TWICE MATED

The blame game

MAX’S POV

I blamed Marcelo for the first fight that I had with my mate. I blamed him because she was the one who had planted all those crazy ideas about him in my head. If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t have tried to follow her around. I would have believed her when she told me that she was here because Michael tried to kill her. What kind of mate was I if I easily believed anyone who said things about my mate? I found out with Anaiah because of the advice that I had received from Marcelo and this served as a lesson to me to never believe anything that he said to me.

If he hadn't convinced me that there was something weird about her, I would never have even started following her around. If he hadn't convinced me that she was acting weird, I wouldn’t have wasted my time and put my relationship with her at risk by following her around. What if she decided that she no longer wanted to be with me and what if she decided that she no longer wanted to be with me? How long was it going to take me to get another mate? This was the last time I would ever take any advice from Marcello, especially if that advice was about my mate.

What I was now asking myself was what I would have found out if I had continued following her. This woman wasn’t even from our pack and if she had any secrets there certainly wouldn’t be in this pack. The most sensible thing to do if I wanted to know more about her was to go and ask Michael about her but I couldn’t do that. I should have just gotten to know my mate better instead of following her around because now she was going to be more cautious around me. She was going to be selective with the things that she shared with me and that was all my fault.

This matter not only affected my relationship with my mate but also made me look at my guards and Marcello differently. They were supposed to be discreet about following her every move but it appeared to me that they had been outsmarted by an omega. An omega that probably didn't have training prior to now. How could she have seen they were supposed to be discreet?

Marcello tried to convince me that she managed to see that she was being followed because she wasn’t really an omega. That claim made me laugh because even a human would be able to see that Anaiah was just an omega. That was one thing that she couldn’t lie about. I still couldn’t see how she could lie about being my mate either, because it was something that I could feel in my bones. I didn’t think a fake mate bond could make anyone feel like this. Marcello was wrong and in time he was going to realize that. I regretted following Anaiah around, especially now that she knew about what I was doing, and also because I didn’t find anything or hear anything.

I guess I never thought she would notice that I was having people follow her around, she was much sharper than I thought she was and I must admit that I found that to be a turn-on. It meant that she had spent most of her time having to not only defend herself but also protect herself from Michael and all the bullies that were in his pack. Michael was a useless alpha, he cared about no one but himself and that was evident in the way he treated his omegas. It was a good thing that Anaiah was no longer under his clutches and that she was now back with me. I was going to take care of her and she would never have to deal with Michael ever again.

I meant it when I said I would protect her and when I said she would be happy with me. I had to be more understanding of her, she was new to this place and before now she hadn't been anything more than a servant. Certainly, being in this new position was a little overwhelming for her, and to make matters worse, she was still recovering from a very traumatic experience and she needed all the support that she could get from me. Of course, she would be acting unusually after all that she had been through. Of course, she was suspicious of everyone because, before finding out that she was my mate, she was meant to be killed. These are the things that I should have put into consideration before I took Marcelo's advice. Being understanding of her situation was what I should have been doing instead of being judgemental towards her. I should have been making her feel more at home instead of questioning what her true intentions were. It wasn’t as if she had walked in here and claimed to be my mate, she was hesitant to accept me. She didn’t trust me because of what had happened to her with Michael and I should have been more understanding of that. I was afraid that she could now be thinking that I was the same man that Michael was. I had to make it up to her and I had to find a way.

Thankfully, I had managed to get her to calm down and get her to forgive me for my actions and we were back on good terms. I wanted to treat her like the queen she was and I wanted her to get used to that treatment. I wanted her to know that she wasn’t what Michael made her believe she was. She may have been built like an omega, but she was a queen at heart. If she wasn’t meant to be the Queen, she would never have been mated to me. I was born to rule with her by my side and I couldn’t imagine myself doing it with someone else. I didn’t care what anyone else thought about me being with Anaiah. The only thing that mattered to me now was that me and her stick together and rule this pack.

She wasn’t a nobody, she was my mate and she deserved to be respected. I also noticed that the wolves in this pack were not giving her much respect and I could see and understand why she would blame me for that. I was the one who had been suspicious of her and they had seen that and taken advantage of that. The only way I could fix it was for me to show them that I not only trusted her but also that I had accepted her as my mate. It's not that we needed their approval, but I just wanted them to accept her because that would make things a lot easier for us, especially her. She might not think she needed any friends now, but I knew what life could be like if the only companion she had was me. That was the reason why I wanted her to make friends.

Now, the most important thing for me was to make her feel comfortable and also make sure that she looked the part of a queen. The rags she had on made it clear to everyone that she was a lower-ranking wolf but I was going to make sure that they understood that no longer applied to her.

When we woke up the following morning, I decided that I would take her out shopping so that we could get her a whole new wardrobe. This was something that I could have easily asked one of the female wolves in the pack to attend to, but I knew that she wouldn’t be comfortable around them. They didn’t trust her and the same applied to her. She didn’t trust them and didn’t want anything to do with them for now. I wasn’t sure who had been mistreating her ever since she got here, but nothing ever got past me. I was going to find out sooner or later.