Chapter Nine - The Prophecy

A.N. i felt bad for leaving you all hanging, so i'm gifting you this next chapter now instead of making you wait until next week.

"A true mate pairing, unlike a fated mate pairing, cannot part. While the process of rejecting a fated mate pairing is painful and sometimes fatal, a true mate pair are two parts of one being, separating, even for the duration of as little as a few weeks, will be deadly, for both members of the pair. It is perhaps lucky then, that they are so rare, that the two instances we know of refuse to part for even a day."

— Excerpt from 'A Study into Fated Mate Pairings' by Professor Drake Gallo

__________

I'm your mate.

The words rang in her head, echoed, dissolving all other sound, Daisy couldn't even hear the rain pelting the window any longer.

I'm your mate.

How long had she longed to hear those words? More than half of her life, ever since she started presenting as an omega, before that, when it was just blind hope that lived in her little juvenile body. Hope that there was someone out there that was made for her, made to love her, made to keep her safe, made to care. Hope that had died.

Until she met Din.

Her mate.

There were too many emotions stampeding inside of her head— relief and joy tangled up with anger and confusion. He'd lied to her, outright and through a never-ending series of deception and omission. When he first met her— surely not an accident now that she knew he was her mate— he had said to her face that he did not have a mate. When she'd asked him if he wouldn't mark her because he wasn't her mate, he'd avoided the question, threw her engagement at her like a shield. He'd spent hours and days and weeks with her— while she battled the shame of her feelings toward him— and lied.

Before Daisy even knew what she was doing, she got on her toes, reared her hand back and slapped him across the face, water droplets springing from his hair, from his cheeks at the harsh contact.

Perhaps it was foolish of her, fatal even, to slap an alpha.

But Din's features did not dissolve into anger, instead he looked down at her with shame, hurt radiating in those warm, brown eyes.

She swallowed the guilt that rose in response.

"I deserved that," he said softly, with a small nod.

"You lied to me," she spat out, her voice wet, plagued by the tears she could feel pinching at her eyes.

The sight of them, welling there, made Din's entire body feel like it was going to collapse in on itself. He'd done this. He hurt her, again.

"Daisy," he said her name in a plea, his body shaking, his hands curling into fists at his sides so he would not reach up and wipe away those agonizing tears before she allowed him to touch her again. "Let me explain, baby. Please."

"Why?!" she spat out, throwing her hands into the air, "so you can lie again?!"

"I'm not going to lie to you anymore, I promise, Daisy, just please, let me explain," he begged, one moment away from getting on his knees and groveling when he saw her furious expression break, for just a moment, then she stepped back from the door, crossing her arms over her chest as she nodded into the room.

Too sweet, I don't deserve her.

Din stepped inside, his shoes squelching with water as he closed the door behind him. He was too wet to sit on the bed, so he leaned back against the desk across from it, and waited until she was sitting across from him, her tiny body shivering on that huge mattress.

Din let out a sharp exhale, trying to gather his words, trying to figure out where exactly to start, while she stared at him, tears in those lovely blue eyes, waiting.

His mate.

The urge to clear the distance between them and tug her into his arms was almost insurmountable. He grabbed onto the edge of the desk beneath him to keep himself in place, and the wood groaned in his grip.

"You— I told you that my parents died in the Designation Riots," Din began, after a strangled moment of silence. "My father was an alpha, and my mother—" Din let out a quivering breath, dropping his head for a moment, those blooded images slamming into his head, "my mother's uterus was damaged during her pregnancy with me, so when the designations started making themselves known, she evolved into a beta. My parents were torn apart because of me. They died because of me."

Daisy's mouth popped open, like she might try to object, but then she blinked, and slowly closed it, waiting for him to continue.

"I spent the rest of my childhood in an orphanage, then a group home for young alphas after I started presenting. And I hated myself, hated what I was turning into, hated that I couldn't stop it somehow. I didn't want to belong to the same designation that had murdered my parents, the same designation that was raping women in the street all in the name of instinct, using the excuse that they were repopulating this goddamn planet."

