Forced to be His: Fated To Be His Mate

Nicole's POV

"Nadine." I could feel my heart palpitate as I called out her name. I took a deep breath as I reached the top of the stairway connecting to one of the many rooms. I had no doubt in my head that she would be there. She couldn't have picked a worse time to play truant but trusted Nadine to make my life miserable just the way she'd always liked.

Finally, I reached the adjoining corridors already almost out of breath and pushed open the door slowly. A sweet smell of roses hit me as soon as I stepped into the room. It was dimly lit, but I could still make out the figure of two people huddled together comfortably under the mattress.

My wolf shook uncomfortably inside of me as I reached for the light switch and turned it on slowly. Dread filled within me in the space of a minute because there was only one reason as to the source of the smell. Mate.

With the room now fully lit, Nadine was spread unceremoniously on the bed, completely naked, and her hair a complete mess. She looked drowsy and peered at me with shuttered eyes. I couldn't bring myself to look at the person who was lying next to her. My mate was definitely in this room, but after seeing Nadine's state, I wasn't sure I wanted to find out who it was. If he was here with Nadine, it means he had slept with her, and the thought alone filled me with dread.

Suddenly Nadine sprang up from the bed, her hand over her mouth rushing to the bathroom. I could hear her vomiting, and I knew it was my duty to go and help her, but I couldn't move. I stood transfixed to the spot, just wishing I was in a very bad dream.

"Nic.."

His voice was soft and calm, but it held a hint of guilt in his voice, and my fears came true. I turned slowly to make out the disheveled appearance of my childhood crush and love, who I had desperately prayed for years to be my mate. Now I had to find out in the worst way possible. What a cruel fate the moon goddess had decided to cast on me.

"You slept with Nadine? How long have you two been seeing each other?" I whispered sadly.

"We both agreed to keep it a secret from our family so they wouldn't make a fuss. Julian and I have been dating each other for the past two months now," Nadine responded cockily. She looked stricken and bloated, but she had a triumphant expression on her face, the one she usually had when she had successfully taken something away from me.

"Why are you telling her that? She doesn't need to know." Julian growled at Nadine harshly, but she didn't back down.

"Why shouldn't I say anything? It's the truth after all. We have been sleeping with each other for months, and the fact that you just found out you're mates doesn't change anything," she counters arrogantly.

I could feel the air being knocked out of me, and it was almost like I couldn't breathe. It felt like the walls were closing in on me, suffocating me and pushing me into a tight box. Julian reached out for my hands, holding it, and pulled me into an embrace. I hungrily reached for his touch, his smell comforting me and pulling me in until I smelled the unmistakable smell of Nadine on him that has always made me uncomfortable.

I pulled away quickly, and his eyes held the guilt of what he'd done. He turned away, running his hand through his hair in frustration, and I could see the long pink lines of passion that Nadine had drawn on him from their night of passion. That undid me, and I flew to the bathroom and threw up all the food I had hastily eaten earlier this morning.

My head numbed with pain and shock from the revelations of the past few minutes. How could the moon goddess play such a cruel twist of fate on me this way? How could I have found my mate on the very day I found him in bed with her? The person that has been making my life a living hell ever since I have been adopted into her family.

I splashed my tear-rimmed eyes with water when I noticed the mini pregnancy kit resting subtly on the bathroom sink. It was opened and had already been used. To my horror, the pregnancy test lines read blue. It was a positive pregnancy test. I ran back into the bedroom, staring at Julian's face in horror.

"Is Julian the only man you have been with Nadine?" I asked slowly, barely getting the words out. I hoped and prayed that she wouldn't say yes. Nadine, despite being the alpha's daughter, was notorious for having different relationships with some of the noble's children in the pack. It had to be one of them. Julian just couldn't be the father of her child.

"Of course. I love Julian, and I have only been with him ever since we started dating," she answered smugly, moving towards Julian. She reached for his hands, but he yanked his hands away from her and walked over to my side. His presence warmed me, and I reveled in it. Despite everything, he was choosing me over her, and he was making it obvious, but deep down in my heart, I know it was already too late. Nadine's eyes blazed with anger, but it quickly disappeared as it took on a mischievous glint in them.

"Julian, I'm pregnant. I'm pregnant with your child. Are you really going to choose her over your own child?"

I could feel Julian waver slightly beside me, and my heart dropped. All through the years I have known Julian, I know he will never have the heart to leave his child.

"You're supposed to be getting married to the Lycan King in a few days. What are you going to say to him and your father? You're the princess of the silver crest pack. It's your duty," I uttered, my last attempt at trying to reason with her.

"Well, that's too bad, then, because I don't want to be stuck married to that ugly-looking man for the rest of my life."

"Can you even hear yourself? You don't exactly have a choice. This marriage was decided on years ago. What am I supposed to tell the Alpha?"

