“And you decide to tell me this just now, Chad?” I growled at him.

“Sorry, Alpha, I was waiting for the best time to speak. Also, I just saw that last night, anyway.” He spoke with his head down.

“Shit! What are we going to do? Are you going to give up, Alpha?” Jason asked.

“Do you have shit for brains? Since when do I give up on something?! There’s no giving up in my vocabulary!” I slammed my fist down on the office desk as I looked at him and then turned to Chad. “How did you sign me up when I don’t have a mate? How did you manage that? Everyone who knows me knows I don’t have a mate.”

“It is not necessary to announce who your mate is in the registration, but it is required that she be present during the initiation ceremony. The registration is only to know who will participate; only those approved will go to the ceremony, and the oaths will be taken with blood and other competition procedures there.” He said, gesturing with his hands.

Mate bond. I never thought I would be 28 years old and not have a mate. The only form of affection I’ve ever seen in my life was between my father and mother. I always wanted that, too, but as the years went by, I lost interest in it more and more. Besides, I’ve never needed a mate to achieve anything I’ve ever achieved. I’ve never had to worry about someone waiting for me at home, and I’ve never needed a mate for any reason.

Except now.

Why did they have this fucking requirement? I’m already more than enough! I know my abilities, and I know I don’t need any bond to get something.

The more time passed, the more Troy became aggressive, and the wait for a mate was worse for him. More and more, we became secluded. Good thing Chad and Jason don’t have a mate either. It would be even harder to deal with being mateless if they had.

What about now? How am I going to win the tournament since I don’t have a mate to start with? That’s literally the first requirement.

Fuck.

‘I don’t know why you’re angry. I already told you several times to travel and look for our mate,’ Troy said in my mind, interrupting my thoughts.

‘I know you only helped me conquer so many territories because you were hoping to find our mate in one of them,’ I replied.

‘Do you really think I went there for free? Of course not. I was obviously hoping to find her!’ He answered impatiently.

“What if you choose a mate?” Chad suggested.

‘NO FUCKIN WAY! DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT. I’M NOT GOING TO ACCEPT IT,’ Troy snarled in my mind in response.

“It would be easier to choose if you had been in a relationship before,” Jason said, and then got up and went to the refrigerator in the office and got some water.

It might be easier if I had a relationship with someone before, but that didn’t happen for 3 reasons: The first reason is that Troy never accepted that I got close to any woman, not even when I was a teenager; if I had known all of his shit before, I would have kissed some girl before he arrived. Whenever I mention someone, he gets aggressive and threatens me, saying he’s going to leave me. I’ve never understood why he’s so restricted to any woman since he doesn’t even know our mate yet, he doesn’t even know if she’ll show up one day. His stubbornness gets on my nerves!

The second reason for this to happen was because of my fame. Everyone who knows me considers me ruthless, cruel, and murderous, so it doesn’t take a genius to understand why no woman dares to be around me. The only ones who tried it before were just after Luna’s title and my money. Those kinds of greedy women are the ones I hate the most.

The third reason was simply the lack of time. Since I became Alpha, I’ve been working non-stop every day. I don’t have time for anything else. No wonder I have a giant pack, in which many members of other packs come to the Diamond Claw looking to learn or deciding to live here for a better quality of life.

“Kaiden, what if we select some possible candidates for you?” Chad asked me, interrupting my thoughts.

“The problem is that I don’t want a mate, and you know very well how much Troy is against me choosing a mate,” I stated the obvious.

“Okay, but the tournament is very close. You’ve been chasing this for years, and I don’t think it will be possible for you to find her now. Besides, if you decide to travel the packs, you may be vulnerable. From now on, all competitors will do their best to eliminate candidates, and since our pack is big, we are a target for them,” Jason said and crushed the empty water bottle.

“The only way is for you to choose someone, Kaiden. That’s it! Or you won’t be able to participate in the tournament!” Chad left me with no options.

Ugh, what am I going to do? I’m feeling cornered!

“Look, having someone special is the best thing to happen. I know that the three of us don’t have mates, but I think differently from you guys. I think it’s worth choosing a mate. To tell you the truth, I met someone!” Chad said, smiling as he scratched the back of his neck.

“What do you mean? Why didn’t you say anything?” Jason yelled at him.

