His Valentine and Her Lycan Imprint (Book 2)

Chapter 3 A Pledge is Made

POV: Caden

Zayla just left the room. Turns out the reason I couldn't get Luna Zayla's name out of my head was due to her being not only my mate but imprint. I imprinted with her. An imprint is rare. In a normal mate bond your souls are half of each other making them whole. In an Imprint bond, your souls are identical making them one and the same. Your typical mate has stages while the imprint skips those stages. It is impossible to break an imprint. There is no need to mark or mate. The bond is completed upon meeting. An interesting fact about an imprint you don't have to be 16 to find them. You can be at any age to connect to your imprint. I think this is one reason why it comes fully completed. Imagine a three-year-old imprinting and not being able to mark their mate not to mention the mating part. That's just plain wrong in my book. The feelings are more intense than your typical mate bond. Zayla feels them but she is fighting it.

I could feel her emotions. I could hear her thoughts. As a lycan, we can read minds. Lycans can block people from our minds whereas a lavender wolf has no control of their telepathy. I think it was a birth defect when The first lavender wolf was born. Being her mate also helps this. She can't read my mind unless I let her. I can also block other's minds out. A lycan's telepathy comes with an off switch while a lavender wolf does not. Lavender wolves and Lycans have many things in common such as this.

I sit in my seat just staring at where my mate stood. She had stormed out of the room. She was upset and unsure of the bond we share. I heard about what happened to her mate. I have a Kappa in her pack council. He was here today. He gave me some advice without being too obvious about it. One may think he was coming to the aid of his Luna and in many ways he was. Henry is an old-school lycan. He believes in the ranks and follows them. Zayla did not buy his act though. She may not have been able to hear my thoughts but I could hear hers. Zayla even questioned it. I brushed it off acting cool about it. She doesn't need to know. I knew what she was after the second she walked into the room. She wants the journal. I understand her reasonings. I know she has been through a lot but I have my own duties to uphold. That journal will never leave my pack again. It was a mistake letting Blake have it. It was a shock to know she was his daughter.

My mate's heart belongs to another. She is still in love with her previous mate and always will be. Her son will be a constant reminder of this. I don't care if she has a pup or not. I knew the second I scented her I wanted her. Her scent is the most addictive thing in the world. She smells of passion fruit and a floral scent. I could scent her all day. I will fight for her no matter how hard she pushes me away. What can I say? I'm an alpha and we do love a good challenge. "Want mate. Go to mate. Mate upset." Gage my beast says. I can feel Zayla is upset but she is upset because of us. She is heartbroken and feels she has betrayed her mate when she has not. The goddess has gifted us to one another for a reason. She needs some space and I will give that to her. I must be delicate in this matter. If I push too hard she will push even harder and I may never get my chance with her.

"Alpha Caden, I apologize for Luna Zayla's actions today. She is very stressed and still grieving. I will show you to the packhouse where you and Gamma Ryan will be staying tonight." Beta Landon says. "I understand her actions. There is no need for an apology." I say formally. "I must warn you, Luna Zay lives in the pack house with her mother, stepfather Elder Gamma Randy, and her son, Zayn." Gamma Jordan says. Did I hear right? He called her Luna Zay? That's improper to address your Luna in that manner. "Are stupid? He said her stepfather was an Elder Gamma so he is the Elder Gamma's son. That makes him mate's stepbrother. Zay is short for Zayla." My beast says rolling his eyes at me. I didn't put those details together. I'm more focused on winning my mate over. She won't be able to fight it for long. The longer she tries to fight our bond the more pain she will cause herself.

If Imprints are away from each other too long and are fighting their bond it can cause physical pain. It will eventually nearly kill her to be away from me. It will do the same to me if she continues this. I will give her time to process this and accept our bond but I won't wait long. "That's fine, I can play nice. Lead the way." Ryan and I follow Gamma Jordan to the packhouse in our car. If you haven't noticed Ryan is a man of few words. He only speaks when he feels it is necessary to. My Delta more than makes up for his lack of words. All you have to do is ask Jade one question and she will never shut up. I've had to yell at her to shut up quite a few times. Yes, I have a female Delta. She does her job quite well.

