Chapter 13: The similarities are what bring us together

Kyrion’s POV

I had been asleep for a while when I felt someone shaking my shoulder slightly, eventually I gave up and opened my eyes to see who was waking me up with a low growl let out of my throat as a warning. Turning to the left, I saw Will standing there with a cup of coffee ready for me and his head bowed in submission.

I felt bad and immediately took the cup from him before getting him to stand back up straight. He looked back up and gave a slight nod before turning to observe our mate, “She still has at least 2 days before she can wake up from that coma of hers. Do you wish to change or go lie down in your room to rest first Kyrion?”

I shook my head, it was bad enough that my mate was hurt, but it was another that no one came to visit her. It really ticked me to no end how they could be so heartless and ignorant of my mate’s condition, whether she was the victim or accused did not matter one bit, she was still human and they chose to attack her in wolf form. What was done was still wrong no matter what the context was, she was still vulnerable as a human when they fought and for that, they should be punished.

“No, I’ll just stay here. Besides, it’s been a while since I’ve smelt such a heavenly scent. Honey and lavender are so satisfying when mixed together, it makes my morning coffee taste even better.” Though he didn’t say anything, Will could understand what I meant, the scent of our mate was unique to each werewolf. But only werewolf mates could smell it, hence why he couldn’t smell it, only I could smell what Hui Zhong’s fragrance was and she could do the same once we marked her.

“Alright then but do come out in about an hour for dinner. The other leaders would like dinner with you to discuss on the rogues, as well as the possible postponement of the party with all this mess that occurred.” I nod and refocus my attention to my mate who was still soundly asleep in bed, her features were so breathtaking and if I had to be completely honest, she really didn’t look a day older than 30.

So even if she was older than that, I wouldn’t mind at all. She really preserved her age well through the years to the point that I couldn’t tell she was 55 at all. Her jet-black hair with her hazelnut eyes had up a very intimidating appearance with that slight scowl on her face, it was truly a work of art. Even with such a small stature of roughly 5’0, she still had a fierce aura about her, and I couldn’t help but wonder if she had a flaring temper like both of us when we were angry.

It tickled me to think of how amusing it would be, if she were to make Marcel and I submit to her will, it would make for something very pleasing as I found that aura of hers rather attractive. Despite the frown that she had on her face, she still looked very much at peace and it felt like she was in some sort of paradise as she rested.

I got up, and sat on the chair next to her, holding her hand while I put the coffee on the table next to her before using it to hold her hand completely as I looked at her face with nothing but adoration and love in my eyes, the sparks of the mate bond flowing with such life and enthusiasm as I brought her hand to my face, letting myself mark her hand with our scent. I know, I should wait for both Marcel and her to agree, but I really couldn’t comprehend it without letting her have our scent as a sign of insurance, I fervently hoped she would open up to us if we had the chance.

Perhaps it was the mate bond, or the fact that I was the wolf and not human here, but I seemed to have numbed my heart of Manuela’s betrayal and had it replaced with the endless amount of love I had for this Hui Zhong and fervently wished that Marcel would come to see that she was truly fit for us as the Goddess would never make mistakes when it came to providing mates or changing mates for us. It was part of being a werewolf and us submitting is part of show our loyalty to her.

I continued to hold her free hand in between mine and I continued to nuzzle it before silently speaking to her, “Hello Hui Zhong, I don’t think you can hear me, but if you can hear me, I want you to know that you have mates waiting for you here. Not saying you should wake up immediately, but I hope we can get to know each other better soon, along with my human half.”

A voice then popped up in my head with a rather grumpy tone, ‘Tch, this was not the agreement Kyrion. You said you’d get to know her, not give a full-blown confession, idiot.’ Marcel’s voice came through loud and clear through our mind link

‘Now Mister Grumpy, I said that I would get to know her, the way I want to. No loopholes there, nor ground for you to say I’m going against our agreement. Besides, I have just begun to have my curiosities on her. I have been betrayed by our mate, but I also have feelings too Marcel. You might not have moved on, but I have, and I definitely want to get closer to her’.

