Chloe

I stared at the toast on my plate. Was there any way to make this breakfast take longer? I'd stretched it into an hour already, but it wasn't nearly long enough. I was running out of excuses to stay at the table. My entire day had been a slow one. When I'd gotten home the night before I hadn't been able to sleep. I had just tossed and turned in bed and was haunted by the knowledge that I'd almost met my mate. The one person that the Moon Goddess had chosen especially for me.

Even when I'd finally gotten my sleep though, Jade had been bounding through my dreams. My wolf was ecstatic. I couldn't blame her. I understood the importance of it all.

I'd found my mate. No, we'd found our mate. Jade had almost gotten the chance to meet the wolf that she'd be forever linked to. The one that we'd likely ran into today.

Chances were since he'd been at the party yesterday, he went to the same school too. I could run into him today. I could be less than an hour away from coming face to face with my mate. Our entire life was about to change in the course of one day.

Nothing would ever be the same for me again.

I forced down another bite of the dry toast. Everyone else had already finished their breakfast and carried on with their lives. I had no need to tell them that mine had changed. Nothing would ever be the same for me before.

"Chloe, will you stop acting like you're being sentenced to death? We found our mate! We're going to talk to him today. We're going to be together just like the Goddess always meant for us. This is a happy day. You should be telling everyone, not hiding it all like this."

I ignored her and finished the last of the toast. My juice glass was empty, and the clock ticked on. I had run out of time to lag behind. If I didn't get going now, my mom would drag me to school by the ear.

Why couldn't I have gotten some sort of sickness from the party yesterday?

A knock on the door tore me out of my struggles and, sighing, I went to go answer it.

"It's about time," Kale complained. "You never called me last night, so I didn't know if you made it home okay. What happened, Chloe? You just ran off. I tried to follow you, but I lost track."

I hadn't wanted anyone to follow me. "Sorry. Is it school time already?"

"Yes, and if you don't leave in the next five seconds, you really are going to be late this time. Come on!"

I sighed and nodded. It was time for me to go face my destiny. I wasn't completely against meeting my mate. I did want to know who that delicious scent belonged to. Who had the Goddess picked out for me? But I still couldn't squash the doubts that plagued me. No matter how many assurances Jade whispered to me.

I was not mate material.

"Why are you so quiet, Chloe? What's going on?" Kale looked down at me and frowned. His normal smile was nowhere to be seen.

"I smelled my mate yesterday."

His eyebrows jumped. "Your mate?" he whispered. "Damn, Chloe. I didn't think you'd ever find that. Congratulations! Who is the lucky bastard?"

I shook my head. "I don't know."

Kale tipped his head to the side. His eyes scrutinized me. "Let me get this straight. You smelled your mate, but you didn't meet them? How did that happen? They run away from you?"

I swallowed. This was the part that was hard to admit. "No. Actually, I ran from them."

"Oh, that's why you were acting so weird yesterday." Kale dragged me after him, picking up our pace so we were jogging more than walking. "Sorry, we don't have time to be slow, Chloe. We really are going to be late today."

I couldn't care less if I ended up late. Still, I didn't want to cause any problems for Kale so I picked up my speed and we pushed ourselves to the level we did in our training and we raced into the school even earlier than we had the day before.

Kale bent over, gasping for breath. "Damn it, Chloe. If you have that in you, why are we always almost late every single day? Don't you think you could show me that kind of speed any other time?"

I chuckled at him. He looked funny, doubled over like that. I wasn't even winded. "You need to work out more if that's enough to exhaust you, Kale. I didn't train you to be that weak."

"Ha," he spat. "Well, now that we're here on time, you can get in class and go get prepared for that chemistry test of yours."

I groaned. I had almost forgotten about that test. I'd rather have a combat or fitness test than mess with chemistry. The last time I'd had one of those tests, I'd created some sort of thick slime that had gotten in stuck in Kale's hair. I'd had to shave him bald, and he'd complained for a month straight about it.

"Don't create anything weird this time," Kale scolded me.

I rolled my eyes at his back as we strolled down the hallway.

Wait.

There it was again. The strong scent of cinnamon tickled my nose, and I sniffed the air, enjoying the spice and the subtle undertone of watermelon.

"Mate!" Jade screamed again, her voice rebounding in my head.

The scent was coming from directly behind me. Kale turned to check what was behind us and his body straightened.

Who was it?

I slowly turned on my heel like someone else was controlling my body. I came face to face with the future leader of my pack.

The soon to be Alpha.

Andy Cain.

