The Prince's Fated Mate: M/M Alpha/Omega Paranormal Werewolf Romance (Norvargen Wolves Book 1) (4 page)

He focussed back on his lunch plate, now nearly empty, but something distracted him then. Coming strong over the smell of cooked chicken was a large group of shifters, approaching swiftly. Will snapped his head to Kytes, eyebrows raised.

“Looks like the royal party are arriving,” Kytes said with a smile, nipping off a final chunk of meat from the bone. “Let’s finish up and head back inside. Got to greet the royals, don’t we? You think your pa will want you up front?”

Already, a noisy hubbub was starting up. The other townspeople were also picking up the scent of outsiders. Crowds were starting to fill up the street.

Will shook his head, “Nah, he already told me I can stick with you. Pa and Byron will handle the formalities themselves.”

Kytes nodded. “All right then, let’s go see what pack royalty looks like.”

*

Passing through the kitchen (and quickly dumping their plates into an already cluttered sink), Will and Kytes weaved through a few corridors until they came up to the foyer, already bulging at the seams with other people, some official inn-workers, others nosy townspeople who were excited to catch a glimpse of the royal party. With all the shifters crowded around, Will could barely see a thing. He went onto the tips of his toes, trying to peer over the heads of those in front of him.

Alpha Miles and his family were already by the entrance, most of them blocked off from sight. Will could see his father and Byron striding up to them with slow, careful steps, bowing their heads in reverence. It was just a tad too noisy to hear what he was saying. Will strained his ears to hear above the murmuring buzz of those around him.
 

“—honoured to be hosting your family and your son’s celebrations here…”

“Just the usual formalities,” Kytes whispered to Will, bending slightly to reach his ear. Kytes, a good head taller than Will, had little problem watching the event unfold. Will, on the other hand, still hadn’t even managed to catch sight of any of the alpha party, save for the Alpha Miles. He looked extremely formidable despite his age, still broad and muscular even under his clothing. His wife and bondsmate, the Alpha Consort Isabel, could be faintly spotted by his side.

Will honed in on the conversation once more, struggling to pick up fragments.

“—My family is here, but the others will join us later at their own bidding. What? Yes, him, too … busy with his own territorial affairs, so he’ll be arriving tomorrow, he said … Thank you, that would be good … yes, have them … my son and I have some pressing matters to attend to at the Chamber Hall … thank you, that’s all we need for now.”

Alpha Miles was surprisingly polite, Will registered, but still the pack alpha commanded such a dominating presence that not even politeness could cover. He’d have to be, after all—he was no ordinary, lowly alpha-male, but
the
Alpha of the Norvargen wolves, leader of the entire territory.
 

Will caught a glimpse of the Alpha’s brown hair as he turned to exit, and he saw for the briefest of seconds, a pair of stern brown eyes framed with crow’s feet. The Alpha was already getting on in years, but he was still a paragon of strength. What did the First Son James look like, Will wondered. He planted his heels back down on the ground for a split second to gain his bearings, and then back up on the tip of his toes he went.

Through the gaps in the crowd, Will spotted a pair of burly men were going out the door, following after their alpha. After that, he snatched a peek at a chin with a wispy grey beard disappearing through the entrance, and then —
 

His breath hitched and his stomach lurched, and within a single instant Will’s head started to swim in the waves of a dizzying ocean.
                                     

A tall man, with wavy brown hair, rather unkempt from a long journey, with a pale, unwrinkled youthful visage. A slender neck leading down to broad shoulders covered in a thin coat. A handsome smile, almost too handsome, being neither too cheeky nor arrogant. Everything else below the shoulders was lost to Will, hidden by the crowd before him, but all that he could see was enough for him to think James very handsome, very elegant, very regal.
 

There was a single moment where, despite the improbability of it all, their eyes met, and it was like a bolt of lightning had struck Will. Very pale blue eyes, almost eerily blue, were piercing into him, holding him into spot, shackling him to the ground as a chorus of a thousand voices built in his head and his heart accelerated.
 

