***Conlan's POV***

'Where is she?'  Karr prowled in tight circles inside my head.

'Enough!'

My wolf has been growing more and more volatile. His agitation was rising with my own. We've both grown short with each other. When he was like this, I tried to leave the situation and calm him down, but I can't do that right now.

'Where is her wolf?'

'Closer. Now. Closer.'

'KARR!'  I yelled at him.

'You're driving me insane. Calm down. It's not like she is our mate.'

'Oh Goddess. Did I just say the 'M' word?'

'MATE!'

He stopped pacing and started jumping excitedly.

'Mate!'

At this point yelling at him was getting me nowhere and shutting him out was dangerous.

'I have to get him to focus on the mission.'

'Karrrrrrrrr?'  I waited for him to be still, my teeth clenched.

'Do you smell her, our mate?'

Through my teeth, I managed to maintain my composure.

He huffed angrily and gritted out, 'No. Smell. Mate.'

'See. She can't be our mate; we can't smell her scent.'  I tried to reason with him.

'Ask her. Ask!'

'BE QUIET!'

My patience was flying out the window.

A slight headache started to throb at my temples as I filled up the space in the dark corner.

She shifted and tried to establish an anchor on the floor. The urge to make her and her nowhere wolf submit to me was getting stronger. But something else happened when I had the moment to carefully observe her features alone. I felt worried.

"You're bleeding."

Karr perked his ears up and then bowed his head down in shame.

'Finally, he's back.'

My words completely threw her for a loop. The bewildered look on her face suggested that she didn't believe me. I wanted to smile at her as her earthy green eyes searched mine for the meaning. I pointed to her nose.

"Huh?" Her eyebrows raised in shock, and she parted her mouth a fraction from the confusion.

'Sniff her neck.'  Karr's words awoke something in me, but I was trying to deny what it made me feel.

'No.' I said firmly.

It was an action only mates were supposed to do. The act of inhaling one's scent from the neck is extremely intimate for wolves and only should be done between mates or those that are suspected to be mates.

'She's not ours.'

'Ours!'  Karr snarled possessively.

'Fine.'

As tempting as this woman was, I knew from others that have found their mate that she could not be ours. Through their scent alone our wolf would be able to tell a mile away that our mate was near let alone in the close proximity of a bar.

This time I leaned in so I could almost touch her.

I wanted to.

The loose hairs around her face moved when I took a deep breath trying to draw in as much of her natural smell.

That feeling I was trying to hide, was a failure. I didn't even know I was hoping for the improbable. My heart clenched and there was a heaviness lodged in my chest. The weight was nearly suffocating.

*Whine**Whine*

Karr whined and pawed at the air between us trying to touch her wolf that wasn't there.

'Where is she?'  Karr prowled in tight circles inside my head again.

'Too quiet. Wrong.'  He paced.

'Enough,' I ordered.

'I can't feel her wolf either. That doesn't mean she doesn't have one.'

'Wrong,' he snapped. 'Empty. She's empty.'

'Not human. No wolf.'

The loss of hope rippled through our bond.

My jaw tightened. 'We're here for the forced marked Alpha Luna.'

'MARKED!' Rage boiled from within Karr.

'CONTROL YOURSELF!' I bellowed down our bond, beginning to shut him out.

'Shut me out! I shift!'  He struggled to overthrow my dominance. He's never fought me this hard before.

My blood ran cold.

Shifting here in a bar full of humans would destroy everything.

'He's willing to risk our entire life. Our status and revenge?'

A fire burned in him now, low and smoldering. Ready to flare again with the slightest breeze and burn everything down.

'Closer,' he demanded.

'Touch.'

'It doesn't work like that.' I tried again to reason with him.

'Mate.'

The word hit like a strike to the ribs.

I went still.

'You know that isn't true.'

Karr stopped pacing.

Silence.

I braced for the worst.

'Ours.'

My stomach dropped lower.

'We would smell her,' I argued, voice tightening.

'Every wolf knows their mate by scent. We tried. She isn't ours.'

Karr's answer came quieter this time.

'Then why it hurts?'

I felt his pain.

Our pain.

It did hurt.

