Filed to story: The Wolf Prince’s Fated Love
“It’s okay. Neither one of us knew what was happening, and like I said, there’s no real mark on me. Whatever this is…” I risked letting go of one arm so I could wave at my neck, “it’s not the real deal. If I’m honest, I’m not really sure how this works, but if it lets us talk, I’m willing to try it.”
He gazed sorrowfully down at me, not convinced that I wasn’t upset. “It is the gravest of sins to hurt your mate. And taking that choice from you…” He shook his head, refusing to meet my eyes. “It is an injury beyond any I could ever forgive myself for.”
“Okay, would you lay off?” Anger was starting to burn off the haze of lust surrounding me. “I get it. You got caught up in the moment. Whatever. Neither one of us knew this was more than a hot sex dream. I’m not mad about an accidental mark, even if it’s… never mind. I’m a lot more concerned about the choice where you’re refusing to shift when we’re not asleep. Can we talk about that?”
I don’t know if I was channeling Leigh or what, but I’d never been so sassy in all my life. Especially not with a man. I resisted the urge to slap a hand over my mouth, though. It needed to be said, and I didn’t want to waste whatever time we had on him kicking himself over an accident.
His eyes sprang open, a different kind of fear filling them as he gazed down at me.
“I can’t shift back, not now, not ever.” He was adamant, resolve straightening his shoulders as he pushed off the wall and let me go as he began to pace in agitation.
“Ever?” The beginnings of anger ratcheted up to eleven as his words sank in. “So I’m just supposed to live essentially alone for the rest of my life? Dirge, I’m only twenty-six. I need more than a dream to hold on to for the next nine hundred years.”
“I would understand.” He swallowed hard, his jaw tensing before he ground out, “I would understand if you needed to take a lover.”
My jaw dropped.
“You fucking bastard!” I leapt at him, my wolf enraged at the suggestion. I could barely hang on to my shift, and if we weren’t in some drug-induced dream state, I’m pretty sure she’d have torn his throat out for the suggestion.
I tackled him, both of us falling to the plush, patterned rug at the foot of the bed. He didn’t resist, and I landed on top of his chest, straddling his rib cage as I struggled to keep my wolf from shredding out of me.
“How could you even say that to me? You are my mate, and if you think I care so little about the mate bond that I’d take another partner while you’re right here, well, you don’t deserve to be at my side anymore. You can get the hell out and not come back.” Granted, I was pinning his shoulders to the rug with claw-tipped fingers, so leaving was a little difficult.
“Shay. Shailene,” he crooned, his hands gentle as they caressed my sides, sending tingles of anticipation and need through me.
I growled, baring my teeth as I refused to let up.
“It would destroy me, watching you with another. But if protection is all that I can offer you, I don’t expect you to remain chaste.”
“I don’t want excuses or pretty condolences, damn you! I want an answer. Why? Tell me why.” I held his gaze then, challenging him, hell-
dominating him in this pose.
He sighed, the sound weary as his hands continued their slow work of stroking, soothing.
“I am old, Shay. Old enough that the darkness was starting to get to me. Drag at me. So, I went hunting for a mate. For nearly a hundred years, I traveled. Looking for dense populations of shifters, hoping to happen across my female. But I never did. My mother’s second pregnancy brought me home, as childbirth takes more wolves than any war has in living memory.”
My anger started to wane as his fingertips massaged the sensitive skin beneath my breasts, and as I was consumed by this piece of his history. I hadn’t known he and Reed had a younger sibling.
“For a while, my family anchored me. The joy of a new pup is not small, and for years, I was content again. The darkness held at bay. But as Benedict hit his teenage years… that surge of alpha pheromones triggered my own, and it grew harder and harder to contain the need inside me.”
My grip on his shoulders loosened, my claws retracting as the need to comfort Dirge took over. “I’m sorry, that must have been incredibly difficult.”
“It was. And in my desperation, I sought the lore. Who could help me find my mate? Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on your perspective, I found an answer.”
A chill went down my spine, and now I was clutching his shoulders for a different reason: fear.
“What did you do, Dirge?”
Sorrow painted his handsome face as he continued the tale. “I sought the Fates.”
“Wait, like the Greek myth ones? They’re real?”
He bobbled his head from side to side. “Yes and no. They’ve always existed, but the name and lore surrounding them have changed many times. The Fetya, as they’re called in shifter lore, can only be reached by great personal sacrifice and from certain points on the globe. With nothing to stop me, I sought the nearest mountain. The journey was long. I took no food or water, weakening myself sufficiently to meet the requirements of personal sacrifice. By the time I had reached the top-in human form-I was on the edge of death, even for a shifter.”
I worried my bottom lip between my teeth, not at all feeling warm and fuzzy about where this was going, even though he was here, solid, and very alive beneath me. Had these Fetya cursed him? Could I force them to take it back? I would climb a mountain if it meant getting him back for real.
“By the time they appeared, I wasn’t sure if it was hallucination or reality. But I asked them to show me my mate. And they did.”
This time, a wide smile showed me his straight, white teeth. He trailed a fingertip up between my breasts to touch my lower lip with his thumb. I shuddered, ridiculously aroused as I waited on tenterhooks for the conclusion of this story.
“You were radiant, the most stunning creature I’d ever seen. But the Fetya do not simply give visions. They give prophecies. And the vision they showed me was a nightmare.” Grief made him avert his gaze, grip me more tightly to his chest.
I melted down his chest, the urge to comfort him with my body overwhelming. “It’s okay, Dirge. You can tell me. I’m here,” I whispered into his neck, curling my body over his as if I could protect him from the past with sheer stubbornness.
He dragged in a deep, shuddering breath as our legs intertwined. Even in his grief, his arousal was hot and hard against my thigh.
“They didn’t just show me you. They showed me you on the day you die.”
I froze. The day I died? They knew?
More importantly, did I want to know? I held my breath and my questions, silently urging him to continue.
“We were in a field, somewhere I’d never seen. And you were radiant, smiling. The mere sight of you took the breath from my lungs. But then everything changed. The vision grew hazy. The sky darkened, and you were falling. I shifted out of wolf form to catch you, and…”
I stroked his cheek, silently supportive.
“That’s when they told me. The first day I hold you in my arms. The first day I leave my wolf behind in your presence, that is the day you are taken from this world. I saw it happen, Shay. As soon as my hands touched your skin, light burst out of you. You were consumed, taken. And all I held was your broken, lifeless body.”
My hands stilled, a secondary horror washing over me. Not only was I going to die, but he would be left alone. If we were unable to complete our bond, he wouldn’t be taken with me. With the darkness already dragging at him, with no mate…
He would be feral.