Gamma Jordan leads us inside the Regal Moodstone Pack's pack house. My mate is the first thing my eyes land on. She is sitting in a rocking chair with a crying pup trying to soothe him. "Zayn, I know It hurts but please stop crying. Mom hurry up!" My mate says. A minute later a woman about my mother's age walks into the room with a bottle and what looks to be a teething ring. The pup latches onto the bottle's n****e and begins to suckle on it. "Why are you in my pack house?" Zayla asks me. "I brought them here as part of the agreement. They were to stay here remember Zay?" Gamma Jordan says to my mate dropping all formalities. "Damn, I forgot. Take them to their rooms. We can speak later. For now, have other things to do." My mate says looking me in the eyes. I could see a storm cloud of emotions in her eyes. She is conflicted about our bond. Her mind, eyes, and body language show it. "Very well. Take your time to gather your thoughts." I tell her understandably. Our next conversation will be about our bond and I plan to make it crystal clear about my intentions towards her. I know there will be a lot of things to figure out but for now, I need to get my relationship with my mate where it needs to be.

I'm about to follow Gamma Jordan up to mine and Ryan's room when a group of maybe, twenty people come barging into the packhouse. As far as I know, the Regal Moonstone packhouse is semi-public to the pack. Why are all these people just barging into the pack house uninvited? "What is the meaning of this? What do you all think you are doing?" Zayla goes into full Luna/Alpha mode. With her mate gone, she has to be both. There is something odd about the wolves that just entered. Their minds are off. Judging by the look on Zayla's face she has noticed too. It's like static in their minds. Talk about a blank mind. "I, Marcus Keets, lavender wolf green rose, pledge my oath of allegiance to future Alpha Zayn Moonstone of the Regal Moonstone pack as our King." One of them says looking at the pup in Zayla's arms. Zayla's eyes go wide in horror as everyone else in the group follows the same words he spoke. "No! What do you think you're doing? Do you have any Idea what you just did? Tracy is going to kill my son to kill you all. Why are you doing this? Fight her spell DAMN IT!" Zayla is furious. I'm not entirely sure what just happened but whatever it was Zayla is concerned about her son being killed. I wonder if that witch did something to her pup. If she did I promise to do everything in my power to help stop this from happening. I vow to help my mate take down the witch because she doesn't deserve to lose another person she loves due to this witch. I heard her Blake was dead but the way she spoke of him earlier it seems that rumor was wrong.

Zayla begins to shake in anger her eyes glowing. Next thing I know in the blink of an eye she is surrounded by a ring of fire. "Jordan put them all in the f*****g cells for disobeying my order and for their own safety from the witch!" My mate orders her Gamma. He did not hesitate and began to carry out her order. "Zayla you need to calm down before someone gets hurt." Her mother tries to speak to her but she ignores her. The fire burns around her in fury. It seems the fire represents her emotions. "We can calm mate down with the bond. Go to her." Gage instructs me. I do just that. I walk to her cautiously. Her eyes land on me when I get to the ring of fire surrounding her. "Don't. Please Don't. I've already burned one mate don't do this." Zayla begs me beginning to cry. The flame disappeared leaving a circle of scorch marks around Zayla. She looks down at her son. "No. I'm so sorry this happened to you. All I wanted to do was protect you and now Tracy has what she wants. She will send more." She says to her son. "I need to find a place to hide him from her." I hear in her mind.

I wrap my arms around my mate and she lets out a breath like everything dropped from her shoulders and she is finally at peace. The sparks running up my arm are like nothing I have ever felt before from the skin-to-skin contact. "You can let me go now. I'm calm." She says. "what did you mean by you've already burned one mate before?" I ask her. "I burned Damon by accident in a fire incident worse than this." She explains. She's done this before but it was worse than this one. She makes it seem like this was a minor episode. "I'm sorry that happened. If you need my help with anything, I'm yours. Just ask it and I will be right here by your side." I promise her. My mate is drowning and needs help. She has entirely too much on her plate. As an Alpha one of the first fundamentals we learn is time management. You never take on more than what you can't handle. A werewolf pack doesn't have time management. This is because they don't have the ranks that a Lycan pack does.

"Thank you but I don't need your help. Don't think just because I'm a girl I can't handle this because I can. I swear with you alphas it is never good enough. I'm always having to prove myself. Well, guess what that fire was nothing. I could kick those alpha asses and do my nails at the same time if I really wanted to so stop trying to help me." She says. Winning her over is not going to be easy I see. "I don't doubt you can but my help is here if you need it. I don't care what gender you are. You're the Luna of this pack and the alpha. This is your pack and I will never do anything to take that from you. Don't listen to those alpha pricks ok. All that matters is you are trying your best and that's ok. I don't expect you to be perfect." I tell her honestly. "Please don't be nice to me. You're making it so hard to push you away." She begs in her mind.

"Ok, I will see you later," I tell her now following Beta Landon to my room. My mate is in so much pain from losing her mate she can't let herself be happy from the fear of losing another. I could feel her fear when I tried to be there for her. She wanted it but was afraid to let me in. She's shielded her heart but I will break her walls down. When I do she will only ever be able to think about me and her happiness.