Chapter 2 You're Not Accustomed To It

Catherine's POV:

The heavy, intricately carved doors of Bloodmoon Hall had been kicked wide open from the outside.

Against the bright light stood a tall, commanding figure, who then strode straight across the hall's threshold.

His custom-made black suit fit him with extraordinary precision, emphasizing his broad shoulders and narrow waist. The fabric closely hugged his powerful build, giving him an austere, almost untouchable appearance.

Still, he had loosened his tie and left his collar slightly open, revealing the pale line of his collarbone and a glimpse of the muscle below.

It was Kellen.

He really had shown up!

Only a brief ten minutes had passed since I had ended our phone call!

With long, threatening strides, Kellen crossed the hall and climbed the altar steps in just a few moments, staring down at me.

His piercing blue eyes tightened, and I could almost feel the force of his scrutiny as it passed over me.

"Have you lost the ability to speak, or are you simply stunned?" His lengthy fingers gripped my chin, tilting my face upward against my will. There was a dangerous coldness in his voice. "Catherine, you didn't call me just to mess with me, did you? Are you trying to use me to provoke that worthless Derrick?"

The coarse calluses covering his fingertips felt hot against my skin.

"No!" I answered without a moment's hesitation, holding his gaze firmly. "I'm completely finished with him! Even if Derrick were to die this very moment, it wouldn't matter to me!"

How could I possibly risk playing games with a man like Kellen?

Everyone throughout the entire werewolf world knew that Kellen, the Alpha who led the Shadow Pack, was utterly merciless and cold-blooded.

Ever since he had assumed leadership of his pack, innumerable she-wolves had pursued him. Some had even undressed completely and climbed into his bed, but he had cast them out without offering a single merciful word.

People spoke of Kellen behind his back as a soulless monster. Others believed the Moon Goddess had placed a curse on him, condemning him to a lonely death without ever finding a mate.

Although he had agreed during our phone call, I had spent those ten minutes believing he wasn't serious.

I hadn't thought he would really show up in person, much less arrive so quickly.

"You'd better be telling the truth." With a dismissive snort, Kellen let go of my chin, but he continued watching my face intently.

Taking a deep breath, I struggled to bring my turbulent emotions under control.

The terrible hurt of Derrick's rejection continued to pulse through every nerve in my body.

There was no time to reconsider my decision. I extended my hand and took hold of Kellen's broad, warm one.

Kellen's body plainly went rigid, and a brief look of surprise appeared in his eyes.

But I wasn't about to give him the opportunity to withdraw his hand, so I pulled him toward the altar's center. "Now that you've arrived, let's get it done."

After biting my fingertip, I allowed a single drop of blood to land on the Vow Stone embedded in the altar.

Kellen examined my determined profile, his lips forming a faint, inscrutable curve, before cutting his own finger.

Our separate drops of blood came together on the stone's surface.

The sound of an ancient incantation filled the vast hall and echoed around us.

A shaft of silvery moonlight pierced the dome overhead and bathed the two of us in its glow.

At that very moment, the excruciating pain that had been ripping through my body disappeared completely, as though it had never existed.

Replacing it was an intense, all-consuming surge of power, both warm and absolute, that flowed into me through our clasped hands.

Glancing downward, I saw a black Shadow Wolf, the emblem of the Shadow Pack, taking shape above my collarbone.

An identical bond mark then emerged on Kellen's neck, reflecting the one that had appeared on mine.

With that, the mating ceremony ended.

As I gazed at the mark, my thoughts suddenly deserted me.

I now had a mate.

At last, I had gone through the mating ceremony I had dreamed about for so long.

But the man standing beside me, whose soul was now forever joined to mine, wasn't the one I had spent three long years trying desperately to satisfy.

Instead, both men were greatest rivals.

Kellen's low, deep, gravelly voice sounded from somewhere above me, carrying a pointed warning that made my skin prickle. "What's the matter? Are you looking at that mark because you're already having second thoughts?"

He had leaned down over me. His warm breath skimmed my ear, while the sheer force of his dominance seemed to weigh heavily on my body. "It's already too late to change your mind, Catherine. You're mine for all eternity. You'll be my mate and will never belong to anybody else but me."

The undisguised possessiveness in his words made my skin burn. I came back to my senses and vigorously shook my head. "I'm not having regrets. It's just that—"

Everything simply seemed so unreal, almost as though I were dreaming.

I parted my lips to offer an explanation, but Kellen interrupted before I could speak. He stood upright again, straightened his cuffs, and spoke with the understated authority of someone accustomed to issuing commands. "If you don't regret it, then we're leaving. Get into the car. You're going home with me."

"Home?" I stood motionless, looking at him in bewilderment. "What home? Whose home?"

