Nobody tells you when you meet your Destiny Mate how quickly your body reacts. An early morning breeze brought the scent of the ocean and something else. It chilled my bones while simultaneously burning a hole in my heart. As his scent coursed through my body, it felt old and sacred, like he was born for me and I was born for him.

I saw his nose twitch, and I suddenly felt like one of Theo's rabbits. Without a second thought, I jumped off the rock wall and injured my ankle in the process. I knew that it would be dangerous to stop to inspect the damage, so instead I shifted into my wolf form to try and gain more distance. My collar snapped off my neck, and I gritted my teeth. If I got caught now, I would be seriously screwed. The fire in my chest slowly started to crawl through my body, but fear and adrenaline forced me to keep moving. My body was going into heat, and there was no way I could call Theo for help.

Turning my head over my shoulder was a big mistake. In his wolf form, he was at least three times my size and gaining speed. I snarled as heat and unease took over my body. I should have never followed that damn cat. I should have just tried to go back to bed and-

My thoughts and vision were blocked by black tufts of fur. I let out a yelp as I hit the sandy ground. He pinned me easily, but I didn't stop kicking at him until he let out a threatening growl. I looked into his eyes and froze. They were the color of the ocean, and it wasn't long before I was drowning in my nightmares again. I wished more than anything that this was a dream, and Theo would be tackling me awake soon.

He could smell my fear. But I also knew he could smell I was about to go into heat. I thought that when he buried his muzzle into my neck, he'd force me to shift back into a human, and my life would be over. Instead, the other wolf just inhaled my scent and rubbed my cheek with his own. I had no choice but to take in his scent. And for a moment, I calmed down. He lifted his head and licked my muzzle playfully. The heat was making me confused, and his shift in attitude wasn't helping. I didn't turn away when he licked me again. My body felt heavy, and I could sense that both of us were close to shifting back to our human forms. I almost dared to lick him back, but his head tilted slightly upwards, just as he was thrashed off of me.

A brown Beta now stood between the Alpha and me. It was Theo. He was large for a Beta but didn't compare in size or strength to the Alpha wolf. Panic started to rise in my chest once more, but I was weaker now. I wanted to warn Theo that we were still in the other wolf's territory and he could attack him openly. 

The black wolf got up with ease and shook off his confusion before growling at Theo. It would be the only warning the Beta would get, but he didn't back down. 

Theo pressed forward and lunged. Within seconds, both wolves were clawing and biting at each other's throats.

I tried to stand up and help Theo, who was severely outmatched, but I was on the cusp of a forced heat, and I couldn't tell which Beta was the real one and which one was a hallucination. I growled as the heat rolled over me in waves. Three minutes barely went by, and Theo was losing the fight badly. The black wolf had chewed him up and knocked him down several times, but my best friend wouldn't surrender. I whined as the Alpha gave him a hard blow to the chest, and he let out a pain-filled cry.

I barked at the black wolf when Theo didn't recover. Anger and frustration only exacerbated my symptoms, and I watched in horror as three funny-looking black blobs dug their hind legs into the ground before springing into the air. My only clear thought was to save my best friend. I jumped over the Beta, just as the Alpha's jaw clamped onto my neck and his claws dug into my body. I crashed to the ground, feeling a sudden release of pressure.

My first instinct was to shift. A scream escaped my lips as I forced my muscles and bones to shift back into place at an unnaturally fast rate. The Alpha had changed back as well, but unsurprisingly, it didn't seem to cause him any pain. He ran to kneel down beside me, panic and worry etched on his face as one large hand cupped my bloody neck and the other wiped the tears streaming down my face.  

A gurgle escaped my lips as my mouth filled with blood, and I had no sanity left to tell him to get away from me. Instead, I placed my hand, covered in sweat and sand, over his on my neck, adjusted its position, and applied more pressure to slow the bleeding. He was saying something to me now, but all I could hear was the sound of the sea behind me. The sound was lulling me to sleep.

