Bad Moon Rising

Chapter 8: Mate







You’re mine….and we belong together….yes we belong together, for eternity…..you’re mine, your lips belong to me…..yes they belong to me, for eternity…..you’re mine, my baby…..and you’ll always be….I swear by everything I own…..you’ll always, always be mine









Remus was late coming down for breakfast, not that it was unusual on the morning after a full moon. Hermione was just a little impatient to see him, to figure out what it was that had happened the night before. Why had the wolf needed her to be close in order to be at ease? When he arrived he staggered into the kitchen and fell into one of the rickety chairs as though it had taken every ounce of his energy to get there.







She got up and fixed him a cup of coffee then filled a bowl with oatmeal and sat it in front of him. He smiled at her gratefully and they sat in silence while he ate his fill. He knew it was time for him to tell her and his stomach began to roil in protest as he shoved the bowl away and wrapped his hands around the steaming mug of coffee.







“Did the boys leave?” he asked, staring into the black liquid as if he could find answers there.







“Yes, they left about an hour ago. Are you alright? Do you need any pain or healing potions?” She asked softly. He shook his head and continued staring into the coffee. “Alright, are you going to tell me what was going on last night? Why didn’t your wolfsbane potion work?”







“It worked, I was lucid.” He said quietly. “It just didn’t matter.”







“What do you mean it didn’t matter? Why were you so agitated, Remus? Why did you want me there?” He looked like he might burst into tears at any moment and she became worried.







“Hermione...I don’t know how to say this so I will just….” He was fucking up and he knew it, tripping over his words and his thoughts. He took a deep breath and looked up, meeting her gaze and feeling the pull of emotion. “The night of the black moon, the night I took your virginity….I inadvertently mated you.”







Her brow furrowed and she looked confused for a moment. She let his words roll around inside her head for a few seconds before they finally registered and their meaning slowly began to sink in.







“You mated me? As in MATE?” She felt hysteria begin to build inside her, that level of shock that was so manic that it made her want to scream and laugh at the same time.







“It wasn’t intentional, I had no idea. Though in all honesty, even if I had known I am not sure it would have mattered that night. Last night….I knew you were out and I didn’t like it, I especially didn’t like it that you were out and I was locked in a room. I kept trying to control it but I just couldn’t, I needed to get to where you were, even if I had to injure myself to do it.” He rubbed between his eyes as though he could rub out the unreasonable thoughts that raced through his head almost constantly since he had taken her.







“So that is why you calmed when I came up, because you knew I was there, safe, untouched.” She sat back in the chair and stared at him, her arms crossed. “This explains a lot, you storming out of the room when Harry was tickling me, the other night in the hall, you threatening me to stay away from other men. It all makes sense now.”







“I am so sorry, Hermione, you have no idea how sorry I am.”







“What does this mean, Remus?” She rifled through her mental files in regards to wolves and her eyes widened. “Wolves mate for life, Remus….are we…did you….is it the same?”







“Yes.” He looked away, his eyes going to the window where the rain beat against the glass. “It means that until the day I die you are my mate. I will have no other female so long as you draw breath and I will seriously harm and potentially kill any male who thinks to touch what is mine. In short, I have damned us both.”







“You see being mated to me as being damned? That is just what a woman wants to hear.” She tried not to be hurt by his words, but it wasn’t working.







“No, that isn’t it at all!” His eyes were fired up as he turned them back on her. “I have damned you to a life with a…a…werewolf stalker shadowing your every move and damned myself to a life wanting a woman that can not be mine!”





“Can’t be yours? So then what was I the other night when you were…screwing me into the wall if not yours?” She was quickly growing irritated by him and shoved her chair forcefully from the table. She stormed to the cupboard and began pulling pots and various ingredients, slamming them onto the counter as she went.







“What are you doing?” He wasn’t sure what to think about her sudden strange behavior.







“Making dinner.” She snapped, slamming the pot onto the stove and jerking open a drawer in search of a knife.







“But breakfast is barely over.” She threw the knife into the sink and turned around abruptly.







“I KNOW that! What I can’t figure out is what is so wrong with me?” She leaned back against the counter and threw her hands in the air in disgust. “I mean, my first actual boyfriend was Victor Krum who determined that I was too smart for him, which…ok, he was right….but then came Ron who said we knew each other too well to date. I dated a handful of other guys over the years and it was always she’s too smart, too well known, too bossy, too chatty, too virginal…hell I even went to dinner with Malfoy, he spent the entire time looking at his face in EVERY reflective surface we found. Now I have you…the one person I have always been able to talk to, to be myself with who doesn’t think I am too smart, too chatty, too bossy and well you did away with the virginal part so that’s not an issue now….but you tell me I am your damnation! What in the hell does a witch have to do just to get a bloke to be with her?”







Remus lost track of her rant when she began listing the men that had been in her life. Oh he heard every word she had said, but all he could focus on were the other men. Men who had wooed her, kissed her, touched her, charmed her and obviously hurt her. It didn’t matter that they were in the past, his alpha side didn’t register the passing of time, the only thing it registered was that other males had been in his mate’s life and that was unacceptable.







“No other men.” He growled, shoving his chair back from the table forcefully. He was across the room and in front of her in an instant. “See….do you see what it does to me? This is why we are damned!”







“Have you ever thought that maybe, just maybe, I like the idea of belonging to you? That maybe I welcome your touch, long for it even? Have you given a second thought to us actually having a relationship?” She shoved at his chest and pushed past him. “Obviously not, you would rather whine about how hard your life is, how miserable you are rather than try to be happy with me.” She grabbed her coat from the hook near the door and shoved her arms into it.







“Where are you going?” He demanded.







“To the burrow.” She snapped, buttoning her coat.







“The burrow…Charlie and George are there.” He growled. She narrowed her eyes and looked up at him.







“Yes they are. Get over it, Remus.”







“When will you be back?” He asked, fisting and un-fisting his hands in agitation.







“I don’t know. I may go to the school and spend some time with Severus.” She wanted to ask him about the situation.







“Alone?” He growled again.





“Yes, alone. I am getting sick of you growling at me. I am perfectly safe with Severus, I have spent days alone with him and he didn’t jump my bones, I can’t imagine why he would decide to now.” She jerked open the door and to his despair she disappeared off of the back stoop.







***Lyric from We Belong Together by Richie Valens