Escaping Death

~4.5 years ago~

Hunter

She said yes! The girl of my dreams, the love of my life, has finally agreed to officially be mine for eternity. I know why she was hesitant to say yes, it’s a debate we’ve had with increasing frequency over the last few years as our bond has grown deeper. She’s concerned that I’ll find my fated mate one day and leave her, but she couldn’t be more wrong. Even though we’re not mates by design, we are no less fated to one another.

We were born on the same day, within the same hour. My mother suffered miscarriages and stillbirths before I was born so naturally she calls me her miracle child — but really it was Solana. She’s the miracle.

Our mothers have said that when they were pregnant with us our heartbeats were stronger, their morning sickness and aches would disappear, and we’d kick and tumble in their wombs much more when they were near one another.

After we were born there were similar accounts. We slept better and more peacefully when placed in the same crib, we healed faster when near one another. In time my mother has come to agree with me — it wasn’t a coincidence that I was the only child she bore successfully. It was Solana.

Falling in love with her was the most natural thing on the planet, like I had no choice but to love her, like we were always destined to experience life together. Solana only ever doubted that we were fated to be together because of the matebond. If I had been born to dragons instead of wolves it would never have been a thought. But our love is patient. I knew the truth and I was willing to hold her hand through any river of doubt until she knew what I knew. I am hers, and she is mine.

And now, at long last, she’s there with me because she said yes! I’m going to marry her, mark her over and over, fill her with every pup she could ever want, and spend eternity basking in the warmth of my personal sunshine.

Her mother and fathers had given me their blessing to ask her to be my mate months ago. I even spoke to her eldest brother, Cole, my best friend and future Alpha, about my intentions. He may have teased us at breakfast when we told them the good news but I know he’s happy for us.

There’s nothing that could bring me down from this high. Or that’s what I thought until I walked into her mother’s office for their family meeting, and instead of being congratulated or celebrating our engagement, I’m faced with some girl who my wolf is saying is our fated mate.

My anxiety starts to bubble so I hold Solana tightly to me, breathing in the comfort of her scent. I’m not worried about this girl. I’ll find a delicate way to reject her. What I’m worried about is Solana. We finally got past the doubts and reservations. I don’t want this trivial bump in the road to derail her back into doubt.

As soon as I can, I pull Solana out of her mother’s office and rush us down the hall and around the corner where I’m sure not even her Alpha fathers can hear us.

I need to take control of this, I can’t allow the seeds of doubt to land and take root. I can’t lose her over this. Solana’s fear and concern are as real to me as my own emotions, I can feel her and sense her…how does she not see all the ways in which our connection resembles a fated mate bond?

I slam her up against a wall, place my hands on either side of neck, and apply enough pressure to her throat to make sure I have her undivided attention. She needs to know I’m in control right now and that I am not fucking around. I slam our lips together, begging her with my tongue to stand by us through this, desperately trying to temper any uncertainty on her part — no mate bond could be stronger than the pull I feel towards her. I am hers.

“Hunter, what is going on?” She asks when I finally pull back enough to catch our breath.

“Sol,” I pray to my bride to feel that I love her so much that it fucking hurts, losing her would kill me. Please Sol, don’t over react, don’t overthink this. “That girl in there…she’s my mate.”

***

Tonight is the night.

It’s been almost three months… three painfully long months…since I met my mate, Annie.

She wasted no time whining to her brothers that her mate, me, had another woman in their arms. Good news apparently travels fast because it wasn’t 24 hours before my dad and both of Sol’s dads pulled me into their office to meet with them.

I could have punched all three of them in the teeth. Not a few months ago they were all giving me their blessing to mark and mate Solana. Now they were lecturing me on the sacredness of the matebond and all but forcing me to “give my mate a chance” and get to know her.

“Did you know we had no interest in accepting Magnolia? It was our father who encouraged us to put being mates aside and get to know her as a person. It was the best advice he ever gave us because we almost missed out on an incredible woman and an incredible love. So, even though Solana’s happiness is everything to us…we feel obligated to give you the same advice. Solana will understand, especially when she finds her fated mate.” That’s what Alphas Rohanor and Varian said to me that day in their office.

I don’t want to get to know Annie, I don’t want Solana to find her fated mate. I feel nothing for Annie except pity. I pity that she was fated to me, that I will never be the mate she expected, one who drops to his knees at the sight of her, the one who lives and breathes to make her happy. That is reserved for Solana alone, my heart has beat for her since the womb…my mate won’t change that.

