My Possessive Mate Book 2

Book Two: My Aggressive Mate

^She knows it's time to find her mate, but when vampires capture her, love is the last thing on her mind...until she's rescued by a handsome, hotheaded rogue wolf who turns out to be her match.^ ^Will Josie be able to cool Hayden's hot temper, or will he forever be her aggressive mate?^

JOSEPHINE

When you lay on the ground, staring up at the sky, you start to wonder about things you wouldn’t have thought of usually. Why was the sky blue?

The breeze was cool, tumbling over me just like I’d tumbled over and into the tall healthy grass, rolled a few times to land comfortably and stay put.

The sun dribbled down through the clouds, rays punching me with hot brightness, making me frown and look away now and then because it became too bright for my eyes to handle. Why was the sun so hot?

Birds sang softly in the trees not far, building up their nests from twigs, leaves and hay found lying on the ground, gluing together in an oval shape and sticking to form an impressive bed for their eggs.

Why did birds lay eggs?

My hands under my head, I watched the clouds hide the sun behind them.

Gray and threatening to pour, the sun was gone but then back again from a small opening, the blue sky no more either as the clouds slowly overtook the skies. Where did clouds come from?

Wriggling my toes, the thin, tall and soft grass tickling my bare feet at my movement until I felt something softer touch my toes. Fur.

Shit, ~I thought, gasping and sitting up to stare at the big black alpha wolf standing before me, his head dipped down slightly as he checked me out, looking for any obvious injuries that hadn’t healed already.~

“I’m okay,” I told him, tucking my legs up to my chest.

“I-I heard what you and Mum were talking about. You know how I feel about that stuff,” I shook my head lightly, dropping my eyes as I remembered how they weren’t talking but arguing.

Dad wanted to set up a party, inviting all the allied packs around to hopefully bring home my mate.

I was sixteen now, it was time that I started looking but I wasn’t too sure if I wanted to. Mum didn’t want me to either, she thought I was too young to have a mate.

I agreed with her but I also knew the ways we follow, the ways Dad has told and prepared me for. That it is possible to get a mate young but like he and Mum, I could find my mate when I’m older.

He’d told me how hard it was though. How reckless and frustrating it became when he couldn’t find her anywhere.

Days passed before weeks and then years before he found her sitting in a café, drinking a chai latte and reading a book.

“It happened so randomly,” he’d say while smiling. “I never once expected it when I walked in there but there she was.”

They’d been on a roller coaster to be together happily and peacefully. They fought wars and struggled harshly.

There were times they were going to die and times they thought it was all over but it wasn’t. Until they finally had the bad guy in the ground for good, they began to breathe properly.

Now they were parents. My parents. I was the Alpha Pair’s daughter, I had to take responsibilities, including becoming a mate and mother myself within the next few years.

It scared me shitless, knowing that my childhood is about to come to an end and the next chapter of my life is about to start. I have to grow up, I have to become more than what I am already.

Take control of my magic and wolf once and for all, push myself to the edge to show the pack I am worthy enough to be respected and known as the Alpha’s daughter.

I watched my father’s wolf, Red, step forward just as the black fur sunk down and vanished to become skin.

In a smooth movement, shifting on his knees, a man so tall and broad knelt before me, his hand touching my shoulder.

His blonde hair fell in front of his ocean blue eyes, reflecting my own blue eyes and blonde hair.

“Phinie,” he murmured, his eyes soft in mine as I put my chin down onto my knees, keeping my eyes up and on him as I listened.

The wind howled, the weather changing darkly as the birds stopped singing, retreating to their burrows and nests for warmth and shelter.

“I know it may not be what you wish for right now but you have to understand we never have control of when it happens or who it happens to,” he told me quietly.

I dropped his hand from my shoulder, glancing up at the building storm.

“I’m scared,” I confessed, watching as he got up to his feet and held his hand down to me.

I took a moment, letting the wind blow at my hair viciously, whipping it at my face harmlessly as my clothes became a second skin on the side the wind blew against.

“I am too,” Dad replied, helping me up as I took his hand, rough and big compared to mine.

“Every time I realize you’re of age, I wonder, who the hell’s going to steal my baby girl,” he said as I pushed my hair out of my face, shifting on my feet as I kept my eyes down.

“Who? A good guy? A not so good guy? Will he be older? Younger?”

“Please, stop,” I cut in, closing my eyes because I didn’t want to hear that. It just made me feel worse, knowing it could be absolutely anyone not already Mated.