You just know it. The first time you catch the eyes of your fated mate, you just know it's the right person. Your breath stops, your heart stops, every single thought stops — save for one. All you know at that moment is the very undeniable fact that you’re facing your destined partner for life.

Will’s mouth ran dry as he parted his lips slowly, feeling dazed and confused, yet so utterly sure of this one fact: James was his fated mate. One look had been enough to confirm it within him, and without a doubt would James be thinking the same thing.

But before he could say a single thing, James vanished beyond his sight, and the grand double-doors of the inn swung shut noisily.
 

Too stunned to think, Will stood shocked, glued to the ground for a long moment, before bursting out, pushing the people in front of him.
 

“Move!” he cried out, frustrated at how crowded the foyer was. It was as if every person in town had gathered there for the single purpose of getting in his way.
 

“Where are you going?” said Kytes, a heavy hand coming down to rest on Will’s shoulder. “We need to get back to work—”

“Let go of me!” Will said frantically, brushing off Kytes’ hand. Every second wasted was a second of James getting further and further away from him.
 

Kytes frowned and held him still, his stronger build easily overpowering Will. “Calm down, Will. What’s going on with you?”

Realising how irrational he was appearing, Will forced himself to stand steady. “Prince James — he’s my mate.”

Kytes stared at him dumbfounded. “What?”

“You heard me.”

“Prince James, the First Son of the pack, is your mate? You mean your fated mate?”

Will nodded furiously. “I saw him, he looked at me, and I knew.”

“Just like that?”

“Just like that,” Will said impatiently. “You know how it works with fated mates. One look and you know it’s the right person.”

“But,” Kytes said slowly, almost as if he were trying to be careful, “why didn’t James react to you then? He just went out the door with the rest of his party…”

Will stopped in the middle of his thoughts then. The excitement and the blood rushing in his head had made him lose all forms of logic, but now confusion bubbled up inside of him at Kytes’s point. If he was already acting like this, teeming over with a sea of desperation to rush to James, surely James would be the same? They had made eye contact, after all, brief though it was. If so, how could James have just left the room, walking away so easily, leaving behind Will — his supposed fated mate?

“I don’t understand,” Will muttered.

“Maybe he’s not your fated mate,” Kytes suggested hesitantly.

“I know what I’m feeling, Kytes,” said Will firmly. “It’s hard to explain, but you have to believe me. My head feels funny, my stomach’s doing flips inside, my heart feels like it’s going to burst out of my chest any second.”

Kytes grimaced. “Stomach bug?”

Will jabbed his fist into Kytes’s side, not appreciating the joke. “Kytes…” he said warningly.

“But, well, it doesn’t really make sense, does it? You say he’s your fated mate, but he didn’t even give you a second glance. That’s not how it works, is it? Aren’t you two meant to be running into each other’s arms, screaming love confessions while a fiddler plays something romantic in the background?”

“Then what am I feeling?” Will shot back, frustrated. He knew why Kytes was being so difficult; what he was saying really did sound incredulous. Of all people, Prince James, the First Son, was his fated mate? What more, he hadn’t even twitched the slightest at the sight of Will.

He pressed a hand to his forehead, wondering if he were turning feverish.

“Maybe it’s just love at first sight? He’s pretty good-looking, I guess, I heard some of the girls whispering by my side talking about his face. Look, Will, I’m not saying you’re not feeling anything. I’m just saying I don’t think he
can
be your fated mate, not with his lack of reaction towards you.”

Will frowned, looking away. The crowd was dissipating slowly, in a flurry of excited talk at their first sighting of Alpha Miles and his family.
 

“I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” he whispered. He couldn’t deny how he felt, so utterly sure of the fact that he had just seen his fated mate, that the connection had been built between him and James in that single instant, and yet him being the only one feeling anything was proof enough that it couldn’t be true. “I
know
he’s my mate, Kytes, I’m not just imagining it. But…I don’t know what to do.”

Kytes looked over him with concern. He scratched the back of his head, looking just as flustered and confused as Will felt. “Maybe,” he said slowly, “James didn’t really see you.”

“What do you mean?”