Three months was the original agreement. I’d get to know Annie and “really understand what I was giving up” or some bullshit like that and then I’d be free to reject her and live my life with Solana.

After the first week I couldn’t take it anymore. Annie was nice, she was easy going and easy to talk to, but whatever pull I felt towards her I felt an even greater force pushing me away from her. If mates are supposed to be magnets then Annie and I were magnets with the same polarity. The closer anyone tried to push us together the greater the resistance against our bond grew.

That week felt like a decade. I missed Sol’s smile, I missed her laugh, I missed the warmth of her body against mine. Eleven more weeks would have been a fucking eternity. So I went knocking on Solana’s door. Neither of us said a word to one another — we didn’t have to. We let our tongues and our bodies speak to how much we love each other, to how resolutely I believe that she and I are fated.

We ran down the clock. I spent my obligatory amount of time helping Annie and her brothers get settled into colony life, and at night I went home to Solana.

That all ends tonight, though. No more sneaking around and pretending like I ever considered giving Annie a chance. After today’s job is done and Solana makes the connections she needs to move forward with her passion project I’m going to go back and reject Annie as kindly as I can and then I’m going to mark Solana once and for all. I’ll torture her so good she’ll be begging for my mark.

We’re supposed to meet Annie’s brothers at a deli downtown. They’re going to make the introductions Solana needs to get her foot in the anti-breeder door. I’m at Annie’s place waiting for her brothers and Solana to arrive so we can head over together but while I’m waiting I get a text from Annie’s oldest brother, Levi, saying that the meet got pushed back by an hour.

So now I’m stuck here in the house alone with Annie until Solana and the rest of them show up. The hour comes and goes but still no word from or sign of the guys or Solana. Just as I’m reaching for my phone to text Sol, my phone starts ringing with an incoming call from Griffin.

“Hey Finn, have you —“

“What the fuck did you do?” Griffin seethes at me through the phone.

“What? What are you—“

“You’ll die for this, Hunter. Mark my fucking words if her fathers don’t kill you, and her brothers don’t kill you, I’ll do the fucking job myself. How could you?”

“What the fuck are you talking about, Griffin? Where is Solana?”

Annie comes into the room where I’m standing, looking concerned about the tone of my conversation.

“She’s lucky to be alive, which is more than I can fucking say for her baby — your baby.”

“W—what? Back up, Griffin. You’re not making any fucking sense.” My ears are ringing, he’s not making any sense and he’s starting to properly freak me the fuck out.

“You really don’t know what this is about?” Griffin’s tone begins to soften.

“NO! What the fuck is going on, where is she?”

“It was a set up, Hunter. Levi and his brothers tried to sell her to breeders. But they wouldn’t take her because she was pregnant. They beat her baby out of her, Hunter. Your baby. They left her for dead…”

I don’t hear the rest of what he has to say. I’ve heard more than enough. Hair begins to sprout all over my arms and neck, my claws extend, and my canines drop as I make a half assed attempt to resist the shift.

“Hunter?” Annie calls to me nervously. She’s smart to be afraid.

My phone begins to crack and shatter in my grip but before it goes black I see my messages to Solana. There’s a message to her that I didn’t send, telling her to meet me with Levi at a new location. Only one person could have sent that message, the only person I’ve been within fifty feet of for the last two hours. Annie.

“You,” I bark, my rage is on the brink of driving me feral. “You set her up. You and your brothers.”

For every step I take towards her she takes one backwards away from me. Again, like magnets of the same polarity repelling one another.

“They weren’t supposed to hurt her. They said she’d be taken care of, that she’d be treated well by whoever won her. And then we could finally be together properly.” Every word is like salt in an open wound.

“They killed my baby. They left the mother of my child…the love of my fucking life…to die.” I roar, my leg and backbones begin to snap and reform.

“I should be the love of your life!” She shouts through a sob.

“You will never be her! I, Hunter Nash, reject you, Annie Whitmore, as my mate.” The rest of my bones break and reshape so that my wolf now towers over a whimpering Annie.

I don’t have time to register the ache from rejecting her. All I see is red and my wolf demands blood — beginning with Annie. I leap on top of her and rip out her throat too fast to be satisfying. Now I’ll do what I do best. I’ll Hunt.

I’ll hunt down her brothers, the breeders, every goddamn soul who played a role in the death of my baby.

When I have properly avenged my bride and our lost pup, I will return. And somehow we’ll find a way to put our shattered hearts back together.