Yorick

I smelled her exotic scent. Or more accurately, Thad had smelled her and nearly threw me to the floor trying to get out of our room to find her. She has a rich, earthy scent with hints of leather and smoke that should smell masculine, but on her, it smells exotic, almost like amber or musk.

When I finally see her, she looks just as exotic as she smells. She has long auburn-colored hair and blue-grey eyes. And under her enticing, exotic scent, is the scent of Alpha. She's perfect.

Thad hadn't given me a moment to even say hi before he had her pressed against the wall, kissing her and demanding that she give him what he wanted. Her.

I'll admit, I got lost in the kiss. Her scent, her taste, the feel of her arms sliding around my body all made it impossible for me to pull away. Until she pushed me away.

I stepped back, panting as people moved around us, giving us looks like we are acting crazy on the first day, and it doesn't bode well for us.

"I'm sorry. I lost control of Thad. I didn't even introduce myself,' I say to her.

"It's fine. That's fine," she says, pulling her bags over her shoulder and moving to step around me.

"I'll help you," I say, grabbing the bags off one of her shoulders.

"That's not necessary," she says, trying to tug her bags back.

I growl softly at her. "And yet, I will carry them for you. I'm Yorick, by the way."

"Alas, poor Yorick. Are you a man of infinite jest?" she asks me, loosely quoting Shakespeare.

"You know your literature," I say, smiling. I love an intelligent woman. My family is filled with them. "I believe you'll find me to be a fellow of most excellent fancy," I say, continuing the quote. "And what is your name, mate?"

"Cyra," she says simply.

"Cyra. What an unusual, beautiful name," I say. "It means noblewoman, right?" I ask her.

"I prefer the easier translation of throne. I don't sit on it, I AM the throne," she says, making me smile.

"And what does a throne hope to achieve here in the Warrior Academy," I ask.

She stops at a door and turns to face me. "To become the best, the highest-ranking warrior in the werewolf community."

"That's a very aggressive statement considering how elite this school is," I say.

She shrugs, reaching out to take her bags from me.

"And yet, that is my goal. It was nice to meet you Yorick. I'm sure I'll see you around. Hopefully you won't end up six feet under as your namesake implies," she says, opening her door and stepping in.

Before she can close the door in my face, I put my foot in the doorway.

"Are you really just going to walk away from me?" I ask her, feeling hurt that she's not as excited by our mate bond as I am.

She sighs, as if I'm asking a lot of her to give me her time.

"No, you're right. We should get this over with now. Do come in," she says, opening the door.

Get this over with? If she thinks I'm going to rush our marking and mating, she is sorely mistaken.

I step into the room, and she drops her bags on the bed then turns to me, pushing her hair out of her face.

"I, Alpha Cyra Teymoori, reject you, Alpha Yorick ... what's your last name?"

"Hill," I growl. Thad is howling in my head at her instant rejection of us.

"I, Alpha Cyra Teymoori, reject you, Alpha Yorick Hill as my mate and Alpha," she says, looking at me expectantly, as if she didn't just rip my heart out of my chest and stomp on it while I stood by helplessly.

I step up to her, taking her chin in my hand.

"I, Alpha Yorick Hill, reject your ridiculous rejection. But I do want to know why? Why would you reject me when you don't even know me?" I growl.

She looks shocked, like she thought that I would accept her rejection when she hasn't even given me or our mate bond a chance.

She pulls her face out of my hand. "We cannot be mated," she says, not looking at me.

"And yet we are. Do you really think you know better than the Moon Goddess herself," I growl.

I watch as sadness flashes across her face and just as quickly, she schools her features into a mask of indifference.

"It isn't about the Moon Goddess," she says.

"Then please, do tell me, what is it about?" I ask, still hurt enough to let my anger bleed into my tone.

She looks away, taking a deep breath, then turns back to me.

"My father entered into an alliance bond one year ago."

I begin shaking my head. I know exactly what an alliance bond is, and I also know that if she's here as a first year, that she was underage when the deal was made, meaning that her father was never willing to give her a chance to find her fated mate, to find me.

"I should have already been marked and mated, but I applied here instead. You need to accept my rejection. There is no future for me except the one that my father created. Without it, the packs will go to war..."

