DYLAN ||

Once the packhouse came into view, we all shifted and I watched Gabe pull Avery again this body, as if he was trying to hide his mate from the world.

I had to completely ignore Gabe and Avery the whole time we ran back to the packhouse. They had way too many questions that I just was not prepared to answer right now.

How the hell was I supposed to even answer questions about Raiden? About my mate? My FELINE mate? Who's a MAN.. by the way.

Everything about our pairing was weird and I'm cursing the Moon Goddess right about now for all of this. Raiden and I literally have nothing in common, except the fact that we have... man parts.

I mean the Moon Goddess sees our lives from the time we're born until the day we die, she knows how much I've craved the love and the simple touch that my mate could bring that would drive all of my stress away. She knows how much I want to be loved, how rejected I've felt in the past. How much love I have to give. She knows how much I've wanted my mate for so damn long, having to endure all the mated couples in my pack, watching their sickening happiness.

Most of all, she knows I'm NOT GAY!

"Really Dylan?"

"Maddox, I'm really not in the mood for your commentary right now."

"Well you're the one with the thoughts running rampant. I could easily get pissed off with you too.... Everytime you start overthinking, it gives me a damn headache."

"Well butt out of my thoughts then!"

"Like I said before, stupid human, I live in your head.. I can't exactly ignore your thoughts and you're obviously not straight if Moon Goddess gave us a man for our mate.. Do you have something you want to tell me?" The bastard snickered, as if he was really enjoying my misery.

"I am enjoying it." Maddox laughed again.

"Screw you Maddox. Just disappear. Retreat to the shadows for a little while seriously... I need a damn minute and no I don't have anything to tell you... You know I'm not gay."

"Are you sure Dylan?"

"I told you if you kept it up, I would drink wolfsbane!"

"You're a dick."

"Takes one to know one, you bastard."

All he did was growl at me after that, then retreated to the shadows of my mind like I asked. A little bit of guilt crept up on me for always arguing with my damn wolf, but I literally can't handle his crap right now.

I mean I'm having a full on, proper mate bond crisis right now. I'm not gay.. I can't have a man as my mate. Much less a feline.. I mean I was ok with the idea when I thought my mate was a woman, but how would my pack accept this? How could I accept this?

I know I can't reject him, I know... I don't want to make myself or Maddox weak because of it. Only the Moon Goddess knows why she did this and why the hell she would be working with whoever the God or Goddess was for Felines.

Why would they come together and pair Raiden and I together? What was the point? What could we even give each other?!

I can't have pups with him or in his case, cubs. I can't have a man as my Luna, like literally that's a position and term for a female not a male. Lunas are the mothers of the pack, the nurturer, the caregiver.. How can a man be those things?

Damn it... What am I going to do?

I'm so confused right now and I hate how much our bond is flourishing already. I didn't know it would be this strong after only meeting him less than 30 minutes ago. I'm having nothing but the worst urge to go back to him and wrap my arms around him. I want to feel his body against mine again, I want to kiss him, I want to feel his touch. Everywhere his fingers lingered against my skin, left the most euphoric sparks of electricity behind.

The Moon Goddess knows how much I love a beautiful view. Kind of like his eyes. I remember the exact moment my heart fluttered when I looked into his breathtaking ass eyes. They were like a beautiful sunset, the moment the flaming rays of the sun meet the horizon of the earth settling the light of the day into the dark of the night.

Raiden was honestly the most breathtaking man I've ever seen. I mean it should be illegal to be that gorgeous. Like what the actual hell...

Damn it.. now I'm hard.

"HAAAAAAHHHHHHAAAAA! Look at you pitching a tent for our mate. Not gay my furry ass!"

I want a new wolf.

After taking a few deep breaths to calm myself down, I rolled my eyes at my jerk of a wolf then made my way up to my office. Grabbing a pair of shorts from the hallway closet.

I knew I had a ton of paperwork to get through today. More pack transfers had come in, I needed to speak to the Alpha King about taking out a loan from the Kingdom and above all, I needed a damn distraction from my mind constantly thinking about Raiden.