Din's jaw hurt from how tightly he was clenching it, his palms dug into the wood of the desk beneath him, while violence churned low in his gut. He hadn't told anyone everything like this... not even the men he fought alongside in his younger years, but that was because no one had ever been owed his story.

Not until Daisy.

"I joined the Resistance Army when I was eighteen. I wanted to put an end to the marriage contracts, the separation of designations, if I couldn't stop what we were all turning into I at least wanted people to have a choice. And we won some of those battles, but I knew the one I was fighting wasn't one I could win. I couldn't turn the world back; I couldn't change what I was— what I am."

"So, I promised myself I would never get involved with an omega, I— I hoped that I would never have the Vision and be forced into it, and by the time I was in my forties, I figured I was clear in that regard at least."

Din searched Daisy's face, but her features were hard to read, almost blank, those deep blue eyes staring straight into his.

"I had the Vision the same day we met, maybe an hour before," Din finally admitted, his voice going softer, that guilt in his core surging up to try to choke him. "I tried to fight against it, I tried to hate you, Daisy, but I couldn't. My body wouldn't let me, the— the beast inside me wouldn't let me. I had to find you, and I told myself it would just be once, that I would see you just that one time, to alleviate the— the fucking tug, the ache, but I—" he shook his head, his eyes dropping to his sodden shoes. "As soon as I found you, as soon as we started talking, I couldn't tell whether it was the bond between us that was drawing me to you, or if it was... if it was just you. And that killed me. But I— I couldn't stay away. And I fought with that, with trying to figure out if it was just the bond, if it was nature forcing the two of us together, or if I would have been drawn to you without it. I— Daisy, I didn't want you to have to be with me, to not have a choice. You had chosen Jeremy, of your own volition, he hadn't been forced on you by some, some gross, archaic bond. And until I met him, until I saw the way he treated you, I was going to let you marry him, even though I knew I would live in agonizing pain because of it for the rest of my life."

Din tracked a tear as it slid down Daisy's cheek, and his body twitched, aching to clear the space between them so he could wipe that tear away, so he could hold her, oh god he needed to hold her. But he stayed planted there, his fingertips digging into the desk.

"Last week, during your heat, when you— you told me about your dreams... I— I guess that's when I decided that I had to tell you, that I would truly die if you chose to marry Jeremy. I was going to wait, until you left him, but then I— I realized how selfish that was, how willing you were to leave him, to speak to him on your own, how disgusting I was for keeping this from you, and I'm so sorry, Daisy. I— I promise I'll never lie to you again. I hate myself for it, truly, more than I ever hated myself for what I am."

Din's words fell off, but he forced himself to stay planted there on the desk as Daisy kept staring at him, her bottom lip jutting up between her teeth, those agonizing tears still trailing down her cheeks.

"Why the—" her voice squeaked out, "why the dreams? Why was that when you changed your mind?"

Din's mouth opened and closed with a click.

He had figured that after he told her they were mates she would have put the other pieces together. The dreams, the mind-to-mind communication.

He could see by the puzzled expression on her lovely face that he was wrong.

"Daisy," he breathed out, his eyebrows knitting together, "we're not fated mates," he shook his head, speaking again before her features could entirely give way to confusion. "We're true mates."

A little breath echoed out of Daisy's mouth as her eyes frantically searched his face.

True mates.

The words tunneled into Daisy's head, tugging at some long-forgotten thread there, stories she'd read as a child, fairy tales in her mind. Something more than fated mates, something so rare they weren't even taught about it in their biology or history courses.

The knowledge seemed to click something into place inside her chest.

"I— I have to process, I have to— I still have to talk to Jeremy, and I— I'm still mad at you," Daisy spat out, biting down hard on her bottom lip, watching as Din's eyes softened, plagued with guilt that stung her gut.

Her mate.

This gorgeous, strong, kind man was her mate.

He was also a fucking liar, but she understood why, thought perhaps a part of her had known all along.

Din nodded solemnly, his giant body trembling on that desk that looked about a minute away from collapsing beneath his weight.

"Can I— I'll leave," he breathed out, the words tasting bitter on the back of his tongue. "Can I hold you first, please?"

