Mate!

GIA

Since the day my father brought Gael home and made him a member of our family, he was always with me at all my special events.

It was Gael who taught me how to hunt, how to ride a bike, how to cook, and who helped me with my lessons.

He was always there to clean my wounds when I fell and to comfort me as they healed.

He seemed like he was my big brother, although I have never been able to see him as such, no matter how much the alpha insisted that we treat each other that way.

I have beautiful memories from our childhood and teenage years, like when we baked our first cake and celebrated his birthday.

Since he never remembered who he was, we decided that his birthdate was the same day the alpha brought him into the pack because, according to Mom, that day he started his new life, and it was as if he was born again.

With Gael, I got into a lot of mischief, but we also did our daily chores. He and I used to have adventures in the forest that belongs to our territories. We climbed trees and bathed in the river.

Most of the time, we would go alone, but at other times, Kali, Gael’s best friend, would accompany us. He, like Gael, was preparing to become a warrior.

I remember when I was sixteen, I had my first transformation.

Gael had already been converted two years earlier and named the pack’s next alpha, so his preparation would be different from the others.

I will not deny that this event hurt me a lot, and it also made me feel humiliated because I was the one who was supposed to inherit since I am the only daughter of the alpha.

As for Kali, he succeeded his father as beta when his father was killed by a wild wolf.

I remember that, back then, my hormones went on a rampage, and I started to have a sassy attitude toward my protector.

“You smell so good…” I sniffed Gael’s neck and licked my lips.

In response to my strange behavior, he pushed me away excitedly. “What are you doing?” he asked while looking at me as if I had gone crazy.

“I enjoy your sweet smell of fine wood and vanilla. It’s the same one I smelled the day I met you, although I didn’t tell anyone about it. You smelled my scent, too, didn’t you?

“Because I remember you knew where I was when I hid my scent.” I leaned my face closer seductively. “Tell me, Gael. Can you smell it now?”

Gael looked at me nervously, closed his eyes, and sighed. When he opened them, I didn’t like what they expressed.

“No… I don’t smell your scent, nor will I because I’m not your mate, if that’s what you’re suggesting. So stop your insinuations and save us both a problem with the alpha.”

“You can’t say for sure. Maybe I am.”

“That’s enough! Stop saying that. It’s not like that. Since when did you stop seeing me as your big brother?”

“I’ve never seen you as my big brother, Gael. And I know you haven’t seen me as a sister either.”

“Well, you’re wrong because, to me, you’ll always be my little sister. So stop thinking nonsense and focus on your studies,” he scolded me.

Gael left me with tear-filled eyes and a heartbreaking pain in my chest. If he wasn’t my mate, why did his rejection hurt me so much?

Months went by. I would say flirtatious, suggestive phrases; Gael would blush, ignore me, or change the subject. I never gave up.

Then the issue of a possible war between nearby packs came up, so Gael was busy with Dad and Kali.

After that was resolved, Gael concentrated on helping Kali with his bonding preparations and building his home since he had already found his mate.

As for me, I concentrated on my studies.

Before I turned eighteen and Gael turned twenty, I had decided to talk to my father about my crush on his heir since I had the impression that he was afraid of his reaction, and that was why he was rejecting me.

“What are you going to study?” Gael asked as he looked up at the stars. We had both gone out into the courtyard to get some fresh air.

“Pharmacy. This way, I can help Daddy with the pack since we need more preparation for attacks.

“As you know, there are wounds so deep that they need to be healed with plants and drugs if our body can’t close them,” I answered proudly.

“I’m sure you will be a good pharmacist,” he said with a tender smile, one of those that he reserved only for me, and that made my pulse quicken.

“Thank you,” I said, blushing. “Gael…”

His golden eyes watched me attentively, an action that provoked a sea of emotions in my body and made my heart beat frantically.

“I will tell the alpha that you and I love each other and…”

“No, not again! I thought you’d gotten over that nonsense,” he said jadedly.

Nonsense?

