Chapter 13

I shifted uncomfortably. Maybe Victoria hadn’t told him. “Like the guys she’s picked out for me?” I mumbled. “The ones who could be my fated mate?”

Valentin looked towards the floor. He ran his tongue over his bottom lip before pulling the door further. He looked back at me.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Princess,” he said. With that, the door slammed shut behind him and I was alone again.

I sighed and threw my head back on the bed. So much for getting more information. I couldn’t help but wonder why Valentin didn’t tell me who my final fiancé was. I was just trying to avoid these assholes for fuck’s sake!

I started picking at my bandages. Curiously, I peeled the one on my chest back. I gasped when I saw what was underneath.

I had no clue why Valentin said I was healing slowly. My wound was basically gone. There was a jagged pink line where a tree branch had impaled my skin. Sure, it wasn’t completely gone but it was gone faster that any of my other wounds had ever healed.

For once, since I’d been dumped on this campus, I finally felt like I may truly be a wolf.

It was exhilarating.

On that note, I thought to finally get some rest. I was safe, tucked in the back corner of the infirmary, away from all the nonsense.

The next morning, I woke up and checked in with the head nurse. My wounds had all healed and I felt like nothing had even happened to me. I was energized as I left the infirmary and marched across campus.

The day before, several of the wolves Kairos sent after me had stalked Loren and I as she walked me to shifting. But today, I found no snarling faces in the bushes. It seemed like I was completely alone on my walk to the gym.

When I finally reached the giant metal doors of the gym, I felt slightly nervous. Last time I’d been here, I’d not only failed the run, but I’d made enemies with Maximus. I wondered if this stint in the gym would result in the same failure as the previous time.

I shoved that thought in the back corner of my mind as I saw Valentin. He was dressed in training clothes: dark grey sweats and training shoes with a light grey long sleeved top. The sleeves were pushed up to reveal his forearms. They rippled with muscle.

I swallowed thickly, a wave of attraction washing over me. Valentin caught my gaze and smiled softly. “Good morning,”

“Good morning,” I said. “Nurse cleared me for classes today. I’m good to train.”

“That’s good,” Valentin said. “Let’s start with some light stretches. I’ll recite some of the history to you and you can ask questions. Let’s start with a lap around the track to warm up.”

I nodded and took off in a light jog. To my surprise, Valentin took off with me. I tried not to get lost in the site of him as we went. About a hundred yards into the lap, Valentin started to speak.

“So I’m sure you read the handbook,” he said. “And should know about some of the history of our kind.” I nodded. Valentin continued. “Right, so the war lasted for ten years. Prior to that, we’d been eslaved by the vampires for hundreds of years.

“It wasn’t until your mother rose to power that someone actually did something about it. She fought against the vampires in every aspect, organizing secretly behind their backs until we had an army big enough to break free of their grasps.”

“You fought with her?” I said.

Valentin nodded. “She’s been my closest friend since we were young. I knew everything about her,” he said. “Her heart is pure, whether you believe that or not. And she truly does everything because she cares for you.”

I snorted then furrowed my brows. We were rounding to the end of the lap. “Wait, if you’re my mother’s childhood friend then how old are you?”

Valentin and I reached the end of the lap. He stopped with a coy smirk and I followed, brows still furrowed. He brushed his hair back off his face. I felt my heart stutter in my chest.

How is he so attractive?

He’s literally your bitch mom’s BFF. Move on, I threw back at my inner voice.

“A lady never reveals her true age,” Valentin teased.

I rolled my eyes at him. “Right so you and my mom fought the vampires?”

“We did. Start on some hamstring stretches,” he said. I followed suit and watched as he stood on the side of the track, arms across his chest. “We raised a whole army of wolves. Broke free of the vampires and managed to take a bunch of them down. But they’d weakened us for so long. They were stronger than us and fought back valiantly. It was looking grim for us when your mother started to glow.

“She’d unlocked the power of a True Alpha. It was something that the vampires had surpressed for years. With that power, she managed to lock the Vampire Emperor in the shadow world.

“Wow,” I breathed. I turned around and started on a different hamstring stretch, walking back towards Valentin. “The handbooks don’t have that part.”

“Most wolves know,” he said. I frowned. He grimaced slightly. “Most wolves raised by wolves.”

“You wanna fill me in on why I didn’t get that part of my life?” I said.

Valentin grimaced again. “That’s not my story to tell. Switch to hip stretched,” he said. I followed his direction and scowled at the same time. “You can speak to your mother about this.”

“She won’t tell me,” I bit out.

“For a reason,” Valentin said. “There was a prophecy, foretold that eighteen years after the capture of the empire, the Dawn of the wolves would emerge, ushering forth a prosperous period of new wolves.”

“I know,” I said, swinging my leg across my body to stretch my hip. “I have no idea what that has to do with me.”

Valentin set his lips in a thin line. “That’s all I can tell you,” he said softly. He jutted his chin towards me. “Shoulder stretches.”

I rolled my eyes. Leave it to my mother to save all the wolves and then toss me aside. It was classic Victoria. Though I couldn’t help but linger on the thought of becoming the True Alpha. I wondered if I would ever become that? Would my power ever match that of my mother’s?

“So you asked about fated mates,” Valentin cleared his throat. It snapped me out of my thoughts. I nodded. He shifted slightly. “That’s another part of wolf history. Fated mated were suppressed by the vampires so never became powerful enough to overcome them.

“When your mother defeated them, an influx of fated mates started to meet. Before, only about one percent of all wolves found their fated mate. Now, nearly ten percent do.”

“Wow,” I breathed. “And fated mates are supposed to allow you to unlock your deep powers?”

Valentin nodded. “Biceps and triceps,” I switched over. “Those who don’t have a fated mate, chose their mate. But on every full moon, they have the ability to meet their fated mates.”

“On a full moon?” I said, eyebrow raised. “How cliché.”

Valentin furrowed his brow as if he didn’t understand. He continued regardless. “It’s only on the fullest moon of the year,” he said. “When the most moonlight reaches the earth beneath us. That’s what makes them so rare.”

“Interesting,” I swung my arms across my chest then twisted my neck twice. “And how can wolves tell that they’re fated mates?”

“There are signs before a fullest moon,” Valentin said. He walked towards the sparring mat where I swiped Maximus with my nails. I begrudgingly followed as Valentin continued. “It’s usually extreme attraction. A sense of love at first sight. Synchronized heart beats that both wolves hear loud in their ears. A primal lust.”

Well, I hadn’t had any of that.

“But in extreme cases,” Valentin said. “There’s a burning electricity between the two people.”

I swallowed thickly, remembering my experience with Maximus.

“Electricity,” I repeated, trying to sound unphased.

“So intense,” Valentin. “That it feels like you’ve been burned.”

I remembered the feeling of touching Maximus. The deep fire I felt whenever he touched me. I took a shaky breath as I realized.

Maximus may be my fated mate.