Craving My Mate's Brother

FIONA

The splash of cold water jerked me out of my sleep. I should be used to the inhumane way she woke me up, because she always used a bucket of ice water on me every morning, but I still shivered uncontrollably as I sat up on the bed.

"Get up, you useless girl," My mother shouted at me, as I tried to blink water from my eyes. "You are already late for work!"

She continued nagging as I tried to put my drowsy self together.

"You always go late to work..."

I stood up from the bed.

"Third count of laziness and I am sure that they will fire you...and you cannot get fired, we need the money..."

I slipped my feet into the bathroom slippers that were by the side of the bed.

" Your siblings came home from school, earlier this morning, they said that they were not allowed to enter the school grounds because of lack of school fees."

Hearing those words made me topple over an overflowing bucket of water that caught the water leaking from our rotting ceiling. That was the third strike this week, after our landlord came banging on our door, demanding for our rent that was due three months ago.

Me and my mother locked eyes for some moments as the impact of her words came sinking in.

"What about pa? Is he stronger now? "

He has to be stronger, dear goddess. How do they expect me to work out my siblings' school fees and house rent altogether from a mere bartending job at a bar that catered to the poorest in the city?

Mom shook her head. "He is flat on his back, can't walk, and as from yesterday evening last night, can't talk."

My mom followed me to my back as I slipped into the shower compartment. "What are the doctors saying?" I asked weakly.

"He needs intensive treatment." Her voice was harsh. "The medicine they prescribed for him is very expensive. I could not afford it."

This right here is the reason why I try my best to wake up as early as I can, so I could avoid all this sad news. It seemed like everyday, something bad would happen at our house. And somehow, because I am the eldest daughter, I had to shelter it, work something out, fix it. I was just 23, and I was drowning.

"Mom, what would you have me do?"

"I don't like that you come back here so early with your miserable peanuts. You should work harder, take the second shift, bring home a tangible amount of money."

The second shift was the night shift at my bar. Not only was I losing my freedom to freely exist and be happy because of this family, I would lose my night sleep too.

My voice came out pleadingly. "Mom, you know I can't do that..."

"Shut up!" her fists struck the frosted glass beside me. "If not for your stupid dormant wolf, you would have mated with someone more capable and he would have been sending us money every week. But here I am, housing your miserable ass at 23, and you don't want to contribute to the house that feeds you. You ungrateful bitch!"

I flinched at her words. My wolf had never emerged, making me an anomaly in my pack and a source of shame for my family and a target for anyone else.

'It is the other way round!' my mind screamed. 'I feed the house, I pay the rent, you are the one that's ungrateful.'

"I do not want to see you in the house by evening." She wagged her index finger at me. "In fact, don't come back unless you have more than at least a hundred dollars. Nonsense."

Her words reminded me that I was still a failure. Despite having to work tirelessly for the family, the highest I have ever brought back home was 60 dollars.

"I will bring back a better sum of money today." I sighed, as I slipped into my worn-out work uniform.

I slipped through the backdoor of the bar, hoping that my boss did not see me. The last thing I needed was another verbal abuse this morning.

I slung my bag over my shoulder with speed, and hung it with my coat by the pinned wall. As I turned, I bumped into a body.

"You're late." Mr. Gerald, my boss, looked at his watch. "Ten minutes late."

"I..Sir." I stuttered.

He stepped around me. "I'm taking it out of your salary."

I tried to protest. No. The amount he paid me was already too small, I couldn't afford to get any smaller, not when I had an angry mother to pacify at home. He held up his hand, looking me up and down with the disgust that I found familiar on the other pack member's faces. "Dormant wolves and their screwed up internal clock. I'm demoting you. You've proved unreliable in bartending so you are going to wait tables instead." He tossed my apron at me as my mouth fell open. "Get to work and try not to screw it up."

I tied the apron around me, tears forming in my eyes. I've worked here wholeheartedly for three years. What I deserved was a promotion and not a demotion. But my wolf that should have come out at sixteen but was dormant till now, was causing these issues for me.

By afternoon I counted the money that was in my pockets, a meagre 47 dollars in tips. Not enough for my father's medicine, nor slightly close to what was needed for my sibling's school fees.

I heaved a sigh of defeat. I was finished. What do I do?

SERGIUS

I stared at the golden city beneath me that stretched out to the horizons; everything belonged to me. Behind me the servants quietly chattered as they cleaned up my penthouse suite, arranged my bath water, the clothes I would wear, my schedule.

"Alpha," My Beta bowed, and I responded without taking my eyes off the beautiful scenery. "You have an emergency meeting with the council by eight."

