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Chapter 4: His Mate

-Rogan-

I looked at the hunter lying in the hospital bed. She was sleeping soundly, not aware of the hell she would wake up to once she did wake up. Martin had been able to save her, but it had been a close call. So far, she had slept for three days straight, and it didn’t look like she was waking up anytime soon, but she had to… she had to. I couldn’t forget what I had learned that night they had attacked me. I had to figure out if it was really true, even though I had no reason to doubt she was my destined mate… I wanted it not to be true though. I wanted to convince myself it was just my mind playing tricks on me… but it wasn’t… was it?

I had heard my wolf speak so clearly inside of my head as our eyes met. Mate, he had said so loudly it almost echoed inside my head. The scent of her blood, though, had overpowered her sweet natural one, which now stood out so clearly to me. She smelled like lemons. Sweet lemons. This couldn’t be, though. It shouldn’t happen. It made no sense, and it made me wonder if the Moon Goddess liked to play some sort of sick joke on people. That had to be the only explanation for this. I hadn’t told anyone of my discovery. What wouldn’t they think? I needed to be completely sure, though. I needed her to look me in the eyes again.

“Wake up,” I growled lowly from beside her bed, tired of waiting.

I needed this over with quickly, because even if I tried to deny it, there was no way around it. We were mates, and we had to end it between us… except the Goddess didn’t take such things lightly. Rejecting your mate was a crime, pretty much, and some people went crazy from it, while others were punished with misfortune for the rest of their lives. Very few escaped without any consequences at all. Could I even end it? I mean, we were so close to getting to the last of the hunters. If I went crazy or if the Goddess decided to punish me by letting the hunters win, then…

Fuck! What the hell did I do?

I leaned forward in my seat, running my hands down my face, when suddenly I noticed the little hunter’s hand twitching. I looked up at her, seeing her slowly wake up. I quickly sat up, waiting for her to find the strength to focus on me. At first, she seemed very confused and disorientated. Her blue eyes were scanning the ceiling, then the room, and finally landed on me. She tried pulling away, but her hands were tied down like she was a crazy person.

“What the fuck?!”

She continued to writhe around, and I waited until she had calmed down and realized there was no escape.

“It’s no use,” I said.

She kept pulling on her restraints, but she was slowly realizing there was no way she was getting out of there.

“Why aren’t I dead?”

“Because I made sure they kept you alive.”

“Why?!” she growled at me.

She was a tough one, this little hunter. She didn’t even look down, but straight into my eyes. She might not be a werewolf, but I knew my powers affected even humans.

“Because I didn’t want you dead.”

She smiled an almost evil smile.

“What you want then?” she asked in an almost mocking way.

She was trying to stay strong, but I knew she was scared. I could hear how fast her heart was beating, and she made sure to lean as far away as she could from me.

She is beautiful though.

She is… What?! I wanted to curse at my wolf, as he put that thought in my head. I shook it, trying to focus on my task here. I had to reject the hunter. I had to! There were no other options.

“You've got information that I want,” I said.

She continued to smile.

“You are not getting anything out of me,” she said.

I leaned closer, which made her pull away. Not that she got far.

“I’m good at getting information out of people. 110,” I said.

She looked at me, almost surprised, but I had seen her watch. Hunters always referred to each other by numbers in order to protect their personal information. They, of course, did have names. They just didn’t use them as often and did not put their names on anything we might get our hands on.

“Why 110?” She asked.

She looked at me, confused, but I had always wondered why they got the numbers they did. Did it mean something? Was it random? Did they choose them themselves? She didn’t answer me though, and I hadn’t expected any less.

“Well, I might find out one day when you are no longer a threat.”

“We will always be a threat. This world would be better without you.”

“You really believe that,” I said, but it wasn’t a question.

She wasn’t the first hunter I had met, and she wouldn’t be the last one either. I knew they were brainwashed. It was a dangerous and frustrating thing. They were hard to convince that we were not the enemy.

“Well, I’m not going to use that old speech, ‘we are not the bad guys’, when I know it won’t work.”

“Maybe because you are the bad guys,” she said.

I sighed, shaking my head before I stood up. She had to lean her head back in order to look at me.

“I don’t have time for this.”

“Is this where the torture begins?” she asked.

I tilted my head a little to the side.

“No,” I said.

She looked confused.

“What do you mean 'no'?”

“You’re still hurt.”

“And that matters?” she asked.

“You will last longer if you are not,” I told her, seeing the fear in her eyes, but she quickly masked it, acting like it was no big deal.

“It might take me weeks to get better. You shot me.”

“Only the second time,” I said.

She narrowed her eyes, and we kept looking at each other. She was studying me, looking for weaknesses, but I took a moment to just really look at her. My heart was beating unusually fast in her presence, and just looking at her was like looking at… I couldn’t explain it. It was more like a feeling. Like I had never seen anyone like this. Why, of all the people in the world, did my wolf choose her? He couldn’t have chosen another werewolf? Or simply a human who was not brainwashed into believing we were the evil ones.

No, he had to make this complicated.

Do not blame me!

Who else was I to blame? I wanted to ask, but he knew what I was thinking, and he huffed in a displeased way.

You are not rejecting her!

I sighed, not wanting to have this discussion with him now. It was really not the time.

“So, what happens now?” she asked.

“Now I reject you.”

“What does that mean?” she asked.

“It means I don’t want you.”

She looked at me, confused, but I didn’t want to explain this to her. I just wanted it over with, and since she was human, she didn’t have to accept my rejection. I could just say the words, and we would both be released from this.

“I…”

My voice broke in a strange way, and the little hunter continued to look confused.

“I… I…”

Every time I tried to say the words, my voice just died out, and I knew my wolf was preventing me from doing what I had to.

“You?” she asked.

“I, Rogan—”

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