I was losing my mind, a beast pacing and clawing, and every day, it got worse. I felt my sanity slipping through my fingers. I once heard a tale of a Lycan in Eastern Europe who’d let the madness consume him, who was more beast than man.
And all because he hadn’t found his mate.
And I was there. I felt it start to consume me like ink spreading out over a table and staining the grain.
A Lycan male had one priority in his life from the time he was born to the time he took his last breath. One single thing that was of the utmost importance, the light of his life, the soul housed in his core.
His heart beating outside his body.
It was the elemental part of him, the only thing in this world that could tame the wild, ferocious beast inside.
And that was his mate.
That single female who was born to be his and his alone. The woman who would awaken every emotion, every feeling, every desire and pain. She’d amplify it, shape and mold it. Without her, he was nothing.
I am nothing.
A shell of a male. Living but not truly alive.
My mate. Whoever she was. Wherever she was.
And I was forever searching for her. Even if Banner, King of the Scottish Lycans, sent me on missions, even if I was out hunting, she was the only thing I could concentrate on.
I stopped and closed my eyes, inhaling deeply as thoughts of her—whoever she was—filled every part of me. That faceless female I’d die for, whom I’d kill for.
And with every passing year, my mate was the only thing on my mind, my need for her growing and growing until it consumed me.
I fought constantly, trained relentlessly with the Guard, the army of the Scottish Lycans. I took on the most dangerous tasks, the most brutal, in order to become stronger, to be so ruthless I could take care of my female when I did find her, no matter the enemy.
As more time passed, I became distant from my clan, letting the desperation fill me that so many of my kind experienced when the years turned into decades and we still hadn’t found our other half. Although I didn’t give up hope, with each passing day, I preferred to be more on my own, my free time spent in the wild, letting my Lycan out more and more.
I’d volunteered for the task of hunting for the clan farther out, away from the protection of my kind, miles upon miles of untouched wilderness as my home. It was dangerous being alone without your king or the Lycan Guard to watch your back. But at this point in my long life, at over two centuries old, I saw nothing but blackness. Felt bleakness.
I felt nothing but loneliness.
I opened my eyes, exhaled through my nose, and continued moving forward. I focused on why I was out here. Prey. I hunted the creature with accuracy and stealth. The buck would help feed the clan, and that was what I told myself to focus on, not my faceless beauty of a mate.
I froze, tilting my head and listening, inhaling deeply and breathing in. I smelled a buck a hundred meters away, hidden, camouflaged in the foliage. I let my inner animal rise up and moved slowly as I followed the trail, picking up the scent as it became stronger.
I leaned against a large tree, my shoulder butting up against the bark as I stared at the massive animal grazing. The horns spread out like curling fingers, and I felt my wolf ready for the hunt.
And there was nothing better than this, the only thing that made me feel anything. Stalking my prey, taking it down, praising and thanking it for the gift of its life that would feed many of my kind and keep them strong and healthy.
We’d use the skin to stay warm, and the antlers would be weapons, utensils. And no meat would be wasted. Everything would be appreciated.
I crouched low, about to let my inner wolf out, about to let him have the pleasure of taking down the creature, doing it the natural, primal way, where it was beast against beast, survival of the fittest.
And just as I felt my eyes flash blue and my bones start to crack and reshape, the wind picked up and blew from the west, and with it came the most glorious scent I’d ever smelled.
Fuck hunting. My instincts pulled me in the direction of where the aroma was coming from. I could hear the creature scurry off behind me, his hooves digging into the earth as he scented the predator—me.
Yet I didn’t care about anything else but finding the source. My ears twitched, my nostrils flared, and I felt my Lycan rise up even more. But I wouldn’t let him out completely, my human side wanting to experience this first and foremost.
And I knew. I knew without seeing proof what I was headed toward.
My mate. Mine.
The Linked Connection was so powerful it nearly knocked me on my ass as I raced through the forest. And the closer I got, the stronger the aroma filled my head, and the louder I started growling. My blood rushed through my veins and filled my ears, my heart pumping fast and hard. It ached from the force.