Word Count: 2249

~Aesira

I look down at the murky water, a hollowness in my stomach.

Mason stirs his hand through it before he stands, shaking the wet from his arm.

"Alright, bath is all set up," he says. "You're sure he consumed the plant?"

I nod numbly. "I crushed it up and added it to his wine at dinner. I watched him drink it."

It's been over a week since Everin took me to bed. We haven't spoken much since then, our distance returning to how it was before.

He hasn't changed his mind about sending me away. I've asked him about it each day since, and he's set on sending me away to a small cottage at the other end of his pack, where I will live me days out as a prisoner.

If I thought I could run away without being caught, I would. As long as Everin is alive, he will hunt me down, and I will never get my freedom.

I don't want him to die, but I don't feel as though I have another choice.

Even if, at every turn during the process of feigning a mate bond, I've been considering pulling out, changing my mind...

Despite knowing he will never change his.

"Perfect. Then all is as it should be," Mason says, drying his hand off with a towel.

"I can't believe we're really doing this," I say, looking down at the concoction of bath water Mason put together with the ingredients from his book.

It will give the sensation of sparks when Everin touches me. It should be enough to convince him, but just in case, the plant I've given him will alter his sense of smell, to distract him from not scenting the bond between us when is supposedly manifests.

After that, it should be mere moments until he marks me.

"You seem uncertain..." Mason notes.

"I'm not. I mean, I don't think I am." I shake my head, heart heavy. "Should I be?"

I'm waiting for him to convince me out of this, but he won't. He has no idea why I'm truly doing this, and if he did, he would never speak to me again.

"I understand you want a guarantee of safety, which is why I'm will to help," he assures me softly. "But I do feel guilty for tricking Everin. He has longed for his mate his entire life, and we're going to give him a false sense of hope."

I sigh, dejected. I've never met someone so intent on finding his mate.

"It does seem cruel," I whisper.

Mason raises a brow. "Are you asking me to talk you out of this?"

"No. I have to do this." I steel myself, drawing in a fortifying breath.

By locking me away in the countryside, Everin is taking away my ability to ever find my mate, to ever have children or pursue the life I have always wanted. He has no qualms about stealing my freedom, so why do I feel so bad about giving him false hope about his mate?

Part of the reason I'm being sent away is his guilt for his future, true mate. For his feelings for me.

Perhaps this is what he deserves.

"You should be prepared for his reaction," Mason tells me.

"What? Disappointment?" I've already ran over it in my mind. "I know he hasn't envisaged me as his mate, and I don't imagine I'm what he wants."

There is a risk he is so disgusted by me being his mate that he has no interest in marking me at all.

Mason gives me a strange look.

"Enough with that. He's down right obsessed with you. I mean, I see how he looks at you, how he interacts with you," he insists. "It's not just sexual desire. He cares about you."

I shake my head. Mason hasn't been around to watch how Everin has drifted away from me, from how he avoids me at all costs.

"He hates me," I remark stubbornly.

"He wants to hate you, but he doesn't." He leans against the wall. "When you were attacked, it nearly broke him. Maven and I spoke about this, and we agreed that we never saw him so angry. Not since what happened to Tarnia."

I frown. I still haven't been able to reconcile how Everin slept by my bedside each night during my initial recovery. When he hated me, resented me for my relations to my father.

"His staff betrayed him," I grumble.

"He couldn't care less about that. He was angry because you almost died, because he had to look at your injured body and know he failed to protect you," Mason explains. "He slept by your beside for eight nights. He didn't eat, he didn't leave your side."

I swallow thickly. "He barely knew me then."

Everin's ability to be entirely unpredictability is quite amazing. He was always cold me with me in the beginning, for obvious reasons, yet he acted another way entirely when it mattered.

Why can't assassinating him have been simple? Why did I have to come to know him?

"He's always been connected to you," Mason says. "I can't explain it...Part of me has always thought that maybe you two really are mates."

I flinch. "We're not. We can't be."

It can't be possible. It would be too...implausible. We come from such different worlds, have such different families. I couldn't possibly be Luna of his pack.

"When he thought you slept with Lincoln, he was devastated. It really hurt him." Mason's eyes grow cold and wary. "Not because of some arbitrary union, but because he truly, deeply cares about you. More than I've ever seen."

I can't handle this conversation. I've having enough doubts about this as it is.

"I should bathe..." I mutter, kicking off my slippers.

"You're ignoring this."

A thought pops into my head, making me turn to face Mason. "You said I need to be prepared for his reaction. What did you mean?"

"I mean he will be elated, overjoyed. You must be prepared for a male who has spent his entire life dedicated to finding his mate believing you are his," he says softly.

I grimace. That will be the hardest part of all of this—having to endure his affections, if he is pleased about us being mates.

Especially when I've fantasised myself, once or twice, about being his mate, about what our life would look like if everything was easier.

"I can handle it," I say, trying to convince myself of that.

Mason pats my arm reassuringly. "You'll need to be strong. Especially if any part of you cares for him."

I smile softly, feeling an ache forming in my stomach for another reason entirely.

This might be the last time I see Mason. Right after this, I'll be going to see Everin, and within the hour, he could be dead.

By the time he's found, I'll be out of here. I'll have fled in accordance with a plan I've been building all week. Without their Alpha, everyone here will be scrambling. It will give me a chance to get some distance without being tracked, and by then, it will be impossible to find me.