With one last desperate attempt I moved closer. Right next to her ear. Breathing her in. Hair catching on my stubble.

"Where's your wolf?"

Karr's voice bled into mine. Low and primal.

Again, I took a deep inhale trying to find her scent.

Nothing.

There was no scent at all.

Impossible.

Not even shampoo. She should have carried something like exhaust, leather, and him.

A gasp escaped her lips and she visibly shivered, ruining my train of thought.

A guttural growl built low in my chest.

James was trying to mindlink me, but the look of earth-shattering loss captured all of my attention. The expression was so raw Karr whimpered. Her hurt felt tangible. Close enough to touch.

Her bottom lip tucked in her mouth as she bit down like she was trying to figure something out, like a problem she was trying to solve. She looked past me with a frown distracted by something and shook her head. I wanted to lift her chin up to capture her attention once more.

'Touch her. We feel if she mate.'  Karr said with final resolve.

There was no denying the feeling of touching your mate, or so I've been told. The idea to touch her seemed very reasonable and logically sound.

James' mindlink pressed harder.

I ignored it.

All I could see was her at this moment. Karr was urging me to verify our suspicion. It was compulsive. There was a pull we felt. I couldn't deny it anymore even if I wanted to keep pretending to.

I reached for her.

"NO!"

The sound tore through the room.

Karr recoiled.

So did I.

There was no time to process before pain exploded across my jaw as someone punched. 

Fury slammed into my restraint.

The human stood in front of me, reeking of whiskey and self-importance.

"YOU! Don't touch her." He challenged with a finger pointed.

My vision tunneled.

Karr surged forward.

'Kill him!'

My claws ached. Bones threatened to snap.

"BETA!" James barked. "Don't you dare!"

The room tilted.

My spine locked. I strained against my wolf. Every ounce of anger I swallowed, he devoured.

The shift pressed against my will like holding a door closed against an army.

Arms wrapped around me. They were warm, firm, and unyielding.

Her.

The pressure eased instantly.

Karr stilled.

The violence drained out of me like someone had pulled the plug.

"That was close," she whispered against the space above my heart.

Her.

'She stopped me from shifting.'

She had stopped me. Without force. Without authority. Just a simple hug.

I stepped back a half step and caught her hands before they could retreat.

Skin to skin.

The world narrowed to the space between us.

Karr waited silently and hopeful.

Nothing.

There was no spark, not even an ounce of that unmistakable mate recognition. Disappointment knitted my brows. My head and body felt a numbing ache.

Her nose started bleeding again but a bit heavier this time.

Her fingers trembled as her pulse raced where our hands met.

Karr whimpered. Sadder than when he grieved for our family.

I swallowed.

"You're not my mate."

I kept my voice low and controlled exactly as I was trained. The words tasted bitter against my tongue.

Something in her eyes shattered.

In them there was no violence, no confusion, just loss.

As if I had confirmed her worst fear.

Her hand tightened against her chest and up to her throat and mouth.

For one split second, I almost took it back.

Almost.

But an Alpha does not speak uncertainty into the world.

So I let her go.

She stumbled but quickly found her balance.

James looked at me with concern from his position.

The man with the matching motorcycle jacket and the one who punched me moved closer to take her back.

A wet, tearing cough ripped from her chest.

Blood stained her lips.

"Zara!"

Her human male friends said together and ran over.

'Zara.' I repeated.

A woman screamed.

I felt her friends rush over as they bumped into me to get to her.

The color was draining from her. They were frantically trying to clean her up.

"I'm okay." Zara said sadly as she looked at me.

I kept my hands in fists and turned away from her gaze.

"What did you do to her?!" The blue-haired friend spat.

"Nothing. Just talking." I said quietly, looking at each of their troubled faces.

"Nothing?!"

I forgot about him.

He approached me.

"She coughed up blood. That's not nothing asswipe!"

His disrespectful tone was enough to stir my wolf again.

"I think it's time for me to go home."

I whipped my head around to look back at her. She gave me one last look before she turned to her other friend with a matching motorcycle jacket.

The same man who touched her earlier. The same man daring to claim her now.

And I could do nothing.

She wasn't my mate.

I wasn't even sure she was one of us.

She didn't have a wolf.