~ROWAN
I stared at the woman walking towards me with her jaw slacked with surprise, and I knew.
She was my mate.
My heart quickened in my chest as the realisation settled heavily on me. My lips parted as I started to talk, but when she stepped closer to me, the rays of the sun fell on her, and I saw her entire face.
I stiffened immediately. My entire body locked up as recognised slammed into me, and the excitement I was feeling about finally finding my mate faded into thin air.
She couldn't be. Hell, she should not be here.
But she was here. In my garden. And she was, of all things, my mate.
I recognised her immediately. It would be weird for me not to know who she was, of course.
She looked exactly like her mother, and I felt a slight glimmer of guilt in my chest as I held her gaze.
I knew who she was in a broad context. I was acutely aware of the fact that she was one of the people who came with Henry to see me. But I also knew her better than that.
Her name was Nyssa Fang, and I was the man who killed her parents.
She obviously had no idea about who I was, and even though I knew the best — the logical — thing I could do right now was stay away from her, my legs remained rooted in place.
Nyssa stopped before me, her eyes wide with shock as she took me in. My entire body was rigid as I held her gaze, and even though my heart was pounding like crazy, my expression betrayed nothing.
"Hi. I…I think you are my mate. You can feel the current between us too, right?" she asked, her voice slightly shaky.
Of course I could. Her scent was crawling all over my body, imprinting itself on my soul and it was taking every ounce of willpower I had to keep my hands off her body.
But I said none of these. She didn't have to know anything. Knowing was only going to make things complicated, and that was the last thing I needed right now.
So I just nodded and responded curtly. "Yes. We are mates, it seems."
At my lack of enthusiasm, her expression shuttered a little.
She took a step back and cleared her throat. I didn't move from where I was, but my eyes tracked her every movement.
"My name is Nyssa. What about you?"
"Rowan."
Nyssa nodded, her expression shuttering with each bland response I gave.
"Are you…are you going to reject me?"
Her question stuck me straight in the chest. Of all the things I expected her to say, that was most definitely not on the list.
Nyssa was looking at me with a myriad of expressions on her face, and my hands curled into fists at my side.
What was she expecting me to say? That I was going to reject her? Of course I wasn't going to do that.
She was my mate, which meant that she would be bound to me forever. And while I didn't mind getting to know her properly, I knew I couldn't.
Not with her.
The blood of her parents were on my hands, and the memory of their deaths as they stared at me with equal expressions of horror was all I could think about as I stared at her.
I should reject her. If she found out about what I did, Nyssa was going to hate me.
Yet I hesitated.
Tense silence stretched between us, and with each moment that passed, Nyssa's expression became even more closed off.
After what felt like forever, she cleared her throat to speak.
"See, I don't know what is going on, or why you're acting this weird. But…I think we should talk, you know, about the whole mate thing and stuff. Whenever you're, ready, just…let me know. Or not. It's your choice, really," she stated, her voice firm.
I nodded once at her words.
"Okay."
Her expression flashed with an emotion that was too fast for me to identify.
"Right. I'm just going to…go," she said, spared me another loaded glance for the last time, and pushed past me to go back to the main house.
As soon as she was gone, I ran a hand through my hair. Frustration flared in me, and my knuckles turned white as I gripped my hands harder.
Fuck.
She was obviously going to have a very bad, unimpressive first impression about me, and as much as I hated that, it was better than her finding out that I was a murderer.
It didn't matter that her parents deserved their end. Whatever they did, to her, it would never justify my actions. She would probably think me a heartless murderer, and nothing I could say would change that.
It would be easy to let her go. Reject her now. She would get over it as soon as possible and move on. Maybe even find a second chance mate.
Yet even the thought of rejecting her made my heart clench with displeasure. My wolf growled in my head, and the warning was clear enough.
Nyssa was mine. By the moon goddess's decree, she belonged to me. Even if I was a murderer, every single thing about her would always be mine.
The moment she locked eyes with me was the moment I claimed her, even if she had no idea.
I made my way back into the mansion, and my butler fell into step with me immediately I stepped into the house.
"Is there anything you need, sir?" he asked. I shook my head once, saying nothing, but the dismissal was clear enough.
He faded into the background, and as I made my way to my study, my mind whirled with thoughts.
I knew what I had to do.
I rang the bell rang above my desk as soon as I got into my study. The butler appeared immediately
"Prepare for a meeting between me and the visiting Pack," I ordered.
It was time for me to meet Henry.
And my mate too, of course.