However my path to my damn office was cut off by my parents coming down from the Alpha floor. What we're they even doing up there? They don't even live in the packhouse anymore man..

"Mom, dad. How are you?" I ask, trying my best to conceal the mental anguish I'm going through right now.

"Hey son, we were just looking for you. There's been a disturbance on the eastern side of our territory."

"What kind of disturbance?"

"The warriors on patrol have reported there's been a sighting of a black leopard. He's been spotted a few times this month in the early morning hours. The feline is hunting most of the game, not leaving much for your pack members to hunt."

Shit.. how am I going to tell them that the black leopard they're speaking of is my damn mate? I didn't even know he was hanging out on my territory.

"Why hasn't this been reported more frequently? How many times has the leopard been spotted this month?"

"The files say the leopard has been spotted 4 times son. All of the paperwork is on your desk awaiting your instruction on how to eradicate the problem." My father informed me, oblivious to the fact that he's actually talking about my mate.

"Eradicate? We can't do that Dylan. He's our mate. I swear if you let any of our pack lay a paw on his shiny fur, I will.."

"Stop Maddox, nobody will harm him. We're the Alpha remember? We make the decision on how to deal with it."

"Son? The leopard has also been the cause of the sudden spike in rogue kills. He may be the reason why there's been such a problem on the border."

Damn it.. No.

"How do you know it was the leopard that killed the rogue wolves?"

"The half eaten carcasses we're found in the trees of the forest son. No other animal in the area could have possibly gotten them up there. Everything has been submitted to you, have you not been paying attention to your paperwork?"

No.. I really haven't. My mind has been elsewhere. Worried about finding my damn mate since last week when my birthday came and gone. I've seriously been neglecting my pack duties because I've been so caught up in finding her... or him... that I didn't care about anything else and now I've found him, but he's the reason why my pack members have been fighting off rogues for the last month.

This is a nightmare.

"How would you like to proceed sweetheart?" My mother asked, grabbing my hands, effectively pulling me out of my thoughts.

"I will handle it mom. Please send Gabe and Hunter to my office and I'll have a talk with them about what needs to be done."

"Ok sweetheart. I'm so proud of you."

I smiled hearing her praise. I loved it honestly, hearing how much someone was proud of me. Hearing how much they appreciate me or how I've done something great. As the Alpha, I'm the one giving positive praise majority of the time, but to actual hear some back was heart warming.

I wish my dad would do it more..

I know he loves me, I really do. There's nothing that makes him prouder than knowing that I'm his son and his heir to the pack. Being able to hand his pack over to his son and I'm able to stand up to the responsibilities that come with it, but it wouldn't kill him to say he was proud of me a little more.

Praise. Words of affirmation. Definitely something that I craved the most.

After giving my mom a kiss on the cheek and hugging my father, I finally made my way to my office. Walking in and closing the door behind me. I let out the breath I didn't know I had been holding before slowly walking over to my desk and taking a seat.

My mind was racing with what I had to do about all of this. My mate bond, my pack, the fact that my mate is the reason my pack has been in danger the past month with all of these rogue attacks. I mean I know rogue wolves go insane once they're banished from their pack, but they're not dumb enough to come into another packs territory just looking for trouble. Their instincts tell them the territory is claimed and how many wolves live there, they're not complete idiots. They may be mostly animal at this point, but they still have enough common sense not to intentionally get themselves killed.

Especially not by coming onto my territory unprovoked. They know, majority of the packs in the country know how powerful my pack is. We're the largest pack on the west coast, with the best warriors. We've constantly been at the Alpha King's beck and call whenever he needed help with defensive measures. The rogues in the area weren't stupid enough to try us.

Unless a certain leopard was provoking them, killing their fellow rogues and dragging them back to my territory. Effectively starting a damn war.

This really is a nightmare. Seriously.

A knock on the door and the scents of my Beta and Gamma hit my nose, pulling me back to reality as I called out for them to enter my office.

