Page 5 of The Alpha's Daughter
Chapter Five
LOU
My eyes narrowed and I felt like I couldn’t get enough oxygen into my lungs. Gunnar was here and right in front of me. And he was my mate. He gave a slow, sexy smirk and stepped forward, so close I had to hold my breath to keep my chest from touching his.
“You’re not my mate,” I stammered again, unable to meet his eyes.
“Yes, I am. It’s fate,” he leaned down to whisper in my ear, “and you’re mine, Shortcake.”
My breath left me in a rush and the movement made my chest brush against him. My nipples pebbled at the friction and I felt warmth pool between my legs. His face still hovered dangerously close to mine. I watched his pulse beat faster under his jaw and his ragged breath feathered against my neck. Neither of us moved. My wolf preened, clearly pleased at both the nickname and proximity. She was such a traitor. Score one for team Gunnar.
“Praise to the Goddess, we have a fated bond!” I jumped backward, my eyes shifting between Gunnar and the Grand Master. “Come forward and take your place by the stage. You can be the first to accept your mate bond today.”
Gunnar held his hand out to me and waited. “Come on.”
My mind raced even as my wolf whined. I had no idea what to do and my brain felt stuffed with cotton.
What are you waiting for?She urged me forward with a nudge. Despite her insistence, I could reject him if I wanted. Rejecting a fated mate bond was rare enough that I had never seen it happen in my lifetime, but it was possible. I didn’t have to choose this. I could still choose Jax. Maybe. But no matter how hard I tried to grasp onto them, reaching way down into the depths of my soul, all thoughts of Jax flew from my mind as I stood there staring at Gunnar.
That’s because he isn’t our mate. Gunnar is our mate.I could practically feel my wolf roll her eyes, talking to me slowly as though I were a child.
Tentatively, I reached out my hand and threaded my fingers with Gunnar’s. We walked, hand in hand, to the edge of the stage. “I’m not sure I can do this.”
"Yes, you can." He squeezed my hand gently and raked his other hand through his hair again. “For what it’s worth, it wasn’t what I expected, either.”
“What do you mean? What did you expect?”
“I don’t know how much you know about my pack’s history, but we haven’t always been into… tradition,” he started slowly. “Coming here was a gesture of goodwill between alphas. Nothing more. I wasn’t even sure I would see you.”
“You didn’t want to find a mate?”
“Is that what you wanted when you came here today?” He looked down and met my gaze.
“I wanted… something else.” I bit my lip and looked away, regret clouding my eyes. I barely heard his low growl.
“Someone else, you mean,” he replied, jaw clenching tightly. I wasn’t sure how to respond to that. How did you tell your long-lost friend, the person who is your fated mate, that you originally wanted to mate with someone else? Someone you weren’t really in love with, at that. Awkward.
“The truth?” I scrunched my face, looking up at him through one squinty eye. He nodded. “His name is Jax. We were supposed to choose each other today. If I’m being honest though, Alpha Griffin would never have let that happen.”
“Why the hell would he have stopped you? I know it’s been a while, but I remember Jax. He was a good kid.” he frowned.
“Jax is a Gamma. And I guess that’s not good enough for the Alpha’s daughter.” I gave him a humorless laugh and looked up at my father on stage. He was furiously conversing with his Beta, Josiah, and my mother as the ceremony continued. What they had to be upset about at this point, I had no idea. I was the one who had been volleyed around like a pinball in their stupid game.
Gunnar’s eyebrows shot up. “I’m a little surprised the Alpha has such a low opinion of his Gamma wolves. In our pack, they are some of the most badass, loyal members we’ve got. Hardcore fighters. Doesn’t get much better than that.”
“I was going to be sold to the Whiteclaw pack, instead, to secure an alliance.”
“Whiteclaw? No way. Archer Donovan is a fucking tool,” he shook his head and clenched his jaw again. Something inside me fluttered at that, knowing he didn’t like the thought of me being mated with someone else.
“It doesn’t matter anyway. I’m not going to Whiteclaw now, which is fine. I didn’t want to go anyway. I can’t feel anything for Jax anymore. Not that I felt a lot, to begin with. I blame you.” The words were out of my mouth before I could take them back. That was way too much information.
“Wait, what?” his grin was wide.
“Nothing, forget about it.” I turned my face so he wouldn’t see my flushed cheeks.
“Come on, Shortcake. You can tell me,” he smirked again in that way that I hated and gave me a little nudge. “What do you mean, it’s my fault? That you don’t get to be Donovan’s mate or that you don’t feel anything for Jax anymore?”
Butterflies bubbled up inside of me but I pushed them back down. “I mean, both. Technically. But mostly the second thing. It’s the mate bond, I think. I’m not sure. I don’t… I don’t want him. I don’t want either of them.”
The words tasted like sandpaper on my tongue, but it didn’t make them any less true. I wasn’t sure what it said about me that I could simply let go of my commitment to Jax like that, but I was sure it wasn’t anything good. The Lou from this morning wouldn’t even recognize this new girl I had become in the course of just a few short hours. Instead of wanting Jax as my mate, I wanted — well, I wasn’t entirely sure what I wanted. I guess that was the real problem, wasn’t it? The unfortunate kicker was that I didn’t have long to decide.