"My schedule does not start by nine and they know that." I sounded annoyed.

"Yes, they do. But they said that it is bad news and it needs your attention immediately."

I snapped my gaze to him. The council rarely brought bad news, and if it was that bad, they always kept to my schedule. But this...

"Keep the bath water warm." I shouted over to the servant that was preparing my bath. "Let's go." I nodded to my Beta.

We took the elevator down to the throne room, and when we entered the throne room, my blood immediately chilled. 50 pairs of unsmiling eyes bored at me, their faces grim and solemn. Whatever it was, it was bad. And I hated that they allowed it to escalate to this level without bringing it to my attention.

"What is it?" I barked in fury, when I sat down and they were still regarding me with that morose expression. Elder Morteus, the eldest among them, stepped forward with a leather-bound tome in his hands.

"Your Majesty," he said, his voice coming out like a squeak. I gulped, dread rising in my throat. Morteus was the only person in all of the North who was not scared of me, if he was scared, then this was as bad as it could get.

"...we have completed our research into your condition."

My jaw clenched. For the past month, I have been experiencing strange episodes; blackouts where I could not remember my actions, violent rages that came from nowhere, twice I had to be contained. The pack healers were baffled. I made sure word of it never crossed my gates.

"And?" I demanded, sitting up straighter in my chair. Morteus opened the ancient tome. "It's the curse of the Blood moon Alpha. On the seventh blood moon, you are expected to shift into a lycan and inevitably run mad from the experience. Your lycan state will run berserk for two months and then begin to atrophy until you shrivel to death."

My world tilted, my heart roared in my ears, my sight doubled in shock but my voice was strong as I said, "continue."

"There is no cure. Magical stones will bind you when you shift because in that madness you're likened to a murderer, crushing whatever is on sight. You will be contained underground until your imminent death." Silence.

They were waiting for my reaction. I hid my trembling hands under the table. It didn't feel real. Nothing felt real. "You have more to say." I nodded to Morteus.

He stepped closer to me. "We noticed a pattern, Alpha. Every Alpha-king in your lineage has faced it upon reaching their twenty-eighth year."

His voice was muffled, as if I was underwater. "My father---"

"Died from it, yes. As did his father before him, as did his father before that." Morteus' weathered hands shook lightly. "During the seventh blood moon the curse reaches its peak. The Alpha king loses his mind completely and.."

"Dies," I finished, my voice dull and empty.

"Yes, your Majesty. You just have a year of sanity left."

I closed my eyes in pain as his words stabbed me. Just this morning, I was counting myself lucky to rule all of North Europe. That it all belonged to me. Now everything I had worked for, everything that I had built, was just going to disappear into the wind like that, gone to the next person in a different lineage who did not work as hard as I did, who would eat everything I had sown.

The more I thought about it, the more I trembled. But it was not from anger, it was from a blood-curdling rage that seemed to seep from the tip of my toes.

Good. Another freaking episode at the bloody wrong time. I watched as I took the nearest glass cup and aimed it at Morteus' head. He missed by the slightest and the cup shattered on the wall beside him, tinkling with a high-pitched ringing, the glass fragments scattering in every direction. "Get out!" I screeched, throwing more glass cups and upturning the central table.

The throne room rang with frightened shouts and the sounds of wood breaking as I beat the central table to dust.

I couldn't stop myself, I couldn't help it as the rage flooded through my veins and blood started to flow from my knuckles.

But I knew that when it stopped, when I snapped out of it, I wouldn't even remember.

SERGIUS

I woke up chained to a bed. Again. I violently rattled at the chains and a shaking servant went out to call the healer. The healer unshackled me and I didn't bother asking why or how. The last two times I had woken up bewildered and they had to explain to me.

"This will heal in two hours," The healer nodded to the bandages. "You are a strong Alpha."

This time I just stood up took the painkillers for the blinding headache and dull ache in my bandaged fingers and went out.

I also didn't bother asking why my hands were wrapped thick with bandages; I knew that I must have beat someone or something out of rage and I didn't want to relive it. I didn't even want to live. Right now, I badly wanted to be a coward, drink my sorrows away and forget about my impending doom.

When I looked out the windows, it was pitch black. I have been knocked out for an entire day, leaving my kingdom without a ruler for a full day. Something that has never occurred since I was coronated. I decided I was going to be a coward.

I slammed the car doors close. The driver jumped and looked back at me in fright.

"Where, Your Honor?"

"If you wanted to be drunk and lose yourself in the one place you are sure that nobody will find you, where will it be?"