"The truth. I'm no longer willing to be used as a peace offering anymore. I'm going to get married to Julian instead."

"You can't do that. He's not even your mate," I cried out in despair. Why was she always taking everything that I loved away from me?

Nadine smiled smugly, "Julian will get married to me once he rejects you as his mate."

I gasped in shock at her words. How far was she willing to go to make my life miserable?

"I'll do no such thing. I'll never reject her," Julian yelled, cradling me in his hands, and my heart felt warm from his support.

"If you don't reject her, I'll abort your child, and you will live with the guilt of killing your child for the rest of your life," Nadine threatened, and Julian's hands slowly fell from my side.

I knew exactly what he was thinking. Julian would rather die than live with the knowledge that he was responsible for the death of his child.

He solemnly walked over to Nadine's side while she stared at me like she'd just won a big prize. Tears continued to stream down my face, relentlessly blurring my vision.

"I, Julian, reject Nicole Smith as my fated mate," he whispered out, and I could feel my wolf crying in pain trying to break free. It felt like I was carrying the whole weight of the world's pain on my shoulders, and I couldn't bear it anymore. Why was my life so cruel to me?

"Now if you will excuse us, we both need some privacy to ourselves. You can go and tell my father that I will not be marrying the Lycan king anymore and he should look for another bride," Nadine uttered as she pushed me out the door.

"Oh, and thanks for giving me your mate, my sweet sister," she said, smirking evilly.

"Who would have thought the man you had a crush on for such a long time was actually your mate? It's too bad he's mine now. At least now you'll know your place and worth in this place. You're nothing but just a servant meant to serve me," she spat before slamming the door on my face.

Of course she knew I liked Julian, and of course she went after him. She would always do that, and now I have to clean up her mess again. How was I supposed to tell the alpha that Nadine was no longer able to marry the Lycan king and he needed to look for a replacement as soon as possible?

Nicole's POV

"Come here at once," the alpha's voice rumbled deep in my head as I raced through the busy courtyard where the wedding preparations were already underway. The air was riddled with tension as everyone was on edge because of the marriage alliance between Nadine and the Lycan king.

I walked past the adjoining corridors and entered the alpha's office. He was seated behind his desk with a grim expression on his face, and his beta was standing in front of him. I entered slowly with my head bowed down, and I could almost feel his eyes burning into my skin. He dismissed his beta, and I was left alone with him.

"Where is Nadine?" he asked.

"She's with Julian. She says she doesn't want to get married anymore to the Lycan king. She wants to marry Julian instead, and she's now pregnant with his child," I said slowly, whimpering from the pain of the loss of my mate.

"This is all your fault," he suddenly barked angrily.

"What?" I was surprised at the sudden blame. How was any of this my fault? If anything, I was the victim here. His daughter just took my mate away from me.

"I had the good heart to adopt you and take you in as my daughter when no one else did and you couldn't even keep Nadine in check. Now what am I going to tell the Lycan king? If we don't find anyone for him to marry, he will declare war on all of us," he yelled accusingly.

A few decades ago, the Silver Moon Pack was at war with some neighboring rogues and were almost defeated and on the verge of extinction when the then-lycan king stepped in and saved the pack. As a result, every pack must marry out one of their daughters to the new Lycan king, and it's been that way for years.

Nadine had been trained from a young age to be the wife of the future Lycan king and had previously agreed to it because of the power she would gain from it, but she suddenly changed her mind along the way because of the rumors she heard about the Lycan king.

He had never been seen by the pack members in the kingdom before, only by his close confidantes, and he was rumored to be scarred, ugly-looking, and very ruthless. There were also some rumors that he was behind the deaths of some of the daughters of different alpha's that had been offered to him as his wife. The rumors had spread and had become quite known, making a lot of Alpha's daughters reluctant to marry the Lycan king, and some of them had even committed suicide as a result of it.

Nadine had protested against the marriage in the upcoming months leading to it, but the alpha had ignored it.

Now he was blaming me for her actions. How was I supposed to stop her when he had never given me any rights to be able to control her? Although he had adopted me as his daughter, he had never really treated me as one. Instead, Nadine had treated me like a servant to do all her bidding for her.

"What could I have done? Nadine wouldn't have listened to me anyway. The only person she could have listened to was you. She's the only one at fault here, and now I am suffering for it," I uttered, a brief surge of anger and frustration fueling my confidence.

"Are you saying this is my fault? How dare you?" The alpha yelled, storming angrily towards me. I shut my eyes in terror and cursed myself for my earlier outburst. It had been a long time since the alpha had hit me, but that didn't mean he wouldn't if he wanted to.

He raised his hands to hit me, and I flinched from the incoming attack when the door suddenly swung open and Nadine sauntered into the room slowly. I had never been so happy to see her walk in for the first time in my life.

