VIKTOR.
Of all the places I thought I was ever going to find my mate, the Winter Wolf Coalition was not even on the list.
Why would it be?
They are made up of rogues, unknown rogues who came up from nowhere, took over a legitimate -abhorrent, useless, disgraceful but legitimate- pack and stayed in their territory.
Never mind the fact that they haven’t bothered anyone, yet, they are rogues.
They are a threat.
And their leader is my mate.
What are the fucking chances of that happening?!
“Louis. Louis what?” she asks, bringing me out of my thoughts.
And there is that?
The name just came out of nowhere.
I couldn’t exactly say, hi I am Viktor Thorn, Alpha of the Vale pack, one known to be ruthless to others especially rogues.
I am not that stupid.
“Hello. I asked you a question,” she repeats, her green eyes sparking with irritation.
Beautiful green eyes.
“Did he hit his head?” she mutters to herself as she eyes me with worry.
“I… I can’t remember,” I say, internally wincing at the lie.
I am just on a roll, aren’t I?
“You don’t remember?” she asks suspiciously. “But you remember your name!”
“Yeah, I think.”
“You think?”
“That is the only name that… showed up in my head,” I answer.
“Hmm. I see. Let’s leave that for now. I had found you a ways off from here, bleeding in the forest, nearly dead. I don’t suppose you know how that came to be?”
“No… I have no clue.”
“Hmm, and the many corpses that were littered all about.”
“That is a disturbing image,” I reply.
“It is even more disturbing in person,” she deadpans.
“I am sorry you have to see that.”
“I am going to be honest with you, Louis,” she starts, saying my name like she doesn’t believe me.
Smart woman.
“I don’t believe you,” -called it- “you, as well as a bunch of trained wolves came this close to our territory, without us even noticing. It makes total sense that you would pretend to have no memory whatsoever. So until further notice, you are going to be here, under watch until a decision is made concerning you.”
“That makes sense. I can work with that.”
“Good,” she says as she turns and begins walking to the door. “I will have something brought for you to eat.”
“Wait!” I exclaim as I try to leap from the bed only to fall back on a wince.
“You still have a few bones that need healing, don’t overwork yourself.”
“Wait,”I gasp out. “What about… you know, us?”
“What about us?” she asks with a tilt of her head, confusion in her eyes.
“We are mates,” I answer, confused.
Why is she so… apathetic to that?
“And?”
Wow.
I am mated to an ice queen.
“Aren’t you excited about it? I don’t know about you, but I am. I have always wanted a mate.”
“And how would you know that, Louis. You said you don’t remember anything.”
She got me there.
“Instinct. I know I am a wolf, and I know or understand how important mates are.”
“Well, they are not important to me.”
“What?”
“Bear in mind that it is very likely that you came to attack us. Am I supposed to be excited about that? Tell me, if you had succeeded in taking us by surprise and broken in. Would the fact that I am your mate have stopped you from killing me?”
“That- I wouldn’t, you are my mate! I would never hurt you!”
*How do you know that? You don’t even remember who you are.”
*Wow. You are cold.”
“I am a leader who has people to protect from threats and right now, you are one. So, until you are ready to be honest with me about who you are and your deal is, I suggest you don’t bring that fact up.”
“The fact that we are mates?”
“Yes,” she says with an annoyed sniff. “That.”
“I see.”
“Good,” she mutters before leaving.
She doesn’t want me as a mate.
No, that is wrong.
She doesn’t even know me, so that is not it.
She must have something against mates and I have to find out what.
But I can’t do that if I am stuck here and I am going to remain here unless I can prove that I wasn’t coming to attack them.
Which I wasn’t.
Not my people at least.
Reports of more and more people leaving their pack and joking the Coalition had increased in the past year, and we -the packs were admittedly worried.
If it continued, they were going to get a lot stronger than most of the packs and then we would really have something to worry about.
So, some of us had decided to come over here for a meeting.
Against my advice, they had sent no message, no warning that we were coming.
That should have been the first red flag.
Why would you think it was a good idea to go visit a highly suspicious group of possibly dangerous people without alerting them.
The second thing that should have alerted me was the way we moved.
See, I wasn’t with them from the beginning, the panting stage and all that.
They had just come to me with their worry and proposal and I figured it made sense.
A normal approach would have been to come from the front, not from the rear and sides like we had.
By that time I realized their intention and had pulled my wolves back which had started an argument that snowballed into a fight.
Apparently, my powerful and well trained pack is also a threat and they wanted to use two threats to cancer it out.
The fight was brutal, as more people fell, my people, the angrier I got and all I could see was red.
By the time I came to my senses , only detached limbs of the said wolves were lying around and I had gone off to the forest to howl for back up.
Only I didn’t make it
I passed out and woke up here.
And the longer I remain here, the more antsy my pack would be and then they would come looking for me.
That cannot happen.
Not now.