Chapter 2: Chapter 2: Fake Mates
Kyon POV
How did it happen?
How did he get cursed, become wounded, and get a mate all in the same day?
Azandra Hemming, his fated mate. Something he’d dreamed of, but never dared to hope would come true. And she said he was her fated mate.
But only after her parents planned to throw her at another suitor like they had his brother Dane. Another Alpha from another pack. How many did that make? Ten? Twenty?
He didn’t blame her for pulling a fast one to stop them. But announcing that he, her friend since childhood, was her fated mate?
It was perfect. It was mystifying. It made up for the pain in his side that reduced him to a quivering mess.
Even if she only did it to throw off her parents.
Kyon Cresta, Beta of the Evenhide Pack, tried to make sense of the day’s unbelievable, impossible events.
Dinner.
It started with dinner. Or, more accurately, hunting for dinner. Pack affairs were complex and he’d gotten stuck on designs for his latest creation, a baby gift for Dane and his mate Lilia. Hunting was a welcome break from both. Besides, he needed to bring in more meat for the table, because then Dane would stop fussing that his Luna, Lilia, wasn’t eating enough to nourish her and the pup or pups she was carrying in her womb.
It tickled him no end when Dane twisted himself in knots over Lilia, and it brought a smile to the three brothers’ faces as well. Lilia, however, kept insisting she was just fine and she ate more than enough, thank you. Kyon’s younger brother Patch had to stir up trouble by saying she looked like she LOST weight since yesterday. So, Patch and Dane actually had set off this chain of events.
On the scent, Kyon had roamed toward Mount Alder near the settlement, and he’d been absorbed in stalking a stag. A particularly fast one, and nimble, and the king of the wild. He could smell it, so strongly. He could see its antlers glisten in the sun. He could …
“Azandra, the time for these childish games is past,” Titania Hemming hissed, glowering at her daughter and jolting Kyon out of his thoughts.
Kyon would have laughed if he wanted to spare the energy. As if the regal, cool Titania had ever let Azandra be a child instead of her own personal project. Oh, sure, he’d had a crush on Titania like most of his brothers when they were growing up, but he’d grown out of it fast. His sharp-eyed brother Jiro had been less impressed by Titania’s airs and graces and beauty.
Ransome Hemming at least had the decency to look concerned. “Maybe all of this can wait until you … er … help Kyon here. He needs it.”
“Noticed that, did you?” Kyon growled.
Ransome shrank from him. In Ransome’s younger days, he’d been shortlisted as a gamma, an enforcer and soldier, for their father, but never made the cut. Although muscular, Ransome was not the most athletic shifter in the pack.
Azandra worked with her crystals. “Kyon, how did this happen?”
Titania finally noticed his injury and gasped. “Merciful Moon Goddess, what is that?”
Azandra got full marks for patience. “Precisely what I’m trying to find out.”
“It’s something I’ve never seen before,” Kyon said with pain in his voice.
He could still see the events of less than an hour ago. The stag running away from something else. A gray and red streak. Another wolf? A faster wolf? But no. It didn’t smell like another wolf, or an animal, or a bird. It didn’t have a smell at all. What could it be?
Only a few possibilities. A magical creature, most likely, running like that.
He found this unusual phenomenon more interesting than dinner, and his curiosity got the better of him. He chased the streak, running faster and faster until he was within inches of it.
Then, it disappeared. He swiveled his head, bewildered.
A knockout blow to his ribs had him writhing in agony on the grass. Pain exploded with a burning sensation and he gasped, panting, too shocked to howl. With a whimper, he transformed back to human form.
Impossibly, the mysterious red and gray thing vanished, and the stag made its exit, escaping to freedom.
Kyon suddenly had bigger concerns on his mind than losing his prey. Like managing to get to his feet, walk back to New Moon City, and seek healing from Azandra. Hopefully, he could accomplish that last goal before his brothers saw him injured like this. Although, if he encountered Lilia, he’d gladly accept her healing even if it meant Dane would howl with rage until the Moon Goddess herself heard to see his brother like this. And he would find out.
He barely remembered the walk to Azandra’s home. Everything passed in a blur until Azandra opened the door. Until her graceful healer’s hands touched him and he nearly fainted in relief. He felt her closeness. He knew that he needed to be here. Her warmth surrounded him. He’d been drawn here. Drawn to her. He just had to get to her door.
Of course, he had to get to her door. He needed the pack healer.
“That … uhhh … is all I know,” he panted after reciting his story.
Azandra pursed her lips in thought. “I’ve never heard of such a thing … It sounds magical …”
Her mother came out of the sidelines with a hard jab. “It wouldn’t happen if we hadn’t allowed outsiders …”
Hearing her, Kyon let loose with a roar, squirming around and gasping in renewed pain. “If we hadn’t let OUTSIDERS in… there’d be no pack … left …”
Azandra soothed him with her touch, and he strained to catch her soft voice. “I know it’s impossible, but don’t let them provoke you.”