“Sorry,” he replied, making a face when I glanced back at him while he moved his arm around me, pulling me into a walk.

“You need to stop running away, though. You scare your mother half to death and you know it.”

“She’ll live,” I scoffed, watching as we flattened the grass with each step, the clean, tall stalks not so neat anymore.

“Now, now, Phinie,” he said, a warning tone coming through as I smirked lightly at the ground.

“What? She will,” I replied, pulling away from him to start in a run. I heard him scowl before he was coming after me, my heart jumping up as my blood pulsed in my veins.

We hit the trees, hot on each other’s heels as we raced, zigzagging through the woods and crossing the final field separating the woods from home.

A manor the size of a mansion, brown-toned bricks stacked over and over to create the one home I’ve known all my life.

It was the packhouse of my pack, the house my great grandfather grew up in, my grandfather and my father also.

The house lived on for hundreds of years, first built when the very first Jones ruled this pack, transferring them from Seattle to their very own land and settlement here.

A village was built, matching the manor but down the road a little, a mile or so away. It was where the warriors spent their free time with their families.

Where the children came together to play hide and seek or draw on the pavement with colored chalk.

Where the baker ran out of flour most evenings and sent his fourteen-year-old son out for a run to retrieve flour from Daphne, our cook in the manor.

I’d run into him more than once. I found him funny, always rolling his eyes at the fact his father thought they had enough in the morning but never did in the evening.

In the village, most of the pack lived apart from a few living on their own around and in the city, keeping eyes open and ears listening for human drama or anything else Alpha may need to know.

I laughed out suddenly, ducking quickly when I saw from the corner of my eye my little brother, Ben, coming at me.

He flew past, growling when I’d seen him coming but as soon as I looked at him, the sight of Dad left and suddenly he had me in his hold, lifting me up so my feet left the ground.

“Got you!” Ben called, clapping as I groaned a little.

I heard Dad chuckle as he put me back down before I pounced on my brother, hugging my arm around his neck and forcing him down into a headlock.

He was only ten months younger so we were basically the same age and close enough to the same level but I was just that bit better than him.

“Okay, okay,” he growled, unable to get himself out as I held him tighter, smirking as my chest rose and fell quickly, my lungs taking in air fast as I caught my breath.

I took another minute but then let go when he punched my leg. As soon as he was loose enough, he turned to tackle me down, holding onto my waist until we were on the ground.

I tried rolling but only struggled when he sat on my stomach and grabbed my hands quickly, pinning them down.

“Well, well, well,” he sang, tilting his head with a grin as I grunted, struggling to free my hands.

I gave up and looked up at him, taking in his dark hair from Mum but the blue eyes he and I got from Dad.

We looked alike other than the hair color, we looked like both our parents, not any more than the other. Our skin tone was naturally tanned brown like our mother whereas Dad had tanned skin due to the sun.

“Get off me,” I ordered, watching a smirk widen on his face before his lips came together just as I squirmed when bubbles came from them, drool dropping.

“No! Ben!” I screamed, shaking my head and struggling to get away as if it was acid threatening to burn my flawless face.

“Benjamin,” I heard Mum snap, her shoes tapping to the front steps as she came down.

I breathed out in relief when it never dropped and he just started laughing.

“That’s disgusting,” she told him, hitting his shoulder to get him off me.

I took that chance to kick his legs out from under him. I rolled quickly and got over him as soon as he fell down, ripping grass from the ground at the same time.

He scowled and then made a noise, gagging and choking when I shoved what I had in his mouth.

I got up after that, turning and stopping, biting my tongue hard to stop myself from laughing when our parents stood there watching with blank expressions, Dad’s arms crossed and Mum’s hands on her hips.

“That was disgusting!” Ben yelled from behind me, pointing at me before I snapped my teeth when he went to poke my cheek.

I jumped next when thunder roared in the skies, rain suddenly pouring from the dark clouds.

“Josie,” he whined as I bit my bottom lip, glancing at Dad as he came towards us and Mum made her way inside quickly.

Everyone else around started running and scattering around, trying to escape the rain and any lightning that could bolt down at any time if I was set off.

“Emotions—”

“Control the magic, I know. But he didn’t have to poke me,” I replied, cutting Dad off as I folded my arms over my chest, looking at the ground as the rain hit hard, creating puddles and mud instantly.