Daisy choked, her eyes pinching, aching in her skull.

She wanted him to hold her so terribly it existed as its own entity, clawing and pacing in her gut. But she knew if she let him, she would end up begging him to stay. And she needed time alone, to think, to process, to stew in the anger that was still boiling in her core.

"I— I don't know if that's a good idea right now," she whispered.

My mate.

Din let out a shuddering breath, something hot and thick clawing up his throat.

"Okay," he nodded, "I— call me, when you're ready," he said, pushing himself from the groaning desk, locking his body in place for a moment so he could overcome the screaming urge to hoist her into his arms.

"I'm sorry, again, so sorry, Daisy," he whispered, dropping his head, then making for the door, forcing himself there, but just as he got reached it, just as his hand closed over the doorknob, he heard her let out a quivering sob behind him, and his entire body tensed, that agonizing sound tunneling straight into his chest and wrapping brutally around his heart.

"Daisy," he gritted out, hand crushing the knob, "I can't leave you if you're crying."

She didn't say anything, continued making those horrific noises, and he growled, pushing off the door and clearing the room in three, ground-eating strides, staring down at her crumpled form for a moment before he was hoisting her up, crushing her little form to his soaking wet chest, and crooning low in his throat into her hair.

The relief of being wrapped around each other was so much, that they both trembled, Din's arms wrapping around her tight, while she buried her face in his warm, damp neck and inhaled his scent with a desperation that felt paramount.

"You should go," she whimpered, even as she took fistfuls of his wet jacket in her little hands.

"I will, after I calm you down," he promised, even as the statement cleaved his chest in two.

"I'll beg you not to if you keep holding me," Daisy warned, burying her face further into the side of neck, scenting herself on his gland.

"I cannot neglect your pleas, Daisy," his voice rumbled, breaking into a croon as he rocked her in his arms. "I'm not strong enough."

"I'm still mad at you," she choked out, the tears he'd caused subsiding only because of him, the warmth of his chest, seeping through his soaked clothes, that low, rumbling sound he made that seemed to calm her from the inside out.

"You should be," he assured her, "but that doesn't mean I can leave you while you're in pain."

"I'm always in pain when you're gone."

Din crooned again, while his heart squeezed painfully in his chest, his stomach twisting into a tight knot. He slid his hand up her back, and cupped the little bowl of her skull, petting her silky hair, then holding her head to his neck, where her face was still buried, her cheek rubbing against his gland.

"I'm right here," he assured her.

"But you should go," she said, unconvincingly, muffled into his neck.

He groaned, forcing himself to set her down on the bed, his neck craned to look down at her as she shivered, wrapping her arms around herself, fresh tears immediately springing to her pretty eyes.

"Fuck Daisy, I can't leave when you're looking at me like that," he breathed out, carding his fingers through his damp hair in frustration.

"I don't know how else to look at you," she blubbered, those agonizing tears carving a path down her cheeks again.

"Fuck this," he muttered, ripping his soaking jacket off and letting it drop onto the floor with a dull thud.

"What— what are you doing?" she spat out, through her tears, wiping them with the heels of her hands.

"Staying," he breathed out, kicking off his shoes and stepping out of his wet trousers, beginning to undo the buttons of his shirt. "I'll go insane if I leave you while you're like this. We don't have to talk yet, just sleep."

Daisy whimpered, melting into him as he tugged her further up the bed with him, his giant, solid form wrapping around her, keeping her so much warmer than when she had been in this bed by herself.

And maybe he should have left, but she couldn't force him to, not when he was her only definition of safety, of warmth, of home.

Her mate.

True mate.

She still hadn't fully wrapped her mind around that.

She still needed to research true mates, still had her own slew of things she needed to say to him, but sleep was finally so close with his wide chest pressed against her back, and his solid arms wrapped around her waist that she fell off the edge of consciousness almost immediately.

She was asleep within a minute, so she did not hear Din when he whispered I love you into her hair, before falling asleep himself.