"Dad, you can't hit her, at least not yet, Nadine said as she pulled her father from me. We both looked at her in surprise. When has she ever stopped anybody from inflicting pain on me before? She was definitely up to something. Her eyes held a mischievous glint in them, and it made my stomach turn.

"The last person you should be worrying about right now is Nicole; instead, you should worry about yourself. Do you know what will happen if the Lycan King finds out you're now pregnant with someone else's child and don't want to go through with the wedding anymore? He will start a war against us and kill us all," Alpha Andrew thundered.

Nadine smirked, crossing her hand over her chest as she looked at me.

"Don't worry, father. I already have a plan for the Lycan King. We just need Nicole's help with it," she said, the corners of her mouth turned up mischievously.

My brows creased in confusion as I tried to comprehend what she was saying. She was acting very suspicious, and whenever Nadine acted like that, it almost never ended well for me.

"What plan? How are we going to get out of this mess, and how is she going to help us with it?" Alpha Andrew inquired inquisitively, his voice barely hiding his disgust as he motioned towards me.

I was already used to this kind of treatment from him, especially since it was something I had been experiencing from a young age. I was always the alpha and his daughter punching bag, but it still didn't lessen the pain and hurt that the two people closest to what I can at least call a family didn't care about me and treated me like shit.

Nadine's face perked up at Alpha Andrew's words, glad she was able to capture his attention. She glanced at me slyly with an evil smirk on her face before turning towards her father and suggesting the very next words that would change the rest of my life.

"Let's get Nicole married to the Lycan king in place of me instead."

My eyes grew round with shock, and I could feel the blood drain from my face. They couldn't possibly do that, right? It would mean going against tradition and even worse, lying to the royal family, which could ultimately mean death for me. If I was ever found out, I would be instantly killed. I couldn't let that happen.

"What do you mean by that? How on earth can we do that? Are you saying we should deceive the Lycan king? If he finds out we deceived him, he's going to declare war on us." Andrew admonished Nadine, and I breathed a sigh of relief. At least he knew it was going to be a bad idea, but judging from the look on Nadine's face, she wasn't ready to back down easily.

She pulled alpha Andrew back to his desk. "Father, we will not be deceiving the Lycan king, so you don't have to worry about that. The tradition says that a chosen female child of the alpha will be offered as a wife to the alpha king, and Nicole is also a daughter of this family, isn't she?" Nadine said.

"Yes, you're actually right. I legally adopted Nicole, so nobody can say she isn't my daughter. This plan just might work," the alpha responded, his words driving a wedge in my heart.

Nadine smirked triumphantly as she noticed the way the alpha expressions had changed.

This wasn't good. I was still standing there totally ignored while they made plans for my future like I was nothing.

"You can't do that. If the Lycan king finds out, he'll kill us all. I refuse to agree to this," I voiced out in frustration and anger.

"You don't exactly have a choice. If you don't do what we say, we will make Kristen's life miserable," Nadine threatened.

Kristen was my best friend and the only one who had ever treated me like a human apart from Julian. She was also a maid in the royal palace, and her father worked as a guard for the king. I didn't want to drag her and her family into this mess.

"Besides, even if the Lycan king finds out about our deception, you can take all the blame and die an honorable death on our behalf. It's the least you can do for what my family has done for you," Nadine finished and walked out with her father, leaving me alone to my thoughts of my bleak future.

Nicole's POV

I trembled helplessly as I slowly walked towards my room. The tears began flowing slowly as I landed on my bed. My dingy room was dimly lit and only housed a small bed that I had been using for as long as I could remember, a bedside table and a large box that I had turned to my wardrobe.

All of my clothes were old and worn out clothes that Nadine had discarded. The room suddenly felt suffocating at that moment and I wanted to scream so badly. Why is it always me? I had never found any real happiness in my life and the little I could have Nadine had snatched it away from me.

Now she is trying to ruin my life by making me marry the lycan king. What have I ever done to her or her father for them to treat me this way?

I didn't remember much of my parents anymore. All I could remember is that they were both exposed as traitors and were sentenced to death including my entire family. I had been spared because I was born with a very weak wolf that could barely shift so instead I was stripped to an omega. Because of that everybody in the pack had avoided me like a plague until the alpha had decided to adopt me.

At the time I had thought he was doing it out of the goodness of his heart but I soon realized that he'd been forced by his own father to take me in to pay off the debt he once owed to my family. Since then I had been living at the pack house and was called the alpha's daughter but I had never been treated like one.

Nadine had made sure of it. She would insult and punish me in front of all the servants, soon they all lost their respect for me. I became Nadine's maid and she made sure my life was miserable.

