[`~♠CORAL~♠]
-Age 17-
The cool breeze hits my skin as the evening sky thickens on dark clouds, leaves rustle around us and my hair dances to the conduct. I hold my dress by the hem and wait for the gust to pass.
“I–I really like you, Coral… won't you reconsider? I won't do anything to hurt you, I promise.” Jason probes, professing his feelings for me once more.
“Jason… I like you too, but… not in that way.” I say, tucking a stray strand of my fiery red hair from my face.
Jason wears a crestfallen face that pulls at the guilt at my chest, plaguing me once more. He was a sweet boy and a year older than I am. I wanted to give him a chance but I couldn't.
“We're only a year away from getting mated. It's not going to be possible—”
I start to tell him but he doesn't listen, cutting me off halfway. “You don't know if that's going to happen!” Jason argues. “And even so, I don't care about that, you're the only one I want right now.”
His words made me smile, bringing a certain warmth to my heart but a dull ache still lingered on. “Right now,” I recite his last words. “Until you find your mate and lose all interest in me.”
Jason tries to speak but I put out a hand to stop him. “And if I'm still unmated when you find yours, what would happen to me then?”
Jason advances towards me and I step back, my back hits the bark of the tree behind me. “Coral…”
“I'll be left hurt and heartbroken,” I admit. “I don't want that, besides, it takes a lot of guts to reject one's mate. You say you don't care about that now—”
“I don't.”
I shake my head. “What if you do? Can you truly say that? A mate is your forever, you can't simply throw that away, you'll always feel the emptiness of rejection even if you have someone… as long as they aren't your mate and besides, even if we don't get mated immediately, I–I can't exactly say the same when I find my mate.” I muttered, turning my gaze away.
But I didn't need to look at Jason, I already knew the expression on his face right now and I'd be utterly compelled to give him a chance despite the odds.
The odds were too high. Growing up I've heard stories about unmated couples who get together with each other and soon after they're forced to break apart once they find their mates.
And they're always left the same way; heart broken and ruined. In extremely rare cases where one of the individual's love is stronger than the mate bound and the other former partner is not, it could drive the other to become a feral wolf.
A wolf obsessed with gaining what he or she’s lost and by all means necessary. They become irrational, crazed and don't mind who they hurt to get back the one they love the most… they become a nuisance, forever lost, consumed by rage, pain and regret.
I didn't want that, not for anyone. I wanted to be with my mate, my own forever, like father and mother.
They make the love of a mate bound look euphoric; they love, trust and cherish each other. I wanted to experience that as well but with my mate.
And that's why I couldn't be with Jason.
“I’m not going to give up.” Jason's voice picks up after another gust and I'm compelled to turn my head up at him.
I sigh, he's relentless. “Please don't say reckless things like this.”
“It’s not reckless,” He pauses. “Okay… maybe it's a little bit reckless but still…” He rephrased, moving in quickly before I could react, he grabs my hands into his tougher but smooth ones and pulls me to him.
Jason towers over me. His lean figure is still bigger in comparison to me. His reddish-brown hair brushes against his forehead as the breeze whooshes and he stares into me with determination filling his warm honey brown eyes.
“Coral… I—”
A musky scent that carried the tang of the forest trees filled my nostrils and I knew he was here.
“You’ll get away from her if you want to keep your pitiful life, cub.”
We both freeze upon hearing my eldest brother's stern voice, his hulking form looms behind Jason like the dark, angry cloud over us and Jason practically whimpers, stepping away from me as though he's been touched by hot water.
He turns around and faces my brother's stoic face but I know behind that exterior facade, he's raging, like he always does whenever a boy within or outside of the pack approaches me. The subtle twist in his brows always tells me so.
“A–Alpha Rae…gan. I–I wasn't doing anything with her… I was just—”
“Run along, now.” My brother, Raegan growls slowly, his tone laced with malice.
His snarl always sends a chill down my spine whenever he gets like this—when they all get like this.
Jason scurries away without a second thought. I turn to my brother once he's out of sight. “You didn't have to do that.”
My brother turns his attention to me, wearing a smirk on his face when he meets my scolding gaze. He approaches me silently and my eyes drift over his built shirtless torso. He must have just had his evening run, his golden brown skin is smeared with dirt and he smelled very much like the misty forest's earth and dry sweat.
“I know.” He drawls when he neared me.
I could still hear the malice in his voice. “You scared him away.”
“I did.” He encroaches into my space and I'm forced backwards till I'm pressed against the tree again.
“Why? You're always doing this, the three of you always disrupt each moment I have with a guy.” I scold with a pout. I appreciate the brotherly gesture but their protectiveness was bordering on annoying.
Raegan plants his right hand on the tree, above my head, he grabs my chin and closes in on me.