TWICE MATED

Truly mated

ANAIAH’S POV

I can even lie and say that I was feeling lucky about the way things were going here, it was as if I went to sleep an omega, and then when I woke up I was called the queen. If this was the moon goddess’ idea for a joke, then she had to know that I wasn't enjoying it. This wasn’t funny at all. The worst thing of all was that I was even developing feelings for this male wolf. Why couldn’t my life be as simple as everyone else’s life was? Why did I always have to find myself in all these complicated situations? The only thing that I had prayed for was that I would get accepted in this pack and that was all that I wanted, but the moon goddess decided that it was better if I was in this pack as a leader and not a follower. Anyone else would be happy about this new development, but I wasn't, and that was because I knew about all the complications that were going to come after this. There were obviously girls in this pack that had been hoping that they would end up being mated to the alpha and the fact that I was here to take their place was going to rub them the wrong way. This was not the kind of attention that I needed in my life.

One good thing that came out of all this was the fact that the alpha wasn’t as bad as all the others that I had met made him seem. He was actually kind, and he seemed interested in hearing more about me. Of course, I couldn’t take him at his word when he promised me that he wouldn’t kill me, but I guess that promise was good enough for me. At least he wasn’t acting the same way that Michael had acted, and he wasn’t trying to kill me simply because I was his mate. I couldn’t even believe that I was calling this new man in my life my mate. How sure was I that he was my mate? I already had a mate, and there was no way that I could have found my second chance mate so soon. There was just no way that this man was my mate. This didn’t make any sense to me.

No matter how much you doubted that he was my mate, I couldn’t show him that I was doubting him. I had to search within myself and wait for these feelings to develop before I made any decisions. Although it didn’t look like I had any choice in the matter from where I was standing, the moon goddess had decided yet again to f**k up my life and I had no say in the matter. I hoped that my life wouldn’t fall apart with my new so-called mate of mine.

I had to admit that he was nothing like Michael and that he was a better man than what Michael had ever displayed. I hadn't spent much time in his presence but I could tell that he was a gentle and loving man. One thing that confused me was the fact that he reminded me so much of Michael. I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was that reminded him of my former mate, but there was just something about him that screamed Michael. I wasn’t sure if it was in the way he spoke or the way he ran his fingers through his hair when he spoke. I was very confused by the feelings that were fast developing inside me and the way my body reacted when he touched me.

Maybe Michael wasn't my mate, maybe we both got it all wrong, and maybe his getting rid of me was all in the moon goddess’ plan to get me where I was today. It definitely wasn’t a plan that I would have gone for if I was the moon goddess, but I knew that I would never fully understand the ways of the goddess. One thing I knew for a fact was the fact that Michael never made me feel the way that this new mate of mine made me feel. It may have been because we hadn't gotten the time to develop our bond but at the same time it wasn’t as if there was any bond to develop.

I can't remember Michael making me feel like this but then again, the only time he touched me was when he was putting me in the car after he tried to kill me. By then, all the feelings that I may have had for him were replaced by the pain that he had put me through and the physical pain that I was in. This was the new beginning that I had prayed for and I had to grab the bull by the horn and take this chance like there was no other way. This was my chance to live a normal life and it was something that I had yearned for a very long time. Maybe things did work out the way I had always paid they would at the end of the day because my mate was the one who rescued me.

MAX’S POV

I can’t remember the last time I was this happy or the last time I allowed myself to be this happy. I hadn't spent that time with my mate but I was already feeling very positive about having her there. Having her by my side without even being physical with her showed me that this was what I needed in my life. She was what I needed in my life and I had to allow myself to be happy now that she was there, despite where she was from. I couldn't allow the fact that this girl was from Michael’s pack to take away from the fact that she was my mate, and my love for her was not open for discussion. I no longer cared about the reasons she had for leaving his pack, but judging from the condition she was in when she came there, I would say that there had been an attempt on her life. Someone tried to kill her, and I wondered if Michael, as the leader of the pack, knew about this.