A sudden jerk forced my eyes to stay open. His pupils were blown out now, and his face was paler than a newborn star. I tried to tell him I would heal, but it just takes longer for Omegas. But I didn't think my voice was working yet. In fact, my nose seemed to be the only thing that was still working. I sniffed the air between us. He reminded me of the sea salt and nightmares, of security and my first breath of air.

I sucked in a deep breath and let my hand go slack over his.

~****~

I woke up to the sound of a heart monitor relaying my vital signs. The pain soon followed the beeping, and I groaned as my neck burned, hot and sharp. When I didn't feel my collar, my eyes snapped open, and memories of the beach crashed into me. 

Theo!

My heart monitor went frantic as I looked around the room, but when they landed on the Alpha, I could have sworn it skipped a couple of beeps.

He got up from his chair and walked over to my bed. Fear rose in my throat, and this time there was nothing holding me back. I screamed.

Within minutes, two nurses and a doctor ran into the room. I was given a calming sedative, and once I stopped panicking, the doctor told the others to return to their station. The doctor turned to stare at me. He wore a white lab coat a beige sweater, and brown slacks. He smiled, but it didn't quite reach his eyes, and I knew something was off. I instantly thought of Theo.

"Is Theo okay?" I asked. The heart monitor sounded like the final boss of Astro Blaster, but I ignored it. The Alpha did not.

"Your friend is doing better." The doctor said, his tone calm, but tired as if he'd been working for multiple days without sleep. "He's recovering in the main section of the hospital." 

I tried to nod, but it hurt too much to move my neck, and my screaming only made things worse. Most hospitals had a separate building for Omegas because patients in recovery might go into heat and then all hell might break loose. I sniffed the air. The doctor was also an Omega.

"My name is Doctor Wood." The doctor continued. "When you've settled down, I would like to hear your side of the story." The doctor turned away.

"I can tell you right now!" I said, causing him to stop. "That Alpha attacked us!" I pointed to the Alpha.

"I was told you were in his territory." He looked at me, then at the other man in the room. "Is this incorrect?"

"No, but those laws are outdated. My best friend could have been killed!" I tried to speak over the beeping, but it seemed to get louder and louder. Doctor Wood looked uncomfortable.

"I know you're frustrated and confused right now. Maybe we should start again. What is your name?" Doctor Wood quickly changed the subject.

"Jonah, Jonah Stone," I growled. I wasn't about to let this guy try to distract me. I pointed to the Alpha. "He shouldn't even be in this ward! This place is for Omegas only! Why does he get to stay? Why are you not even arresting him?" 

I was pissed. I hated that he was in here. I hated that I had to smell his scent. I hated that despite everything that had happened, all I wanted to do was breathe him in. I did my best not to look at him and to hold onto whatever anger I had.

Doctor Wood only began to speak when my breathing calmed. "Mr. Stone. I believe you and your mate have a lot to talk about."

"He's not my mate." I cut him off.

"Please feel free to contact a nurse or me if you start feeling nauseous or uneasy from the drugs." Doctor Wood ignored me. I knew this mess wasn't his fault, but I was mad and I was hurt. 

"Being alone with him will make me nauseous!" I called out after him, but my blatant attempt to get rid of the Alpha failed and when the Doctor left the room, the Alpha cleared his throat to speak, but I stopped him.

"No," I said, turning to face him. Guilt was plastered on his face, and the bags under his eyes managed to waver my confidence for a beat. Even though it hurt to move, I sat up straighter. "You don't get to speak."

The room was quiet except for the beeping of machines, reminding me I was very much awake and not dreaming. I didn't want to be here. I wanted to know if Theo was really okay. The thought of his limp body popped into my head, and it reignited my resolve. This was supposed to be our last hurrah before our lives were going to be changed forever, but this Alpha ruined it. 

I took a deep breath. I was in this situation now, and I just had to deal with it, like I always do.

I glared at him. He really wasn't going to say anything. Good. Let him stew for hurting my best friend. For tearing out my throat.

"Why are you here?" I said out loud, the words were practically venom on my lips, but it wasn't what I really wanted to say. What I really wanted to say was, "Why didn't you come back?" 

