Alpha Luke and His Unwilling Mate
Chapter 26

ONE YEAR AGO

~Wyatt~

I have lost all hopes of ever meeting my mate. I turned twenty-five last month and have begun to believe that my mate doesn’t exist in this world. My parents have been forcing me to take a chosen mate for years now, but I have this feeling that she would show up the moment I accept someone else.

Tonight was one of those full moon nights where my dad has organized a huge ball for all unmated werewolves to replace their mates. Invitations were sent months before the event to ensure that almost everyone who turned eighteen by today would plan well ahead.

I put on my best party jacket and got that perfect five o’clock shadow going for a few days now. Spraying a decent amount of cologne, I left my room with a fantastic feeling. Tonight might be the night when I finally get to see her.

I scanned the ballroom from two floors up and decided to get laid if none of these beautifully dressed women turned out to be the one for me.

“Not bad, not bad!” Vance, my Beta and my a*****e cousin, greeted me as I climbed down the stairs.

He was a few months younger than me but couldn’t wait for his true mate. Riley was interested in him for years and so he proposed to her right after they finished college. I thought I had plenty of time and didn’t want to do something like that.

Guess my time’s up. If my mate is still some twelve year old kid, I’m obviously not waiting for her for another six years. I would turn feral before that.

Guys who were barely eighteen ran into their mates while they were on their way to pee at a bar or McDonalds. Vance and I went to many such bars and clubs, hoping to see if my mate was human.

“Looking fabulous, Wy!” My sister pushed me down to the dance floor when I was busy checking everyone out from a distance.

“What took you so long?” My dad said in a fake mad voice while slow dancing with my mom.

My parents have been very patient with me. My dad waited for years before handing over the Alpha title to me. That was over a year ago. I almost took a chosen mate then.

One of the guests and a friend, Luke, was the one who convinced me it was worth the wait. It was easy for him to say I guess. He found Leah when he was just twenty.

I was mesmerized by the way he loved her. He worshipped the ground she walked on. She was a couple of months pregnant when they attended the Alpha ceremony. The way he looked at her, and the happy smiles she flashed back at him, they seemed to be two halves of the same person. I yearned for something like that for a while now.

Leah was supposed to be my chosen mate. That was before she met Luke. My dad went to visit the Greater Western Cascades back then to strengthen our alliances in that region, and Alpha Garrett from the Night Walker Pack was more than willing to offer Leah’s hand in marriage.

She had just turned eighteen and showed no interest in responding to my texts while her dad was pissed at me for not wanting to sign any marriage pact with an unwilling bride.

I had invited Luke to today’s ball as well. He lost Leah a few months after I saw them, and it has been a year now. He turned my invitation down and said he wasn’t ready for a second chance mate.

At only twenty-two, he lost his mate, mom, and brother… all too soon. I’m sure the Moon Goddess would be kind enough to bless him with another mate, someone who would love him as much as Leah did.

Alpha Garrett had offered his younger daughter, Adalyn, to be my chosen mate this time. My dad agreed to take upon his offer for sure unless I found my mate tonight. I didn’t like the aggressive way the Night Walker Pack had been pursuing me for the last one year.

Luke had stepped up as the unofficial Alpha in his brother’s absence. He acquired many lands and absorbed several packs into his pack after Leah died. Seeing him rise to power so quickly, Alpha Garrett had already suggested that Luke takes Adalyn as his mate when she turned eighteen a few months back. He was still grieving Leah’s loss and refused the offer.

Despite knowing how greedy Alpha Garrett was, my dad was very much interested in this alliance because he believed that Luke would become unstoppable if we didn’t secure some goodwill in that region by marrying one of them and offering a royal rank in the palace to my future father-in-law.

“You look so dashing, Your Highness!” A woman with a high-pitched voice brought me back to the present. “My name is Miranda.”

“Miran—“

I got a strange mind link from a pack warrior guarding the cliff that overlooks the ocean.

“There seems to be a war happening in the ocean. Someone is chasing two women with beautiful glowing hair—one has golden hair, and the other’s is silver. I don’t think they are wearing anything.”

“Brock! What the hell?? How many times have I told you to not be on patrol when drunk?”

Brock had a drinking problem. I made sure he was always assigned to areas with the least risk. Never in five hundred years had someone attacked us from the ocean on this barely used fisherman’s wharf that was down below the steep cliff.

“Believe me, Beta.” Beta? This drunkard wasn’t even sure who he was talking to. “The two women are swimming crazy fast through a giant whirlpool, and there are strange lightning streaks going through the water.”

Definitely super drunk. His voice was slurry, and he was cooking up some high fantasy bullshit. I closed the mind link and focussed on Miranda who turned out to be a wonderful dancer.