Was he the one who organized the attack on her? And I knew I was being paranoid and imagining things, but asking this, but did he try to kill her because he knew she was my mate? This woman seemed so harmless and I couldn’t even imagine anything that she could have done that would have justified what was done to her. I couldn't imagine anyone hurting her on purpose and yet here she was after almost losing her life. I no longer wanted to grind her and question her about Michael, but I still had a lot of questions for her. Any question that I was going to ask her was going to be a question that was supposed to help me get to the bottom of what had happened to her.

He had to have known about what happened to her because he was the alpha, he probably found out somehow about me and her, and maybe he was trying to sabotage it before anything happened. He was trying to make sure I never got the chance to meet my mate by killing her. I knew that he hated me, but this was just taking it too far, even for him. Him knowing that she was my mate before we met and before I knew it sounded impossible, but I had learned that I couldn’t put anything past Michael. He was capable of the most horrible things and he was capable of taking someone's life without even blinking.

There was no point in me brainstorming his reasons for acting the way he had acted when I could simply ask her why there had been an attempt on her life. I hadn't asked her any questions ever since I brought her to my room, but that didn’t mean that I wasn’t curious. I wanted to know about everything that had happened to her while she was in that pack. I wanted to know why she was so scared of me and why she thought I was out to kill her even though I was her mate. What made her think that killing her was even an option for me? I was convinced that something had to have happened in her past that caused her to react to me like that.

Of course, I knew that I also had to carry the blame for the way she reacted because I had imprisoned her when she got here. Maybe she thought I knew she was my mate from the moment that she set foot in our territory but even the moon goddess knew that wasn’t true. If I had known that she was my mate I wouldn’t have imprisoned her, I only imprisoned her because I thought that she was a spy from Michael’s pack and I was still to question her. I was just thankful that I didn’t ask Marcello to finish her before I saw her, I would never have forgiven myself if anything happened to her because of me.

After spending the entire day in my office all in an effort to ensure that she got the rest she needed, I decided to finally go and see her. I could barely focus on the work that was before me because I was haunted by thoughts of her. I couldn’t think of anything else. I had to see her. I had kept my distance from her because I was worried that my presence would make her feel otherwise. I didn't want to overcrowd her or make her feel uncomfortable in any way, but I felt like I had given her enough time and it was now time for me and her to talk.

“I am happy that you are awake. How are you feeling?” I asked her, and she coiled up on the bed as if I had just threatened to kill her.

“You really don’t have to be afraid of me, I won't hurt you,” I said as I sat on the bed and tried to come up with a way that could make her a little more comfortable. I remembered that she still didn’t know who I was. She didn’t know my name and was probably wondering where she was. I figured she would feel more comfortable if I told her my name because maybe that would make it clear that I had good intentions for her.

“My name is Maximilian. I introduced myself once more, hoping that this time she would inturn introduce herself to me. I wanted to shake her hand but I figured that would be asking for too much.

“Would you like to tell me your name?” I asked her, and she shook her head and looked around the room.

“Where am I?” she asked me

“You are in my room,” I said

“No I mean, what is the name of this pack?” she asked, and I laughed.

“PACK…? Who said anything about a pack?” I asked her, and she looked confused.

“What is this place then if it’s not a pack?” she demanded, and I would usually be annoyed by the tone of her voice, but I kind of found it sexy. No woman had ever dared to question me like that. No woman had ever asked me a question demanding answers, as if I owed her something. This woman was truly my mate.

“Well, this is rogue land, and I am the king of rogues,” I said confidently, and that seemed to help sink a different kind of reality to her. She probably didn’t consider herself a rogue until that moment. “Of course, the fact that we are a group of wolves would make us a pack wouldn’t it?” I asked, but that was just a rhetorical question. I was actually trying to make a joke, but she was evidently not in the mood for it.

