My Fated Mate Chose My Sister, So I Claimed the Vampire Heir novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: The Terms

Evander sets the terms of the arrangement, scents Seren in the quad for the Alpha's runners to see, and Alpha Ronan arrives to meet her mate right now.

The bell rang, and nobody in the room moved until Evander Mourne walked out.

I followed him because I did not know what else to do.

His two friends looked at me, then at him, and then they peeled off down the east stairs without a word.

The hall emptied behind us.

He stopped at the far end beside a tall window and turned around.

"You have questions," he said.

"How did you know?"

"Your scent. There is no wolf in it."

"Wolves can't smell that?"

"Wolves smell wolf. They don't know what they're missing." My knees wanted to shake, and I did not let them.

"What do you want from me?"

"Nothing."

That was too smooth, and I noticed it, and I filed it away.

"Nobody does something for nothing," I said.

"Then call it an arrangement." He held up one finger. "In public, you are my mate. You hold my arm, you sit beside me, you say my name and nothing else."

He held up a second finger.

"In private, none of it is real. No feelings, no bite, no blood."

"No blood?" I said.

"Mine or yours. I mean it, little wolf."

"My name is Seren."

"I know your name."

He said it quietly, and my stomach tipped over.

"Fine," I said. "The terms are fine. Why did you say yes?"

"Because the Alpha's table is no place for a girl alone."

That was not an answer, and we both knew it.

He walked, and I walked beside him, and neither of us said anything else down the stairs.

Outside, the afternoon was gray and cold.

The quad was full. Students crossed the stone paths in clusters, and every one of them looked at us and then looked away too fast.

Camryn must have texted half the school already.

Two men in the Alpha's black jackets stood on the far path by the gate.

They were his runners. They carried his messages and watched his campus.

Evander saw them at the same moment I did.

"Those two will report to your Alpha before supper," he said.

"They'll say they saw us walk out together."

"That isn't enough." His voice stayed low. "A bond has a scent. Every wolf from here to the border will want to smell it on you tonight, and right now it isn't there."

"So what do we do?"

"Hold still."

I did not have time to ask what he meant.

He stepped in close, put one hand on my waist, and bent his head to the side of my throat.

I felt his breath first.

Then his mouth, not a kiss, just pressed there above my pulse while he breathed in slow.

His hand tightened on my waist.

I had been kissed by exactly one boy in my life, and he had never once made my skin do this.

My eyes closed on their own.

Then Evander stepped back, fast.

His hand dropped away from me.

He looked at the ground.

Then he looked at me, and his eyes had gone darker than they were a moment ago.

"That should hold until supper," he said. His voice was rough.

"Your hand is shaking," I said.

"It's cold out."

He put both hands in his coat pockets.

I told myself he was cold. I told myself that I had only felt anything because I was scared.

Neither of those was true, and I knew it, but I stayed quiet.

"Seren."

The voice came from my left.

Gavin sat on a bench ten feet away with his elbows on his knees.

I had not seen him there. He had seen all of it.

His ears were red to the tips.

"Seren, I need to talk to you," he said. "Please."

"No," I said.

"It's important. It's about the ceremony. You don't understand what happened."

I stared at him.

He had stood in front of the whole pack and kissed my sister. I understood exactly what had happened.

"You can talk to my mate," I said. "He'll listen."

Evander turned his head and looked at Gavin.

He did not say a word, and he did not need to.

Gavin got up so fast the bench scraped.

"Never mind," he said. "Never mind. Forget it."

He backed off three steps before he turned and walked away.

I let out a short, shaky laugh that was nowhere near funny.

Then I heard an engine at the gate.

A black truck pulled up to the curb, and the door swung open before it had stopped rolling.

Alpha Ronan Calderwood stepped out with both arms already wide and a smile on his face.

He was Gavin's father, the man who had handed me my first pack scarf when I was six years old.

He had always been kind to me.

"There she is!" he called across the quad. "There's my girl! I hear you've been keeping secrets from me."

He started toward us, still smiling.

"Don't make me wait until supper, Seren," he said. "Introduce me to your young man right now."

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