"I don't fucking care! Your father had no right..." I yell. Thad is snarling in my head, ready to go kill her father and her betrothed so he can have her.

"In that, we agree, but it doesn't change anything. I have been promised to another Alpha. You need to accept my rejection and give yourself a chance to find a second chance mate."

"I don't want a second chance mate. I want you! I refuse to walk away from this. There has to be a solution, one that you and I can agree on," I say.

"There isn't, Yorick. In one year, I will be mated to another Alpha. And if you don't accept my rejection before then, you will feel pain much worse than you would feel now, if you would just accept this," she says, her eyes filling with tears.

She's breaking my heart. I'm furious with her father. So incredibly angry that he did this to her and to me, but more than that, I can see that she doesn't want this. She doesn't want the arranged bond that her father has created for her.

I step up to her, sliding my hand into her hair. My hand lights up with the most incredible tingling feeling, and it spreads up my arm and into my heart.

"You're right about one thing. We have one year. We have one year to figure this out. Don't reject me yet. Get to know me. Let's talk about our options. We'll find a way. I come from a family that believes in the mate bond above all things. You are the woman for me. No other woman will ever be enough for me, because she'll never be you," I tell her honestly, swiping a tear that falls from her eyes.

"Give me the year," I say, putting my forehead against hers. "Please."

"Yorick..." she pleads, the tears beginning to fall freely.

"Please, Cyra, give me the year," I whisper.

She nods in agreement, and I lean forward, taking her mouth in a much gentler, but no less dominant, kiss.

Cyra

Yorick kisses me the way I've always wanted to be kissed, like he's a drowning man and I'm the air he needs to breathe to survive. Even his gentle kiss is dominant, demanding that I give in to him. And how can I not? He's perfect. He's so incredibly perfect for me.

"You know this is a terrible idea, right?" I ask when he pulls back, leaning his forehead against mine again.

"Not nearly as terrible as you rejecting me and leaving me. I'll think of something, Cyra. The Moon Goddess gifted you to me and I intend to accept that gift," he says.

I chuckle and pull back.

"So, where's your room?" I ask him.

"Right next door to yours," he says, waggling his eyebrows at me and making me laugh.

I wipe away my tears and finally look around my room. "This isn't terrible," I say.

"Believe me when I tell you that it just got a whole lot better," he says. When I look at him, his heated gaze is on me. The intensity of it makes my heart stutter.

"Look here, Alpha. I'm here to learn and to become the best possible ..." I yip as he pulls me to him, wrapping his arms tightly around my waist. The heat of his body immediately begins to soak into mine.

"We're both here for the same reason, Cyra. I have no intention of ruining that for either of us. I'm the second son of an Alpha. I refused to accept my brother's offer to take a role in the pack. I won't take his handout. I want to make my way in this world too. I need to. I have to, even more now that I've found you. But that doesn't mean that this year isn't going to be a lot more enjoyable with you in it," he says.

"Are you always this charming?" I ask him.

He shrugs. "Do you find me charming?" he asks. His grey-green eyes are making it hard for me to breathe. The man is ridiculously attractive. Where Stellan has the good looks that his Alpha genes offer him, Yorick is utterly gorgeous. He exudes confidence and strength and pure masculinity.

He smiles and I realize that I've been staring at him.

"You're welcome to kiss me any time the urge strikes you," he murmurs, his deep voice sending shock waves of heat straight to my core. "I would love it if you'd offer the same to me."

I shake my head and pull out of his arms, poking my finger into his chest. "If I made that same offer to you, you'd probably be glued to my face like a suckerfish, so no. I will not be making the same offer."

"You seemed to like my kisses," he purrs. Damn the man.

"I need to unpack, and I need to look over the course schedule, get my books, look around the campus, and find the cafeteria so I can get some food."

"Did you know that I need to do all those things as well? Well, except for the unpacking. I already did that. Or at least I started to until I smelled your intoxicating scent," he says. "I say we work together and discover every little secret this Academy has for us."

"I doubt there are any secrets here," I tell him.

"Depends on what you consider a secret. We could call it a quest. A quest for knowledge," he says excitedly.

His excitement is contagious, and I find myself wanting to go on whatever quest Yorick wants to take me on.

"Fine. Let me unpack and we'll go on a quest," I tell him.

