My Fated Mate Can Have Her-Chapter 151: Through Different Eyes

Rowan

When I first felt the mate bond and laid eyes on her, my heart had stopped.

She didn’t seem like any average wolf, but I just didn’t think much of it at the time.

But a Lycan...

My mate was a Lycan.

The very bloodline my great-grandfather had tried to erase from existence.

All of a sudden, it felt like the moon’s judgment. The goddess’ way of forcing me to face what my family had done. A cruel twist of fate that the one person destined to be mine would come from the very race my ancestors had led to slaughter.

Maybe her having another mate was a way to punish me with the intent that she might never be mine?

What if I could protect her, love her, give her the life she had been denied... maybe then the weight of my family’s sin would finally lift. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

Maybe then I could sleep without seeing their faces. Faces I had never actually seen but had conjured from the guilt passed down through generation upon generation.

"You’re spiralling again. Stop it," my wolf murmured in the back of my mind.

I exhaled slowly, forcing my thoughts back to the present.

I lay in my wolf form in the dense undergrowth of the forest, my dark brown fur blending with the shadows and fallen leaves around me. The night air was cool, carrying the faint scent of dry leaves and earth.

The consciousness I had been sharing with a tiny reptile several miles away had just been severed, pulled back into myself like a thread being wound. The creature had scurried off into the darkness, free of my influence, while I remained still and focused.

I had been monitoring them for quite some time now.

Birds had been my eyes in the sky, tracking their general direction. Lizards and other small land animals gave me closer views when the group stopped to rest. Smaller rodents when I needed to get even closer.

The natural creatures of the woods were my eyes and ears, extensions of my will that allowed me to follow without ever being noticed.

She was beautiful.

Even through the fragmented, limited perspective of animals with eyes that saw the world differently than my own, I could see that. The way she moved. The way she tilted her head when listening to others’ stories. The small smile that would occasionally cross her face when one of them said something dry and unexpected.

I had never seen a smile on her face until now.

How would it look in person?

"She is aware," my wolf said, his tone faintly dripping with admiration. "Her senses are impressive."

"I know," I responded, uneasy.

She had looked so uncomfortable when she noticed me. I hadn’t meant to do that.

I stood, shaking out my fur. My muscles protested slightly. I’d been lying still for too long. I padded forward through the underbrush, my paws silent on the forest floor.

My thoughts drifted to Kael as I moved.

The Supreme Alpha’s choices had been... adequate enough. Those three were all skilled. Experienced. Under normal circumstances, they would be excellent protection for anyone traveling through dangerous territory.

But these weren’t normal circumstances.

Those three would give most wolves problems if it came to a confrontation. Unless it was a higher beta or Supreme Alpha... or unless they were significantly outnumbered.

Though Violet herself could likely handle that problem with ease if it came down to it.

The real danger would come from wolves like Palisa.

Or me.

"You’re going to do it, aren’t you?" my wolf asked, though there was no real question in the tone. More like resignation.

"Yes."

"She will despise you. Don’t do this," he growled.

"I am doing this for her—"

"It is also your selfish desire to be with her. We can do this another way."

"I don’t have the luxury of that when she literally has another mate."

My wolf fell silent at that, withdrawing into the recesses of my mind with what felt like disapproval.

I pushed the feeling aside and continued forward.

Their camp was settled a great distance away, near a river where they had stopped for the night. I kept my distance as I moved, staying far enough away that Violet’s heightened senses wouldn’t detect me directly.

I reached out with my consciousness, searching for a suitable host.

A field mouse scurried through the underbrush nearby, its tiny heart beating rapidly as it foraged for seeds. I touched its mind gently, slipping into its awareness like a whisper.

The world shifted.

Suddenly, I possessed another pair of eyes. Small, close to the ground, my vision filled with the towering shapes of grass stems and fallen leaves. The mouse’s instincts thrummed beneath my control... the constant awareness of predators, the drive to find food, the need to return to its burrow before dawn.

I guided it forward, using its tiny legs to carry a tiny bit of my consciousness closer to the camp.

Through its eyes, I saw Violet first.

She stood near the river’s edge, the moonlight filtering through the clouds to paint her in shades of silver and shadow. She was removing her travel-worn clothes and preparing to wash in the river.

The one called Ana sat at a respectful distance, her face turned up to the skies to give Violet privacy but close enough to sense any danger.

I directed the mouse away from them, guiding it toward where the other two had remained at the main camp. Corin checked their supplies while Bei scribbled something on a piece of paper.

They were good at their jobs.

That almost made me feel guilty about what I was about to do.

Almost.

I reached out to the tiny mouse with even more force, and pulled.

The world twisted.

For a single disorienting moment, I physically existed in two places at once.

Then reality snapped back into focus.

I stood in my wolf form, exactly where the tiny creature had been, having switched places with it.

And I found myself directly in front of Bei and Corin.

Both wolves went rigid.