A Servant for a Mate

Chapter 2 - What did I do wrong?

Updated version

Edited by Kaitlin

Caden’s POV

I was standing in the ballroom listening to this stupid blond talk about some senseless thing she did last night with her friends. I could care less what she does. I don't even like her one bit, but she was good in bed last night and I might have to use her again for this evening.

I don't like being with other women and neither does my wolf. He hates it precisely as much as I do. He thinks that we should only be with our mate, which no other female wolf would even compare to her. I have no doubt that our mate will be amazing in that department, but the fact that we don’t have her in our arms is killing us. I've even been told by other mated males that it's like nothing I will ever experience with another woman. It's amazing to feel her soft skin rubbing against you in the heat of passion. To feel her breath against your body sends electricity bolts throughout you. Her lips set your blood to boil and oh, her moans will kill you from the inside out. It's so special that the mere thought of another male wolf touching your mate in the same way can set off a killing spree. I've never seen it done before, but have heard that the female wolf is the only one who can calm him down once he goes into that mode. Once mated, wolves don't have the urge to be with anyone other than their mates like humans do. Unlike them, we mate for life.

But before you’re mated, male werewolves tend to sleep around. I'm not proud of it one bit, but every time I think of holding her, about making love to her, it breaks me down and the only way I can get away from that pain is to be between another's legs for a while. No, I have no idea what my beautiful mate looks like other than her long black hair cascading down her backside. To not know if she has dimples or the color of her eyes drives me crazy; I have the right as her mate to know all those things.

My parents have told me a handful of times to stop going to random women’s rooms at night; that all I'm doing is hurting myself and my mate. That maybe the reason she won't make herself known to me is because I’m sleeping around. I know I should stop just for that fact, but I can't help myself. I'm too weak without her by my side. She is meant to be here for me, to keep me strong and happy as I'm meant to be here to keep her safe and happy. No one knows this, but from the time I felt the sparks throughout my body, I've grown weaker. I'm not as strong as I should be if I had her by my side. If I don't find her within a year, I doubt I'll even be on this earth to keep looking for her.

I can still remember when I felt the mate sparks. She had bumped into me on accident, but I was ecstatic at first, my wolf and I had finally found our mate. When we turned around to find her though all we saw was a young girl running away with black hair; wavy beautiful black hair. Hair that I couldn’t wait to run my fingers through at the time; still can’t.

“She is running away from us, do something!” Marcus yelled at me in my head.

Wait! Why, is she running from us? It took me a minute to understand what my wolf was saying, but when I did, I ran after her trying to catch up, but she was extremely fast. Faster than any female wolf I’ve ever known. The fact that I knew one more fact about my mate had pride seeping into my bones. By the time I reached the backyard entrance, I barely had time to check my surroundings before I caught her disappearing into the forest.

My heart sunk at the fact my own mate had run from me. Was I that bad of a boy that she didn’t want me? What had I done to deserve her rejection? All I’ve ever been told was to be a good boy, so that my mate would want me. My mother always told me, “No girl or woman wants a lazy mate. She wants a man to take care of her while protecting her. To show her how much he loves her every minute of every day.” Those were her words and I heard them every time I took a wrong step in life.

When I knew I wouldn’t catch up to her I ran back inside and contacted my parents telling that my mate was running in the forest. I couldn’t say out loud that she ran from me. It wouldn’t look good for me, being that I was a prince and all.

My parents called the guards right away, telling them to search the grounds, forest and town until they brought all the little girls with black curly hair. They knew that none of the girls in the ballroom was my mate, but they wanted to make sure that in between me running back into the castle and them speaking to the guards she hadn’t snuck back in. My father stood up and demanded all the mothers bring their young daughters to the front to form a line if they had black curly hair.

Deep down I knew she wasn’t here and that she was still running from me. It made me furious to think that she rejected me for no reason. How dare she do that to me, her Prince!

“She could be scared, Caden. Don’t become angry at her or she might stay away for good and we both don’t want that,” Marcus growled at me.

“Stay in your hole Marcus; I wasn’t talking to you,” I growled right back.

My wolf never spoke to me unless I had done something to shame him. I didn’t hear anything back from him except for a small growl. He was mad that I had yelled at him, but right now I didn’t care. I was to hurt to care what he felt.