__________

Daisy dreamt that Din was her mate, dreamt that they were fated together, woke up wrapped in warmth, everything coming back to her only when her eyes adjusted enough to take in the hotel room, Din's giant hand lying next to her face, Jeremy's ring still on her finger.

"Still mad at me?" Din's sleepy voice rumbled against her head.

"Yes," Daisy said softly, rolling over and burying her face in his wide chest.

"I can tell," he chuckled, wrapping his arms tighter around her.

"I'm mad at you, not your body, it didn't do anything wrong," she hummed, nuzzling into the firm expanse of his pecs.

"Got it," he said, heavy affection flooding his form, cloying his veins. "I'll keep my mouth shut then, feel free to use my body as you wish."

It was quiet for a moment, the rain had stopped sometime in the night, the clouds opening up to reveal the bright rays of the sun, just peeking through the gap in the thick curtains.

"Are you ready to talk?" Din asked, petting the crown of her head, golden hair as soft as silk against his calloused palm.

"I thought you were going to keep your mouth shut," Daisy murmured into his chest.

"I'll take that as a no."

Daisy huffed, curling herself further into the hairy, solid expanse of his warm torso.

"I have to talk to Jeremy first, and call out of work again," her voice fell off as a coil of dread sprung up tight in her gut. Surely their conversation would be easier now, for how could she be to blame for the universe's decision? But even still, that did not completely ease the nervousness swirling around her gut, nor did it stop her from crafting all likely scenarios in her head.

Din felt her little body tense, and crooned low in his throat, tightening his arms around her as he felt the tension melt from her spine. She could stay mad at him forever, as long as she continued to let him protect her, continued to allow him to calm her down.

"You should— you should leave now, so I have time to— time to think and stuff," Daisy said softly, lifting her head from his chest to stare up at him, those dark blue eyes making his heart twist and pound.

Din nodded, allowing himself to tuck one of those golden strands behind her ear, his gaze bouncing between her eyes, before he forced himself to untangle his body from around her, grinding his teeth as she let out a little involuntary whimper.

He dressed in silence, his flight suit still slightly damp, which made the process take longer, as he had to yank the damp sleeves over his arms, shove his legs into his dewy trousers. His skin itched beneath his muggy clothes, while his heart sat laden and sore in his chest as he took in Daisy's little form, tangled in the sheets on that too large bed, her big, blue eyes appraising him, while she tugged at her plump bottom lip with her teeth.

It was so much harder to drag himself away from her now that she knew.

"Call me when you're ready, but I— realistically Daisy, I don't know how long I'm going to be able to stay away from you."

A trembling exhale slipped past her lips while she tugged the duvet further up her body.

"I'll talk to Jeremy tonight, then I'll call you," she said softly.

He nodded, a curt motion of his chin dipping toward his chest. "And call me, if the conversation goes south, do you understand, Daisy?" he asked, hating himself a bit for how his tone had slipped into a demanding rumble, but he needed to ensure her safety, especially if she did not want him to come with her.

"I understand," she answered, her head bowing in submission.

Din exhaled sharply, unable to stop himself from clearing the space between them again, in two large steps that put him at the side of the bed, where he tilted her head up with a hooked first finger beneath her chin.

"You don't have to do that with me," he said softly.

"It's not exactly voluntary," Daisy whispered, her fingers strangling the duvet.

He let out another breath, pinching her chin between his thumb and his first finger, the urge to lean down and part his lips over hers almost too much to bear.

"I'm so sorry, Daisy, I'll never stop being sorry for lying to you," he said with a forlorn look, then forced himself, with all the willpower he had inside of him, to drop his hand from her face, and leave.

The tug was agonizing just as soon as she heard his footsteps echo down the hall, but she forced herself to stay put, even as that glowing thread in her head went taut and sent a splitting pain through her temples.

She scrambled for her phone on the bedside table just as soon as she felt like she could move without running out the door and chasing him, swiping her thumb up the screen and ignoring the alarming number of missed calls and texts in her notifications. She typed true mates into the search bar, feeling a little juvenile as she sat, trembling as she waited for the results to populate.

