You Are Mine (The Lycans 2)

Prologue

Luca

Provide for her. Spoil her. Make her see what you have to offer as a male of worth and a mate who will take care of her.

My inner beast spoke loud and clear as I walked through the market, the stalls showcasing handmade Romanian garments, tapestries, pendants, and brooches. Carved trinkets, pastries, and fresh fruits and vegetables were also readily available.

Ren walked beside me, my brother having just turned twenty-five, a young lad not only for a human, but also for a Lycan who lived to upwards of a millennium.

I stopped in front of a stall that crafted beautiful traditional Romanian scarves and reached out to take a delicate-looking one in my hand. The white background was broken up with embroidered patterns and designs, the bright colors eye catching.

I pictured my mate wearing it, something that brought me immense joy.

“She’ll look lovely in this one,” I murmured more to myself and handed it to the seller. I gave him a coin and took the now linen wrapped item.

“Surely mates don’t care about such things?”

I chuckled at Ren, because I knew my brother would one day find out it didn’t matter whether his mate cared about such things or not. He’d still want to give her the world.

“Maybe she’ll hate anything I give her, and that will be fine. I’ll find other things to please my future mate with.” At that thought I imagined pleasing her with my body, and a surge of need slammed into me.

I knew Ren wasn’t listening, my brother already eyeing a pastry stand across the way.

“Maybe she’ll only want my touches, or sweet, softly spoken words. Maybe she’ll want fresh cut flowers from the garden I’d create for her, or fresh fruits every morning grown from our yard. But as long as she desires me as fiercely as I will surely need her, I’ll be a grateful male and count my blessings.”

“When I find my mate,” Ren murmured almost absently. “She’ll know that fate brought us together and will want to be partners, not coddled by her male. She’ll run into my open arms.”

I snorted and glanced at Ren. Although technically—for a human at least—he was grown, as a Lycan, he was still but a babe, a lad amongst our werewolf shifting kin. He had a lot to learn about life and the world.

“You’ll understand when you’re older that sometimes the most precious gifts are the hardest to acquire.” I reached out and ruffled his black hair. He swatted my hand away but was smirking. Although I was pretty sure he’d start yearning for his mate sooner rather than later.

As an Otherworld male, we were unable to be with anyone but our Linked Mate. We saved ourselves for them alone, didn’t even allow another female—save for ones in our direct family—to see us in our shifted form. I didn’t know the laws and hierarchy of other beings in the Otherworld and if they followed this as well, but the creatures I did know about—Lycans, demons, vampires, and warlocks—all had no interest in anyone but their fated ones.

We’d never desire another, always searching, yearning for the ones born to be ours alone. And it was clear Ren hadn’t hit that desperation block where all he yearned for was his mate—his other half.

I watched as Ren headed off to that pastry stall he’d been eyeing this entire time and could only smile and shake my head. I hoped and prayed to the gods that my brother didn’t have to wait long to find his mate. But the chances of either of us finding our Linked Mate any time soon was unlikely. And finding her in our home of Romania was even more of an unlikely event.

I heard stories of Lycan males wanting nothing more than to find their fated females but centuries passed them by and still they were alone. And for a male in the Otherworld, all we wanted, all we desired and searched for with obsession, was that one woman.

I felt an ache in my chest at the thought of going days, let alone years and centuries, never having her by my side. A Lycan could live centuries upon centuries, but all I wanted was to spend that entire time with her by my side.

She was my faceless female who was already my entire world, yet I knew naught of who she was.

But I’d wait for her—my entire lifetime, if that’s what it took. I’d keep trying to better myself so that when we did meet, she could find no faults within me. I’d purchase homes all over the world for her to choose from, an abundance of choices so she could truly and fully be happy.

And I’d do all of this with anticipation and need running through my veins. For she would make me whole.

I just had to wait for her.