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Chapter 5: Human mate

Damn it!

Max sighs as he gets up after not being able to sleep all night and doesn't know what to do anymore. For a couple of days he has been getting up in the middle of the night and without strength for the ordeal one day after another, living in complete denial. His wolf Remo was driving him crazy, and he had already stopped talking to him. Mate, Mate, Mate! He screamed in his head nonstop.

He knows exactly what his problem is, the reason for his insomnia and discomfort. Sitting on his bed, he breathes heavily, burying his face in his hands. Thinking the only idea that has run through his mind for days: he should have known from the first day, and no matter how hard he tried... he couldn't help it. All the signs had been there, and he didn't see them.

All werewolves know what mate bond is. His Nana always told him what his father Matteo said when he met his mother, bragging about the crush he felt, how lucky he was to have found such a wonderful she-wolf. He said that she was everything he dreamed of, every thing, every ability, every flaw was just what he needed.

His grandfather said the same about his grandmother, she was on the verge of death and he save her, the mate bond curing her, and he repeated the same thing until the day he died: she was his world and he couldn't imagine his life without her.

He thought… what a miracle to have a mate! Until one day his uncle Luca told him the story of his parents, the misfortune, the tragedy... And from that moment he was terrified, the idea of ​​his mate was a disgrace. Actually… his uncle told him that he had already met his Mate when he was a child… Aurora, and she had disappeared, everyone considered her dead.

Max learned that in love there are no happy endings, that one way or another you always end up losing your better half, because of an illness, time, or a rouge attack.

Until over time something unthinkable happened. Years passed and Luca couldn't find his mate... it seemed something tremendously hopeful. He said that he had taken refuge in the old customs and superstitions, which, however crazy they were, seemed to work. He felt invincible and prepared his nephew to make the best of the business, triple his assets, after all, they were two alpha and strong Maledettos. And Max's mate didn't exist…he seemed immune to the family curse.

Even so, there were nights when Max stayed awake thinking, with the certainty that his mate perhaps... had not died, that Aurora lived, laughed, cried. Somewhere in this world, but as long as he did not find her, everything was going to be okay. She would be happy too if he never saw her, that was what he thought, and he found comfort in that.

In the past years, he has stopped imagining her, wondering what she would be like, what she would love, what they would talk about. He was so focused on the work that was very successful. Open mind and closed heart. There were days when he dared to think that they were going to defeat the curse and that perhaps this madness would end here, perhaps they were the first Maledettos to be free. How wrong he was.

It all happened from going to meet the stupid Kols. He had the sensation that he shouldn't go, that he had to turn the wheel all the way and run out of there. Luca saw it as a great opportunity, feeling that the Kols needed them was very pleasant, and it fed their ego.

That day his wolf Remo screamed in his head, howling. He must have known, he must have known. Then… everything came in free fall. He saw that CV and was amazed, A. Wells… this person was the perfect mix between intelligence and talent and everything that an amazing personality should have, one in a million. He hadn't even seen her and was already dazzled.

The following days, when he least expected it, he had her in front of him... the most captivating girl in the world, their gazes met, and he saw the surprise in her eyes. In a matter of seconds, the force of destiny attacked them and Max was on the ground kneeling in front of her, excited because she was looking at him. It was worse than he imagined, not even his fanciful imagination created such a charming being.

Remo yelled at him for marking her right there, for taking her in front of everyone, he asked him for control to yell at everyone that she was his. She looked at him, enchanted, the Maledetto effect without a doubt, and he didn't take his eyes off her. Max was spellbound, it seemed that his heart never beat until now. That day it seemed that he had been born again, it was magical, he was finally alive, it was like a miracle.

Max looked at her closely, her eyes were clear with an unparalleled blend as if heaven and earth merged. She smelled deliciously sweet and the strands of her hair fell like candy, shining exquisitely. Her face had a pearly tone, with fine features, she looked at him with her mouth half open as if asking for a kiss, in the same way that his lips begged to get closer to her.

Her curves drove him crazy, his hands imagined how it would feel to take her body, her skirt made her look like a mermaid, her chest begged for caresses… making his heart beat faster. And she was a human… a simple human, beautiful, intelligent, but weak. Was the goddess laughing at him? It was a curse without a doubt.

He still doesn't know where he found the strength to walk away from her, but his body ached, knowing she was close, and he wasn't touching her. Days passed and Max couldn't even go running because he was afraid Remo would freak out and go after her.

He was tempted to go see where she lived. Max was traumatized, thinking if she had a boyfriend or if a man had already approached her. She was his mate. His human. For days, he secluded himself in the pack, trained and stayed with his pack members to stop thinking about her, but it was impossible.

She then came to the Dark Moon Corp office, more beautiful every day. His hands trembled from not feeling her skin, and his throat felt dry. Aurora was her name, of course it was Aurora… it was her Aurora, her mate. The little daughter of the betas. How did she survive? He didn't know it, but she had lived, the curse seeks a way to continue.

Max avoided seeing her, and frankly he couldn't even think. He managed to behave normally, but he could hear himself growling when she was close, his animal side dominating.

He buries himself with work while a small word dominated his senses… Aurora, Aurora, Aurora… came to cast a spell on him, a charming little goddess who has the sole objective of trapping him and driving him crazy. Everything about her was wonderful, her voice, her smell, the way she spoke, when she smiled it made him hard as a brick… it was a nightmare.

It occurred to Max that all he could do was walk away. Simple. She didn't seem to feel anything for him, he doesn't want to hurt her. A Maledetto never hurt his mate, because his uncle said that was the source of the course, the beginning of it, an old Maledetto hurting a she-wolf. He can't even think of hurting that sweet angel.

Perhaps… Perhaps if the contract with the Kols was broken, he would never have to see her again. Max didn't tell his uncle Luca the truth, but he tried everything, boycotted the deal, lied, begged and tried to trick his uncle, to no avail. He began to make excuses:

Why are we going to continue with this project?

Maybe it's not as good as we thought.

We're probably wasting our time here. Wouldn't it be better to leave this project?

It was obvious that Luca knew something was wrong with his nephew. He didn't understand what was happening to Max, as much as he tried. His nephew was annoyed, with a strange attitude, and a terrible mood, but nothing more. Over the days, he realized that everything was related to the Kols. Every time the new consultant approached or the Kols were mentioned….there he heard a forced breathing, or Max hands holding the edge of his chair in a way that made his knuckles look paler than usual.

Luca concluded that it was simple hatred related to the Kols, and with time this would get better. So he left things as they were. At the end of the day, Max was in charge of this project, and he will have to deal with it.

Max avoided going to the office. But, sometimes… many times, he hoped that she would surprise him and appear out of nowhere, see her face, hear her voice that he could listen to for the rest of his life. At night Max consoled himself with the thought that he had seen her, that he knew she was wonderful, and now their paths would part. Yes, he could live with that. Although when he thought of her, his body sighed, almost suffused with pleasure.

In the dark of the night he reminded her smile, her tied hair, her feet, the movement of her hands… her sweet smell, it was the worst and the best thing in the world. He dreamed of even touching her once, a single strand of hair, an inch of her skin, but he knew that then… there's no way back, his sentence would be sealed.

Like a fool, he promised himself to keep everything in his memory and, by the moon goddess! Get as far away from her as possible!

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