“Gael, why do you deny it? I know you love me as much as I love you. Stop rejecting me. I understand you’re afraid of Dad’s reaction, but he’s very fond of you. He would never object…”

“That’s enough!” he interrupted me. He looked very upset. “I don’t love you that way. My precious Gia, stop hurting yourself with that silly idea. You are my little sister. It’s awkward for you to do—”

I didn’t let him finish. My lips silenced his as I took over his mouth. Maybe his words lied, but his body would not.

Gael remained static in place. He didn’t reciprocate, but he didn’t push me away from him either. I didn’t understand why he stayed neutral, but I didn’t think anything of it.

I was kissing him.

I was inexperienced since I had never been kissed. I don’t think Gael had, either.

“Are you finished?” he asked coldly when I stopped moving my lips.

Those words made me let him go and step back. A simple phrase broke my heart into a thousand pieces.

Gael, on the other hand, didn’t even flinch. He kept his indifferent look, and I didn’t see any gesture of love from him.

Tears wet my cheeks in response to his brusque attitude as I became aware of my stupidity.

Gael didn’t love me.

“I understand... You don’t like me, and that’s why you deny me. I didn’t know you could have a mate and not love her.”

“I don’t love you, or at least not as you expect. I’m not your mate, either, so drop that idea you have of me and focus on your studies.

“When you least expect it, you’ll meet that special person, little sister.” Gael kissed my forehead and walked away, leaving me broken and humiliated.

Several days later, there was a party in town. I had bought a new dress to seduce Gael. Yes, I hadn’t given up.

It was fun to dance with him, Kali, and Gin, his wife, all night long, so was playing at the fair and having dinner together.

Many girls had set their sights on Gael, even my friend Lia. But that mattered little to me because that night, Gael would have his attention only on me.

Suddenly Gael disappeared, so I approached Kali and Gin to ask about him. “Have you seen Gael?”

They denied it in unison. They were in their own smitten world, so I squinted when they stopped paying attention to me and started kissing. What show-offs.

Anyway, I wasn’t counting on them to find Gael, so I left.

I spent part of the party looking for him and, when I was about to give up, I got to a lonely area where the forest began.

Then I saw the most painful scene of my life: Gael was cornering Lia against a tree while she was wrapping her arms around his neck.

They were kissing each other fiercely as if they wanted to swallow each other.

I felt my heart being pierced with intense pain, and an uncontrollable rage began to burn inside me.

I was going to kill that bitch.

“He’s mine!” I shouted with my voice affected by my she-wolf, who was asking me to spill blood.

Gael held me by the wrists before I attacked that traitor, giving her time to run away. As the alpha’s daughter, my strength was superior to most lycanthropes, so confronting me was not in her best interest.

“Calm down!” Gael scowled.

I, for my part, couldn’t stop crying. I felt like a jerk at that moment.

He didn’t kiss me, but he was swallowing her up. Jealousy was consuming me in a way that made me lose my sanity; however, I would not indulge that fucker.

“You’ve broken my heart, Gael,” I sobbed inconsolably. “But I’ve humiliated myself enough in front of you. I... I really believed that you loved me, but I only deceived myself.

“I’ll leave you alone, Gael. You go on screwing as many fucking bitches as you can get your hands on. I, for one, will find someone better than you. Gael, I hate you!”

I didn’t give him a chance to reply. Instead, I turned into a she-wolf and ran into the forest. I ran in the dark until I reached a cliff. Up there, I howled my pain all night long.

That was how a beautiful friendship came to an end.

Now we avoid seeing each other and speaking to each other, and even though we live in the same house, we go months without seeing each other’s faces. That’s how the years have passed.

I have already graduated from my career, but I went to the vulnerable territory for a whole year to help the doctors there.

This year is coming to an end, and therefore, I must return to the pack to contribute to the creation of drugs.

And although it is comforting to reunite with my family, I am afraid to meet Gael again, especially since I will have to work alongside him because he does the inventory for the pack’s main drugstore.