Mia's Path

MIA

A thin layer of sweat covered all my body, my breathing was shallow and irregular. Labored. My heart felt like it could jump out of my ribcage with all the effort it was doing, not helping my chest rising and falling rapidly. My whimpering was the only sound my ears could detect. I couldn’t take it anymore; I was reaching my breaking point.

“I-I can’t...”

I couldn’t even finish my sentence before my knees hit the ground and the heavy weight on my shoulders rolled off it and into the ground.

“S-sorry, Raina. That’s t-too much.” I stuttered while gasping for air.

I woke up from my comatose state a couple of days ago and I knew my body needed more rest, but I would be lying if I said that I didn’t want to discover what the hell was I. So, when Raina asked me if I would help her figure it out, I jumped right in. Now I was starting to think that it had been a bad idea. We were on the packhouse’s gym, the little mean witch made me hold the bench press bar on my shoulders and started adding weight on both sides. What was the point? Just that evil brain of hers knew it.

“Hm, maybe not a giant, then.” She said, crossing something off a list she had on her hands.

“What? Are giants real?” I asked, still breathing heavily from all the exercise.

“I have no idea, but I want to be thorough. Better safe than sorry, right?” She beamed at me.

“Sure, it wasn’t you doing the heavy lifting.” I scoffed at her.

The witch had the audacity to cackled at my expense. These little moments made me second guess myself in regards of our friendship. I was trying to catch my breath, still on my knees, with my hands on my thighs. Raina made her way to me and crouched by my side, petting my head like I was a fucking animal.

“You’ll get over it.” And she cackled again. If I didn’t love her so damn much, or if I could feel my arms, I would have punched that straight nose of hers. “Come on, you did great. Not sure even am average werewolf could have pulled that off.”

“How much?” A husky familiar voice interrupted us.

I looked up and my eyes locked with Drake’s. He had a cocky smile on his lips, paired with a raised eyebrow. The jerk Alpha was doubting my strength. I narrowed my eyes at him and huffed.

“Almost as much as you, actually.” Raina stood up and went back to the benches, getting her list and scanning over it again. The girl was obsessed. “She could withstand two thousand pounds.”

“WHAT!?” I shrieked and stood up, staring at Raina in disbelief. “That’s not possible, Ray, the bar should’ve broken an–”

Raina and Drake snorted at my comment, exchanging a look and then started laughing. I looked at them in shock. What the hell was so funny, huh? That much weight would’ve broken my back and the damn bar, right? I knew steel was a strong material, but come on, everything - and everyone - had a limit. Raina saying she was making me carry that much weight only made me think that she was actually trying to kill me. And not in a nice sort of way. I could have died under that much pressure, or broken a bone, pulled a muscle, the list was almost endless.

“Mia, don’t look at me like that. I enchanted the bar, you were safe.” She managed to tell me.

“Oh.”

I forgot that magic existed for a while. Sue me. Still chuckling, Drake made his way to me, trying to snake his arms around my waist and pull me to him. I put my hand on his chest and pushed, creating distance between us, he was still poking fun at me, and I didn’t like it. I scoffed at him and pushed again, this time creating enough space for his hands to release me.

“Oh, come on, babe. Don’t be like that.” Drake tried to get a hold of me again, but I took several steps away from him.

“Don’t babe me. You were laughing at my expense.” I said and pouted.

“No at you, love, with you.” He cooed while getting in front of me again, putting his hands on my hips and looking at my face with amusement dancing in his eyes.

“I don’t remember laughing.” I wasn’t happy. I felt stupid for thinking that in a werewolf pack, things wouldn’t be enchanted to endure the damage they could cause. So, I turned away from him for good measure. But my plan backfired, well sort of. Instead of leaving me alone and leave, that made Drake chuckle again, pissing me off even more. Then his lips were on my bare skin, and he left a tingling trail of kisses from my shoulder to my earlobe, where he ever so lightly bit. A shiver ran down my spine, making goosebumps appear all over my body and a soft moan left my lips.

“Enough of that, you two. It’s my time with her right now, Drake. Wait your turn to make her all whimpering and sweaty.” Raina complained and pushed Drake from me. Her words making me turn red as a tomato.

“Wow, you need to learn how to share, Ray-Ray.” Drake teased her.

“Will you share her with me when it’s your time?” She asked and Drake’s expression soured. “Didn’t think so. Now leave, we have things to do.”

DRAKE

I couldn’t believe that after years of searching I had finally found my mate. My mate. I sighed with a small smile on my lips. I could believe even less that Mia was it for me. Silver and I had had our suspicions from day one, but since it didn’t feel like it from the moment our eyes connected the first time, I had big doubts. Not to mention the fact that we thought she was human. It was impossible for a supernatural to have a human as a mate, it simply had never occurred. You see, your supernatural part had to have a counterpart on the other person to connect with. Amongst us all, werewolves were even more picky about it. I knew only about a handful cases where the mated pair weren’t both werewolves. It was rare as it was, but even more weird with the fact that we had no idea what Mia really was.