Even after everything she did to me in the past she is still trying to ruin my life even now. Why am I always treated like this? Why am I always the one being discarded and left alone?

I couldn't take it any longer. I have to get out of the pack house as soon as I can. I raced downstairs and ran out of the pack house into the night.

Everyone was still preoccupied with the preparation of the marriage between Nadine and lycan king; nobody had noticed me slip out. I took a taxi and went to the nearest nightclub Nadine frequented. I wanted to drown my sorrows in alcohol even if just for one night and not think about my problems.

I entered the flashy club stunned by the flashing light and loud music. Everyone was dancing and having fun without worrying about anything. I walked slowly to the bar and ordered a drink. I had seen Nadine indulge in the drink a lot and just for one I wanted to forget that I was an orphan alone in this cruel world cast into a cruel fate.

The music pounded in my eardrums hard and loud. Everyone was having so much fun and I couldn't help but feel envious of them. How could their life be so easy and mine so empty and hard? I had dreamed so much of finally meeting my mate who will turn out to be a charming prince and sweep me off my feet. I shuddered to think about my wedding night. How could I give myself to the lycan king when I didn't even know him?

I downed another drink and then another and before I knew it I was drunk. I slid out of the bar stool unsteadily and headed to the dance floor. The music roared to life and I danced to its tune. This was the first time I had ever felt so free. I swayed my hips and moved to the beat, not giving a care in the world.

Suddenly a feral looking man approached me and tried to dance with me. I ignored him and moved away but he wouldn't give up. He grabbed me and pulled me closer to him despite my resistance and started groping me. He tried to kiss me and grab my butt and that undid me. The entire frustration I had been building up inside since finding my mate in bed with Nadine overcame me and I punched him hard across the face.

He looked stunned and surprised at the same time and his eyes were already turning crimson. The man's eyes flashed with anger and he reached for me again, this time his hand held tightly around my wrist, not letting me go. The more I struggled, the angrier he got. He pulled me towards the stairway leading upstairs.

My face paled as I realized what he was trying to do. I tried to free myself from his grasp but he was much stronger than me and the inner strength I had exhibited before had waned dramatically.

I tried to scream but the loud music muffled my cries and no one paid attention to me. I suddenly regretted leaving the palace on my own.

Suddenly the man holding on to my hand slipped as I noticed he was struggling to hold back the punches of a mysterious man. I breathed a sigh of relief as I noticed someone had come to save me. The new mystery man was bigger and far stronger and he was easily subdued in seconds.

I wobbled up from where I had fallen and tried to steady myself. My head started spinned immediately I stood up and my feet gave way under me. Instead of hitting the hard floor I felt something warm hold me from either side steadying me. I struggled to focus on the person who had helped me from falling and recognized him as the man who had saved me just now.

He had the most mesmerizing eyes I ever laid eyes upon. He had a smirk on his lips and his face regarded me with amusement.

"Try to be more careful, Blue. You don't want me to save you three times in one night," he drawled, his voice holding a rich and seductive undertone that sent shivers down my spine.

I couldn't take my eyes off him. He was still holding me by the waist when a passerby bumped into me accidentally and pushed me deeper into his arms. I could hear his heartbeat quicken and his jaw clenched as he took in a deep breath. The air around us thickened with sexual tension as I stared up at him.

Suddenly a wild thought entered my head. Why did I have to give up my virginity to the Lycan king who was practically a stranger to me? In that moment with a newfound confidence I had never experienced before I wrapped my hands around his neck and pulled his lips on mine. I felt his body tense up in surprise and I half thought that he would pull away.

He didn't, instead he reciprocated as the heat ignited between us. My first kiss tasted sweet and luscious just like I always imagined it would. His lips merged with mine and his tongue danced around in my mouth. We pulled away to catch our breaths and I could feel his hot breath tickle down the nape of my neck.

His hands began to explore my body slowly causing sensations to erupt within me as an involuntary moan escaped my lips. The world drowned out and the only thought I had at that moment was how ravishing he tasted.

We could barely keep our hands from each other as we scrambled to his car and before I knew it I found myself at a fancy hotel. My common sense started slipping in immediately when we entered the room. Was I really going to have a one night stand with a stranger?

Fear gripped me and I almost ran out of the room but then he held my hands to stop me and once I looked into his mesmerizing eyes I knew that was the end. His scent and aura wrapped around me, making me forget about my worries.

The room we entered was filled with luxury fit for a king with its lush sheets and luxurious decorations but I didn't pay them any heed. The only thing I could think about was the man standing right in front of me whose lips were locked unto mine and whose touch made my heart race.

I let out a soft moan as his kisses trailed down my skin and the sensations sent me into a frenzy. His touch ignited a fire within me and the world dissolved around us leaving behind the throb of our desires. As the night started to faded I knew there was no going back.