Denied by Destiny: Trapped in the Shadows of the Mate Bond

Hector POV

What a head fuck sending the invitation was. I was only just making lead way with Kaia again, only just earning her trust when this damn invite was sitting on my desk. But I can't un-see it.

He must know that in sending this I would be driving straight to him, he is just lucky I am coming alone and not with my warriors.

I didn't want to leave Kaia the way I did but I know she'll have returned to the party by now, where she can enjoy the celebrations at least. 1

My foot had been slammed down on the gas pedal since the moment I left the pack grounds. I didn't have a second to lose.

The impending ceremony may still be a fortnight away but I couldn't let it go ahead, not without seeing her for myself.

Seeing for myself that she wants this. That she isn't only going along with it because she doesn't know she can make a choice, that she can have a different life if she wants it.

Than is a master manipulator who has been in her ear from the moment she woke up.

She won't know of other options, she won't have changed from that sweet and naive 16 year old that drank the wolfsbane as a cry for help. She may be 20 now but I doubt very much that she is as mentally mature as Kaia.

If you are in a coma for 4 years I presume the brain also pauses, the function of learning stops. I need to help her see.

The familiar sights of the Amber Desert pack grounds surround me as I enter onto their main incoming road. I'm meant to have freedom of movement into the Amber Desert pack, but when I arrive to find the gates aren't opening for me...I'm not wholly surprised. Than often liked to get his own way.

It doesn't take long for the gate to be heavily guarded, warriors even now added onto the security detail. Never capable of fighting his own battles himself. Always having to get others involved.

Why can't she see him for what he truly is...

Kaia's words of how Alora sees the real him flashes into my mind before I shake them out. I needed a clear head for this, not to think of Kaia back at my pack.

As I see him approach the gate, it opens and I finally get out of my car to face him.

"I want to see her!" I demand, an alpha trying to command another alpha.

"Not a chance! You are on my lands now Hector...here you are not King." He seethes out to me, his chest puffing out.

"I won't let her mark you!" I roar, my chin rising upwards almost to challenge him. A smirk enters on to his

lips as he takes a step forward trying to prove to his warriors that he was the one in control here.Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

"Then give me Kaia."

So this was about Kaia...not about Alora. Why...why did he want both.

He forgets I know him better than most...I know exactly how to rattle his cage.

"Like you say I'm not King here. But neither are you."

"What the fuck does that mean?"

"I had a visitor...didn't you know he came to see me. Came to beg as always. Remember the reason you are Alpha Than!"

I can't bear to be in close proximity to him right now, and without the strength of my own warriors behind me, I can't take on a pack single handed. I'd like to, but it wouldn't be smart to leave my pack and Kaia unprotected.

I start to back-step towards my still running car, when her scent hits me...my wolf instantly remembering the intoxicating scent of sweet mango.

It may have been 4 years, but it's as if we only smelt it yesterday.

Then she calls my name

The way she says my name makes my knees want to give way. As if she doesn't believe her own eyes that I am stood by these gates. "Hector?"

"Alora?" I call out to her in a mirroring tone to hers.

She starts to run towards the gate, my car's lights highlighting her under the darkening night sky. It was eery looking at the spitting image of Kaia, even though I had known Alora first.

She was ghostly white, pale in comparison to Kaia's sunkissed skin. Was she not back to a full bill of health?

My wolf growls trying to surge forward but I push him back, I am mindful of the warriors taking a stance towards me. She stops, her eyes on me as her hand goes to her mouth.

"Let me see her!" I roar as the warriors start to walk out to me. I don't care, let them beat me if they must. "Get her the fuck back inside!" Than roars, his arm shooting out pointing directly at Alora. Whoever let slip that I was here was in deep shit now. Someone scoops her up in their arms, dragging her back as she tries to fight against them.

"This isn't over Than...you mark her and I will announce war on the Amber Desert pack!" I throw the invitation into the mud, as I make this promise to him.

My eyes don't leave his once as I enter my car and reverse back down the road. I have to take steady deep breaths to calm the boiling anger deep within me.

I know this path well...each turn...each tree to avoid...my eyes remain glaring on his until I can no longer see him.