When I begin to unpack, he plops on my bed, laying on his side with his head propped in his hand. "So, tell me about yourself, about your family. You have an evil father, what about your mother?"

"She died in childbirth when I was very young," I tell him.

"I'm so sorry. I thought this would be an easy opening."

"It's okay. Tell me about your family," I say.

"Well, for starters, my parents have seven children," he says.

"SEVEN!" I exclaim.

"But four of them are twins. They started with twins, my older brother and my older sister, and then they ended with twins. In between are me and my two sisters."

"That's a LOT of kids."

"Oh, that's nothing. My sister, my older sister, had quads during her first pregnancy. I thought Quirin, her mate, was going to die. I was sure of it when my mother told them they were all girls."

"Four girls? Did he freak out?"

"Oh yeah, but not because they were girls. Mostly it was because he went from just having him and my sister, Kennedy, to having a family of six in one day."

He smiles, chuckling as he remembers something. "Then, Kennedy got pregnant with twins and guess what?" he looks at me, his eyes twinkling.

"Girls again?" I ask.

He laughs. The sound is so rich, so happy, that it makes me desperate to hear more of it.

"Girls again. Then, FINALLY, Kennedy had one child. A boy."

"I'm sure he was happy to finally have a son, an heir," I say.

"Yeah, but honestly, and he'd probably punch me if he heard me say this, he's a great girl dad. I would never have thought so in all the years that we knew him before he was mated to my sister, but he's really great with them. He's the strongest fighter I know, which is saying something since my family is well known for their strength. It's a long story, but Quirin lost his father in his early teen years. He was adopted by a neighboring Alpha, but lost his mother a few years later, leaving him alone. He had to take over the pack his father left him which had basically become a wasteland. Then he rebuilt it from the ground up. He was the only one who really understood my need to come here and make my own way."

"He sounds very interesting," I tell him.

"He is. I can't wait for you to meet him. I can't wait for you to meet all of them," he says.

"Yorick ..." I warn.

"You live with your fantasy, and I'll plan our reality. I wasn't kidding about the strength of my brother's pack, Quirin's, or even Henry's. He's our other ally. I may not be willing to accept a handout from my brother, but I'd be happy to accept his help if it meant keeping you safe and in my arms. I know that all of them would agree."

I sigh. But rather than argue, I finish putting my things away and look at him.

"Tell me about your family," he says.

"There isn't much to tell. My mother and father were in an alliance bond ..."

"That explains a lot," he says and I nod.

"So, I'd hoped that one day I would gain my freedom and could live my life, but my father had other plans for me."

"What about your brother? Has he found his mate, does his have kids?"

"No," I say, keeping my answer simple. "Ready for our quest?"

He leaps off the bed and takes my hand.

"I was born ready," he says, stealing a kiss and grinning like the damn Cheshire Cat before leading me out of my room.

Yorick

I am so in love. And I'm so thankful that she wasn't trying to reject me because of me or because she doesn't believe in the mate bond. The alliance bond is a problem, but I can work with that. I have a year. Worst case scenario, I'll call everyone I know to rain hellfire on her brother's pack, but I'd rather find a way to work things out; something that keeps our packs allied and at peace because we're mates. Fated mates, meant to be together. Forever.

"So, what should we do first? Look over the campus, get books, or get food?" I ask, not releasing her hand even when she tries to tug it away.

Instead, I pull her hand to my mouth and kiss the top of it, holding her gaze. "Please hold my hand."

"People will think we're together," she hisses.

I give her a look that hopefully says, 'Well yeah, duh!'

She huffs and rolls her eyes but doesn't pull her hand away. I'll take the win.

"So, what's first?"

"Mmm, maybe we should go buy our books before the bookstore closes?" she says.

"Okay," I say, practically skipping across campus as I walk beside my mate. My fated mate. MY mate. Did I mention we're fated mates?

"Are you always this ... giddy?" she asks, frowning at me.

"Nope," I say, smiling at her because I can't help myself. It feels so incredible to know I found her and here of all places. It's like the Moon Goddess is confirming that I made the right decision to come here. "This is all your influence."

"And how do you expect to get through any of our classes acting like this?" she asks, still frowning.

I turn, pulling her to a stop. "Well, you could let me mark you. We could mate for several days straight, and after that, I'm pretty sure I could focus on something other than you," I tell her, thrilled when I watch her mouth drop open.