My thoughts were pushed to the back and the present surfaced as every mother shoved their curly black haired daughter up to the front of the ball room where the thrones sat, hoping that she was the lucky one to catch me as a mate. If only it was that easy, but nothing came easy to me even though I was a Prince. For some reason I’m the only Prince in history to have everything in his life go wrong. And let me tell you this it stinks. Having power doesn't mean I can get what I want, when the only thing that I want most of all runs away from me.

When all the females were finished moving about and standing still I went to stand in front of each; looking into their eyes and lifting their hands. Not one spark or tingle was felt out of all twenty-three young ladies. I knew she wasn’t here, but I still had that sliver of hope up until the last girl. What I don’t get is why she ran. I'm a Prince, she should be happy that I'm her mate. She will have everything she has ever wanted and more. With her by my side, everything would be perfect and if it wasn’t, all I would have to do was look into her eyes or grab her hand and all my worries would disappear; or so I’m told.

“Caden, sweetheart what actually happened?” I heard my mother speak softly to me through our link.

“Mom, she bumped into me on accident and then when I finally turned to face her she was running away. All I saw was her curly black hair brushing her back. By the time my mind realized what she was doing I started to run, but it was too late. When I reached the backdoor she was already entering the forest. Mother, she was too fast for me to catch her.”

I wanted to cry out from the pain forming in my heart.

“I’m deeply sorry my son, but I promise you, we will find her sooner or later. Keep your faith Caden and don’t ever forget that she is out there waiting to be found. For all we know she is scared and doesn’t know what the mate sparks are.”

I wanted to believe her I truly did, but something told me that wasn’t the reason she ran; she knew what those sparks meant.

“I will try momma.”

“That’s all I ask for son. Now let’s get this show on the road. We’ve called all the guards to escort all the young ladies here that have curly black hair. She can’t stay hidden for long and when she resurfaces, we will catch her and you will claim her as yours.”

“Thank you momma, that’s all I could ask for.”

“Think nothing of it, it’s my pleasure to help you my boy. Now tell me what was she wearing? A dress or maybe a servant outfit?”

“Truly I don’t know. I didn’t even notice what she was wearing.”

‘It’s ok we will figure it out anyways. Go to your father and help him with orders.”

I knew she told me to help my father to take my mind of the fact that my mate ran from me, but it didn’t help. All I ever noticed in the ballroom from then on were mates holding each other and wishing that I was doing the same thing with mine.

The day went on and it seem like my father and I were talking and discussing actions for hours. In the end, we came to the thought that she either wasn’t supposed to come to the ball because her parents didn’t allow her to, she was scared because of the shocks, or that she was a shy servant girl and thought she wasn’t good enough to be my mate so she ran. My parents allow everyone to come to our balls, rich or poor even the servants who have the night off, but some families think they are too far beneath us to come and we don't push them.

The search went on for days and in the end I still didn't have my beautiful mate in my arms. That made my wolf and I mad. She was rejecting us before getting to know the real us. She must of thought: he is a Prince, he must be a spoiled brat. Well how wrong she was; I had to work for everything I received. My parents taught me that if I didn't earn it then it wasn't worth having.

I vowed that I would find her, my mate, my one and only; my other half and soul mate. Once I found her I wouldn't let her out of my sight. If I had to glue her to me I would. She was ours and she should know better.

Once a male werewolf finds his mate, he becomes very possessive of her. Not liking it if another male wolf even looks her way. We won't ever lay a hand on her, but the male wolf is another story. We get jealous easily, to which it sometimes can be a bad thing, since most of the time we over react. I’ve seen mated male attack another wolf just because of a look. In the end, he has to be punished and his mate is usually disappointed with him. Once a female wolf is furious or disappointed, the only way to get her to calm down is by having a couple rounds of love making. That's the thing though, if she is angry at you then why would she even want to make love with you. I swear women are confusing. I’m only glad I’m not at that stage yet. I want to be with her, but not in the love making way yet. We are both extremely too young for that.

It has been eight horrible years since I felt those wonderful sparks. Eight years of not holding my mate in my arms. Eight years of not waking up to her beautiful smile or hearing her amazing laugh. Even though I’ve never seen her smile or laugh I knew they would take my breath away. She's my mate; she wouldn't be anything less than amazing.