But that hurt too much to ask.

To say that I didn't know this Alpha in front of me would be a lie. I've dreamed about him almost every night since I was eight years old, but I stopped believing he was real a long time ago. After he rescued me and took me home, he told me he would be right back. So I waited. I sat by my door and waited. When he didn't come back that day. I sat by the beach stairs and waited. I waited for hours, days, and even years, but he never came back. It was around my junior year of high school that I stopped believing I'd see him again. I knew what he was to me, but at that point, I had discovered I was an Omega, and my life was never going to be normal.

"I'm sorry," His first words to me in almost fifteen years, and they sank deep into my skin like tiny arrows, through veins and tissues until my entire body was infected with those words.

My lips curled into a snarl as heat rushed to my face and water pressed against my eyes. "Screw you," 

He tried to reach for me, but I shifted away from him, looking past him to the window facing the ocean.

"No," my voice cracked at the command, but he still listened. The pain in my neck burned, and my lips pressed into a firm line. This wasn't just a battle wound. I knew that and so did he. I pressed my fingers along the bandage where I was marked. I didn't understand. All he did was bite me, yet my life now supposedly belonged to him.

"I didn't mean for this to happen." He said after a long silence. He brushed a hand through the back of his thick hair and did a half turn around the room.

"You didn't mean for me to see you, or you didn't mean to mark me?" I snapped, glaring up at his blue eyes when he turned to look at me once more. It wasn't fair. He didn't deserve them.

"Look, I am here now, aren't I?" He sighed, wrapping a hand around the bar of the hospital bed, and my entire body went still.

"You are only here because you have to be." I spat back.

"Grow up, you're acting like a child." He leaned in.

"I'm sorry," I said with attitude. "Do you not like this side of me? Guess you'll just have to deal with it for the rest of your life."

He didn't say anything after that. He just let a muscle twitch in his jaw as he glared down at me, past my face, and the mark on my neck, to my wrists. I hadn't realized I was curling the sheets between my fingers so tightly until he was staring at them. I had hoped that when he looked down to see them, he had assumed my nearly white knuckles were caused by anger. But we both knew that was a lie.

He took a step back, walked toward the window, and scratched the back of his head again. His hair was still as jet-black as I remembered it, curling at the base of his neck in thick, wavy locks. In my dreams, I never imagined him needing a haircut, but it couldn't hurt for him to get one. As I grew older, I tried to picture him older, too. How the youthful features on his face would blend and sharpen into something sophisticated and handsome. Despite knowing that Alphas are strong. I had failed to consider how much taller he would become or how much more muscle he would gain. How the black shirt he was wearing hugged his powerful back and shoulders, or how his jeans fit just right on his hips, emphasizing his long legs.

It occurred to me then that earlier this morning, he was wearing nothing but a towel around his waist. I swallowed, recalling his well-defined abs. He suddenly lifted his head from the window and turned to face me. A bemused expression crossed his features. Horror and embarrassment flooded my system. I was subconsciously releasing my Omega pharamones, practically asking him to do me on this damn hospital bed, and it didn't help that the heart monitor was going off now too.

He took two long strides and stopped just short of the bed. His ocean blue eyes were watching me very carefully. He leaned down, closing the space between us, and I sucked in a breath, tasting the sea on my tongue. For a moment, I was afraid he was going to jump my bones. 

But instead, he just said, "Don't be a punk, it doesn't look cute on you." 

Panic rose in my chest, and he abruptly stood up and started heading for the door. He was leaving again, and I couldn't think straight.

"Asher, wait!" The words stumbled out of my mouth before I could even figure out what I was doing. The Alpha turned his head over his shoulder. For a moment, I felt like a fish out of water, and my mouth kept opening and closing, trying to grasp words like it was air.

"I'm... I'm still mad at you." I finally said. I gave myself an assuring head nod while clutching my sheets once more.

"I know." He said with a grin forming on his lips, then left.

That's when I realized I was screwed.