Alpha Island: My Unbearable Mate

Chapter 12 Kindred Spirits

His hot tongue raked over her neck as his cinnamon scent washed over her. He gripped into her hips as he slid into her from behind. Electric tingling sparks coursed through her, washing her with love and comfort.

A sweet cinnamon aroma held her tight. A primitive desire was sweeping through her as her mind focused on Eli. The way he touched her… the gentle way he held her, was imprinting on her. He was making his way to the deepest parts of her soul. She wanted to keep him. She wanted to grow old with this man. She wanted to have a family with him and bathe in his love daily.

Kiara pushed back into him, needing to feel him more. Only the sensation of him penetrating her wasn’t there. She moved her hips against his bulge as her mind started to become clearer.

She realized she was half awake. She had been dreaming… but not everything was a dream. Her butt was pressed up against Eli’s hardened manhood and she could hear his staggering breath from behind her.

She winced and froze, fully awake now and mortified. She knew he wasn’t sleeping and wasn’t sure what her next move should be. She was so embarrassed.

“Who are you dreaming about?” His hoarse voice rasped out in irritation.

And that was the trap question. She was too humiliated to admit it had been about him, but she couldn’t claim someone else either. And if she told Eli she was thinking about him, things would probably progress to the next step. She wasn’t quite ready to get swept away completely. Not yet.

“Kiara…” His voice was a low growl that echoed the sound of his desire. “I can smell your arousal… I’m happy to take care of your needs. I just want to know who you were thinking of to get you this way?” She felt his hand grab her shoulder, rolling her to look at him.

She pressed her face into his chest, burying it from his sight. She felt his chest rumble as a soft chuckle came from his lips.

“Are you embarrassed? Don’t be.” She felt his lips land on her head as his nose traced circles in her hair. “Who?” He asked again.

She shook her head in his chest, she just wanted to disappear.

“It’s just a dream. I won’t hold it against you…” Eli reached down, taking her chin with his finger and thumb, tilting her up to face him. “It wasn’t… Draven, was it? Or Jhett?”

She snorted and sat up. “I’m getting a shower,” She quickly jumped out of the bed, pausing when she reached the bathroom door. She dared not look at him as she turned her head to the side. “It was of you…” Her voice was barely a whisper before she hurried into the bathroom, shutting the door behind her.

She was leaning on the door when she felt his presence on the other side. “Kia…” She heard him sigh against the door. She knew what would happen if she opened the door. She needed to clear the embarrassment from her head so that later she could ask him out. She wanted a real proper date with him.

“I’m a bit flustered now, Eli. I want to talk with you later… can we meet for lunch if you aren’t busy?” She heard his sweet chuckle and the sound of his head resting on the door.

“Is that your way of saying you don’t want to see me when you are done showering?”

“And here I thought bears were slow on the uptake.” She teased, smiling while biting her lower lip.

“Meet me by the lake, we will have lunch there.”

__

Kiara had managed to avoid Eli for the first half of the day. He was already gone when she was done showering. On the table he left a single flower with a folded-up note saying, I dream of you too, maybe we should be reality…

She smiled, thinking about the note as she walked down the hall to the main door. She was a bit nervous because she was going to ask Eli out on a date. She wasn’t nervous he would say no, but she had never done something like that before. It was also her first step to show Eli how much she had been considering the two of them.

“Kiara.”

She flinched before she slowly turned to the familiar voice. She sighed as she watched Jhett trot up to her.

“Hey…” Jhett rubbed the back of his neck nervously with a crooked smile.

“I just wanted to check on you.”

“Why?” She asked arching a brow up at him.

“I still care, Kiara. It isn’t like I suddenly quit caring. I wasn’t prepared to fight off the mate pull. I’m sorry… I owe you such a big apology. I know I don’t deserve your forgiveness for what I did to you—”

“If you really loved me… it wouldn’t have mattered.” She said quietly. “I guess it was a wake-up call to both of us.”

“Kiara.”

“No. Honestly, it’s fine. You have your mate, and I am moving on as well.” She watched as his lips tilted down as he looked at the ground.

“I didn’t think you were still with Elijah…are you? Are you two really that serious? It’s just… he is in one of my classes. His partner was practically all over him. After seeing that I assumed you two weren’t exclusive.”

She felt her stomach tighten and she had to fight to control the expression on her face.

“You don’t need to concern yourself with my affairs,” Kiara said tersely, even though her mind was now racing. He had poked at a fear of hers, one Jhett had created. She was now worried that she was the in-between woman. The one for fun but not the one you settle down with.

Eli said he would mark her though. He wasn’t giving her an empty promise. Besides, she couldn’t trust Jhett’s words.

“I don’t want to see you hurt—”

Kiara scoffed loudly as a bitter laugh escaped from her lips. “That’s rich,” She said coldly.

“Please, Kiara—” Jhett reached out for her when a hand grabbed onto his wrist, yanking him backwards.

“Don’t touch her.” The icy voice growled.

Kiara looked up in shock to see Draven’s lips curled up angrily as he pushed Jhett further back.

“Who are you?!” Jhett growled as Draven chuckled. He took a step next to Kiara and rested his arm around her shoulder. Jhett’s eyes twitched as his lips curled up angrily, but he didn’t say a word.

“This guy doesn’t mean anything to you, right?” Draven looked down at Kiara with a side smile.

“No, just a mistake.” She smiled up at him. Draven’s timing was perfect.

