Chapter 3 - Substitute Mate

Pacing back and forth while counting to twenty.

I was mad

My wolf was furious

I felt betrayed, why? Why would they even think of this?! A substitute mate?

Just the thought made me growl no one else could take your mates place, and my family knew that, why then try force me to marry someone who isn't my mate!

"What the hell is he talking about!" I growl in frustration as I hear the door to the study open.

"Sweetheart please try to calm down" my mum says trying to reach for me but I evade her touch, I was in no mood for her affection.

"Calm down!? You want me to calm down!? " My wolf desperately trying to get the best of me.

"I hear my mate is going to be substituted for some random wolf I don't even know!, And you want me to calm down? "

"Alright mum I'm calm, I'm really calm, now explain to me exactly what I just heard because it seems to be a fucking joke" I said through clenched jaws

"I'm sorry sweetheart, it wasn't" my mum sighs in defeat. I just stood there frozen

"Charles" my father calls out my name.

"We just want what's best for you, you have been searching for your mate ever since you came of age, for eleven years now son you have traveled and searched, and we always had to watch you completely disappointed, angry and depressed whenever you didn't find her. I know what a mate means and how hard this is going to be for you but you have to understand that you are not getting any younger. You are to take up the Alpha title once you are thirty but you need a female by your side, a family of your own so that you can understand what it means to have people under your protection."

"Being an alpha isn't just about signing deals and taking morning patrols it's about sacrifices and obligations"

My Father the man I looked up to all my life was telling me all this bullshit, the same man who taught me just how important a mate is and how miraculous it is to find your better half, the same Father who taught me that a mate completes a wolf and that a wolf is obliged to love and take care of it's mate with it's life. What was I supposed to make of all this? I am a grown wolf who didn't need anyones opinion but in the werewolves world it was completely different, whatever the Alpha says goes. But I wasn't having it.

Laughing bitterly after listening to my father's words.

"Then what happens when my mates finally arrives?" I ask trying as much as possible to hold in the pool of emotions I was feeling, I could feel my heart squeeze and my wolf wimper at the thought of our mate finding out we were married to another married to another.

"What do I do then, what do I tell her? That she's been replaced" I ask histerically feeling my blood boil, what they were asking of me was unreasonable, and selfish.

"Son I under-"

"No! No you don't, you don't understand how it feels to search and still find nothing, to feel like you are being rejected or avoided, and the little bit of hope you have left crushed by your own family!"

"You can't Force me to marry someone I don't know, love and can never love!" I growled.

I walk out and slam the door.

"I feel terrible forcing our son to marry someone he doesn't love"

"I feel bad too sweetheart, But what can we do when he can't find his mate, the pack needs a female head."

Shifting into my Burgundy Wolf I ran through the woods, I needed to clear my head, as my paws collided with the earth, I moved faster feeling the breeze against my fur.

Feeling satisfied with my distance I stopped by a river bank. Taking few steps I walk towards the river staring at my reflection under the half moonlight.

Raising my head to the dark sky we howled as loud we could. You could feel it, the sadness and longing in our howl

My wolf was sad, broken, it whimpered in pain and longing for it's mate.

Where was she? Was she hiding? was she lost? I don't even want to think of the worst. I've heard stories about one losing their mates even before getting to meet them. I didn't want to believe it! I didn't even want to think that for a second my mate could be....

Hearing the Bush rustle my senses became alert, the sound was still really far it sounded like someone was running at top speed definitely a wolf. I was immediately on guard, someone was following me. Positioning my nose to the direction of the sound, I sniffed in.

Emma.

"Damn Charles you sure are fast" my sister said as she came towards my wolf's large frame and ran her hands through our fur. he snuggled in return welcoming the feeling.

My wolf loves Emma

"What are you doing here" I asked through telepathy. Werewolves communicate through telepathy in wolf form. It is also a connection every wolf shares with his mate once marked by each other. Through Telepathy a wolves bond with it's mates is strengthened, it's can connect to it's mate, sense what the other feels, pain, love, anger, fear whatever feeling it was, that was what made them one. My heart hurt of thinking of what my mate and I could share, this is something I could never feel or share with an other wolf.

She looked at me with sad eyes before answering.

"I heard, well eves dropping" she said. I guessed right, Emma wasn't told about this bullshit arrangements cause if she did the first thing she would have done was to tell me.

"Are you okay?" She asked softly my wolf whimpered and rested his heads on her lap. While she stroked my fur.

"No, I mean how can I be? This is all too sudden and none of them even bothered about how I'll feel or my opinion, they just decided on my own future" I said in annoyance

"I'm sorry" she said.

"Why did you run all the way here?" she could have easily shifted to her wolf.

"Because I wasn't about to let this brand new top I bought shred into pieces by shifting" she said with a huff. That's true Emma didn't really like shifting often because of the downfall of having all your clothes ripped into bits. She rather used her wolf strength, like speed and only shifts when extremely necessary.

"How about you shift back I have something for you" she said and my ears perked.

I headed to the bank of a tree and shifted, picking up pants that were stuffed under the sand. Due to the shredding of our clothes when we shift we always put extra clothes beneath the sand by every tree not to shallow for eyes to notice and not too deep in the ground.

"So what do you have for me" I moved out to Emma and sat beside her.

She took my hand and placed a small box on it.

"I wanted you to give it to your mate when you found her, well that was before all this" she said with minty eyes.

Sometimes I felt like Emma and I were supposed to be twins, because of how much we cared and looked out for each other. She has always been my greatest supporter and was always there when I lashed out of frustration of not finding my mate. She was just like our mum but with a touch of a wild side.

I was speechless when I opened the box. It was beautiful gold necklace with a pendent that. Spelled 'Mine'

"Happy birthday big bro" she said and I pulled her in a tight hug.

"Thank you Emma" I said softly.

I don't know but this gave me a bit of hope that I could still find her.

********

She was starting at the half moon through her window, the night was dark and windy,

What is this feeling she felt, a feeling of longing mixed with sadness and emptiness, why was she feeling like this.

It felt like someone was desperately calling out to her, but who? And why?