My confusion clearly entertained Kellen. He raised a sharply angled eyebrow and replied as though stating an obvious fact, "We're mates, so naturally we'll be going back to our home. From this moment forward, the Shadow Pack's packhouse is yours as well."

Our home. Those two simple words struck the most tender, carefully protected spot in my heart.

I had grown up an orphan, without anyone I could ever depend on.

Eventually, the Bloodmoon Pack welcomed me and brought me up. Determined to repay their generosity, I exhausted myself working for them and cared for Derrick more than I cared for myself.

More than anything, I had wanted to create a genuine family with him.

I longed for a place that would shelter me from life's storms, where a light would always be waiting just for me.

That longing was why I had forced my heart into forgiving Derrick more than once, even as he repeatedly broke every promise he had made because of Caroline.

I had convinced myself that showing him enough patience and understanding would eventually persuade him to give me a home.

Instead, all that came back to me was despair that grew steadily worse.

I had never imagined that a man I had encountered only twice in my entire life would so readily offer me today the home I had wanted for three years, the very thing Derrick had always been unwilling to give me.

My eyes stung with gathering tears. Lowering my head, I blinked repeatedly and fought to keep them from falling.

"I... I can't leave quite yet," I responded softly, moving my head from side to side.

All at once, the room seemed to turn bitterly cold.

Kellen's expression grew severe, and the final trace of amusement vanished from his blue eyes, leaving only a cold, menacing look. "You can't leave? Are you seriously planning to remain here and wait around for that miserable fool to return?"

"No!" I recoiled, frantically waving both hands. "My bags, my identification papers, and half my essential belongings are still in my place! I need to go back and pack first. Then I'll come home with you!"

Only then did the murderous intensity surrounding Kellen diminish, although just a little.

He gave a contemptuous snort, and the tightness in his jaw eased almost imperceptibly. "It's just a few worn-out clothes. What could you need that the Shadow Pack doesn't already have?"

Despite the disdain in his voice, he wrapped a muscular arm around my waist and guided me toward the exit. "All right. I'll take you back to collect your things."

I gave him a compliant nod in response.

Before long, we arrived at the enormous black SUV waiting with its engine running outside the hall.

I had scarcely sat down in the passenger seat and begun searching awkwardly for the seat belt buckle when Kellen cast a shadow over me.

Reaching across my body, he caught the seat belt strap between his long fingers and pulled it toward me.

He secured the buckle in place. Its sharp fastening noise sounded unusually loud inside the enclosed vehicle.

Every part of me from my shoulders downward stiffened, and I held my breath.

Having been raised in an orphanage, I had formed few close connections and had almost no experience being around men.

Even throughout my three-year relationship with Derrick, delicate Caroline had constantly come between us and demanded his attention. He could hardly spare the time to share a meal with me, much less get physically close.

Now, however, Kellen had moved much too close to me.

He was near enough for me to inhale the clean, crisp fragrance of cold pine coming from him, mingled with a richer, more intoxicating scent that seemed to surround me completely, like a net.

The force of his Alpha scent swept over me, sending my heart pounding so fiercely I thought it might burst through my rib cage.

Rather than retreating, Kellen braced one hand on the back of my seat and angled his head toward me.

A mischievous glint appeared briefly in his deep, dark blue eyes.

"How did your face get so red?" he asked in his deep voice, sounding quietly amused. "Your heart's beating so fast. What exactly is going through your mind, Catherine?"

Embarrassed at being caught so obviously, I wanted the ground to open up and swallow me. I pressed myself against the seat and stammered, "I... I'm simply not accustomed to having someone this close to me..."

"You're not accustomed to it?" Kellen raised an eyebrow. Far from moving away, he brought himself even closer, until the force of his dominance seemed to engulf me. "In that case, you'd better learn to get comfortable with it quickly."

His voice sank into a low, rough murmur. "We're mates now, and there will be a great deal more physical contact than this."

I stared at him, my eyes widening in utter disbelief.

Could those words really have come from the famously merciless Alpha who supposedly couldn't bear being around she-wolves?

What had happened to the man supposedly condemned by the Moon Goddess to die without a mate?

At that moment, he seemed far more like a predator sizing its prey!

Kellen immediately recognized the astonishment on my face. Yet instead of withdrawing from me, he gave a deep, dark chuckle. "What's with that expression?"

His long fingers gently swept across my flushed cheek, while an unmistakably purposeful look settled into his eyes.

"Or am I not right? We're mates, after all. Even kissing shouldn't be a big deal, should it?" His voice softened into a whisper, with his nose coming so close that it nearly touched mine.

While speaking, he tipped his head, staring down at my lips, and leaned toward me without hesitation.