don’t expect you to.”

“I want to leave.”

“I can’t let you.” This wasn’t going anywhere good.

“Then you go away. I don’t want to see you right now.”

The sinking feeling in my gut intensified and my wolf whimpered. It hurt every time she said things like that, although I couldn’t really blame her right now. “Fine. But if you run, I will catch you.”

The look she shot me was dark as she sat down on the couch. I walked to the kitchen, desperately wracking my brain for some miracle to salvage the situation. I moved down the hall and threw on some clothing, and then went to grab the first aid kit. Would my fragile mate at least let me patch up her wounds?

Her minor injuries stressed out my wolf, but I needed to keep control. My wolf was trying to bust out of me, he knew the moon was still high and his mate right there, in our home, so close we could touch her, take care of her.

Which we were not going to do. At this point, I doubted she’d ever willingly let me touch her again. If I were lucky she’d let me dress her scrapes. But even if not, at least she had calmed down.

Suspiciously calmed down.

A bad premonition crept down my spine. I left the bathroom and strode down the hall. She jerked, and then looked at me with exaggeratedly innocent eyes.

She was definitely up to something.

“What are you hiding?”

“Nothing.”

“Hand it over.”

“No.”

“So there is something.”

“Screw you.”

“Move.”

“No.”

“If you don’t move, I will move you.”

She glared at me defiantly. I scooped her up, and she flailed and screeched in my ear. She was going to make me deaf. My wolf howled in harmony with her wails. I could barely think straight as I dropped her on the opposite couch.

Returning to where she had been sitting, I flipped up the couch cushions until I found her cell phone and grabbed it.

“Give me that!” she said, and an empty beer can hit me in the back of the head.

It didn’t hurt, but my wolf had all he could endure and pushed to take over even harder. If I wasn’t careful he would force my mark on her tonight, and that would be the most unforgivable thing of all.

I turned, my eyes sweeping to hers. “Listen to me, Amanda.” I couldn’t keep the growl from my voice.

She opened her mouth and I slapped my hand over it. She glared at me, but there was fear in her eyes. Good, she knew I was serious.

“I know you’re angry. I know you hate me. I know you want nothing to do with me. I know you want me to let you go. But you’re not going anywhere and my wolf has no more patience left tonight. I’m going to go outside, and if you try to leave you’ll meet a wolf who I promise will do anything to stop you. So do not push me. We will talk in the morning. Do you understand?”

Eyes wide, she nodded and I realized she was shaking harder than before. I was trying to keep her safe, but this wasn’t the way. Aw, fuck.

“I won’t hurt you.” It was mostly true, but she didn’t believe me. I turned and walked away, my heart slamming me with each rapid beat.

I threw my clothing in a pile on the ground and shifted the moment I shut the door, my muscles and bones reshaping themselves smoothly. She would be safe in there, and tomorrow...

Well, tomorrow I wouldn’t be able to undo the damage that had been done. Once released, there was no way to take back things said and done. My mate, who I was supposed to protect and love, would continue to fear me, because I’d intimidated and imprisoned her. And then when she left—because there was no way that Jason and Carrie would keep her locked up, and there was no way I would sit by and let them if they tried—I would have to watch her walk away.

I rested my head on my paws and looked at the moon in the sky above me. It offered me no direction or solution, just hung there in silent judgement over all the mistakes I had made with my mate.