Morrigan: I Am Your Fate

Ares' Mate

Ares.

I repeated his name in my head as he approached me and my stomach flipped as I remembered that vision and the way his eyes had been so filled with love as he reached down to help me up.

I expected him to rebuke the beautiful woman whose foot was still pressed firmly on my hand, but he did not.

As he got closer to me I took in the features of the man I knew was my mate. He looked as exquisite in the flesh as he had done in my vision of him. He was dressed in clothes that showed his status, and the fact that his pack was not struggling. The top he was wearing was deep green in the dim light but I saw glimmers of gold around the neck and the bottom of the sleeves and hem as he moved.

He was wearing them with a pair of dark brown leather trousers and a loose braided leather belt with a sheathed knife hung around his hips over the shirt. He looked powerful. Luc was physically larger and more muscular than this man, but I was certain he could have killed Luc without any effort at all.

I tried to pull my hand out from under the woman’s foot, but she pushed down harder and the pain shot up my arm.

I cried out, and Ares looked down at me.

He smiled. Just like Gaella had smiled when she saw that I was suffering after Luc hurt me that first time. He wrapped his arms around the woman and rested his hands on her lower back as he held her possessively close to him and took her in a passionate kiss that made my heart shatter and my eyes sting with tears.

The woman twisted her foot against my hand and shifted her weight across, and I knew that she was trying to cause me further pain.

I bit down on my cheek hard so that I did not give her the satisfaction of making a sound. I hid my labor from Gaella for more than a day, and I would hide this from the woman my mate was kissing as I was helpless beside them on the ground.

She reached beneath his shirt to undo his trousers, and the pain that caused was entirely different. I let out a whimper.

Ares broke his kiss with the woman and I thought that he was going to tell her to stop, but he looked towards the entrance of the tent and called to someone else. I didn’t even register the name; I was in too much pain, both physical and emotional.

Another man joined them and I guessed that he was probably the Beta of this pack. He was a little taller than Ares, and more muscular. His hair was almost black, and cropped short, and he reminded me of Luc a little.

The woman released my hand and I pulled it close to my chest and cradled it in my other hand to try and ease the pain.

The Beta hauled me up and twisted me around as he pushed me against one of the supports of the tent. He yanked my hands behind me and held them in place with one of his hands as he fiddled with something for a moment before binding my wrists together tightly with a rough feeling rope.

“What do we do with her?”

The Beta’s voice had an unfamiliar accent, but I did not think it was the same as the woman’s.

I saw from the corner of my eye that the woman was still pawing at Ares, and that he was more interested in her than he was in me or his Beta.

I could smell that she was in the early stages of heat, and nothing was going to stop them giving in to their desire for much longer.

Ares waved his hand dismissively to his Beta, and I was yanked backward and then shoved towards the entrance to the tent.

As I was pushed into the cold air of the night I heard him call after his Beta.

“Don’t even think of f*****g that little b***h until I have spoken to her. She’s a white wolf; there might be others looking for her and I don’t want to have to pay for her because the rest of you have ruined her.”

I looked up at the moon, and the tears in my eyes began to roll down my cheeks. I was silent at first as the Beta shoved me down to the ground beside the fire next to another man who smelled of sweat and stale blood, but I felt like there were brambles wrapping around my heart and constricting it when I heard the beautiful woman call out my mates name as he gave her what she wanted at last.

I sobbed, and I could not stifle myself because my hands were tied painfully behind my back and the ropes were burning my wrists as they cut into my tender skin and rubbed them raw.

A strong hand wrapped around my long white hair and pulled firmly so that my head was pulled back. It was the Beta. He was stood behind me pulling my hair so that I was forced to look up at him and I was angry at myself for sleeping with my hair loose this way so that he could grab me like that. I always used to wear it in a braid when I lived in the pack, but I had started to wear it down because I could hide behind it a little and it meant that I felt as if I wasn’t completely naked whenever Luc forced me to strip for him.

The Beta looked emotionless, and he kept my head pulled back with one hand as he forced a strip of leather into my mouth and then tied it behind my head to gag me. He let go of my hair and I looked back at the fire.

I stopped my sobbing soon enough with the leather gagging me - whenever I tried to take a jagged breath I choked and so I had to breathe through my nose.

None of the men talked to me as I sat staring into the flames.

I didn’t have to look around to know that other than the woman Ares was with they were all men. The Beta, and three others.

My senses were out of practice, but they were better than they had been towards the end of my pregnancy and I knew that I had been right when I guessed that I would be ready to transform again tomorrow.

The woman cried out again and began begging Ares to c*m. I twisted my hands against the ropes because feeling that pain was all I could do to distract myself from the torment I felt in my heart.

The man next to me snorted laughter at some personal joke, but then the others laughed and it confirmed my suspicion that they were a pack of mind readers.

The laughter stopped abruptly and I knew that Ares had emerged from my shelter. I hoped that the woman was still recovering from what they had done so that I would not have to see her again now she smelled like my mate.

Ares was the kind of wolf who was able to move silently and to disguise his scent so that he was not detectable until it was too late to run, but he smelled so strongly of that woman that I knew he was approaching me.

He circled around in front of me and squatted down so that we were at eye level and I saw his eyes properly for the first time. They were that incredible shade of golden yellow that I had seen in my vision, and if I had not been gagged I think they would have made me gasp.

I felt drawn to him. I knew that I had bonded with him as soon as I smelled him for the first time and that he should have bonded with me at the same time. He didn’t look like he was in awe of me, or that he thought anything much about me at all.

He observed me silently for a moment, then stood up.

“Get up.”

It was a command, and I was low status so I followed it instinctively. He knew already from the way I did as I was told that I was no Luna, and I hated that I had not been able to resist him so that he did not know that for sure.

“Get back to your tent.”

I swallowed hard and shook my head. He looked away from me to the tent, and then back again. His eyes were fixed on mine.

“Zaahra,” he called her name impatiently, “you agreed to prepare the food if I brought you with us, so get out here and do as you promised.”

He waited until she was out of the tent, then walked casually towards it stopping only to pick up a lamp because he knew that I would follow him obediently rather than trying to run.

He gestured towards the furs, which now stank like him and his mate, and I fought against every instinct and sat obediently down on my knees. Ares set the flickering lamp down on the floor so that we were not in total darkness when he pulled down the hide at the entrance of the tent to give us privacy. He came over to the furs and knelt opposite me.

He stared into my eyes, but he was expressionless and I did not know what he was feeling or why he had brought me here to talk in private.

He sighed, and his shoulders relaxed before he reached out to me, brushing my hair back from my shoulders and untying the gag that his Beta had shoved so roughly into my mouth to stop my sobbing from irritating the rest of the men.

His touch was so soft, and the moment he touched me it was like a wave of emotion ran through me and I felt our connection deep within me.

He moved his hand to my chin and held my face so that I could not look away from him.

“OK, white wolf - what’s your name?”