"Dylan." Gabe and Hunter greeted me. The two closest people I have in my life standing right in front of me and one of them knew about my damn dilemma. I never took offense when they called me by my name. As long as we weren't in front of the pack, we were just friends and that was fine with me.

"Not a word about what happened this morning Gabe. Not one." I warned Gabe through the link as he nods once in understanding.

"Hey guys, I called you both here because my dad just told about the leopard that has been reported 4 times this month. He's the one causing the trouble with the rogues. Apparently he's the one that's been killing them and dragging them back here on our territory. I'm sure the feline didn't know this area had been claimed, but none the less, he's the reason why our pack has been in so much danger with these rogue attacks."

Gabe's eyes widen as he looks at Hunter. All I could do was clench my jaw when his eyes landed on mine.

"Dylan, what do you want to do about the feline?" Hunter asked as I shook my head.

"I don't know right now if I'm being completely honest."

"The obvious choice would be to kill it. One leopard against 10 of our best. We can take him down easily-" Hunter started to vent, but Gabe cut him off.

"We can't kill the leopard."

"Well we have to do something dude. We can't let him be the reason that we keep getting attacked. 5 of our own have been seriously hospitalized because of this." Hunter said as he started to pace around my office.

I leaned back in my chair as I pinched the bridge of my nose. I know Hunter is right, we have to do something about this, but Gabe has a damn good point too.

We can't kill him. He's my mate, I would die shortly after him. Wolves don't survive very long after losing their mate, but even with that, it's not like I can just bring him back to the pack after my patrol knows that he's the reason for the rogue attacks and I definitely can't let him just get away with this.

"Dylan." Hunter called out to me as I opened my eyes to look at him.

"We have to do something about this."

"Hunter, I don't disagree with you, but we have to think about this carefully. We can't just kill the leopard." Gabe said.

No.. no we can't kill the leopard. We can't kill my mate.

"Dylan! Do something about them or I will! They won't harm our mate!" Maddox growled as I shook my head to try to silence him.

"Why not Gabe? It would be easy, I mean I've seen the damn thing. It's huge, a lot bigger than other leopards should be, but it would be no match for me, you, Dylan and the best warriors we can bring with us." Hunter argued.

"Dylan I'm getting pissed off! Hunter is overstepping his boundaries!"

Just Hunter mentioning harming my mate again was driving both me and Maddox nuts. My heart started pounding a lot after than it had before as my palms got sweaty. My eyes were darting between my Beta and Gamma as they continued arguing.

"Hunter, stop and think dude. Have you ever tried to think about why he's killing the rogues? Why he brought them to our territory? Maybe he thought the rogues were a threat? Maybe they attacked him first? Maybe he brought them here after killing them because he sensed this was a safe area to enjoy his kill." Gabe explained, catching my eyes briefly.

"Gabe is making sense Dylan. Agree with him!"

"Maddox please! Just shut up!" I yelled, trying to swallow the bile that was starting to bubble in my throat with all the damn yelling around me.

"What? Dude that sounds ridiculous. Felines are notorious for their sense of smell man. It's way better than wolves, he would have smelled that this territory was taken. Why the hell would he think this was a safe area?!"

"Dylan!" Maddox yelled.

"I don't know Hunter, but we can't just kill it!"

"Say something Dylan!" Maddox yelled again.

"Why not?!"

"Tell them! Now!" My wolf growled at me again.

"SHUT UP! EVERYBODY JUST SHUT UP!"

I didn't realize I said that out loud until the room grew eerily silent as my canines had descended, my talons ripping through my fingers and slicing into my palms as I clenched my fists. I could feel my eyes glowing as the rage built.

"WE CAN'T KILL THE LEOPARD... BECAUSE HE'S MY MATE!" I yelled standing up from my chair.

I looked up at my Beta and Gamma then and Hunters eyes were damn bear bulging out of his head as Gabe offered me a sympathetic smile.

"The.. the leopard is your mate?" Hunter asked and I nod. "How do you know?"

"This morning I went for a run, Gabe and Avery came with me. We ran into the damn feline by the Stone Waterfall and unfortunately he turned out to be my mate."