He let out a huff in response before going back into our shared mind and I was left alone with our beauty of a mate again. I didn’t have any disgusting thoughts of sleeping with her. No, I was only interested in taking things slow to let us heal, the only thing both of us wished was for the ability to let Marcel get over his trauma.

As I put her hand back on her stomach gently, there was a text from Will saying to come out for the meeting. I looked at my watch with a slightly stunned expression, had 2 hours really gone by that fast? I guess time flies when you’re having a good time.

Luna Benjamin had opened the door just as I stood up and greeted him with a small smile, “Good to see you again Luna, I suppose Jax and the others are waiting right?” He chuckled and nodded before motioning for me to follow him to the meeting room.

As I entered the cozy-looking meeting room that had a fireplace, there was a large oakwood table with 6 individuals in their assigned seats, leaving one for me to sit as the Will and the others stood behind me. I gave a slight bow before they continued.

“Apologies for the late arrival, I was busy with something else. Have I missed anything crucial?” I asked as I took my seat next to Cassius, Liliana’s familiar, and made myself comfortable while sipping the coffee that had turned cold from being neglected since the morning.

Margaret answered my question with a shake of her head and passing me a file containing the details of the attack on Benjamin three weeks earlier. It was a concern to both Marcel and I as our pack was still rebuilding itself after the attack from the Nightfall pack, we had barely got a new packhouse when this attack happened, meaning that it could happen to ours anytime and we were not ready to take on another huge attack like this.

“Thank you all for coming to celebrate Christmas with us, and for this meeting to discuss on how to better manage the situation for this rogue situation. As you all know by now, my mate and Luna Benjamin was kidnapped by rogues and mercilessly attacked, but he was rescued by an old friend of ours. Hui Zhong. Now, I know the questions you two have, I also have them but I’m not too sure when she will awake as she was attacked by some of my pack members. Fret not, she escaped with an injured shoulder, but is in a coma due to excessive blood loss for a few days I suppose. Once she is awake though, I’ll let her join us and tell us her account of what happened to better strategize for the future”. He said with a slight growl as the other two displayed the same emotion of anger while their mates tried to calm them down.

“They should be executed for harming a human innocent of crime, banishing them would be doing them an act of kindness Jax. Even if she somehow offended them, that was no excuse to justify them attacking her in wolf form! But I’m glad she managed to give them a good beating, it just shows how she had never lost her form, even at such an age or stature, she never fails to make me run for my life every time she beats someone up”.

I on the other hand, had to bite my tongue to not let my growl out, Margaret and Liliana were friends with Hui Zhong? That was something I didn’t know either, it surprised me quite a bit. Maybe talking to them about her personality when we had the time after this whole thing was settled, it would be a good opportunity to learn about our mate as a person.

Jax’s words interrupted my train of thought as he turned to me, an eyebrow raised as he waited for my response. The others had also turned to face me and I realized how dazed my face became. So, I took up the file and skimmed through it, frowning as there was little to nothing on where the rogue’s hideout could be.

‘Perhaps I could speak to them on this issue? Or suggest something simple like increasing patrols to ease their worries. Dumbass.’ Marcel interrupted my thoughts with a slight huff as I rolled my eyes internally, not expecting him to pay attention to this meeting while he was on break.

‘Tch, I’m an alpha, of course I’ll listen in. Not like you do the accounting and paperwork Kyrion, it’s what I must do as a pack alpha. Besides, I’ve dealt with Margaret and Liliana’s temper before, so it’s best to prevent their anger from exploding.’

‘Alright, let’s try your suggestion of increasing patrols and see how they react to it.’ With that, I cleared my throat and quietly suggested what Marcel brought up earlier, ‘Calm them down, then speak your opinions.’

“Well, I don’t think that there’s anything to check on now, but maybe tightening the patrol out the borders both near Hui Zhong’s house and the other end of the borders to ensure that we can try to reduce the chances of having an attack. Does that sound plausible?”

