I looked at him in shock at what he was assuming my problem was.
“Anyway, Jasmine, you shouldn’t worry. Artemis does not make mistakes and there is a reason she mated you with whom she did, and the mate bond allows us to overlook someone’s past transgressions. In no time, it will all be in the past and you will be happily mated.”
I stared at him for some time, in shock at his response. I finally snapped out of it and said, “But that’s not why I came here.”
“It’s not?” He looked surprised.
“No, the problem is my mate doesn’t want to be with me. He wants to be with the person he was with before he realized I am his mate.”
Bernard looked at me sadly. “Unfortunately, this does happen sometimes, that someone chooses to take a chosen mate in place of a fated one. It’s not common, but I’ve seen it during my many years as a priest. Of course, you know the temple’s beliefs on this—that it is forbidden. We will not marry anyone who rejects the mate they are gifted by the Moon Goddess. It is an insult to our deity, and it is believed she curses anyone that does so, so it is also highly discouraged.”
“But what if I’m not the one who rejects my mate, but it’s my mate who rejects me?”
He shook his head sadly. “It takes two to reject. One must initiate the rejection and the other must accept. Without both steps taking places, the rejection does not take effect. You cannot simply blame a rejection on the other person.”
“Does that mean I’ll never be able to get married?”
“You can still be married, but not in the temple. You can obtain a legal marriage the same way humans do.”
I felt sick at the reality of the situation. After considering what Bernard told me, I asked, “But why does the Moon Goddess choose the mates she does for us?”
“Well, we can’t know how her mind works, but there are theories. It has been observed that, through the mate bond, one mate will enhance the other, so one popular theory is that she finds us someone who improves certain aspects of ourselves that are necessary. For example, often alphas are mated to strong women that will consequently strengthen the pack as their luna. Another theory is that our mate is a soulmate—someone that is our other half, someone we are spiritually connected to. This is a popular belief for those who believe in reincarnation.”
“I see,” I replied, wondering if either of those theories were true.
“If you don’t mind me asking, who is your mate?”
I hesitated and then decided to answer his question after some thought. “It’s Beta Luke.”
He caressed his beard. “Well, isn’t that something? Yes, I do recall he had a girlfriend. And, if I’m not mistaken, his girlfriend is your friend?”
“Yes, that’s correct.” I felt defeated. “It just doesn’t make sense. I always did everything right. I listened to my parents, did well in school, came to every temple service. Why did I get stuck with a mate who wants someone else? And why does that person have to be my best friend?” I could feel a pain in my chest at how unfair the situation was, a scratch at the back of my throat. I sniffed back the early stages of tears, trying to stay strong, not sure if I could.
He appeared lost in thought, considering my question. After some time, he finally replied, “The Moon Goddess works in mysterious ways. I’ve been a priest for almost fifty years now, so I’ve witnessed many different people’s stories. Sometimes things happened that didn’t make sense at the time, but would eventually work out better than imagined. I have faith that things will work out for you as well.”
I shook my head, not seeing how this was going to work out well. I finally resigned myself to the fact that nothing was going to be answered today, thanked him for his time, and made my way to choir practice, a scratching, awful pain in my throat as I sang that day.
I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t completely crushed. I had spent my entire life devoted to Artemis and faithfully awaiting the day she would gift me my mate. Now that it finally happened, I had to accept the painful truth that my mate was contemplating rejecting me, and I might not be allowed to get married in the temple I grew up attending. I knew I couldn’t force Luke to be with me. That left me with no choice but to wait for him to finally make his decision, bringing an uncomfortable sickness to my stomach. Normally when I wanted something, I just had to find a way to accomplish my goal. With school, all I had to do was study harder. With strength training, all I had to do was lift heavier. But what do you do when someone doesn’t return your feelings?
Chapter 29
Blake
LukeandIwerein the packhouse office one morning, meeting with the pack accountant and office manager, when, suddenly, Luke and I received a mindlink from Mike, one of the high-ranking warriors on patrol.
“Alpha, Beta, we found the scents of a stranger pack in the northern border. Could be a sign of casing since it’s not the scent of any neighboring packs.”
I mindlinked Mike and Luke,“Thank you, Mike, we’ll be by your patrol station in an hour so we can discuss in more detail.”Being able to mindlink in human form was one surprisingly useful perk of being an alpha.
“Ok, Alpha,”he replied.
Luke looked at me. “Well, that sucks.”
“Yes, yes it does,” I replied.
We spent the next hour continuing our conversation about fund allocation. The accountant and office manager were both competent, having survived my father who would never have put up with anything less than, so the conversation didn’t take any longer than that. As soon as we were done, Luke and I headed outside and drove over to Mike’s patrol station.
When we arrived, Mike bared his neck in submission. “Good morning, Alpha, Beta.”