I never really understood it. The true meaning of mates, why we need them, live for them, die for them. All I knew was I had my wolf and my soul and that is all I needed. What I uncovered growing up was not the touch of fire or the eternal love your mate could grant you with but that the mate you beg for never comes in times of need.

When your skin is ripped off your bones, when you are dragged and fastened to a pole to be whipped, even when you scream to the moon to just.... give him to you, to save you from this agony. Your heart slowly begins to decay, your dreams disperse and you commence the road to a newfound strength as you make your blood-stained path to the top.

Born to be a female Alpha and to rule was my destiny. Growing up my youth was not that of care, warmth or love. Rather it was packed with fighting. Fighting to survive. Fighting just so I could discern the beauty of the sun the next day.

My parents who put the pack before their dying pup and my brothers who would spit at my feet for being born a female. I had no one to call my own. No one to just embrace me and say "It is going to be all right." The only reason I was kept alive was that the healer had a revelation of my future, of my reign and the prosperity I would bring to the pack.

Blinded by the power of being an Alpha I lost track of what was more valuable, he had more power than being merely an Alpha and he came to me.

We never knew true love until the moment our hearts touched and our souls fused together as one. In the end, he was mine and I was his. Deimos and I.