They all nodded in agreement and the meeting was concluded, it surprised me how it just took a simple statement from me to end an argument that could have turned violent had the two ladies lost their temper without their partners calming them down.

‘I told you so, let me know what else you can get later. Ask Jax about her in private or something, it makes more sense for us to ask him privately, it will not be so awkward and suspicious.’

‘Alright then, we’ll speak to him about it later in private Marcel. Anyways, aren’t you supposed to be resting?’

‘No shit Kyrion, it’s alpha business. My actual job in case you’ve forgotten. Idiot. Oh, another thing, only you consider her our mate, not me.’

‘Alright alright, don’t come after me anymore. I’ll ask Jax to speak to me later, and I will talk about how she is our mate to not let his suspicions grow too big.’

Marcel huffed before going back, giving me his silent agreement to let Jax know she was our mate to not let him get suspicious on why I was so on edge with the condition of our mate. Times like these, I thank the Goddess for letting me be paired with him as his wolf because he would listen to reason, unlike some alphas that disregard their wolf’s opinions fully without even listening to it in consideration as an alternative plan.

“Uhm Jax? Could I speak to you in private? No disrespect to you both Margaret and Liliana, but there’s something urgent that I need to discuss with him.”

Both nodded and got up to leave with their mates, still fuming over the disrespect to their good friend. I couldn’t imagine how my mate would know such powerful supernatural leaders, then again, she could have met them sometime when she was younger. Brushing these thoughts out of my mind, I joined Jax in the seat next to him while a few omegas brought some refreshments for us.

“So, what are you seeking Marcel? Judging from your expression, you seem to have some sort of favor to ask of me. Don’t worry about it, I’ll grant it, as long as it does not concern the safety of my pack.”

I couldn’t help but let a small smile slip as I nodded in agreement, there was not a single thing that anyone could hide from him at all. There was an incident concerning a new and young alpha who, had some scandal as he had married a woman that he claimed to be his mate while the pack disagreed and found a she-wolf that swore she was his true mate, it took Jax one look to see that the wolf was lying and had her banished as a punishment. I sometimes wonder if he was a fae or warlock in his past life because of how easy it is for him to read someone’s expression to tell that they were lying.

“That’s true Jax, I have something to ask. It’s about your friend Hui Zhong. She’s uh……well, she’s my mate. A second-chance mate if you will, but I’m not ready to accept her yet. So I was wondering if I could learn about her, like what is she like or how old is she? Just anything about her really, nothing too deep.”

The reaction that I got from him with this confession was priceless. I wish I had a camera to capture this moment, that the great Alpha Jax of the Crescent Falls pack, would have his jaw nearly hitting the ground. He managed to regain his composure after a while before clearing his throat to speak.

“O-Of course, I just never expected her to be your second mate, considering how you only fawned after men as a young pup. She’s a feisty one, used to be my second beta after the hunter’s war. Then she promptly disappeared when things were fixed, I didn’t manage to find her till 2 weeks ago, when she rescued Benjamin. Why not you ask me what you’d want to know about her? “

I immediately thought of asking about her past, both in dating and personality, we both cared more about her personality over anything else because we were worried she might repeat the same mistake that Manuela did and jeopardize the entire pack.

“Well…....has she been attached before? Like dating anyone?” That was not a question I expected to come out of my mouth, but it did, so I decided to just stick to the line that I was following on and not make it obvious it wasn’t a planned question.

Jax paused to think, his face displaying that he was in deep thought, contrasting the calm and free fireplace in front of us while I sipped on the hot chocolate that one of the omegas brought in earlier. “Well, now that I think of it, no. She always felt she was not worthy of love with someone of her heritage, so she distanced herself romantically back when we were a bunch of young and fun-loving college students. But when it came to platonic love for friends, she was always the life of the party, making sure each one of us were enjoying ourselves at every event we had. We attended the same university you attended too, so you know how hard it is for humans to attend it.”