The first article that popped up was by some professor at Berkeley. It was titled A Study into Fated Mate Pairings, which didn't seem promising, but she clicked on it anyway, her vision blurring as she scrolled through the lengthy article until her eyes caught on the word true and she stopped.

There is only one pairing that is held at a higher regard than that of fated mates, and that is one of true mates. While fated mates seem to be matched based on the alpha's needs and an ideal biological coupling, true mates are a perfect biological coupling as well as exactly what both members of the pair need, rather than solely the alpha. True mates are two pieces of one whole. There have only been two instances of true mates since the start of the New Age, and in both pairings the couples have been able to communicate mind to mind. We are still unsure how this is, as we do not have a large enough sample size to conduct adequate research. I hope in the years to come, we see more true mate pairings, and begin to understand what it is about them that makes this coupling so rare and exceptional.

Daisy's heart pounded rapid and off-beat in her chest, slamming against the wall of her ribs.

Only two other pairs... ever?

Communicate mind to mind.

That glowing thread.

Daisy thrust another thought down that thread, just a simple one, a single question— Can you hear me, Din? But her words smashed into that stone wall and dissolved there.

How did he do that? More importantly why...

Perhaps so that he wouldn't accidentally admit he was her mate before he told her, but then why now? Still? If he was so remorseful about lying to her, why still have that impenetrable stone wall standing between them?

Her mate.

Those two words kept chanting in her head, to a strange rhythm.

Her mate, her mate, her mate.

There was a time in her life, years, decades of her life, when all she wanted was a fated mate, one who would take care of her, love her, one who could come and scoop her up, rescue her from the chaos of her childhood home, from the emotional neglect of her parents who had too little love to give for all six of their daughters. She'd watched each of her sisters find mates— and while only one of them was fated, she still longed for that connection. Her loneliness ate away at her, until it forced her into Jeremy's arms, Jeremy... who couldn't focus on anything that wasn't his own biology, and what he thought he lacked.

The guilt she had harbored, the guilt that had eaten away at her since the day she met Din, had given way to something else, something solid and warm in her chest where there used to be a screaming void.

Din was her mate— strong, kind, gentle Din.

She wanted to be angrier at him, for lying to her, for keeping this from her for so long, but that initial anger she had felt toward him had already started to dissolve, because she'd known, even before he admitted it aloud, that he hated his designation, hated what had become of the world, and so of course he would have tried to fight against it. It wasn't anger swirling in her gut any longer, now it was fear, grave concern as she took in that towering stone wall still blocking their bond.

They were mates, but that did not mean that he loved her, it did not mean that he did not still harbor resentment toward having the Vision, toward being stuck with her.

Daisy's tummy twisted into a tight knot, and she fought against the urge to call him, to beg him for answers.

She needed to talk to Jeremy first.

Which only made that twisting thing in her gut turn even more brutal.

__________

Daisy went to their apartment while she knew Jeremy was still at work, taking in the state of the place with a growing sense of alarm.

Jeremy had never gotten the busted lock fixed from when Din broke it during her heat, so their apartment was unlocked when she arrived, the wood around the lock splintered and cracked. There were dirty dishes piled high in the sink, bowls and cups precariously stacked on top of each other, a leaning tower that smelled like rancid, spoiled food. The garbage was overflowing, takeout containers were stacked in piles next to the overstuffed bin. And everything seemed to have a layer of filth over the top of it, like a sheen of grease and dirt that made her hesitate before she sat down on the couch.

How had it gotten this bad over the span of just a week?

But that was the thing, Jeremy never helped clean, never did any domestic chores, always insisted that was the omega's job... never mind that he was not an alpha, would never be no matter how many hormones he took, no matter how many stupid evolution meetings he went to.

Perhaps their lives would have been more tolerable together if he would have learned to accept that... or maybe they were always doomed.

But it didn't matter, because Din was her mate.

My mate, my mate, my mate.

She wanted to see him so badly the longing burned in her chest.

She needed to do this first, needed to sever this tie so it wouldn't continue nagging at her.