“Maybe he didn’t really make eye contact with you? It was crowded in here, he might have just been skimming the crowd and didn’t even register you. Maybe that’s why he didn’t have any reaction to you — because he didn’t even see you! But you saw him and looked into his eyes, so that triggered it for you? I don’t really know what I’m suggesting here, but it might be worth a shot.”
 

Will perked up. It was possible, after all. All eyes were on James just now, and it would have been easy for him to skim through the crowds, passing over Will’s head without really seeing it. “You could be right,” he said, trying to not sound so excited. “You … believe me?”

The hesitant look on Kytes’ face was answer enough, but what his friend said after comforted him. “I don’t know, Will, but I don’t like seeing you so distraught. I don’t think you’d be upset over nothing, either, so I say we should just wait till he comes back later and we’ll parade you around in front of him and see how he reacts.”

Will flushed red at the thought of seeing James again, a completely involuntary reaction which force took even him by surprised.
 

“Goodness, you really do like him,” Kytes said, taken aback by how obviously happy Will was. “I’ve never seen you react this way to anybody before.”

“Shut up, I can’t help it,” Will said, embarrassedly, hiding his face behind his sleeve. “Let’s just…let’s just get back to work, and then we’ll see what happens later.”

*

With every passing hour, Will could feel his body heating up, as though the seasons were shifting within him, from a chill winter to a burning summer. That one glimpse of James he had kept flashing through his mind over and over again, repeating like the beating of a drum. It was getting harder to stay focused on his work. By sunset, even Kytes was more than half-convinced that this was no mere delusion on Will’s part.

“You’re burning up a little,” Kytes murmured in concerned tones, his hand pressed against Will’s forehead. “I think you might really be going into heat.”
 

Ordinarily, upon encountering one’s fated mate, a heat would start very slowly, the biological impulse to mate and bond rearing its head. Were they not as close as they were, Will would have blushed at such an intimate detail being exposed, but Kytes was like a brother to him, and they didn’t have much to hide from each other.
 

“When will Prince James and Alpha Miles come back?” Will whispered, staring out a window at the street below.

“I don’t know. They probably have some important business with the mayor, what with them going to the Chamber Hall. I think you should rest in your room until they come back.”

Will shook his head, trying to be practical. “I’ll be fine,” he replied. “We’re not even sure if this is a heat or not, right? Could just be a fever. It’s still too early to know yet.”

Kytes looked at him with concern, but nodded. “Right, we need to see whether James really is your fated mate or not first.”

Will twiddled his thumbs. “What are the odds, though? That of all people in this world, my fated mate turns out to be the First Son of our pack…”

“Who’s already engaged to another omega. Who’s the Second Son of
his
pack. And who’s arriving tomorrow.” Kytes finished. He let out a low whistle. “This is a bit of a mess, Will.”

Will looked down at his twisting hands. “I almost wish that I’m wrong about all this and that he’s turns out to not be my fated mate.”

“Don’t look so glum now, Will,” said Kytes. “If he’s your fated mate, things will work themselves out, won’t they? Maybe they’ll make an exception and break the engagement to the Redfang’s Second Son in this case.”

“Optimistic,” said Will, cracking a smile, “but only because you and I don’t know the first thing about politics.”

Kytes shrugged sheepishly. “Well, my pa used to talk about how the Redfang wolves were all rather uppity. Nose stuck up in the air and all that. But even they ought to make some exceptions when it comes to fated mates.”

“What if the prince’s already in love with the Redfang Prince,” Will muttered. “What if he doesn’t want to leave him for me, someone who he doesn’t even know?”

Kytes looked uncomfortable, as if struggling hard to decide what was the best thing to say. “You’re his fated mate, Will. Isn’t that answer enough?”

“Hasn’t there been some wolves who turned away from their fated mates for others they met?” It was highly uncommon, yet not unheard of. After all, sometimes an alpha or omega may already have a bondsmate and a family by the time they met their fated mates, and giving all that up would be more painful than otherwise.

Kytes grimaced, unable to deny that. But his expression suddenly shifted as he looked out the window to the party field. “Get ready, Will. Your future bondsmate is back.”