“Can I know your name now?” I asked her, and I noticed that she had tears welling up in her eyes, tears she was fighting very hard not to let out.

“It’s Anaiah” she finally said as she sniffed and wiped the little tears that had already escaped her eyes. Now may not have been the right time for me to ask her questions, but I was going to be patient with her. It was probably going to take time for her to come around, but I was going to wait. All I could do was hope that she wouldn’t make me wait too long. She was my mate and she had been through something that was very traumatic for her, I had to be patient with her and try to give her the time she needed no matter how hard that may have been for me.

Anaiah, I felt relieved that I finally had a name for her beautiful face. There were more questions I wanted to ask her, but for now, I was just going to settle for her name and accept the fact that that may be all she was willing to give me. I was going to allow the conversation to flow, and if I felt like she was ready to answer any of my questions, I was going to ask them.

“I am so happy that you are here,” I said as I tried to reach for her hand, but she wouldn't let me touch her. All I wanted was to kiss her hand and feel her skin.

“Oh so you don’t want to kill me anymore?” she asked me, and I sighed. I hated the fact that we had to keep going back to what my initial intentions for her were because a lot had changed since then. A lot that she refused to recognize had changed since then.

“If I wanted you dead, you would be dead by now. You are my mate, and I have no reason to want you dead, even though you are from Michael's pack” I said. I know that I had promised myself that I wouldn't push her to answer my questions, but I couldn’t help myself. I just had to know more about her.

”I don’t want to kill you, I love you and I know that me saying those words so soon may scare you, but if I didn't tell you this I would be lying not only to you but to myself too,” I said and she stared at me before saying anything in response to my premature declaration of love for her.

“Well, if you don’t want to kill me, then I would be happy to stay,” she said, making it evident to me that Michael wasn’t something that she wanted to discuss with me. I would accept that but I didn’t want to anymore. I wanted to know, and I was just going to bite the bullet and ask her.

”I would also be happy to accept you as my mate” she added uncomfortably, as if admitting that I was her mate was something that she was ashamed of, and that hurt my feelings.

“Can we talk about the reason why Michael almost killed you?” I blurted out, and I regretted it as soon as I asked that question because I had told myself that I wouldn't

“I see that you do not want to talk about this. However, I have to know. Why did you leave your pack?” I asked her.

“It’s not that I don’t want to talk about it… I am just afraid of how you would look at me if I told you” she said,

“Nothing will ever change the way I look at you. You are my mate, and my job is to love you through thick and thin.”

“Alpha….Michael accused me of being a witch, and he gave me something that was supposed to prove that I was, but it almost killed me. I actually think that he wanted to kill me” she said," Michael and the witches…that didn’t sound like him at all. Unless, of course, he had changed a lot since the last time I saw him, I would never have guessed that he was that superstitious. He was definitely not the Michael that I had grown up with anymore.

“I think it’s fate… I think this was the moon goddess’ way of helping us to finally meet” I said, but she didn’t seem to agree with me. She was probably still skeptical about me and wondered if I would end up killing her.

“I really doubt that the moon goddess would use Michael’s murderous ways to bring us together. He is just a sick and twisted man who throws tantrums when he doesn’t get what he wants. But I am glad that I am no longer in that place with him”, she said, and I could see the intense hatred that she had for Michael. At least now I had someone who understood why I felt the way I felt about him and why it was that I hated him that much. I decided that it was better if we continued this conversation some other time because I didn’t want to upset her any further.

“Dinner is almost ready, I will bring our food, and we will eat together,” I said, getting up from bed and making my way out of the room. I stooped when I reached the door and looked back at her innocent face. I wished she knew just how safe she was with me, no one, and nothing was ever going to be able to get to her or hurt her. I was going to protect her with my life, and for her, I would even abandon my quest for revenge against Michael. I may not have known much about her, but knowing that she was my mate was good enough for me.