Daisy sat and waited, on her dirty, lumpy couch for hours, strangling her phone in her hands, trembling as that knot twisted itself tighter and tighter in her gut. It felt like she was dangling on the precipice of the rest of her life, like everything she had done, everything she was, had led up to this moment, and she was scrambling to keep up, to process it all as it was happening.

There was a part of Daisy that had known since the moment she met Din that he was meant for her. Even if his lies, his avoidance of the truth, had her doubting her own instincts, there always existed that voice in the back of her head, chanting that mantra that was now screaming.

My mate, my mate, my mate.

She wanted to talk to him, to see him again so desperately that she pulled open his contact on her phone, navigating to their messages. The last one he sent was still unread, from last night:

Just landed in Denver. I miss you.

Daisy's thumbs trembled over the keyboard, but before she could type out anything to send to him, the door to her apartment creaked open.

Jeremy stood there, at the entrance, just staring at her for a moment, those cold blue eyes drilling into her face, his features twisted into something almost livid.

"Hi," she blurted out, her heart pounding in her chest as she pushed herself onto her feet and shoved her phone into her pocket.

"Didn't think you lived here anymore," he scoffed, finally stepping into the room and slamming the door shut behind him, blowing past her and stomping into the kitchen, dropping the plastic bag of takeout he was carrying onto the small space that was clear on the messy counter.

"Jer, we... we have to talk," she said, swallowing hard as she turned toward him, slowly walking toward the kitchen.

"No Daisy, you don't get to talk," he muttered, pulling out several Chinese takeout containers from the bag, pushing them onto the crowded counter, causing dirty bowls and plates to tumble over each other to make room. The sharp sound of ceramic scraping against itself made Daisy cringe, a rush of discomfort flooding down her spine.

"Ever since this fucking Din guy showed up, you've disrespected me, you've abandoned all your responsibilities here, not to mention fucking sleeping with him, he's not your alpha, Daisy, I am!" Jeremy barked, his face gone beet red, a vein popping out of his neck as he slammed one of the takeout containers down so hard that it burst open, causing some sort of red sauce to splatter over his white shirt.

Daisy knew this was not the time to mention that Jeremy was not an alpha, and most certainly not her alpha. Still, she opened her mouth to try to say something, what, she wasn't even quite sure, but Jeremy kept screaming.

"You didn't even give me a chance to get you through your heat, you just called him up! Weak ass, fucking pathetic ass designation. Omegas aren't good for shit. Look at this place," he bellowed, gesturing around the room with his hands thrown out in front of him. "It's a disaster in here because you abandoned your responsibilities!"

"Jeremy, I was— I was in heat, I wouldn't have been in a state to clean even if I had stayed here," Daisy managed to squeak out.

"It's always excuses with you," he scoffed, shaking his head.

She didn't know how long his berating was going to go on for, but she just needed to say it, spit out the truth and then brace herself for the storm.

"Din is my mate," Daisy whispered, her gaze dropping to her feet. "I— I just found out last night."

Her statement buzzed through the room, turning the air stiflingly hot and too thick to breathe.

Jeremy was silent, but she did not dare to look up and see whatever enraged expression surely plagued his features.

"No, he is not," Jeremy stated, far too calmly, and Daisy kept her gaze on her feet, her eyes only snapping up when he grabbed a ceramic bowl from the counter and chucked it across the room. He was probably aiming for her, but it whizzed past her ear and smashed against the wall behind her, the pieces scattering out across the living room floor.

Daisy jumped, her eyes going wide as she glanced over her shoulder at the shattered bowl, then back to Jeremy.

He was fuming, his chest heaving, his eyebrows pulled together, his mouth curved down into a tight frown, and his eyes were drilling into her with an expression of pure disgust that she could almost smell.

Her belly twisted into an even tighter knot, almost debilitating in nature as her heart slammed erratically against her ribs. She pulled her phone out of her pocket, to call Din, to beg him to come get her, but Jeremy flung himself around the counter before she even managed to get the thing unlocked, stomping toward her as she tried to back away and snatching the phone from her hands, chucking it in the same direction as the bowl.