He took me past the glittering skyscrapers of the inner city to the seedy streets of the ghetto slums. We stopped in front of a crumbling bar.

"You're sure nobody will recognize me here?" I asked him.

"Nobody in this part of the slums can afford a phone or television your Honor. Nobody knows what you look like."

It was perfect. He nodded at my clothes. "But seeing those robes they can tell that you are part of the upper echelon."

I took of my diamond studded robes and exchanged it for his dusty coat.

The only reason I was here was because I did not want a paparazzi chasing me and people questioning my leadership.

Once I sat down at a table, I called for a waiter. The waitress who walked up to me was small, probably in her early twenties, her long dark hair was pulled in a messy ponytail. Once my eyes ran over her innocent eyes and plump lips, I decided I liked her.

"What can I get you?" She asked in an exhausted voice, her pen pised over her paper. I had barely looked at the menu. I leaned back in my chair. "Some Rodenbach wine, or Cantillon. I say Cantillon."

Her perfect eyebrows arched. "What is that sir? Those things that you mentioned?"

was she dumb? I looked at her smooth lips pursed in confusion. Then I remembered. "Sorry, I'll have whiskey instead."

She nodded, scribbled it down and turned to walk away. As she walked away, I found my eyes straying to her threadbare mini-skirt, perfectly round backside, and smooth long legs. She looked untouched. From the way she carried herself, I could tell that she was still a virgin. When she sashayed back with a tray of chilled wine, I'd already made up my mind.

"What's your name?" I asked as she poured me the drink.

"Fiona." Her voice was refreshing.

"Fiona," I repeated, savoring her name.

She stood up straighter. "Would you like any other thing else, sir?"

'yes, I want another drink." I drawled. "But first," I swirled the glass cup. "I want you."

Her cheeks flushed red. "Excuse me?"

I stood slowly. thinking. Forget the alcohol. I could use her to forget the pain. I could drown in her body and still feel alive. She was just a commoner, a nobody.

She stepped back, very tiny compared to my six foot frame. "You heard me. One night, you and me."

She shook her head like she was amused. "You have to be joking. Does this look like a brothel to you sir? If you want someone to sleep with, go to a gentleman's club."

I gently held her fisted hands and slipped in thick cash. Her gaze flicked to the wallet and back to me. She tossed the cash on the table. "No sir. You are not going to buy me over with money."

"Then name your price?"

Her eyebrows rose defiantly. "Tell me how much it's going to take to have you all to myself for the night."

For a moment, she only turned her nose up at me, until her eyes drifted to the bundle of one-thousand-dollar bills that she had tossed nonchalantly on the table. "How much?" She whispered finally.

I thought about the amount I spent on lunch yesterday, a casual amount that meant nothing to me.

"Five thousand."

Her eyes went wide. "Five...five thousand?"

"Is that your price?"

Her eyes flickered in fear. "That money could solve majority of my problems right now."

"So that is a yes?"

She closed her eyes, took a deep breath. "So all I have to do is to sleep with you?"

A smile tugged at my lips, she wasn't so smart, this one. When she opened her eyes, she looked resigned. "I agree. One night. Five thousand dollars, and we go our separate ways."

I arranged the pile of cash on the table. "Deal."

She stared at the money for long before looking at me. "Let me go talk to my manager."

"if he resists, bring him to me."

She walked away tensed and I downed a shot of whiskey.

Tomorrow, I would return to being Alpha Sergius, ruler of the Northern Territories and bearer of a death sentence.

But tonight, I was just a man that wanted to get lost in the folds of a woman as a means of escae.

FIONA

My mind yelled at me to run when his hands traced the line from my arm to my lips, but my legs were paralyzed to the spot. He caressed my chin, and leaned in to kiss me, my heart thudding in my chest. When he softly kissed me, all my defenses melted and I leaned into his arms. He kissed me again and again and my body erupted with desire. All of a sudden, I wanted his hands to touch me all over.

Just then, a powerful scent of lavender hit me. It made me dizzy for a second, while his hand grabbed my soft thighs.

"Mate!"

My body stiffened. Was I hearing things? I had to be...

"Mate..." the voice whimpered again as he trailed kisses from my cheeks to my shoulders. I just sat frozen, unmoving in shock. My wolf - after two years of humiliating me in front of everyone because of her silence - was speaking to me because she could sense her mate.

"Mate. He's the one Fiona!" The excitement in her voice was barely containable. I wanted to scream at her to shut up. Her silence for years had deeply hurt me. But the sweet scent of lavender was choking me at this point, and I couldn't fight the wetness in my legs.