And I will not be heading in the direction of my father. I will put him behind me as well.

"Thank you for doing this for me," I murmur.

"I want you to feel safe here, so you'll stay," he tells me firmly.

We've agreed that were Everin to find out about this, I wouldn't implicate him, and I mean that. I don't want him to suffer any consequences in conspiring with me, even if he has no idea what my true intentions are.

I grab him in a hug, squeezing him tightly.

"You're too good to me, you know that?" I mumble into his hair, my throat tightening.

He chuckles. "Yeah. Kind of."

I pull away, trying to will myself not to cry.

"I never thought I would find friendship here," I admit. "I value you greatly, Mason. I mean it."

Once he realises my betrayal, he'll never think of me positively again. It breaks my heart to disappoint him.

"I love you too, idiot." He pushes my shoulder playfully before he adjusts his spectacles. "Now get in that bath, and remember the sensation of sparks will last two to three days."

"Alright..."

"I'm sure you'll only need moments for him to mark you once he feels those sparks." He drifts toward the door.

Something in my stomach twists. "Right. True."

He leaves me to bathe in the tepid water. I wash the organic scented substance all over me, even dunking my head beneath the surface of the water.

When I'm done, I towel off, braid my wet hair back behind my head, and dress in a simple outfit.

The entire time, my mind spins. Am I making the right decision.

Mason's sitting on my bed when I emerge from the bathroom.

"All done," I announce.

"How does it feel?"

I brush my hand down my arms, shivering. I didn't expect to feel anything, but my skin is burning hot and I have a slightly strange scent to me.

"Weird. A little tingly," I say. "It's definitely working."

"Are you going to do it tonight?" Mason watches my face carefully, reading my hesitation. He's starting to know me better than anyone.

"I guess so." The thought makes me feel a little sick. "I think he's downstairs somewhere."

Mason grins. "Go. And good luck."

I do as he says, wandering downstairs. My heart is thudding my ears, erratic and unsteady. I want to turn back, yet I step, one foot in front of the other, in Everin's direction.

It takes me longer than usual to find him. He's not in his office, nor his rooms. Eventually, one of the guards points me in his direction.

I find him in a dark room at the corner of the room, working out. He's sparring with his new Second, who he appointed immediately after Edwin left.

This new Second is much nicer, and far less creepy.

He immediately excuses himself, leaving Everin and I to speak.

I venture warily into the room, my palms damp. Everin wipes his glistening face down with a towel, turning to look at me.

My mouth dries.

It would be nice if he weren't shirtless, sweaty and utterly beautiful right now.

"Aesira," he greets gruffly, not meeting my eye. He continues to mop at his forehead, hair damp.

"Are you still angry at me?" I ask, tucking my hands behind my back.

How is he going to react when I touch him?

"I'm not angry," he says flatly before his brows pinch together. "Is something wrong?"

"No, why?"

"Why did you seek me out?" He finally looks at me, and for a moment, I forget why I'm doing all of this.

"Why are you working out at this hour?" I ask. It's long past dinner time. By now he'd either be working in his office or in his bedroom.

He runs a hand over his jaw, shadows tracing the touch.

"Finding a more productive way to burn off my tension then burying myself inside you," I mutters.

I blink, taken aback by his frankness.

"I see." I wipe some strands of drying hair off my face, trying to focus. "I just wanted to talk about last night."

He immediately shakes his head. "That's not a good idea."

"Why not?"

"Because I think you and I need to sort some things out between us, and I really don't need to reminder of how good you felt." His shoulders are tense as he wanders closer. "And how I can't have you like that again."

I wet my mouth, trying not to let his words sway me. Still, I need to check that I'm doing the right thing before I commit, because there is no going back.

"You still want me gone?" I whisper.

His stoic expression almost gives out. He quickly hardens his jaw, pressing back all his emotions.

"It's for the best," he declares.

"I can't believe this..."

"You want to stay? You've decided you want to stay, here, in my home with me forever?" He angles his head, daring me to challenge him. "Tell me Aesira, is that what you want, because I don't think that's what you want."

"You know I want to stay here," I remind him quietly.

He stares at me for a long moment, breathing heavily.

We both know what he wants to say. He wants to remind me that I only want to stay for Maven and Mason, that it's not a future with him I'm looking for.

With a ragged sigh, he shakes his head, stalking to walk past me out of the room.

When he's right next to me, I reach out my arm to brush against his.

The effect of the tonic I bathed in is immediate. It's so potent, even I feel it too as sparks erupt across my skin.

Everin flinches back, whirling around to face me. Our eyes meet, his wide and frantic.

"My mate," he whispers.

+++

Hey everyone, thanks for reading so far (sorry for the cliffhanger)

I just wanted to let you all know what I have a new 18+ werewolf romance novel out now on Wattpad! It is titled The Three Alpha King's and it's a piece of work I'm so proud of and excited by. It's the first time I've written three potential love interests and I'm having so much fun with it!

I really hope you'll check it out (:

🩷••🩷

If you want to read more, you can read 10-15 chapters ahead on Inkitt! Search my profile and find the work under stories!

If you want to check out more of my work, ready The Last Alpha out now on Wattpad!

Thank you all for supporting me! (:

~Midika 💜🐈‍⬛