Daisy tried to bolt for the door, tripping over her feet as he crowded her, his breath coming out in wet spurts through his clenched teeth. It felt like everything was moving in slow motion, the room spinning around her in a strange mess of colors, his voice a buzzing thing in her head that she could not decipher.

Then his hand wrapped around her neck.

"You belong to me," he spat out, his face twisted into something ugly and unfamiliar as she tried to claw at his hands, her lungs burning as she unsuccessfully gasped for air.

He squeezed her throat even tighter as she struggled, steering her back until her legs hit the couch. Her eyes felt like they were about to pop out of her skull, and she was sure her heart was a moment away from bursting in her chest as her lungs continued to deflate, Jeremy's face going blurry as she fruitlessly tried to pry his fingers off of her neck.

He was going to kill her.

It was astonishingly clear at that moment.

If Jeremy couldn't have her, no one could.

Daisy started screaming down that glowing bond in her head, even as the words seemed to hit that stone wall and dissolve.

__________

Din sat in his car, parked across from Daisy's apartment, twitching, staring at his phone and waiting.

He'd watched Jeremy walk in about ten minutes ago, which meant they were probably in the middle of speaking now.

He had been out here for almost three hours, though he wasn't entirely sure why... he supposed he just wanted to be close, needed to be close should something go wrong.

He decided that if he did not hear from Daisy in the next thirty minutes, he would go up there and make sure everything was alright.

Din shifted the bulk of himself in his seat, checking his phone again.

Something that had always felt loose within Din had clicked into place the moment Daisy knew about their bond, like her knowledge of it locked it into place, and being apart from her now was no longer just agonizing, it was impossible.

He felt anxious, and not solely because he hadn't seen her in hours, something felt off, like there was something stirring inside his head that he couldn't quite grasp, making him feel a little off-balance, like he was trapped in some liminal state.

He shook his head, trying to shake away the bizarre feeling that way and that's when he heard it, that's when her screams tore through that wall of will he'd built up in his head. They ripped through his skull, tunneling into his chest, setting his veins on fire, a dread so potent surging in his gut that he felt like it was carving him in half.

Din burst out of his car, sprinting toward her apartment building, her screams still echoing in his head.

Din, HELP ME, HELP ME, HELP ME!

He had never felt unbridled terror quite like that before, like if he did not get to her, he would tear the world in two, set it on fire and burn himself and everything down with it.

He took the stairs three, four at a time, until he emerged on her hallway, racing down the length of it and crashing through the door with his shoulder.

Din had watched his parents die. He had watched the world burn. He had fought and killed people in a brutal war for seven years of his life.

Still, nothing was as horrific as the sight he walked into in that apartment.

A thick, black curtain of rage fell over him, rendering him completely at the mercy of the beast, whose only thought was murder, merciless, vicious bloodshed.

Jeremy had his hand wrapped around Daisy's throat, who was clawing at him, struggling to break free from his grip, her face gone a pale bluish color that made Din bellow, a snarling animal sound that ripped out of him on its own accord.

My mate, my mate, my mate.

The second Din burst through the door, Jeremy's eyes snapped over to him, widening in surprise, but he did not have the opportunity to move, to try to scramble away, because Din was on him in an instant, clearing the space in less than the time it took for Jeremy to blink.

He ripped Jeremy off of Daisy by wrapping his own hand around the man's throat, yanking his head back, the sudden, harsh motion causing a scream to erupt from Jeremy's mouth, but he was quickly unable to make any further noise as Din dragged him by his neck, slamming him into the wall with enough force that the plaster cracked under Jeremy's skull.

Daisy collapsed back against the couch, her hands flying to her neck as she wheezed, falling into a coughing fit between desperately trying to gasp for air, her lungs aching as she was finally able to fill them with oxygen. The room was still spinning around her, a wash of colors and fuzzy shapes, Din's wide form swirling around, blocking her view of Jeremy, who she only knew was still there because Din was screaming at him.

"I'm going to fucking kill you," Din snarled, his voice so dark and deep it was almost unrecognizable. "How does it feel, you cowardly piece of shit?! HOW DOES IT FEEL?!"