“You didn’t have to shove grass and dirt into my mouth either,” Ben said but Dad growled at him, raising a hand and then gesturing to the manor.

Ben sighed softly and started away while I watched him.

The sounds of bashing tin and splashes suddenly stopped just as the sky stopped crying, feeling better now that he was gone and not annoying me anymore.

“I know everything about finding your mate is affecting it too. I wish you would just accept it though. I know it’s scary but it’s going to happen. Whether you like it or not,” Dad said softly.

I nodded.

“Don’t be sad. Let the sun shine. Try for no more storms.”

“Okay,” I nodded again, stepping in to hug him, needing his arms around me for comfort.

I closed my eyes, leaning into the embrace as he pulled me in, rocking us gently and kissing my head.

“I love you, Phinie,” he whispered just as I felt the warmth of the sun rain down on my head and back. I smiled against his shoulder, opening my eyes to see the blue skies again.

Being a werewolf and the alpha’s daughter wasn’t just being royal and changing into a beast every full moon. My mother was born human but the blood she had was cursed hundreds of years ago.

Wolves like her were called Cursed werewolves. They’re human up until they take a soul, kill someone in other words.

The curse plays on, forcing them to a painful transformation every full moon into their magnificent wolves, who are stronger and magical unlike my father and the rest of the pack.

They were Born werewolves, able to phase on their first day if they knew how to. They grew up with all the enhanced abilities, living with two souls, two pairs of eyes, and two minds. Their own and their wolf’s.

My father had his mind of his own, his ability to have control most of the time and connect with his wolf, Red, when necessary but when Red was in control, Dad never saw, smelt, or heard what he would.

Never experienced and knew what he did. It was like being possessed but it wasn’t as bad as it sounded.

Benji and I, we were somewhat a mix. We were born with a beast but it wasn’t another soul like Dad had Red, it was just us.

We saw and we did what we wanted, in human and wolf form. The cursed part of us, we still have. Every full moon, we’re forced painfully to turn but we never had to kill anyone, it just came to us automatically.

To me when I was six and to Ben when he was eight.

Having to turn every full moon hurt like a bitch but it was always worth it. The power and strength we developed on that one night, the speed and heightened senses, we never wanted it to end but it always did.

When the sun was rising and the moon was falling, we’d be forced back out of it. It was painful too, but never as painful as phasing into the wolf.

The magic side of us was also from the Cursed.

All Cursed wolves were first developed by magic, therefore the spells and the curse run through our blood, but over time, it all built up to give us breathtaking gifts.

My mother has the ability of the mind. She could see memories, hack into your head, and learn secrets and truths—which sucked when you were trying to pull off a lie.

She could even make you do something when she was angry enough, like clean your room after seven times of being told.

My uncle Levi could create fire in his hand and burn a whole forest within minutes if he wanted to.

Ben had developed the same, but he wasn’t as powerful. He’d only started mastering lighting himself up completely and then shooting a target on the other side of the field.

And then there’s me.

I have many abilities, all with the gift of controlling nature, the weather included.

Uncle Ian, who happened to not be my uncle but a vampire relative, told me it was one of the most powerful gifts a Cursed could develop.

My emotions controlled what the weather was if they were too strong. I didn’t have much control, but I was getting better.

I could suddenly make trees snap off branches, make plants grow and bloom flowers, even if it wasn’t spring.

The animals never seemed to be afraid of me. The birds would never fly away in a hurry to escape like they would if Ben was crashing through the woods like he usually did.

“It’s always your choice,” Dad continued, pulling from the hug to look at me. “If we host a party or not. I think it’d be a great idea. If he was around, then you’d want to know who he was soon.”

“Me or you?” I asked in response, tilting my head gently.

“Well, me of course, but you too,” he said and then waved me off as I just laughed at him. “Oh, Phinie, I’m just excited for you.”

“You just said you were scared before,” I put in, following him when he started away.

“I am, honestly, everything for you. Scared, excited, nervous, all of it,” he replied, pointing and making me laugh again as we started up the steps of our home.

“So, what are you thinking? Yes? No? Maybe not right now?”

“I don’t know,” I answered, frowning softly because I really didn’t know what I wanted to do.

I wanted to have the party for Dad, to make him happy and maybe also to see if my mate would be there, but I also don’t know if I’m ready for that next chapter of my life.

“I just don’t know if I’m ready,” I replied and watched as he nodded while we walked down the great corridor and then into the dining room where I expected dinner to be waiting.