“Wait… what is this, Kiara? I thought you were with—”

“Don’t you think you are too concerned about who I am with?! Shouldn’t you be tending to your mate?” Kiara growled, her eyes flashing with her lycan, as she glared at Jhett. He instantly lowered his head, bending his neck, submitting to her authority.

“Da.mn. You see right there… you know how hot that makes me?” Draven said, winking down at Kiara.

“I do care. I should be concerned. What you are doing now is because of me… I messed up and—” Jhett didn’t get to finish as Draven cut him off harshly.

“You messed up. You aren’t allowed to even think about her now.” He looked down at Kiara shaking his head. “I hate that fake s**t and the remorse afterwards. It’s bull.shit. Because if you really fvcking cared you wouldn’t have been a s**t in the first place.” Kiara looked up at his pained expression. He was envisioning what had happened to him.

“She doesn’t need your concern or your guilty empathy. Stay away from her. I am watching over her now. I’ll make sure fvck heads like you don’t get anywhere near her.”

Kiara could feel his pain in his voice. She reached up, patting the hand on her shoulder, giving him a soft smile.

“And how does she know you aren’t a fvck head?” Jhett spat back angrily. “She never lets anyone that close to her and now within days she is letting two strangers touch her?! I’m the one who knows her and—”

“You are the one who walked away from her. I don’t play those games… pup. If I choose someone, I don’t change my mind.”

“But I found my fated—”

“A fated mate doesn’t change your heart!” Draven snapped angrily. “The mate pull is there but it doesn’t change who you love. If you loved her, you wouldn’t have even blinked. You would have stayed true to her.” He glared at the man and then squeezed Kiara’s shoulders. “You did her a favor though. She deserves better than you and now… she will get it.”

Kiara watched as Draven looked down at her with a smile, nodding his head at her.

“Jhett, concern yourself with your mate. Love her and let your thoughts be consumed of her.” Kiara watched as Jhett’s mouth parted before his eyebrows pinched together.

“I did love you.”

“Then I don’t want a love that shallow.” Kiara said, turning to walk away with Draven’s arm still around her. The two walked out of the building and headed around the bend before she stopped walking. She stepped out of Draven’s embrace as she looked at the ground.

“Thank you.” She said, lifting her gaze up to him.

“Honestly… I needed that too.” He chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck. “I feel like I lifted a weight off of my shoulders there. Don’t ever listen to their guilt. That’s all it is, and it is the opposite of what you need. It is what they need. They try to justify what happened and make themselves feel better. He doesn’t deserve to feel better.”

Kiara pursed her lips together and took in a shaky breath. “I’m so angry. Because of someone like him, I now have this scar inside of me. I’m conflicted. I question myself. I don’t know what to feel. I feel dumb when I feel.” She looked up at Draven who she knew understood her since he went through something similar. “I don’t want to feel that type of pain again. At the same time, I have to tell myself it isn’t fair to put what Jhett did on another’s shoulders. They aren’t the ones who caused me pain. I don’t want to bear that weight.”

“Kiara… you are doing remarkably well. It took me a very long time to get where you are now. Listen, pain is pain. You can’t help that you have it. It isn’t your fault. And the right person will understand that and will be patient with you.”

“I don’t want to doubt others. I want to trust them until they give me a reason not to.” Kiara looked into Draven’s storm-colored eyes as a tight smile formed on his face.

“That isn’t correct either, Kiara. Trust your instincts. Some people we shouldn’t trust… even when they have given us no reason not to. We can feel it…” He tapped his chest.

Kiara stepped back and leaned against the cool stone wall. She took in a breath as she closed her eyes. There was something else bothering her and she needed to admit it out loud.

“Draven…” Her eyes lifted to him. “I think…” She shook her head as she bit her inner lip. “Maybe I shouldn’t be as harsh on Jhett. I cared for him, and he cared for me. But it wasn’t love for either of us. I tried to fool myself, saying I was ready to take him as my mate. But I don’t know… maybe had I found mine I would have done the same thing to him. I’m able to move on from him too fast. The wound of what happened is there… but I don’t yearn for him.”

Draven stared at her quietly and then shook his head. “You wouldn’t have done what he did. Even if you decided you wanted your fated mate… you would have handled the situation better.” He shrugged. “Maybe you loved him and maybe you didn’t. You were broken and suffering from a wound. The wound that is now being treated and healed by someone else.” He gave her a knowing smile. He looked up at the sky with the same smile on his face. “You know… mates are special like that. They can reach a part inside of us that no one else can. They can heal the fractures of our heart, making it seem like they were never there.” He then looked back down to her and frowned when he saw the single wet drop sliding down her cheek.

“I was beginning to think I might have been a shallow person.” She whispered as she batted the wet drop away.

“Never. Trust me, I know people well, there is nothing shallow about you. It’s okay to move forward, Kiara. Drop his memory and what happened. Be free of it.” Draven placed his hand on her shoulder, lightly squeezing it.

“It is still crazy to me how easy it is to talk to you.” She smiled up at him.

“Everyone needs a soul compatible with theirs. A kindred spirit... I think you are mine.”

There was a comfortable atmosphere with Draven. A connection she couldn’t explain but one she felt comfortable with. It was weird for her to trust a stranger so much but he put her at ease.

The sound of a woman’s laughter filled the air, making them look up towards the noise. The woman’s bright red hair first appeared as she reached behind her to pull on a reluctant arm.

“Don’t be such a downer. This will be fun!” Belinda said as she pulled Eli into view.

Instantly, his eye met with Kiara’s and then moved to Draven’s hand on her shoulder. His warm hazel eyes turned dark as he set his gaze upon Draven.