The Darkness We Hide

Unfortunately, Michelle had a hard time concentrating on her work that night, her mind being preoccupied with the tenderness between her legs and the exhaustion she felt.

Serving drinks she found her mind wandering to what had happened over the weekend. Never in her life had she experienced such sensational sex. Even now she became moist thinking about Gareth being inside of her. Dear sweet God he had been amazingly skilled, gently showing her how much she didn’t know about sex.

“How was your time off?” Ollie asked, sliding onto his usual stool.

“It was nice,” she managed to say without blushing. “I twisted my ankle on the way home Friday night so I wasn’t able to get anything done with my time off.”

“That sucks,” Ollie replied, reaching for a bowl of peanuts.

“It wasn’t all bad,” she sighed, her mind wandering to Gareth. “I had help.”

“Not Richard?!” Ollie said sharply, turning to look at her.

“No, not Richard,” she replied, sighing happily as she stood. “That chapter in my life is closed for good.”

“You go,” he said, offering her a high-five.

“Thanks,” Michelle replied, slapping Ollie’s hand.

The rest of the night passed in relative peace, but by the end of her shift she was dead on her feet. She’d never felt so worn out in her whole life.

Limping slightly she finished restocking the fridge and put the last of the clean glasses away, thinking longingly of sleep.

Leaning against the clean surface of the counter, Michelle managed to slip into her jacket, fumbling her phone out of its pocket. Looking at the messages, she was disturbed to see that Richard had called and left a voicemail for her.

Not sure if she really wanted to hear the message, Michelle hit the button and listened to the call.

“Hi Michelle, it’s me. I’m sorry about last night, I just wanted to give you your birthday present. Listen, I know when we parted it wasn’t on the best terms, but I still care about you. Is there even the smallest chance that we can meet up so I can give this to you?”

Michelle listened to the message once more before deleting it. She couldn’t call him back, wouldn’t. Even if nothing became of her relationship with Gareth other than a few great nights in bed, there was no way she would ever go back to Richard.

Setting the alarm and locking the doors, she was still trying to decide if she was going to pick up dinner on the way home or eat leftovers when her phone rang.

Seeing Gareth’s number she smiled.

“Hi,” she said, bringing the phone to her ear.

“Hey,” Gareth replied, sounding happy. “How was your shift?”

“It wasn’t too bad,” she sighed leaning back to rest against the headrest. “I’m just tired, and I think I might have pulled something either last night or this afternoon.”

They both laughed at her comment, before she had to stop to yawn.

“Sorry,” she said, trying unsuccessfully to suppress it.

“You don’t have to apologize,” Gareth said. “Will you be okay to get home?”

“Yeah,” she replied looking up the road towards her building. “I’ll be fine. The sidewalks are dry and I plan on going straight to bed.”

“Be careful,” he said sincerely. “I’ll talk to you later.”

“Goodnight,” she replied, feeling better just hearing his voice.

Gareth sighed, disconnecting the call. Taking a slow sip from his glass of whiskey, he suppressed a grunt of pain as his inner beast pushed for control.

"Mate," it growled, wanting to be with his chosen female.

"Not now," Gareth growled back, trying to keep from shifting and sprinting across town to be with Michelle.

"We have a lot to figure out first," he explained, twisting his neck to relieve some of the tension building there.

"You marked her without consent," he continued, feeling his beasts anger rising at the accusation. "You know what the council would do to us is they ever found out.

"We'd be branded as outcasts and forced out of the community," he seethed, finishing the rest of his drink in irritation before refilling the glass. "And that's if they're lenient. If not, we could be executed for breaking one of our most sacred laws."

"MINE," his beast growled again. "My mate!"

"I don't care if you chose her," Gareth spat back, getting irritated with his beasts one track mind, "you still broke the law."

"Not chose," was the snarling reply, "gifted by Goddess!"

"What?" Gareth asked, coughing on his drink painfully. "What do you mean gifted?"

"Destined," was the only reply.

"Destined?" Gareth breathed in disbelief.

It had been almost a century since the last destined mate was found in the lycanthrope community. Could it be that Michelle was truly destined to be his?

Rising, he rushed into the smaller bedroom of his apartment, pulling open boxes that he'd never thought he'd need to unpack, looking for a tome on lycan lore.

Finding what he was looking for, he slid into the chair behind his desk and began reading, searching, hoping, praying to the Goddess.

After an hour of reading, he found it, a passage long forgotten describing what it felt like to find a destined mate.

"The destined mates hold an aura of wonder and enchantment for each other. A feeling of completeness and fulfillment can be felt when they are together, while the world seems empty and lifeless when apart.

In the case of a human mate, they will present with a glowing aura of starlight, a blessing from the Goddess herself to guide the lycan eye to her gift."

"Mate," Gareth breathed, shocked and elated that he'd found his destin