"Which part of that is a surprise? The several days? Or me being able to focus?"

"No man can go for several days straight. Not even an Alpha," she says.

"Oh, my sweet little mate. I guarantee you that when the time comes, I will only come up for air, food, and water. Every other part of my being will be focused on you; your taste, your scent, your touch, and I want every one of your sweet orgasms from that day forward."

I watch as her eyes glass over and she begins to sway. I lean in, running my nose over her jaw to her ear. "I come from a line of men who take great pleasure in making sure their mates are not just satisfied but so fucking happy that they forget their names. That's what you can expect from me, my sweet little mate," I purr in her ear.

Her entire body shivers and I smile before stepping back.

"The bookstore?" I ask innocently.

"What?"

"You wanted to get there before they close, right?"

"Wh ... yes. Yes, books. Right," she says, shaking her head and blinking to regain her composure.

I smile, understanding much more now why my father, brother, and even Quirin tease their mates. It's delightful to see them reacting to just your words. I can't wait until I can make her react to my touch. I'll make sure the possibility of that alliance bond is so far out of her mind that it's completely forgotten. All she'll think about is me, wanting me, needing me. And then we can begin thinking about how we can overcome this contract and have what we should have – a fated mate bond.

I take her hand and lead her to the bookstore. Since we're both first years, we have the same books.

"I can buy those for you," I tell her. Yeah, my money comes from the pack, but I don't care right now. I've earned the money I have, and I want to take care of my mate. I'll pay my brother back if it's more than I can afford.

"My father gave me plenty of money for school, Yorick. You don't have to buy my books," she says.

"What about dinner. Can I buy you dinner?" I ask, practically desperate to show her that I can take care of her.

"I have money, Yorick," she says, as if trying to convince me.

"It's not about the money. I want to take care of you. My wolf wants to take care of you," I tell her.

She looks at me deciding what she's willing to agree to.

"I'll tell you what, I'll buy my own dinner, then we'll walk around campus, figure out where our classes are, and then your wolf and Rina, my wolf, can go for a run together. What do you say?"

Thad pushes forward and I let him. "I say, I would love to run with my mate," he growls possessively. "But my human and I can still take care of you. Dinner and a run," he says, negotiating with Rina.

"Is this a date, Thad?" Rina asks him.

"Absolutely."

I watch as her eyes flicker between the blue-grey of Cyra's color and the nearly navy color that must be Rina's color.

"Alright. I'll let you buy me dinner," Rina says, and I dance around in our mind space.

'Chill, tiny dancer. She hasn't agreed to be our mate or even agreed to be with us,' Thad says to me in our mind link.

'It's a first step, Thad. Take the gift,' I say to him.

'Oh, I'm taking whatever our little mate is willing to give us,' he purrs.

We walk to the cafeteria and order food.

"You know you don't have to buy our dinner, right? Just because Rina said it was okay, I'll remind you that I have plenty of money to buy my own food," Cyra says to me.

"And I'll remind you that as your mate, I feel a very strong need to take care of you. Wolf or no, you're mine. I want you to know that I can provide for you. It's important to me," I tell her.

She looks at me with sad eyes.

"Don't. Don't discount what I can give you. I know great sex isn't everything. You're an Alpha female, you would expect and demand more in a mate. I'm willing to give you anything and everything that you need. I want to be everything you want and need in a mate. So don't look at me like I've disappointed you before you've even given me a chance to prove that I can be so much more than what you were hoping to find."

"Yorick..."

"Yeah, I'm going to ruin you for him. I won't apologize for that. I want you. I want you to want me. And I don't give a fuck about this contract that your father agreed to for you. You're mine," I growl. "I won't give up without a fight. I can promise you that."

"You don't understand."

"What I do understand is that you feel trapped. My job, as your mate, is to help you see that you have options. That starts with having dinner with you, buying dinner for you, even if it is crappy cafeteria food," I say, winking at her.

"And then we'll let our wolves run together. We owe it to them to do this. Don't tell me that Rina isn't practically begging you to run with Thad. I know he's been begging me since the moment we smelled you," I say.

"Fine. One dinner, one run, and we'll see how it goes."

"Fine. Prepare yourself to be amazed," I tell her.