So when he expertly slid the straps of my bra down my shoulder, I let him. And when he took my breasts into his mouth, I surrendered to his touch.

"Tell him." My wolf pushed.

"What if he rejects me?" I fiercely whispered.

This man only cared about sleeping with me. I don't think he saw me as someone he could spend his future with. But why was the goddess so cruel to pair me off with a random stranger?

He ripped my panties off. This was it. I was going to lose my virginity for an ungrateful family to a man who cared less about me. When I've been keeping it for a mate that would cherish me.

He took off his clothes and I could see his massive member. Oh my goddess! His tongue trailed down my skin. I felt his hot breath n between my thighs. He raised his head up so that his beautiful eyes glared at me. "I do not intend to give you pleasure." He stated sternly.

"Y-yes." I stuttered.

"Spread those pretty legs," he commanded. "Let me feel how wet you are."

I did as he instructed.

"Good girl," he said, his hand sliding higher up my thighs.

"You like this don't you?" he massaged my clit gently.

"Mmhm" I moaned, my eyes rolling backwards.

"Say it."

"I like it," I breathed.

He chuckled, then pulled me closer, his tongue brushing my ear. "Then hold on tight, because I am not going to be gentle."

My heart skipped. I needed him to be gentle. Before I could speak, he thrust his raging cock into my c*nt, moving in and out vigorously. I let out a sharp scream hoping that he would understand that I am in pain and go slowly, but he was deaf to my screams.

"please.." I begged and then it seemed like he slowed down ...to a pace that I could actually start enjoying it.

"Ooh-ahh." I moaned in ecstasy. He increased his pace.

"I can see that you are enjoying it after all.' He chuckled. My reply was a soft moan as my senses was fried at this point. He moved even faster and I could feel the wetness on my thighs. "Yes, ugh, yes!" I screamed as I squirted and the sweet scent of lavender drowned mw.

"Good. That's a good were," he said coldly and stood up from the bed. I wrapped myself with the blanket as I was already stained with blood, and I stared at him as the deflating aftermath of the orgasm came crashing down on me.

He was dressing up quickly with the detached movements of someone who wanted to get away from me and this as fast as possible. This was the right time to tell him that I was his mate before he disappeared into the world and I never got to see him again.

Nevertheless, I was scared. I sat up slowly, feeling a slight pain in my lower body.

"Don't you feel it?" I whispered. "Speak loudly." He barked harshly.

"The mate-bond." I blurted out. I watched the color drain rapidly from his face.

"What did you say?" he advanced towards me and I backed up against the headboard.

"We are mates---"

I was interrupted by the loud crack of wood splintering and I saw that he had punched the chair into half.

My eyes widened. What the hell? Who was this man?

"Goddess, why?" he cried in a strangled voice, as he heaved around like a madman. I sank deeper into the sheets, terrified as he violently smashed the chair again and again. At this point, I was also questioning the sanity of the goddess. how could she pair me with such a dangerous man?

"First of all, you curse me..." he was rambling, "and then you mate me with this nobody, this cheap poor thing..." My wolf whimpered at his words.

His gaze tore me and I braced myself for the rejection.

"Who the hell are you even? Who's your father? Who's your mother? Do they have titles, lands, worth?"

I bit my lips to hold my tears back. He shook his head at my no-reply. "Gosh, no. I cannot be seen by the likes of you. I, Sergius Kairos, reject you---What's your name?" he lashed out.

"Fiona Akida." I couldn't stop the tears from pouring.

"I, Sergius Kairos reject you, Fiona Akida as my mate!"

The pain scorched me and I screamed out, rolling on the bed till I hit the floor. He stacked a pile of bills on the table. "Do not look for me." His voice was suddenly calm. "Take this and disappear." He crossed over my mangled body and just left. Just like that.

As I struggled to breath and get up from the floor, I realized that his name was familiar.

Sergius Kairos.

The Alpha who ruled the 157 packs that consisted the North, of which my pack was a minor.

So, the goddess mated me to a king. I laughed at the irony. My mother would have been so pleased. The rejection made complete sense.

He was everything and I was nothing.

But that realization didn't make the crippling pain of rejection any better. Eventually, my body could not take it anymore and I passed out.

FIONA

I was wobbling in pain when I got home. My mother opened the door for me and she saw my state but could not be bothered, she only told me to quickly bathe and eat so that I could resume my work at 9am.

"Mother, I am not going back there again." I leaned on the wobbly dining table, trying to catch my breath.