He looked into her intense swirling eyes, and he couldn’t hold back. The pain was too great to choose his words carefully. “How long are you going to let them get away with such disrespect?”
She looked and smelled miserable. “It’s their home and they’re my family. I’m all they have in the way of blood kin.”
“I am Beta,” he growled, knowing she would just put up with them mistreating her.
He no longer had the patience for that, not with his side burning.
He continued. “Kick them out. NOW.”
She didn’t hesitate, although her mouth dropped open. She whirled on her parents. “My fated mate, my PATIENT, needs me now. If you’re not going to be comforting and supportive, then get out.”
Kyon agreed, rising up, sitting up as tall and straight as possible, glaring at the Hemmings.
“Azandra belongs here in Evenhide territory as our pack healer. Just try to separate fated mates from each other, and see what the pack says. What MY FAMILY says. Was it your idea to still have Azandra throw herself at Dane after everyone knew about the mate bond with Lilia?”
He normally wouldn’t go after them like this, but they’d crossed the line with the way they treated Azandra.
“This is our home,” Ransome answered in a feeble voice.
“And I am your Beta,” Kyon growled.
“Besides, Grandpa and Grandma Adolpha left this house to me,” Azandra snarled. “Now, LEAVE. You can send me to bed without dinner later.”
A little loopy from the pain and crystal healing, Kyon said dreamily, “Hey, if you rearrange the letters in Adolpha, it spells ‘Do Alpha.’ Or ‘Alpha Do.’ As in do what the Alpha says … and the beta speaks for the alpha … I’m fascinated by words.”
Azandra lowered her voice. “Great idea. Make them think I’ve mated with someone who’s lost his mind.”
Ransome and Titania backed away to the door, both smelling afraid. “Azandra, when you’ve tended to our beta, I want to see you in the main house,” her mother said. “The discussion of this so-called mate bond with Kyon and your betrothal to Marcus is not over.”
“What a surprise,” muttered Azandra.
“Just take care of him,” her father said in a more confident tone.
A silky smooth, alert male voice said, “That’s a good suggestion. And it’ll go easier without a crowd around.”
Kyon smiled slightly in recognition and turned his head slightly to glance toward his redheaded little brother, Jiro Cresta. Thank the Moon Goddess for Jiro’s eternal calmness.
His sister-in-law Lilia, glowing with pregnancy, and Jiro stood by the door. Jiro directed Ransome and Titania out the door, giving them a subtle shove. As the intelligence chief of the Evenhide Pack, he had authority. And despite his quiet ways and his lean and spare physique, he had more than enough strength to shove them out on their tails if they pushed him too far.
Lilia closed the door and spread her fair hands, weaving a web of fine black threads over the door. The threads faded and became invisible.
Azandra raised her eyebrows. “A spell to keep my parents out. I could have used that YEARS ago. You’ll have to teach me that one. But Kyon needs you first, and so do I.”
Lilia, whose belly looked rounder in her second month of pregnancy, moved as swiftly as a wolf to Kyon’s side. She smelled worried and also had that calming lavender scent that all the Crestas liked. With a gentle touch as she passed Azandra, she came up to Kyon and placed her crystals right on the wound. He gritted his teeth in a fit of pain, then moaned in relief as the healing energies from Lilia and Azandra passed through the crystals. He could feel Azandra’s more powerfully than Lilia’s.
“We all knew the minute you got wounded, Kyon,” Lilia said in a scolding tone, her eyes the color of a dark purple night sky. “Dirge felt it first. My mother dropped her weaving and wanted to go to you. Patch probably felt it on patrol.”
“He did,” Jiro said. “I told him not to rush back, but …” His slender shoulders moved in a shrug.
Everyone treated Kyon’s youngest brother Dirge as the baby of the family, and he was. But he also had more sensitivity than anyone realized. It touched Kyon’s heart that Ravyn, Lilia’s witch mother and Dane’s mother-in-law who’d adopted all the Cresta boys, also could sense his pain. The Evenhide wolves didn’t call her Pack Mother for nothing.
His vision went white and he shut his eyes. A jolt of ecstasy made him shudder, followed by a stab of pain so intense he blacked out for a moment, followed by another jolt of bliss.
Then, he opened them at Lilia’s and Jiro’s cries of joyful astonishment.
He looked down and saw only clear, reddened skin instead of the blight, whatever it was. It looked like he’d gotten a bad sunburn.
Azandra felt her ribs in the exact same spot while Lilia removed the crystals. “Lilia, how did we do that?”
“I’m not sure. Ask the Goddess Brigid and the Moon Goddess,” Lilia said. “Right after we thank them. But we’re not doing either until we let Dane know what happened.”
Jiro added, with one eyebrow lifted at Azandra and Kyon, “We’ll do that ourselves. You two join us when you’re ready. I think you have something to talk about. Don’t worry, the seal will keep Azandra’s parents out.”
Kyon’s face turned as red as his newly healed skin.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone