Page 3 of Meeting Her Mate

But before I could so much as stand steadily on my feet, the vampires caught up to me. Will—or whoever appeared to be Will—saw in horror from across the path as the vampires pinned me to the ground.

I closed my eyes as the vampires surrounded me, prodding at me with the barrels of their rifles, snarling at me, and jeering at me with their faces inches from mine. I could smell the unearthly stench emitting from their mouths and feel their fangs coming nearer.

If this was death, it could have been worse. I could have died of old age, having lived a sorry life in that dreadful town. At least, in this way, I was going out on my own terms.

As much as I told myself this, it did not help lessen the terror pervading through me.

And as the vampires began descending upon me like a swarm of insects, my vision started giving away to a ghastly, suffocating darkness. My body became numb in the wake of fear, my faculties froze out of shock, and I started losing consciousness.

Chapter 2: Will

Icouldn’t just stand there as those rabid beasts attacked my beloved Ariana. Whatever had transpired would mean nothing if I didn’t save her from the vampires. Vampires in Fiddler’s Green? Now that was something unheard of. How long had I been held captive? Surely it must not have been more than a couple of weeks or months.

I had no time to ponder over what had been in the face of what was happening in front of me. Despite every inch of my being aching with blaring pain and my body still being under the effect of the drugs that my captor had injected in me, I shifted into a wolf and pounced upon the swarm of those bat-like abominations.

Had my time in captivity rendered me a phantasm? The vampires never saw me coming. Or perhaps they were far too concerned with cornering the maiden that they had forgotten her protector stood sentinel nearby.

I dug my claws into the backs of the bloodsuckers, yanking them off Ariana, my heart frenzied with concern for her safety. It had barely been a few seconds since she was pinned down, but given what I knew of vampires, a few seconds were all they ever needed to bare their teeth and dig into the skin of their victims. It only seemed poetic that I dug my teeth into their skin and threw them off like ragdolls, lurching and screeching.

I had to protect her at all costs. In all my time spent bearing the torture and brutality of that eccentric occultist who had caged me like I was some common dog, the only thing that had sustained me through that cold and dark was Ariana’s warm and light memory.

I plucked them off her like leeches off a wound. They were bony creatures, all pale skin and teeth, and crimson eyes. With each blow I struck, with each slash that I cleaved across their repulsive skins, I could feel my strength returning to me.

Ariana lay there on the ground, weakened, whimpering, and shivering. She stared at me in disbelief and perhaps gratitude, not uttering a single word. I could see that her foot was injured. I did not expect her to shift and fight by my side. As the alpha of the pack, it was my sworn duty to protect her and all the members of the Grimm pack.

The vampires had rifles the likes I had not seen before. Now that they were getting back on their feet, their guns were aimed at me. What was this weaponry? I had not seen anything like this in my time during the war.

“Look out!” Ariana screamed at me. I barely had a second left to register what she was telling me to look out for. I had thrown off my enemies every which way, and now they had surrounded me, their bizarre rifles cocked at me.

Utilizing my recovered strength, I leaped high into the air, relishing the sensation of the cool night air as it ruffled my fur, and tore past the canopy, coming face to face with the splendor of the moon after such a long time. Below me, I could see the flash of their guns and hear the roar of the bullets as they tore past the leaves and flew past me into the night sky.

I dove with fierce force, crashing into a particularly hideous-looking vampire and knocking the gun out of his grasp. Upon my falling on him, the vampire stopped moving altogether. I’d struck him lifeless. Now for the dozen more that were left.

A vampire is an agile creature. Every lore about them has this much in common. It is their speed that lets them get their way with their prey, whether it’s sucking their blood or killing them for sport. However, a vampire is no match for a werewolf in his true form.

And I was in my true form after ages.

I traversed the forest in quick leaps, clawing at the shooting vampires, tearing apart their throats, their torsos, and every other part of their bodies that my claws could get a hold of. Those that were directly in my path faced an agonizing death through the crushing force of my muzzle. My mouth was bitter and wet with vampire blood. I cared not for the whizzing bullets that soared past me.

“Now there are two of them?!” screamed one of them in confusion.

“Retreat!” another yelled.

Those who had fallen in their battle with me were scrambling to their feet, hastily scampering back into the depths of the forest like rats. Many of them abandoned their firearms and their torches.

I intended to give chase and eliminate them as retribution for their attack on Ariana. But despite my will, my body seemed to say otherwise. I had overreached my limit, forgetting that mere hours ago, I was shackled in a dark basement, my body swollen purple with the bruises that my captor had inflicted on me.

Realizing that my strength was waning because I had just utilized the last dredges of it in fending off the vampires, I abruptly shifted back into my human form. My tattered clothes reminded me again that I, once the alpha of my pack, was reduced to nothing but a laboratory experiment.

The forest resumed its meditative quietness. The air no longer stank with the stench of blood and that festering odor that the vampires carried with them wherever they went. As far as I could see, there was no sign of them any longer. Now that both of us were no longer in immediate danger, I turned my attention to the woman who had enamored me all her life.

I could feel something stirring within my being. It was a magical prompt that resurrected itself in my heart, a desire I had long thought was dead. My feeble body was attracted to hers in an uncanny magnetism as I walked up to her as she walked up to me.

And when I touched her gentle cheek, electricity issued from her body and imbued itself in my fingertips. Only in lore had I read before about the sacred bond of fated mates. Only in my deepest dreams had I wished that I would one day bond with Ariana as her mate. My despair in my prison was lessened to mild irritation due to the hope that someday, I would be free, someday, I would be rejoined with her.

It was happening. One had no control over this primordial force of nature. A bond formed of its own accord. You could never force it.

I saw in her eyes the same wonder that was in mine. Awe, at the sanctimony of the rite that was taking place so serendipitously. Her mouth was agape, gasping as both of us felt this surge of union strengthen our relationship.