I moved on to dance with Sofia when my Gamma Jax linked me. While my Beta was my cousin, Jax was my best friend. He was also mateless like me.

“One of our robotic fishing nets caught a naked woman. She’s wearing a silver chain with a pendant and nothing else. She magically survived the shark infested waters.”

“Interesting. Does she have golden or silver hair?”

“Dark hair, high cheekbones, a very sexy body is what the fisherman says. Her name is Maya. I’m already on my way to the wharf.”

“Oh, she’s awake! I’ll be right there.”

I told my parents about having to leave abruptly. They were now high on wine and lost in each other’s arms.

“Is her name Rose?” My dad asked with a voice loaded with sarcasm.

“Rose? Her name’s Maya.”

“Looks like the fisherman had recently watched Titanic again. Oh Jack, draw me like one of those French girls… wearing only this.”

“Go to bed, dad! Mom, you too. You guys sound ridiculous.”

“You didn’t replace your mate here, so you want to escape. Fine! Adalyn it is then.” My dad did a weird 360 dance spin, which was very out of the place, but my mom loved it and laughed along before imitating his funny moves.

I drove over to where Jax was waiting for me. The woman named Maya had already knocked the fisherman unconscious when he tried to talk to her. She was staring at my gamma suspiciously while standing several feet away from him.

My senses were assaulted by the scent of vanilla and roses. The place was smelling like fish and algal blooms until then, but the wind was picking up the delicious smell occasionally. I followed the scent and walked to the beach that was dark. This could be my mate! My wolf knew it before I did.

Brock was helping someone cover up in his leather jacket. I walked closer and my wolf saw red when Brock had his arm wrapped around her. My mate! I shifted instantly and leaped from the pier towards the wet sands.

She briefly looked at me before screaming in response to my loud growl as I jumped in between her and Brock. Her body hit the ground the next moment.

“Fantastic! Way to meet your mate.” Jax chuckled at me. I was also naked now and holding my unconscious mate who was wearing nothing but Brock’s jacket.

“Go back to your patrol position.” I sent Brock away while Jax gave me shit. It wasn’t like I could stop my wolf from shifting.

“Do you think she’s used to seeing ginormous wolves every day? She’s a human, Wy! And Brock was just making her feel warm.”

I glared at him to shut up. I should obviously be the one to hold her in my arms and provide whatever warmth she needed. Maya followed behind Jax and tried to push me off to the ground.

“Don’t touch her!”

“Whoa, she’s my mate.” I moved her away from this crazy woman.

“Mate? Do you even know who we are?”

“Two crazy women, probably high on something. Am I right or am I right?” Jax smirked at her while my mate woke up and pulled me close for warmth.

“Well…” I looked at Maya with a winning smirk and turned my attention back to the woman who had her arms wrapped around my neck. With gorgeous upturned eyes and a smattering of freckles on the bridge of that cute button nose, she was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen.

“What’s your name? Where were you for so long? Where did you come from?”

“Nyla…” She looked around as if trying to make up some answer. She pointed to a far off cruise ship.

“You fell off the cruise ship?”

“Yeah?” She replied uncertainly and looked up at Maya.

“We have to go back,” Maya told her while ignoring us. Nyla’s grip around me tightened as she shook her head in a no.

“I want to be with him. Can I talk to her for a second?” My mate freed herself from my arms and got up. Unaware of the werewolf hearing abilities, they stood not too far from us and argued.

“We obviously got these bodies for a reason. You are wearing one of these too. We should go with them.” Nyla touched the pendant Maya was wearing.

“And get killed? No, thank you. Have you seen him shift? They are all werewolves. We can’t match their strength.”

“They won’t harm us. We have to take our chances. I think that’s what the Moon Goddess expects us to do when she gave us these stones.”

I was surprised they knew about werewolves and the Moon Goddess. My parents or my pack wouldn’t be too happy about whatever they were, humans or something else. They have to be werewolves for my folks to accept them completely.

“I can’t introduce you to my parents like this. We have thirty minutes before the stores close.”

I got my sweatpants and T-shirt from the back of the car and put them on. Nyla followed me but was confused about why I insisted on her wearing clothes. She wanted to come to the mall with only Brock’s jacket. I had to make them wait in the car while I went to buy some clothes. I gave her my jacket and handed the one from Brock to Maya.

My peculiar mate looked like some diva in the yellow gown and high stilettos, although she preferred to not wear anything. My parents were beyond ecstatic when I took her home with me. I was soon slow dancing with her in my arms on my wedding night. I got more than I ever hoped for.

She visited her home once a month. Her place was off limits to me, but I didn’t mind as long as she returned by the next morning. Every experience in my world was new to her, and she trusted me with all her heart to be there by her side forever.

I promised her my deepest love, fullest devotion, and protection until the day I died… that she would never have to face her problems alone, forever and always.