TWICE MATED

Skeptical

ANAIAH’S POV

This wasn’t something that I was used to, I wasn’t used to anyone being nice to me and after what happened with Michael, I never thought I would ever get the chance to be loved as someone else's mate.

I wasn’t used to anyone in a high position being nice to me and that was the reason why I was struggling with what was happening between me and Max. I had made up my mind that it was best for me to accept the fact that Max was my mate and I was done with the life that could have been with Michael. I had spent a lot of time obsessing over the things that he had put me through and I didn’t want to end up alone at all because I couldn’t decide who I wanted to be with. The way I saw it, I only had one option and that was Max. The moon goddess had given me two options, but Michael had removed himself and in so doing narrowed it down for me to one. I didn’t want to think or talk about him anymore because thinking about him consumed me with negative feelings.

I had always heard it being said that the eyes were the windows to the soul and that they could tell no lies. Max’s eyes showed me that he truly did love me and wanted me to stay there with him, he cared for me and wanted what was best for me. He truly believed that I was his mate, and I felt like I was betraying him by not telling him the truth about myself. However, I didn’t have any other choice but to lie to him because the truth was definitely going to make him see me differently. He already hated Michael and I was afraid that this would be bad for me if I told him that I was there because I had been rejected by Michael as a mate. I didn’t want him to feel like he had been given Michael’s leftovers, if I told him that he would not only hate me for lying to him but he would also be hurt that I had been passed down to him. This didn’t mean that I was proud of the lie that I had told him, it's just that the lie was necessary if I had any hope of staying there with him. It was very clear to me that he hated him, and something told me that the feeling was mutual. I wondered why they would hate each other when they so clearly had so much in common. They were so different and similar at the same time.

I had bigger problems to deal with than trying to find out why these two grown men hated each other. I still had to figure out how I was going to handle the feelings that I had for Michael while staying there with Max as his mate. I needed to figure out how I was going to start a new life with a new mate while another one was out there and the mate bond that I shared with him was still very strong. The whole situation was confusing for me and the only thing I could think of was that the moon goddess had made a mistake in mating me with these two men. It wasn’t as if the Wolfland had a few women and the moon goddess had run out of women to mate with these men. Why did I have to get two mates at the same time? What I had known until now was that the moon goddess only gave second-chance mates to wolves that would have previously lost their mate or been rejected and had the mate bond broken. Our mate bond hadn’t been broken, and I could still feel it. I felt like Michael was still attached to me and no matter how much I tried to hate him, I just couldn’t seem to shake him off me. No matter how hard I tried to fight the longing that I felt for him, there was no denying the fact that my heart was yearning for him and so was my body. But now there was a new feeling that accompanied that same yearning that I had felt for Michael. I was here with Max, and for some reason, his acceptance awoke a lot of feelings in me. He made me feel wanted and that was something that I had wanted more than anything ever since I found out Michael was my mate. He was giving me everything Michael had failed to give me, he was treating me in ways that Michael had failed to and I couldn’t help feeling like this was where I was supposed to be. I mean where else could I go if I was to reject my new mate all because of the feelings I still had for Michael? I had to force myself to forget him so that I could embrace the new life that had been given to me.

Max had introduced himself as the King of Rogues, and that obviously meant that he would find me no matter where I went. I was a rogue now, and that meant that I was now a permanent part of his kingdom. I was better off on his side than against him. I figured the rogue kingdom was way bigger than Michael’s little pack, there was no way that I could run to escape my new mate where he wouldn’t find me. Unless, of course, I decided to live among humans as a part of them, which was definitely not an option for me. Although he had promised me that he wouldn’t do anything to hurt me, I couldn’t allow myself to be blind. Max was as dangerous as Michael was and the fact that he was a rogue meant that he was possibly a little more dangerous than Michael was. I had to be careful of what I did while in this place. I couldn’t afford to upset him in any way. I had to make sure that I was on my best behavior so that he would keep me here even if it turned out that I wasn’t his mate and there had been some kind of a mistake.

Max brought the dinner to the room just as he had said he would. He said that he didn’t want me to be uncomfortable by putting a lot on me too soon and that was the reason why we had dinner in his bedroom. It was going to take a lot for me to get used to calling his room my room, but I had to embrace all the changes that came with being his mate. He did, however, make it clear that meeting the rest of his “pack” was something that I had to prepare myself for. I knew I would never be ready for that. In a pack, I was always the one that was considered a lone wolf and I imagined it would be the same for me even here in rogue land. There were probably a lot of girls that had been holding out hope that one day this man would be theirs and I had come and taken that away from them. I didn’t expect them to be very welcoming of me because of that.

“Tomorrow I will take you around the pack and introduce you,” Max said as we were preparing for bed after an omega came to get our empty plates. That was something else that I had to get used to. I was so used to being the one who had to serve others and now it felt like things had changed in the blink of an eye.

“I think it’s a little too early for that,” I said, and he scoffed.

“No, it's not. I would have introduced you today if I could, but I figured you needed to get some rest. Humans need time, and we don’t”, he said.

“What do you mean by that?” I asked him, and he sighed.

“I mean humans take time to introduce their partners to their families, they wait for weddings and all that, but we got married at creation, we were meant for each other,” he said confidently as he moved close to me and I backed away until I sat on the bed.

“but I still think we should take it slow” I whispered as he rested his hands on the bed and brought his face close to mine. He placed a gentle kiss on my forehead, and instead of moving farther away from him, I found myself leaning in as he trailed his kisses down to my lips. I wanted more of him, and at that moment, all the confusion I had been struggling with disappeared. Maybe I was wrong about Michael, and maybe meeting him that night was meant to lead me to this moment. Maybe it was destiny leading me to my true mate. This felt right, and I wasn't just saying that because I was lonely or on the rebound. Max made me feel things that I hadn't even felt when I was with Michael. The best part was that he was allowing me to feel these things because he also felt the same way about me, he wanted to feel these things for me and he wasn’t fighting them. He made me feel wanted and I knew that he truly wanted me. I didn't need anyone to tell me this because I could feel it in the way he touched me and kissed me. Maybe in time, I would forget about Michael and what he did to me if I allowed myself to feel these things and enjoy the love I was being showered with.

I had to find a way to forget the things that Michael had put me through, I had to find a way to embrace the new life that had been gifted to me. Even though I still believed the moon goddess had made a lot of mistakes when it came to the life that I was living, I felt that this was her way of fixing things for me. If anyone deserved to be happy in life, it was me. I deserved to be happy because I had been through a lot. After losing my parents, I was left to fend for myself and this wasn’t something that I was always able to do and that was the reason why I was called the slave to omegas. This was the reason why I had spent so much time daydreaming about what having a mate would be like, this was the reason why I was looking forward to meeting my mate ever since my parents died. I always felt like my life would begin after I met my mate and looking back to what happened to Michael, I realized that I may have been right about that. Although my life almost ended when he found out that I was his mate, it also began when he tried to dispose of me in the forest and when Max’s men found me. I had been given a new chance at life by the moon goddess and I had to live this new life to the fullest. I had to embrace everything that came with being Max’s queen, so what if his subjects struggled to accept me? What mattered was the fact that he accepted me and loved me the way I was. He chose to look beyond my omega status and decided that I was good enough to be his queen. The only question was whether or not I was ready to be a queen.