I ran on the treadmill, the pace not gruelling, but a comfortable jog.. well for me at least.  To others it would be like running to catch a bus that was waiting impatiently for you.  Yet not quite the full out sprint needed to get on it before the driver gave you a nasty look and drove off without you.  The sweat glistened upon my peachy skin and my hair was beginning to stick to the back of my neck.  I continued on for a few moments, dreaming about how my new mate looked and what he liked to eat and how nice it would be to wake up with him and Michael in the morning.  And wondering how he would look sprawled out naked before me, enjoying only what his mates could provide for him.  My tiger growled in delight as I shuddered and almost lost my footing.  Time to call it a day, I supposed.

I grabbed a towel and let the sweat soak into its fibres.  Michael had only shared a vague description.  He was only an inch or so shorter than Michael, far too skinny and very pale.  He had long brown bangs, his hair was straight without any wave and his eyes were large, hazel eyes with speckles of green and brown running through them.  I pestered Michael into taking a picture on his phone or grabbing something that he had touched or preferably owned so I could see him and inhale his scent.  But Mike claimed that the boy had been avoiding him for over two weeks and he'd been struggling to pin him down.

I was sour over that and my tiger restless.  It didn't help that Michael came home stinking of perfume and lipstick a few times as some nurses were scoping out my man.  We often attracted attention, I understood that, but I didn't like the fact that he was not telling them that he was taken.  But I did understand that he didn't want our mate running for the hills because he was.  It would be hard enough for him to accept that he has one mate, let alone two.  Maybe I should visit the hospital and warn away the pests before sweeping my boy off of his feet and running away with him.  That sounded like a plan.  Michael's gentle approach was neither working nor was it my style.  My tiger rumbled his agreement.

I was even more determined to follow through once I had spoken to Michael later that day.  Michael came in to our house with an overly serious expression upon his chiselled face as if a patient case was troubling him.  I liked to wipe away such seriousness with a lap of my tongue, but he stopped me and made me sit down, with a sigh.

"I finally cornered him, today," he told me and my tiger snapped out of his sulk that we couldn't taste our mate and sat up to attention hopefully.

"Well?" The human side of me knew that this wasn't going to be as simple.

"I managed to speak to him," he told me, "but most of the conversation ended up circling around rejection."

My tiger roared loudly, in distress.  "You rejected him?" His fury spilled through my lips even though I knew Michael would never do such a thing.  He'd been chasing the boy for two weeks, once he was caught, his wolf would never let go. 

"No, of course I didn't," his eyes flashed amber, warning me his wolf was getting pissed.  I tried to calm my tiger down as he was attempting to restrain his wolf.  "He was talking about rejection, even tried to press me to reject him."

"Why would he do that?" I asked.

"He's terrified, love," Michael reached out to stroke my hair and I leaned into his palm, savouring his touch.  "This is going to sound really out there, but I think he's been rejected by a werewolf before.  I think we are his second chance mates."

That startled me.  The Moon Goddess usually gave rejected mates and mates who had lost their pair too soon a second chance, so it wouldn't be surprising if she had chosen to pair him up if this was true of him, even if he was human and not strictly her child.  But ordinarily she would chose another needing a second chance mate.  We were a pair already and had never experienced loss or rejection.

"That's impossible," I thought aloud.

"We were considered impossible," Michael mused and grabbed me about my waist, pulling me close and causing my tiger to purr like a kitten. I wrapped my arms around his neck as he breathed in the scent from my neck and shivered in delight. He was right though.

We grew up as neighbours, my pride and his pack, but it was a case of nightmare neighbours like that stupid show on television a while back. It was a classic case of cats and dogs not getting along. Our borders lined up along one side and we both had patrols that would ensure territories were not breached. It's not as if the border ever fluctuated, but the wolves would get pissed if we clawed a tree that they claimed was in their borders and we would retaliate if they ever pissed up trees we claimed were ours. Personally, I think both the patrols did it on purpose.

The scouts were mostly cheetahs, they could outrun the wolves nine times out of ten, so would scratch a tree then blame it on a wandering bear as if their scent was not all over it. The young wolves would dare each other to scent trees across the border when the patrol was out of sight. There were a few skirmishes and eventually, due to the wolf beta getting hurt as he helped rescued annoying pups from a patrol of leopards and panthers, the Alpha and our King chose to sit down and renegotiate our treaty, tighten things up a bit.