Andy

I had followed that tantalizing scent through the hallways and abandoned the group of friends I was. I had to know who it belonged to. She turned to confront me, pressed close to her current boy toy. Her lips formed my name, though no sound came from her.

Out of all the people in the school, I never ever expected my mate to be Chloe Gabriella. I was at a loss, staring at her. Her friend watched us, his eyes bouncing back and forth. At least he was smart enough to not interfere with this.

Zed moved before I did. He surged to the front of our mind and took control. "Why did you run?" he growled at her. He stepped forward, and she backed away until she backed into the lockers. He put an arm above her head, trapping her against our body, and stared into her eyes. She didn't allow her wolf to answer or to even come forward.

"I-" she whispered, then stopped with a shake of her head. "Sorry," she apologized instead, with her head bent toward us. "I didn't know it was you," she replied lamely.

I wrested control back from my wolf. This was my problem to handle. He could wait in the sidelines. "Does it matter who it was? When you smell your mate, you don't run."

The eyes of the warrior at her side widened, and he stared between us. "Mate?" he whispered. "What's going on, Alpha? What happened?"

Why did he think it was any of his business? I repressed the urge to grab him by the throat and throw him to the other side. Her vanilla and peony aroma clung to him. How many times had they fucked for it to be part of his scent? I forced my mind to stop going down on that track. It didn't remember.

Instead, I turned my attention to the man. Who was this again? I racked my brain trying to remember, but he'd been such a background warrior. It was all fuzzy. Besides, it had been two years since I'd been with my warriors. This guy had never stood out aside from some of the women in the pack after him.

Still. I was an Alpha, and my brain finally gave me the information I needed. "Kale, isn't it?" I questioned after several moments.

"Yes, Alpha," he answered with the proper bowed head. At least he still knew his place.

"Can you give me a moment to speak to her alone?" I glanced back and forth down the long hallway. Due to classes about to start, they were nearly abandoned. It's just what I needed. I didn't want the whole school to witness this. No one needed to know that my mate was this woman.

"I'll see you in classes, Chloe," Kale offered to her with a weak smile and a final curious glance my way. He wasted no time in slipping into the chemistry room and closing the door behind him, leaving us alone.

Chloe swallowed and looked up at me. She crossed her arms over her chest. "What do you want, Alpha?" she whispered the words. Her body trembled.

She was going to pretend she couldn't sense what was between us? What did I want? I wanted to growl in her face.

Fine. That would just make this whole job easier.

"Andy, what are you doing?" Zed sensed my intentions. "You can't be serious. She's the one chosen for us. We have to give her a chance to explain herself fully."

"Zed, she ran from us. What kind of mate flees from the one they're destined to be with? Besides, we both know she'll never be good enough for us or the pack."

I kept the control away from my wolf. He'd no doubt do something stupid and try to claim her by force to cement the bond. I wouldn't let that happen. She'd had her chance to explain herself and she had failed. I knew what had to be done for the good of the pack. The Moon Goddess had made a mistake this time around, and I'd just have to fix it myself. "We'll talk later, Zed," I told him.

Didn't she understand it didn't matter what she said? I'd made up my mind the moment I'd understood the tantalizing scent that had tempted me so much was hers. I reached down and nudged her chin up with my index finger, so she stared into my eyes. I didn't want her to misunderstand any of this.

"Chloe Gabriella of the Crescent Blood Pack," I started in a steady voice.

"Andy!" Zed screamed at me. He would get over this. I knew better.

Her head jerked, and she stared at me wide-eyed. She didn't object, but horror entered her features and big tears glistened in her eyes. I told myself those weren't because of any feelings she had, but because I was taking away her chance to rule this pack one day. This type of woman didn't deserve power, ever.

"I Andy Cain, the future Alpha of the Crescent Blood Pack, reject you as my mate and the future Luna of this pack. What the Goddess has brought together, I hereby dissolve."

"No!" Zed's scream echoed in my head. He threw himself against the prison I had built around him, but it was too late.

I stared into her eyes and the bond and her sweet scent crumbled away. It was like a knife plunged into my gut and reached inside of me, pulling out my insides and crushing them. She crumpled to the ground crying, and I used an elbow to lean against the locker so I didn't fall down.

It didn't matter what Zed or Chloe thought anymore. I had done it and this woman no longer meant anything to us.

I was free to go after who I really wanted.

The Moon Goddess had gotten my mate wrong, but I knew exactly who I wanted at my side and once this unbearable pain stopped, I was going to go to Quinn and tell her everything.