42. Tobias
Tobias
Icould have stopped my little mate from leaving. Compared to me, he was tiny, and as an alpha, I was stronger than most wolves.
But I let him go, too heartsick to put up a fight.
My wolf howled and whined, devastated that Riley had once more rejected us.
A shifter’s inner beast was a simple creature, incapable of reasoning, and mine didn’t understand why the little wolf refused to engage.
As far as he was concerned, we were powerful and more than capable of providing for our weaker mate.
He didn’t care that Riley wasn’t a full-blooded wolf.
All he cared about was sealing the incomplete mate bond connecting our souls.
Until we claimed the little hybrid, we couldn’t keep him safe from other, much stronger predators.
I kicked the heavy bookshelf in front of me, causing it to wobble. Several books toppled to the floor, sending a cloud of dust into the warm air.
Stupid wolf bullshit.
Why shouldn’t a full-blooded wolf take a hybrid mate? Some wolves mated with humans. How was that any different?
Okay, so none of those wolves were alphas like me, and they all came from small packs living next to much larger human settlements, but still. The Shifter Council gave no shits about them!
Ugh.
I kicked the bookcase again, and this time, the stupid thing fell over. Old books tumbled everywhere, several of them hitting me in the face.
“Tobias Morrone!” An enraged yell reached me as the dust settled. Oh fuck, the crusty old librarian was now pissed with me. She still hadn’t forgiven me for jizzing all over a priceless first-edition copy of Moon Verse by John Keats, the famous cat shifter poet.
In my defense, the lizard shifter who’d offered to suck my cock during a protracted dry spell—I’d let him because I figured he had no gag reflex—had claimed he swallowed. The lying shit.
It turned out not only was he averse to swallowing but also that my cum had the same properties as glue when it splattered on delicate parchment pages.
Yeah. Not one of my finest moments. Luckily, Tate had offered to cover the cost of the damage to the stupid book that literally nobody had ever read.
After he’d finished laughing.
I leaped over the fallen bookcase, wincing at the mess I’d made.
“Wasn’t me!” I hollered before the hawk shifter librarian could catch me. “Blame the moon!”
Tate sat scowling at his phone when I arrived back at our apartment, still feeling out of sorts. He looked up and frowned.
“Why are there cobwebs in your hair?” I rubbed my head and then screamed when a fat, hairy spider with ten million legs jumped from me onto the couch.
Goddess save me, I fucking hated spiders.
“I may have had a minor accident in the library,” I explained once Tate had evicted the spider. A shudder shot through me at the realization I’d jogged across campus with a hideous hitchhiker camped in my hair.
“Does it involve destroying more valuable books?” He smirked.
“Hopefully not.” I grumbled to myself and sank into the cushions. I hadn’t told Tate about meeting my mate, but maybe I ought to. A problem shared and all that bullshit.
“So I might have met my moon mate and now he’s rejected me,” I blurted out in a rush before burying my face in a soft cushion.
“Your mate?” To my surprise, Tate didn’t appear fazed by my revelation. Not even that my mate was a male. “Who is it?”
“The little hybrid wolf.”
A heavy silence fell between us.
“And you’re sure about this?” I caught the tension in his voice and removed the cushion from my now red face.
“Yeah. He kissed me at the fight night, and I felt the bond pull between us.” I’d felt it long before that but hadn’t made the connection.
“So you believe the hybrid wolf, the guy with the red hair, is your moon mate?”
“Yes, like I already said. I’m drawn to him.” To the extent I’d been following him around campus like a sad little ghost, but I left that bit out.
Tate sat back and stared into space. Was he surprised? Angry I’d met my soul-bonded mate and he hadn’t? Disgusted that Riley was a hybrid and not a full-blooded wolf?
“Congratulations, Tobias. I’m happy for you.” He gave me the fakest smile ever and then clapped me on the shoulder.
The stench of his lie turned my stomach.
“No need for congratulations,” I pointed out, not bothering to hide my devastation. “He doesn’t want me.”
Tate’s phone rang, so I left him to take the call and headed into my bedroom to think.
After several torturous minutes of serious thinking that legit hurt my brain, I decided I needed some fur time. A few hours of letting my wolf run free to burn off his feelings might help me figure out my next steps.
My honey bunny might think he’d seen the last of me, but he was mistaken.
I was not the sort of wolf to give up that easily. A mate bond was a gift from the goddess. And returning the gift that was me was not an option.