L.S. Patel
“Aarya!”
It was Niya and Diya, both wearing shocked expressions. Niya turned to her twin with a smirk. I looked at Carter and then at Diya and smiled.
Carter seemed entranced. He stared at Diya with a look of amazement and joy I’d never seen before. Diya held his gaze and her face relaxed into a serene glow. They say when you meet your mate, you just know.
I silently thanked whoever was responsible for the pairing of mates. One of my best friends deserved an amazing mate, and he’d gotten one. And Diya had gotten lucky with Carter too.
When I glanced at them both, they were still just staring at each other. Sighing, I gave Carter a push he clearly needed toward Diya.
Carter glared at me, and I laughed and pointed toward my cousin. Niya also gave Diya a little shove before coming over to me. The new mates needed a little privacy, it seemed.
Niya hugged me, and I told her she looked beautiful.
Sophia and Luke joined us. “Well, that was a nice surprise,” Sophia said, gesturing toward the new couple.
I nodded and smiled. I was overjoyed that Carter and Diya were mates. When I turned around, they were chatting and smiling, and Carter was holding Diya’s hand. Maybe I was biased, but I thought they made a cute couple.
“Well, ladies, I have to leave you. I need to talk to some of the others,” Luke said, kissing Sophia’s forehead.
We waved goodbye to Luke, and Sophia dragged Niya and me to a booth. We got comfortable, and Niya started chatting about pack life.
“Since Diya and I turned eighteen, unmated males have been following us everywhere!” she said.
The guys wanted to be mates with one of the twins because their dad was the beta of their pack, she explained, and apparently, it was quite annoying. There was one pack member who wouldn’t take no for an answer.
“They wouldn’t come near you today, because you’re with the lycans,” I told Niya.
When I glanced at Sophia to see her reaction, her face was tense. I looked around and saw that many lycans seemed on edge. They looked like they were trying to appear at ease, but it wasn’t working. I wondered why.
I turned back to Sophia. I was about to ask her, but her face had relaxed and she appeared to be chatting happily with Niya, avoiding eye contact with me. I glared at her.
I’d known Sophia long enough to know that she was hiding something.
I decided to say something.
“Okay, what’s the matter? Don’t say ‘nothing,’ Sophia, because I know you too well.” I crossed my arms.
“I don’t know whether that’s a blessing or a curse,” Sophia muttered.
I raised my eyebrows, knowing she was attempting to change the subject. Niya’s gaze flitted between the two of us.
“Fine, I’ll tell you,” Sophia relented. “Well, there’s this big issue regarding the king. The council of alphas have voiced their displeasure that he rules without a mate.
“They complained that the king isn’t stable because he doesn’t have a mate, and mates keep each other grounded.
“No one is there for the king in the way he needs. It’s getting so bad that when the king gets angry, he has to be restrained. There’s a special room where he gets chained to stop his lycan from coming out and wrecking everything.
“The council said this is a hazard and it isn’t safe for the kingdom, so they proposed a deal. There is a female lycan whose mate is a werewolf, but the werewolf is dying.
“Since they never marked each other, the council thinks it may be possible for the king and this female to mate.”
I wondered if the council knew what they were talking about. The king would be in a forced relationship. His lycan would never accept anyone but his mate. And forcing them to mate could be dangerous.
“So, the proposed female is here,” Sophia went on, “but none of the lycans are happy about it. Everyone’s worried about what will happen to the king.”
Wow—the poor king! I thought.
“But can’t he just say no? He is the king, after all,” Niya said, voicing my own thoughts.
“No, he can’t,” Sophia sighed. “If he did, then he would be ignoring the majority of the alphas, and that isn’t how a king should be.”
Niya shook her head. “I just don’t understand how the alphas can expect that of him.”
“What annoys me is that the king’s mate is out there, and she was born to be queen,” Sophia said. “This female isn’t. All of us lycans are having a hard time coming to terms with the council’s decision.”
She looked sad. “You know we are very loyal, so we can’t grasp the fact that our king will have to mate with someone other than his actual mate. It’s crazy.”
“I feel so bad for the king. He’s doing all of this just to appease the alphas.” I sighed. For some reason, my heart hurt.
Sophia nodded in agreement. “The king hasn’t been out of his room since the arrangement was discussed. He has the whole floor to himself but hasn’t come out of his room once.”
She suspected he was feeling guilty about the arranged mating. It was understandable—it would probably feel as if he were betraying his mate.
Niya chimed in, “I wish he would find his real mate soon. Sophia said that’s one of the reasons these balls are held—so he can find his mate.”
So far, he’d had no luck, which meant either his mate was too young, she was a human, or she wasn’t alive. I hoped fate wasn’t so cruel to our poor king that his mate had died before they’d even met.
We sat silently for a moment, and finally Niya changed the subject. She said she wanted to find her mate as quickly as possible to stop her pack members from lusting after her.
Now that Diya would be joining my pack with Carter, Niya would be left alone with the males of her pack.
I knew the girls wanted to ask about Hunter, but I told them I didn’t want to talk about it. Hunter had found his mate, and I was moving on with my life.
Suddenly, the atmosphere changed. The tension was evident.
My wolf began to stir, so I looked around. All the lycans were focused on someone walking up the stairs.
My wolf began to get angry, and I had no idea why. I grabbed onto the table to stop myself from shifting.
Never in my life had I felt this angry before, and never had I shifted because I couldn’t control my wolf.
“That’s her. That’s the lycan female who’s supposed to be the king’s mate—Savanah,” Sophia whispered.
Savanah walked calmly up the stairs, seemingly oblivious to all the dirty looks and cold stares she was receiving.
She was gorgeous, though. Her long blonde hair flowed down her back in waves, and she wore an amazing black dress that complemented her figure.
I felt my wolf stir again, and I took deep breaths to calm her. Lycans all around the room stared at Savanah in disgust, but she held her head high as she disappeared into one of the upstairs chambers.
“She’s probably going to see the king,” Sophia added.
My wolf growled. I felt her anger take over me. I knew I needed to get out of there as soon as possible.
Quickly, I stood and, without saying anything, rushed out of the palace and into the cool air to sit on a bench near the gardens.
I closed my eyes and tried my best to calm my wolf. This was not the time or the place to shift. I needed to get myself under control.
After sitting for a while, I managed to wind down. My wolf wasn’t happy with me—I knew that much. But what I didn’t know was why she was acting like this.
I had a very good relationship with my wolf. I felt like we understood each other and had a good connection. This was out of character for her.
Maybe she was feeling upset and angry because of the king’s situation. She might have picked up on Sophia’s anger. Our wolves had been close before Sophia became a lycan, so maybe that’s why mine had reacted so strongly.
I decided it was best if I stayed outside. I didn’t want to risk my wolf getting angry again. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to control my shift if she did.
Something just didn’t feel right.
What was wrong with me?