To be honest, I didn’t expect him to choose a mate, but in the last few months, I’ve seen a sudden change in Chad. Lately, he has asked us to finish the meetings soon, and he always wants to leave early. He comes back to work always smiling, and I’ve already caught him on the cell phone talking to someone and smiling at least twice. He looks happy, no… too happy.

Thinking about it now, it all makes sense, I just hadn’t put things together before.

“I wanted to take it easy with her. She’s wonderful, beautiful! I asked her to be my girlfriend, and she accepted,” Chad confessed with a smile so big I’d never seen it before.

“I’m your best friend. How come you didn’t tell me before, Chad?” Jason retorted, still irritated for only finding out now.

They both fight more than they talk, but in fact, we are best friends. I also confess that I’m a little upset that he didn’t tell me anything, but I pretended not to care.

“I’m going to introduce her to you, but we’re still at the beginning, and I think I have to take it easy. She’s human and from a small pack,” he started talking about her, and I immediately interrupted him.

“Run! She doesn’t want you! She just wants your gamma status and human? Ugh, sure, she must be greedy. She knows you’re rich since you’re a big pack gamma. With so many she-wolves around, why would you do that? Why do you choose to date a human?” I said with all the disdain I had. Chad is such a smart person, I can’t believe the scam he’s falling for.

‘I thought he was the smart one,’ Troy said, mocking Chad.

“You don’t know her, okay? She’s special, it has nothing to do with that, Kaiden,” Chad replied seriously, without any trace of the smile he was wearing until that moment.

“Okay, so introduce her to us, and let’s see if she’s really worth it,” Jason challenged.

“I don’t even want to meet her. You already know my opinion, and I doubt it will change after meeting her. I don’t want this displeasure,” I said as if I didn’t care, but to tell the truth, I was rooting for him to come to his senses.

“You’re going to like her,” he said, turning to Jason and smiling again as he was before. “The only flaw is that she lives with a friend who looks like a brother. They’re from the same pack,” Chad said and didn’t seem to like the idea that she lives with another man.

“Friend who looks like a brother? Honestly, you can’t be that stupid!” I yelled at him. He looked at me angrily but controlled himself when he felt my Alpha aura.

“It’s no scam. Ah! You know what? I give up! Jason, you’ll meet her and him, and you’ll see that they’re like brother and sister. I’ll make a date with them,” he said, ignoring what I said.

The thing is, Chad and Jason are like brothers to me. I consider Chad a younger brother. He is 2 years younger than me despite not looking like his age in physical appearance or ideas. Because of that, I hope that nothing bad happens to him and that he also gets rid of this crazy idea of choosing a human to be his mate. If he tries to mark her, I will stop him from making that mistake, but I’ll wait and see how far it goes because he’s so in love with this girl that he doesn’t even care what I think.

“So what’s it going to be, Alpha?” Jason asked me, “Let’s pick a few possible mates, and you decide which one is the best fit as Luna. Knowing Chad, I know he’s a data freak, so I’m sure he’ll compare each one so judiciously that it’ll be a lot if he ends up having one list of 5 candidates!” Chad and I burst into laughter because we know it’s true. Chad nodded, confirming that he would do it with a thumbs up with his hands.

‘I don’t believe you’re going to do it. I’m going to abandon you!’ Troy spoke furiously.

‘It’s for our own good. Do you want to be king or not?’ I questioned him.

‘Of course, I want to be king, don’t be stupid, but it drives me crazy knowing that we’re going to have to choose someone,’ Troy said sadly.

‘And if I choose someone, and then you decide that you don’t like her, we can reject her as soon as the competition is over, when we have already won. What do you think?’ I suggested.

‘It sounds like a ridiculous plan, but it’s worth a try. Better than not being king. Imagine if that idiot Duncan wins?’ Troy said angrily.

‘Exactly. One more reason to compete!’ In the back of my mind, Troy nodded sadly.

“Okay, start the search. Let’s pick someone perfect to be my mate and win this shit!” I finally answered them. They were wide-eyed in disbelief that I had finally bought into the idea, and after a moment, they finally snapped out of their trance.

“That’s it! Now you’re talking!” They started celebrating and were so contagious that a smile formed at the corners of my mouth.

I don’t expect her to be anything less than perfect.

🐺 🐺 🐺

Author’s note:

Hello, my lovelies!

This chapter was a little long. Do you like longer chapters?

Thank you for your support! Feel free to comment as much as you like!

xoxo,

Sadie