The Taste of Seduction

"Our mate! She is ours!"

"Mine."

Atlas felt his heart swelled with new found love for her. Now all of this made sense.

They way he was attracted to her the first time they met. His possessiveness. His dominance.

And the fact that his wolf had taken an instant liking of her. His uncle had told him about mates and their unbreakable bond.

He had been scared. Afraid that some stupid bond would make him fall out of love with his Angel. He couldn\'t see himself with anyone apart from her.

She was his everything. It seems the moon goddess wasn\'t as cruel as he had thought.

Now he understood his wolf\'s obsession with her. He had thought it was because he was in love with her that\'s why his wolf liked her too but he knew.

All this time, his wolf knew. Even though neither of them had fully realized it. His instant liking to her, his unmanageable urge to protect her, his constant anxiety when she wasn\'t around them made sense.

They hadn\'t realized the bond because her human form was suppressing her true form.

The mate bond had drawn them together even on earth, but it wasn\'t able to make itself known, or snap into place, because they hadn\'t been in their true form yet.

All the times he had wanted to touch her, yearned for her, told her that she belonged to him was because she was his mate.

They stared at each other with her eyes wide and glistening.

Atlas knew she felt the same powerful attraction that he did. The bond made sure of it. It was like they were suspended in time. Nothing existed around them.

His wolf\'s primal instinct was screaming at him to claim her right here and now. To show everyone that she belonged to him.

The drive of possessiveness running through him right now was crazy.

He hated the male gazes on her. He could see the admiration in their gazes and he couldn\'t blame them even though he wanted to gouge all their eyes out.

His Angel had always been beautiful but right now, she looked breathtaking.

Her hair was now silver grey and it plunged over her shoulders, her beautiful purple irises shone as bright as an amethyst.

Her skin was a gorgeous pale skin colour but not too pale. She was strikingly gorgeous. His angel looked like a goddess right now. He was sure she could even compete with the goddess of beauty right now.

She started walking towards him and he felt his wolf jumping with excitement.

"Our mate is approaching us. Why are you standing there? Go to her too."

Atlas\' lips curled into a smile and he also started walking towards her. Just as they were a few steps apart they had a growl.

"Mine."

They both stopped walking and Atlas reluctantly tore his eyes away from Meredith and looked at the person who had said that.

Marcus. Of course it\'s him. How dare he claim his mate as his?!

Atlas saw red, he wanted his blood. And his wolf agreed with him too.

Meredith was his. No one else\'s.

"Threat, Threat, Threat...

Kill, Kill, Kill…"

His wolf chanted in his mind.

Marcus moved in a blur and stood in front of his Angel blocking his view.

"Mine." He growled again and Atlas heard the murmurs, gasps and disbelief from the crowd.

Atlas glared at Marcus as he tried desperately to contain his instinctual drive to rip his head from his body.

If Marcus said that word again he was not sure he would be able to stop himself from killing him.

Meredith stepped back, confusion marred on her face.

"What the fuck did you just say?!" Atlas growled, moving towards him.

Marcus turned to face him, a satisfied smirk on his lips.

"I said... She\'s mine..." he growled through clenched teeth. "And I would advise that you be very careful about what you say first." He raised his eyebrows at Atlas challenging him.

Atlas\'s pulse raced and he breathed heavily, almost as if he would burst. His muscles grew tense and he cracked his knuckles. His body temperature rose, and he could feel his blood boiling. A vein from his neck popped out and he yelled directly at Marcus.

"It can not be!!" How could she belong to him when she was his mate? His uncle had lectured him all about mates and he was one hundred percent sure that his Angel was his mate so what the hell was this vampire prince saying?

The effort he was using to restrain himself was staggering. He felt every muscle, every tendon in his body, tightening as he glared at him.

Nostrils flaring, his wolf sucked in great gulps of air in an effort to control the ever-increasing thrum of hostility running rampant through his veins as he watched Marcus using every ounce of his rationality to keep from slaughtering him in front of the entire people of Aarkans gathered here.

"Do you challenge my candor?" Marcus snarled, his eyes turned a deep crimson color as he bared his fangs at him.

"It\'s true..." Meredith suddenly said. Her voice sounded different somehow... but Atlas was too stunned to notice it.

He was frozen; his heart stopped cold.

He couldn\'t believe it.

"She is not just my betrothed anymore. She is more than that. She is my soulmate now."

Marcus declared, earning gasps from the crowd.

"But how?…it\'s been so long since a vampire had a mate!"

"Is it because she is a tribrid?"

"The gods really want peace to reign over our lands again!"

"The Queen was so wise and powerful I\'m sure she knew that her daughter would be Prince Marcus\' mate! No wonder she agreed to their Union!"

Murmurs and whispers from the crowd filled Atlas\'s ears but he was lost in his own thoughts.

If Marcus was Meredith\'s mate, then what did that make him?