Before you make a clearly cliche thought, our King was not a Lion, not all Alpha cats were. That was normal if the pride was a plains pride, but Tigers and Jaguars were usually Alphas in forest prides and Snow leopards or cougars in mountain prides. I've even heard of smaller cat Alpha's that have created a territory in a human city. Other cats from other native regions could join your pride, but they would feel inferior to the main species, even if we did not treat them differently. It was a cat thing.

Our King was a Jaguar, one of his Second's was a tiger and happened to be my uncle. He took me along to the pack's territory during the negotiation. I was eighteen and stupidly proud and was in line to be either a Second or a warrior like my father. I even secretly harboured dreams of being the King one day, but many of us dominates thought the same thing, just most of us were too lazy to act upon it when the time came. We were the bosses of our own bubbles anyway, who wanted the hassle of being in charge with a mix of cats that would break out into mini feuds over who left the butter on the kitchen side? Watching claws and fur flying, the hissing... it was over in a minute and everyone went in different directions to lick their wounds and forget that they may have lost. And the butter would still be on the side.

The Alpha, his two beta's and one of his sons were in the wolf Alpha's office, waiting for us and we strode in like we owned the place. I was hit by the most potent, savoury scent I have ever had the pleasure to smell. It was like catnip to my nerve endings and I wanted to lay my claws into it and steal it away. As the meeting rambled on, I came quickly to realise that the scent came from the Alpha's son, Michael and my tiger was happily purring inside me. My uncle noticed, but said nothing as I was not causing any trouble at that point. Michael was frowning, dealing with his own internal struggle.

As the meeting came to an end, the King, his seconds and warriors were invited to have a drink. I slipped away, as did Michael. We headed for a slightly secluded spot and I pounced on him. But he would not be dominated so easily and pushed me off him. We tussled for a bit, argued and I even threatened to reject him after he denied me, but we froze before the words were spilled in our anger. We were found by the pack warriors, but it just looked like we had been fighting rather than tearing each others clothes off for.. other reasons. We attempted to play it off, we were just testing each other's strength or something. Not sure we were believed.

After that, we met up in secret, in the nearby human town and things got... physical. We didn't penetrate or mark, but damn I loved to taste him and to know he was writhing beneath me because of my tongue and mouth. He returned the favour more than once. We were heading to a new motel for some fun when we were caught. We were holding hands and were teasing each other with bites and kisses. My cousin, Damien and his warrior friends found us.

We were dragged back to the pride lands and to the border between us and the pack. A cheetah had gone ahead to contact the pack to ask the Alpha to meet with us. The King did not interfere with family, so my uncle was the one that greeted him and let the Alpha know that we had been 'fooling' around. The Alpha was pissed and yelled at Michael, saying he was disrespecting his pack and his future Luna with his loose behaviour.

"Eric is my mate!" Michael yelled at his old man, causing the man to stumble back and his warriors to growl in protest. My family was too shocked to say anything at first.

"Is this true?" My uncle asked and I nodded in agreement and moved to Michael's side. He grabbed my hand and I leaned into him. Don't get me wrong, there was no sign of submission, a cat just likes to scent mark his mate now and then.

"Ridiculous," The Alpha responded. "The Goddess would never make such a pairing. No pack would accept a cat as their Luna."

"Are you saying my nephew is not good enough for you?" My uncle growled in warning.

"I'm saying that my son's mate should be a she wolf who can give him offspring," the Alpha barked. "Come here now son and deny this false pairing immediately."

Michael's hand tightened around mine. My heart melted in my chest. We'd been moving together secretly for six weeks, there's no way I couldn't have already fallen for him and he for me in that time. Our pairing might be... unusual, but the Goddess knew what she was doing. "No," he told his father. He chose me over them. I loved this man.

His father banished him from the pack, I felt it through our growing bond when his wolf whined over the loss, but he remained firm and stayed by my side. We consummated our bond that night, I gave myself to him, he deserved it. Of course, I reciprocated not long after, didn't want him to think I would remain submissive to him. We moved from the pride lands a month later, the cats were not dealing well with this wolf amongst them, although I give them their due, they did try. We applied for university together after he confessed he had always secretly wanted to study medicine and the rest is history.

We would have remained more or less content with this, I think, but it seemed that the Goddess hadn't finished with her plans for us and was now placing a broken hearted human into our care.

"The Goddess must believe it will take both of us to heal him," I mused as I poured Michael a fresh cup of coffee later than evening.

"I think you are right, love," he agreed.