Jeremy was trying to tear Din's hand off his throat, his eyes gone wide, swimming with terror that made the beast within Din bellow with delight. With every word he uttered, Din squeezed Jeremy's neck tighter, until the man was as blue as Daisy had been. He could easily crush his windpipe, could easily rip his head clean from his neck, but Din— or the beast, he could not tell any longer— wanted to watch him die, slowly, wanted to watch him truly suffer.

"Din," Daisy choked out, still unable to stand up with the way her head was spinning. Her throat was sore, throbbing from the grip of Jeremy's hand, so her voice came out weak and strangled. "Din, stop!"

His attention snapped over his shoulder at the sound of her voice, his hand still refusing to let up on Jeremy's neck. Daisy's face had returned to a normal color, but her neck was bright red, the sight causing Din to growl and squeeze Jeremy's throat even tighter. But as his gaze flicked back up to her face, he saw her mouth the word please, those deep blue eyes gazing straight into his.

And he did not possess the ability to disregard her plea.

So as much as he wanted to kill Jeremy, Din forced himself to release his hand, and Jeremy immediately crumpled to the floor in a heap, gasping for air as he scrambled into the corner with a pathetic scuffle of his feet pushing his butt across the floor.

Din cleared the space between himself and Daisy in two large strides, pulling her onto her feet and straight to his chest by a firm grasp of her waist.

"Are you alright?" he asked, his eyes bouncing over her form, looking for any other signs of hurt beyond the crimson tainting her neck that made him want to tear this entire apartment building to the ground.

Daisy nodded, even with her throat still burning. She clung to the front of his shirt, letting her eyes flutter closed as the warmth of his presence dulled the terror that had been surging inside her since the moment Jeremy threw that bowl against the wall.

She truly, for a moment in time, had thought she was going to die.

And Din had been the only thing on her mind. Her mate. She wouldn't have been able to tell him she loved him, wouldn't have been able to tell him that she forgave him.

Tears pricked at her eyes and she collapsed forward against his chest, clinging to him as he wrapped his arms around her, crooning into the top of her head.

"You're safe," his voice rumbled through that solacing sound, "I've got you, sweet girl."

She buried her face further into the solid wall of his chest, her tears soaking through the soft, worn material of his shirt.

She was safe.

For the first time in her life, truly safe, with Din.

"I can help gather some of your things, we can come back for the rest, but—" Din started, lifting Daisy's chin with a crooked first finger.

"I— I didn't get to, he didn't even let me speak," Daisy spat out, her bottom lip jutting up between her teeth.

Din's eyebrows pinched together, as he threw a glare over his shoulder at the crumpled man in the corner.

"Say what you need to say to him, then," Din breathed out as he turned back to her, and Daisy's eyes dropped, causing Din to gently jostle her chin. "Hey, look at me," he waited until those deep blue eyes flicked back up to him. "He doesn't have any power over you, no one controls you, Daisy."

Not even him, her alpha.

Those were the unspoken words clinging to his statement.

Din gently released her, but stayed there, his solid arms crossing over his chest as he jutted his chin over toward the crumpled mess that was Jeremy.

Daisy inhaled sharply, ignoring the pain in her throat as she turned away from Din and took a few steps toward her fiancé, who was slumped against the wall, his throat even more red than hers, his cold, blue eyes staring up at her with contempt swimming in his irises.

How had she almost married this man?

Loneliness, desperation, some deep longing for connection that she had never been given the opportunity to grasp.

Until Din.

"We're done, Jeremy," Daisy said, her voice quiet, but firm, as Din's words echoed in her head.

No one controls you.

"This would have been over even if Din wasn't my mate... I— I can't believe I let myself get pushed around by you for so long," her eyebrows crumpled together as she stared down at him, "I don't think I realized how bad things were until I met Din, but I— I hope I would have realized even if I hadn't."

She swallowed hard as she picked her hand up, gazing down at the golden band for the last time— that physical entrapment, the only thing tying her to him any longer. She twisted the band off and tossed it at him. It landed in his lap.

"I don't even like gold."