Oh wow, we share the same alma-matter. Jax was right on how it was difficult for humans to enter Oakleaf Conservatory though, it was the safe haven for supernatural beings who wanted to send their children to be kept safe and still have a good education in order to help with their packs or groups’ survival. Marcel was no exception, having attended an alpha boarding school in Russia till he was 17 before coming back and attending Oakleaf, doing a double degree in accounting and history. It’s an unusual choice for Alphas to take a humanities degree but he chose to take it since Marcel always had a passion for the humanities, accounting since it would benefit the pack’s financial state.

Having said that, I realized that there’s a chance Hui Zhong could have taken a similar program or degree that we did, perhaps she was even our senior that could have made a difference in the course.

“Oh I see, what did she study then?” Curiosity had gotten the best of me by this point as I awaited his answer with bated breath, the prospect of knowing our mate was filling my stomach with butterflies, my chest feeling so much excitement as I pondered on what she could possibly have an interest in.

“She took medical sciences, the only one amongst the four of us to do so. Having done a single degree program, but she was part of the Asian culture club. Hui was always dedicating time to the club to teach others about Chinese instruments, really talented I might add, and she teaches embroidery too. Did a fantastic job on making customized pocket squares for the entire pack as a Christmas gift.”

Hearing all of this surprised me to no end and it just made my curiosity of her grow even more. It was as if the Goddess knew that she’d fit the mold for us with this Hui Zhong, I would ensure both her and Marcel would learn to appreciate each other somehow, even if it meant I’d have to get him to go for therapy to start moving on from Manuela.

‘It won’t happen anytime soon, I promise you that Kyrion.’ Marcel growled in my head as I ignored him and continued to talk to Jax, though keeping it as a mental note.

“That is…….very interesting, I think we might be able to get along with her well enough, thank you Jax. One more thing, please don’t tell anyone about her being our mate, so this should only stay between the two of us for now.”

Jax nodded and gave me a raised eyebrow in question, but not challenging my opinions and respecting them instead, I felt relief wash over me as he agreed to keep this a secret but not without reminding me of having to announce it one day. “You have my word, but you’ll have to tell her someday, perhaps ask her out on a date?”

“Well, that sounds nice, but we need some time to heal. Kyrion’s been quite heartbroken after what happened. So I appreciate some time for us to heal, with some therapy hopefully, then we can try to court her properly.”

It felt weird, talking about myself as I acted as Marcel. Yes, it was wrong to lie to someone I trusted, especially a fellow pack alpha, but I don’t think either of us would’ve approved on me spilling the beans on who Jax was really talking to now, and I was definitely not ready for another lecture from Jax on “Being a more responsible wolf from your human!” for a whole day.

‘Heh, I never enjoyed those either. But it’s quite amusing how soft and sweet he becomes the moment Benjamin asks him to stop or help with something else, the sudden change is really funny, even for me.’ Marcel snickered through our link and I could practically see his smirk as he said that, Jax really loved Benjamin and literally worshipped the ground he walked on.

“Of course Marcel, you’re like a son to me so don’t hesitate in asking for anything else. As much as I’d like to continue, I have to go back to Ben and cuddle him otherwise both Andreas and I would be really anxious.” I nod and gather my things before standing up, giving him a small wave before heading back to the infirmary.

Will joined me halfway to the infirmary and pushed me to my room before throwing a fresh set of clothes at my face. Had it not been for the pack members lounging around, I’d have given a warning growl but I didn’t, instead giving him a glare before I went to shower in my room.

After a quick shower, I changed into a pair of khaki’s and a white polo before going to her room. Will followed me as he quietly apologized, “Sorry Alpha, but a shower was what you needed, I’ve informed the other’s that you won’t be joining for dinner and that you’ll just be resting.”

I nodded while letting a yawn out, the activities of the day really tired me out, but it wasn’t fruitless as I’d learned more about my mate and how Marcel could approach her better when he was ready. Will sensed my tired state and handed me a sandwich before leaving me alone to consume it and sleep, excited for the future that would await us.