I'm now twenty years old and mate less. I know I've said it repeatedly, but for me all that matters is me finding her and never letting her go. Sooner or later she will go in to heat and that's when we would find her. I wish it was sooner rather than later though as my heart ached for her every minute I wasn’t holding her in my arms.

I was still standing in the ballroom not listening to this blond chick talking. This is a normal night for me, they talk-I dream about the past. It’s not something I want to be doing. Ignoring the daft bitch in front of me, I begin to think on all the times I've felt someone watching me. It feels as if it’s her, but whenever I turn my head to look around the ball room I find no one there. Even in the shadows I find no one. Being a werewolf gives you a heightened eye sight to see into the darkened corners; no light required, but still nothing. If she was here I would at least smell her amazing scent. Not even a passing waft of it telling us that she was the one spying on us. If she was then at least Marcus and I would know she cared about us a little to watch our daily life. We just wished she was involved in it with us.

My parents and I still haven't got one clue on who she is or where she is. It's like she can come and go as she pleases and no one will notice. At first we thought she might be a servant, but I have met every single black haired female working in this castle and she is not one of them. If she was my wolf would know. He has told me that her wolf would call out to him, telling him she wanted him. Even though we aren't mated yet we are soul mates and have a connection to each other, so when either of our wolves want each other all they have to do is send out a call and our wolves will hear it. When mated wolves are near each other they can sense each other. Don't ask me how it works because I have no clue. That what’s confusing us, if she is the one watching us why can't my wolf-Marcus-sense that she is close by?

He can sense that she is out there somewhere though which is good. I don't think I could handle it if she was killed. We would go mentally crazy. When a wolf’s mate is killed it's too hard for them to continue to live. The human part disappears, while the wolf takes over completely. When that happens the wolf has to be executed before they hurt someone.

There has only been one case when the male wolf didn’t die. For some reason when he was given blood-he had lost to much in the fight that killed his mate-it helped him to not go crazy and wolf out on everyone. The blood came from a little servant girl, I’ve been told and ever since that day they have become best friends even though he is the captain of the guards and she is a servant girl. The doctor told me that those two have a special bond because of the blood they now share. He has a piece of her inside him and will forever be connected to her. All I can say is I feel sorry for the unlucky bastard who gets her as a mate; he will despise having to share her with the captain.

Thinking back to my mate I hate how close she is to me, but how I’ve missed her every time. I know it’s her, it has to be. She is my mate. Mine. How dare she continue to avoid me; her mate, her Prince? All I want to do is love her and keep her safe. Why didn’t she realize that and come to her senses?

All I have to do is wait my time though, because my wolf is telling me that she will be going into heat soon and then we will find her. Very soon she will be ours and I will never let her go. I don't care who she thinks she is; she belongs to me and only me. If I have to tie her to my bed to keep her near me then dammit I will. Once I find her, her running will be over once and for all.

As a royal my possessiveness and dominance is twice as bad. Once I smell her divine scent she won't stand a chance at running. She won't want to be though since she will be in heat. She will be craving me and my wolf. We are the only ones that can satisfy her needs. If any male wolf is near her when we find them, they will be killed on sight for trying to steal her away from me. I could care less who he is. To steal what's mine by right is a death sentence of its own.

A deadly growl came out of my clenched teeth, scaring the crap out of the blond. I didn't care though. Every time I think of another male wolf touching what's mine I tend to get livid taking it out on either a woman in bed or men in training.

She has got to know her time is running short. If my wolf can sense she is close to her eighteenth birthday then she knows what will happen.

The moment her aroused scent hits me, I will be able to follow it to her. There will be no place for her to hide from me. She more than likely will be in her bed withering in sexual frustration. Her and her wolf will want us to mark her, to claim her as ours and no one else's. Her wolf will want us to prove to her that we are man and wolf enough to own her as ours. Believe me, we are and nothing she will do will stop us from claiming her the moment we see her body begging for us to take and make her ours.

I am Prince Caden and the one thing I will not be denied any longer is my mate. She can't hide from me for forever. I will have her soon, or heads will roll.

Growling lowly I grab the stupid blonds hand, dragging her out of the ballroom and up to her room to try and forget the pain of not having my mate in my arms.