"Congratulations?" Hunter said as more of a question.

I'm sure he was trying to read my emotions right now, which we're coming off more as irritation and confusion then the love and happiness you should feel when you find your mate.

"I didn't know you were gay Dylan, I'm not judging, you know I'm not.... Neither one of us are.... Gabe's mate is a man and you know I'm gay, so it doesn't bother me.... I'm sorry I'm rambling, I guess I just don't know how to read you right now."

I looked back at Hunter and shook my head at his ridiculousness.

"I'm not gay Hunter." Now it was his turn to look confused.

"But your mate is a man."

"Please don't remind me."

"Ok." That was all he said before he grew quiet again. This is so damn awkward..

"Dylan, I have a suggestion. Take it how you want, just don't hit me when I say this." Gabe laughed a little between his explanation. I nod to him to continue.

"We know we can't kill the leopard because he's your mate, but we can't let him get by with what he's done and the harm he's caused to the pack." Gabe started and I nod for him to continue.

"Even though he's your mate, we can't bring him in the pack after what he's done. The pack members wouldn't take that lightly, but maybe we can bring him to the cells for a little while. Maybe let him serve out a punishment there or something. That way he knows what he's done is unacceptable and you can still have your mate after his punishment is over..... it might be a win-win situation for everyone." Gabe finishes as I continue to stare at him and really ponder his words.

That could work..

Raiden had to learn that what he's done to my pack with causing these damn rogue attacks was not ok. He may be my mate, but my pack is my family and their Alpha. I'm the one who's supposed to protect them at all costs and what kind of an Alpha would I be if I didn't punish the one responsible for putting them in such danger?

Gabe's suggestion with putting him in the cells was smart. He wouldn't be harmed in there, his pain would be mine now that I can know he's my mate, so it was important that my warriors knew not to harm him.

I wasn't completely ready to tell anyone else about my bond with him yet though, so for now, they would just know that he's the leopard that's been spotting in our territory and the one behind the sudden rogue attacks because of his stupid killing of other rogue wolves.

"Gabe, Hunter. We will do what we need to do tomorrow morning. I'm supposed to meet the leopard at 9:30am... Bring whoever you can. Only the strongest wolves, the man isn't exactly small. Instruct our warriors that we are not to harm him, just use enough force to subdue him. And neither of you are to breathe a word about the fact that he's my mate. I don't want this getting around the pack. Am I clear?"

My Beta and Gamma agree to my terms which pleases both Maddox and I. Their loyalty has never been in question.

The day carried on without stress after that. I managed to get through the pack transfers, approving about half and the other half were rejected due to multiple issues like their current Alpha not approving the transfer on their side of the one wanting to transfer was under age and didn't have parental consent or the dumbest one... the reason some wanting to transfer because they just want to be apart of a different pack.

That's not a valid reason I can submit to the Alpha King or the Council, so I wasn't getting caught up in that headache.

Before I knew it, the Sun had descended and darkness fell upon the sky above us. I headed for the Alpha suite at the top floor of my packhouse. Quickly taking a shower, brushing my teeth and getting into bed just the way I like it. Naked.

Sleep didn't come easy though. My mind was racing and anxiety was all but nonexistent. I was torn between wanting to feel the effects of my mate bond and being annoyed that my mate was a man.. A feline of all things..

Then there was the whole "covert operation" that had to happen tomorrow morning. The day of all days that I was going to meet with Raiden again.

He wouldn't suspect a thing. Why would he? I'm sure he probably thinks this would be the best moment in his life, getting to see his mate again. He didn't seem the slightest turned off by me being a wolf or a man as I was to him being a feline and a man. He just completely accepted our bond, fully and truly.

If I'm being honest, the stupid irrational part of me felt like it was kind of flattering that he didn't even have the tiniest amount of doubt about me. While the intelligent, common sense side felt like he was the biggest weirdo.

The biggest, sexiest weirdo.

Ugh.. see what I mean? This bond is making me feel things for him that I shouldn't feel about any man and it's terrifying to know that it's just going to get a lot worse from here as the bond continues to grow.