16. The Chosen Mate

**MAEVE**

I could feel the bright sunlight against my closed eyelids as I squinted hard for adjustments. I always hated it when I forgot to close the blinds or pull the curtains the night before and had to wake up with brilliant lights against my eyes.
So, my next instinct was to turn to the other side, except this time, I couldn’t. My left arm was restricted, something clanking against the steel, and it was only then my eyes flew open.
“Welcome back, miss,” someone said drily, looking up from the phone screen.
I craned my neck up to stare at the familiar face. He was Xander’s brother and someone I came across a couple of times while going in and out of the apartment building. But for the life of me, I couldn’t remember his name though.
However, forgetting his name should be the least of my concern.
“You are…What am I…” I looked around the bedroom…Xander’s bedroom, and very slowly, the events of last night returned.
*From the park to the woods, then the animal and…*
Fear gave away to panic, and I did the only rational thing a human in this circumstance could do.
I *screamed* for help. On the top of my lungs.
The man was too quick to abandon his chair and hurried over to clamp a hand over my mouth, dissolving the rest of the sound. And like a divine summon, another person rushed into the room.
“Blaize, get your hands off her!” Xander boomed at his brother.
Right, his name is Blaize. And he still did not move his hand.
“You realize that we have other people in the building as well. Anyone can call 911,” he argued. In other circumstances, I would have appreciated his logical reasoning.
“Just let her go. I can manage,” he said, sounding every bit unconvincing. His scowl slowly shifted on me as Blaize removed his paw off my mouth, letting me breathe big gulp of air before I hurled a bunch of abuses at Xander.
I have never been a sailor-mouthed girl, but desperate times called for desperate circumstances.
“Maeve, please, you need to calm down,” Xander said, approaching the bed really slowly as if he could spook me any more than he already did last night.
“You have the audacity to say that to me,” I glared and yanked at the cuff over my left hand.
He cuffed me to the freaking bed like I was some uncontrolled animal.
“I…I can explain.”
“I don’t want a fucking explanation,” I boomed. “Release me now!”
His lips were tightly pressed into a thin line. “If you are going to be irrational, I can’t.”
My jaw fell open as I stared at him in utter shock and disbelief. “Irrational?” The short bark of laughter just fell through as I shook my head. “You want me to behave rationally after all that I saw last night? And don’t you dare tell me that I was hallucinating. You don’t get to bullshit me about lighting and crap.”
It was chaos inside my head. For the longest time, I convinced myself that it could have been my mistake because I was crazy and prone to visions. I was tired…I was tired of putting myself in doubt when I badly wanted to be normal. And Xander just led me to a belief I wasn’t.
There was a deep remote in his voice as he spoke. “Yeah. I was afraid it was not a sufficient clarification. At least not something you’d believe easily.”
“So, what I have seen earlier was correct,” I said with conviction, watching his scrubbing a hand over his face. “Your eyes do glow at times. Are you even a human? What are you?”
Xander stood silent at the edge of the bed, and it was only then I noticed that his brother had already disappeared. The heavy silence was thick with unspoken secrets until he finally decided to talk about it.
“I will answer every question you have because you deserve to know.” Xander sighed, settling down at the end of the bed. “But may I please request that you first calm down and let me say my piece?”
Every inch of skin was prickling with rage and revulsion, and yet…yet there was a tiny section of my heart that begged me to give him a chance. But, only a chance to speak for his defense. And in a way, it was fair too. I have questions, lots and lots of them, and if there was anyone who could have an answer, it was Xander.
Inhaling a deep breath, I finally acquiesced with a slow nod.
“First things first: I am a werewolf,” he confessed, shooting up my heartbeat. I didn’t know whether to believe this absurdity or be scared.
What does this say about me? Either I was incredibly brave and way ahead of my time, or there was something deeply wrong with me.
A small smile ghosted at the corner of his lips in joyless humor as Xander continued. “The appropriate term would be a shifter, a half-human you could say.”
I adjusted myself on the bed, shifting uncomfortably from yesterday’s spanking. “What did they do to you?” I whispered, half-shocked, and half-sympathetic. “I mean…did you even volunteer for this?”
Xander furrowed his brows in confusion. “They? What are you talking about?”
“The government,” I clarified. This was the only coherent assumption I could conceive. “There are rumors that biochemical properties are used for lethal experiments on humans to make weapons out of them. Like scientists creating Frankenstein monsters.”