"Why?' She snapped, her eyes burning with fire. "Look at the state of your father!" she pointed to his pale body laying discarded on our patched-up sofa. "His condition worsened through out the night. We will lose him if you continue to be lazy Fiona."

I retrieved the stacks of hundreds and thousands of dollars from my bag and laid it on the table. Her mouth opened in shock. "I don't have to work for up to six months if we can properly manage this money better. Also, Lisa and Sam can resume school, while dad can be treated better.

Her fingers massaged the crisp dollar bills. "Where did you get this amount of money from?"

My mind flashed to the passionate sex from last night and then the near-death rejection. I turned away from her. "It's not important."

"Did you steal it?" She raised her voice.

"Do you want me to return it?" I yelled ack, my exhaustion giving way to anger.

She fell quiet, her shoulders slacking.

"Just as I thought. So please, take the money and let me be please."

I held myself together as I walked up the stairs. I didn't want her to see that I was in pieces. It would lead to more questions and I would have to talk about the rejection. In my pack, rejected wolves were treated worse than dormant wolves.

As I stared at my reflection in the bathroom mirror, I knew that I was in even greater trouble. I was pregnant. My wolf told me. Wolf pregnancies only lasted for two months and in two weeks, my stomach would be the size of a medium sized pot. If he rejected me, he would also reject this baby. An unmated pregnant wolf was even worse than a rejected wolf and dormant wolf put together.

I sat on the toilet seat, perplexed. What was I going to do? I knew that the Alpha had no heirs yet. If he knew that I was carrying a potential heir, would he be more open-minded to accepting me as his? My chances of having a chosen mate would reduce drastically if I gave birth to an unmarked child.

I had to let him know somehow. Travel all the way to the inner city and maybe face a second humiliation. It was better than the mockery I would face here all my life.

SERGIUS

As I slipped into the car, I could still feel the shock from the severed mate-bond. What I did was for the best or that's what I like to think. My knuckles which had long healed were bleeding again. My phone rang beside me and it was my Beta. When I picked he told me that there was another emergency meeting and I needed to be there as soon as possible. I looked at my watch. Five thirty-eight am. Just wow.

"We've found a solution." Elder Morteus said as soon as I stepped into the throne room. The elders were all standing and they sat when I did. I edged closer towards them. "Tell me more."

"You would have to give birth to a child within the year of the blood moon."

"And that will stop my madness how?" My eyebrows quipped.

"A child ensures the continuity of your lineage. It means that there would be no end to your bloodline."

I sat back up in my chair, a trifle disappointed. Fair point. It didn't stop my death, but it was a solution anyways. I have been to focused on leading my kingdom than raising a family. I was ready to try.

"And since the moon goddess has not mated you yet, we have come up with a solution." Elder Ciana spoke up.

"You had a mate," my wolf chided me. I shut him down.

"Yeah? What is the solution?"

"Here," One said, stretching his hand out and a lady I did not notice who was seating daintily at the corner of the room, walked gracefully towards us. I locked puzzled gazes with my beta standing at my side. What was this?

The lady was very beautiful. She was dressed in a regal blue dress and her strawberry blonde hair was perfectly styled into a ponytail.

"This is Yvonne Chenille, crowned princess of the prestigious Chenille pack." Morteus cleared his throat. "We have brought her here because we believe that she would be the perfect Luna for you, Alpha.'

This had to be a sick joke. I surveyed their unsmiling faces. "Who do you think you all are, trying to make decisions for me and forcing your choice down my throat. Where is my Liberty to choose? What you should have done was to assemble the ten best and let me pick."

"But, Alpha, we the elders have chosen her as our Luna. In fact, we suggest that you both get engaged tonight."

I stood up quickly. "Because I am sick, does not eradicate my right to choose. I am very capable of making a healthy decision."

"Alpha, it is not the way you see it." He tried to appease. "We stayed up all night, sorting and eliminating, and we have come to this conclusion. She is perfect, and she ticks all the boxes."

"We don't have time Alpha." Morteus continued. "We need you to be wedded immediately so that we can determine her fertility."

I gave her my outstretched hands, she took it and I pulled her closer. I surveyed her silent beautiful form. This was a lot better than some faded girl in shabby clothes.

"But what if it doesn't work?" I asked them.

"Then we would set up a breeding station for you."

I nodded once and kissed the back of her hand. "The wedding preparations will start in earnest, but it will not take place until the full moon, I'd like to know her better."

"Your Majesty-" Morteus tried to interrupt. But the rest chorused as "As you wish, your majesty." And shut him up.