She had some characteristics that I knew from other species, but they shouldn’t exist in one individual. Like her scent changing slightly according to her mood, that was a common occurrence for fairies. But her eyes didn’t agree with that theory, fay had strange colored eyes and a lot of them didn’t even had pupils, so Raina and I discarded that theory long ago. She could be fragile and get herself hurt easily, but she was resilient. By now I started to think about her getting into a comatose like state was really because of the extension of her injuries, drugs or if it was like some nymphs that could hibernate to trigger a healing cycle. She told us that her sense of smell improved since she woke up, almost like a werewolf or vampire senses. And last week Raina pointed out that she was strong too, which only added to the pile of unexplained things about her.

If I had all that information about her the moment, she got here I would be pissed and most likely scared of her. The magical world was big and full of mysteries, I knew that, but still not knowing what you were or what you could do was a scaring thing. My heart constricted with the thought that Mia could get hurt while trying to figure things out about herself. She seemed freaked out by the amount of weight Raina had put on her shoulders and we all knew that our little witch friend could be deranged sometimes. So, I gave them some space to continue working things out the way Raina wanted, but I kept close, just in case my mate needed me.

They were making their way out into the forest, so I followed in a safe distance. Some pack members gave me a knowing look and smirks, I growled in return. I hadn’t told anyone that Mia was my mate, not yet anyway. She was still recovering from that fucker’s attack, and she didn’t need the pressure of people wanting to congratulate her and make her our Luna. Damn it. Would she be my Luna? Would she accept the role and help me run the pack? I had no idea, I knew she had a sore spot for packs, so she could still reject me if it meant she would have to accept all those people. That thought alone broke my heart. She couldn’t reject me; I wouldn’t survive it if she did.

She can’t reject us. We need to make a move, NOW. Silver barked at me, even more scared than I was about being rejected.

Rejecting your mate was not common with werewolves, it was almost unheard of. But still happened a few times, usually when it involved a werewolf mated to a different supernatural. I remember my mother telling me a story about a wolf that fell in love with a fairy and when she came of age, her wolf part confirmed that the fairy was her mate. But the fairy prince had no interest in mating a wolf, so he rejected her, and she perished away. I didn’t know if my mom’s story was just that or if it had a truth to it. At the time I remember that she was only telling us this so we would try to find our mates within the wolf community. Mel was four at the time and obsessed with Nymphs, so I’m not sure my mother was just trying to make her see things differently.

We can’t make a move; she needs to heal first. I scowled at Silver.

If we mate and mark her, she’ll heal faster. He pointed out.

He was not wrong there, or was he? If she was a werewolf Silver had a point, mates helped healing each other. But she wasn’t. I had no idea how our bond would work.

Our bond.

It was a strong one, I felt the pull towards her, and it was the most difficult thing in the world to resist it. But I had to. I was trying to do right thing by her and go slow, so she could heal and find herself first. She had gone through so much recently and she deserved to be put first. In the end of the day, I only wanted what was best for her. If I had to suck it up and keep my feelings to myself for a while longer, so be it.

Does she even feel the pull? Silver huffed in annoyance.

That made me pause. Did she? Could it be that she didn’t feel anything pulling her towards me? Yeah, she had kissed me back when she first woke up days ago, but we hadn’t really talked about it. She was more affectionate, she would hold my hand and caress it while we were watching TV, or lean against me, even kissed my cheek this morning before being dragged out of the room. That was it, though. She wasn’t bold like she had been before. Was it possible that this thing was one sided? Damn it. The frustration of not knowing what she was, was starting to drive me insane.

All I wanted was to hold my little mate in my arms and make her happy, make her moan my name and love me just as much as I already loved her.

Why did Fate decide to be so cruel with us? Was it some kind of a test? I knew Mia was special, not only because our bond felt different somehow, but because she was just too incredible not to be special. That and the fact that someone had gone to a lot of trouble to keep her concealed. Even from herself. She also had a past that she didn’t want me knowing and the thought that that past could get caught up with us, scared the shit out of me. When would I not be afraid of losing her again? Now that she was my mate, I guess that feeling would never leave.

Protecting her was not an option, was a necessity. I couldn’t live without her, so I had to make sure she would be safe with me. Even it that meant doing things she didn’t like or agreed with. Like keeping her away from the fucker. So far it didn’t seem that she needed his blood or even his presence, so I would make sure it stayed that way. She had asked about him once and I lost it. I ended up screaming at her that she would never see him again and she got mad at me. We fought and she didn’t talk to me until dinner that day.

She would hate me a little for it, but she would be safe. I just needed her to get a little stronger and maybe more familiar with her new self. Then I would tell her she was my mate, and we could finally be together. She was much better that she was a week ago when she woke up, so I was building up my nerves to talk to her. Soon.

How about tonight, over dinner? Silver inquired. Then we can go for a nice walk under the full moon.

I thought about it. It wasn’t a bad idea. It even sounded romantic. That was it, then. I would tell her tonight.