For a long second, he looked at me as if I was speaking Russian and then burst out laughing. “Oh, Goddess. You are really imaginative, Maeve.” He shook his head slowly, smiling. “And no, I am not a product of an experiment by the government. I was just born this way.”
Why did it feel like the earth stopped spinning? Or the fact that I am living in an alternate universe?
“You mean like a mythological monster?” I blurted out.
Somehow Xander took it sportingly. “We prefer the term wolves.”
“Is there really a difference?”
He shrugged like this was some casual conversation. “We are beasts, but not monsters.”
My eyes narrowed in slits. “I would disagree.” Lifting my left arm attached to the bed with cuffs, I gave it a jerk. “Case in point. Are you going to kill me now?”
Do I even want to know that?
“No, absolutely not,” he said, though it felt like he just stopped mid-sentence. Like he wanted to say something as well.
“But?” I prompted.
Xander’s face turned solemn as his voice dropped a couple of octaves. “Maeve, you cannot tell anyone what you saw last night or the existence of our race. It is punishable by death by the Council.”
“The council?”
“Sort of a sovereign for the governance of our community of shifters,” he described. “There are rules that we have to abide by, just like in any society or country for that matter.”
“Wow.” I snorted, rolling my eyes. “It’s like a magical world. JK Rowling got nothing on you guys, huh?”
“Maeve, this is not a joke,” he warned in his usual Xander-like voice.
“Tell me about it,” I sneered. “I was going to be mauled and devoured by one wolf when my neighbor appeared out of nowhere and turned into another wolf. Do you see the humor in it?”
An unmistakable flash of light glowed in his eyes as he quickly blinked it away. “What were you doing there in the first place?” he countered. “Have I not emphasized you enough about your safety? It’s like you invite danger to your doorstep.”
How dare he lecture me when he was not even…human.
“What can I say?” I said, my voice dripping with sarcasm. “My life feels like Man vs. Wild now. I might as well audition for it.”
His feature softened in stages as a faint smile cut through the haze of angry expressions. “Good to know you still have some wit left in you, considering what you saw and then fainted.”
“It’s not like my life was weird enough,” I muttered before fixing my eyes on his. As much as I was agitated by this conversation, it was a necessary evil. “So, who was that other animal…I mean, wolf? Anyone related to you?”
Xander shook his head in negative. “It’s a rogue. We have never seen him around. And Prescott isn’t exactly a native place for shifters anyway. But yes, it is better to avoid the woods on a full moon night.”
*Full moon and the wolf. Great!*
“Like that ancient fable?” I inquired stupidly. “Human turning into a wolf on a full moon night?”
“It is somewhat true,” he admitted. “But my clan…we can shift our form anytime we like, at least the adults do that easily. The younger ones find it slightly difficult. However, the urge to shift on a full moon night is extremely potent.”
Could this be really possible? Even the voice in my head was making no sense today.
Drawing my knees to my chest, I simply hugged them with one hand and kept shaking my head in denial. I wanted to cry, yell, and escape. And I was far from it.
“I can’t…I can’t process any of this madness.”
To my surprise, Xander didn’t interrupt, but he didn’t abandon the room either. He just sat there, at a distance, providing comfort in the only way he could.
At some point, his brother, Blaize, appeared at the door and stood leaning against the frame. “She is going to be the death of you,” he spoke with Xander like I was invisible to him.
Xander gave him an authoritative look. “We can’t let anyone else get involved in this until I am absolutely sure that I can control her.”
*He did not…just say that, did he?*
“That’s going to be a…task,” Blaize smirked, his eyes traveling from his brother to mine and then back.
“Well, if that’s what the Goddess has chosen me to do.”
“Hello, wolves!” I glowered at both of them. “I am right here! Care to fill me in with your werewolf lingos?”
Xander turned to me with a considerate look. “What do you want to know?”
“Who is a goddess?” I probed. “And what does that person want you to do?”
Blaize shot a cryptic look towards his brother while Xander seemed like he was in a tight spot. What secret could be more frightening than the revelation that he was half-human and half-wolf?
“It means the divine Moon Goddess,” he explained in a deathly calm voice. “The one we worship and with whom our ultimate fate lies in the otherworld. And she has chosen you to be *my mate*.”

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***What do you think of the story so far? Should I maintain the same pace or slow it down a little bit? Let me know what do you all prefer.***