His Lover, My Mate

Sixteen: His Arrival

*Aletha*

She'd been running for hours.

Her throat burned and her lungs felt like they would tear open. But she knew she couldn't stay back there. She couldn't stay there when every waking moment made her body cry with fear. Rush terrified her. Being with him terrified her. He was the unknown, the dark, dark night that was full of terrors. Her fear of Rush fueled her legs and body to keep going. She needed to go back to her home. Her home was not with Rush. It was with Lucien, with the Shadow Pack.

Maybe fate wanted her to be with Rush, but her heart said so otherwise. Her heart couldn't let go of the man who she came to love for all these years. She'd spent seven years of her life with Lucien—that was a third of her life. Now everything she knew was him. He'd grown on her over the years. He'd gotten into her heart and made it beat for only him. He was the reason she was alive, after all. He was the reason for everything good in her life after her family had been slaughtered by the very kind her real mate was.

Rush was a monster. His blood carried the venom of killers. His blood mother killed her pack. Now she knew why the Moon Goddess wasn't fond of him. She knew why nature hated him. It was because he was one of those bloodthirsty murderers—and worse, he was their Alpha. He must pay for his crimes. He must be punished. He needed to suffer for the demented way he was, for the demented things he did, for the demented evil that harbored his thoughts and his desires.

She forced herself to stop thinking. Thinking about him just frightened her even more. It made her swirl into the depths of the unknown, and she knew very well what happened when one got stuck in its darkness. The darkness was an entity, and it gnawed on the poor, the sick, the weak, the helpless, and the innocent. It was an evil thing, and she she'd fallen prey to it not once, but twice.

She could smell Lucien now. The Shadow Pack was close by. Just a few more miles.

She knew she shouldn't return to Lucien, not Rush could find her through their bond. But this was the safest place for her. She knew Rush had told her about Lucien's intentions with her, but she didn't believe a single word he said about Lucien's plans to ship her off to the rogues in exchange for power. Lucien would never do that—he'd given her a home for seven years. Wouldn't he have given her away long ago if he planned to follow through with it?

Her loyalty was to only one Alpha, and that was Alpha Lucien of the Shadow Pack. She couldn't care less about Rush. She despised him and his pack of heathens. She wanted nothing to do with them.

Aletha finally approached the entrance of the Shadow Pack. The guards hadn't been expecting her. Their eyes were wide and their jaws hung low.

Let me in, she told them. I must see Lucien.

"You are not our Luna," one of the guards told her harshly. "You are the Night Luna. The Night Pack is your rightful place to be. You were never our true Luna."

But I have to see Lucien! she insisted a little more desperately now. She was running out of time. The more she lingered in the forest by the borders, the more vulnerable she was to the darkness...to Rush. Please! I promise this is the last time you'll ever see me again. I promise I won't come back but I must see Lucien!

"Let her in," said none other than Lucien himself as he stepped out of the shadows. He usually wasn't outside of his territory, but she dismissed her lingering thoughts when he smiled at her. "Aletha...thank the Goddess you're here."

She shifted back into her human form and ran into his arms. "Lucien!" she cried, tears in her eyes. "I missed you so much!"

He engulfed her body and hauled her up, kissing her mouth. "I missed you too, Aletha." He started for the castle. "Come, let's get you dressed. Then we can spend the rest of the night together...just as we've done before."