Mate

Every one of Damon's senses went into overdrive as the scent hit him at a hundred miles an hour, like a brick wall, forcing the air from his lungs as he stopped breathing. His eyes scanned the entire room in one sweep, taking in every detail before his stunned brain could fully comprehend what he was seeing. His body started to shake, his knuckles turning white, and he gripped the handle of the door with one hand and the door frame with the other as the scent wrapped around him. He gasped as his straining lungs finally filled with air, forcing his eyes to slam shut as a wave of dizziness crashed through him.

It took his addled brain a moment to catch up with the rest of his body, but he almost collapsed in the doorway when it finally did, forcing him forward as it screamed at him. MINE, MINE, MINE His mind screamed as the scents separated. He took in a deep lungful of air as he sifted through the different notes, his eyes continuing to sweep the empty room as he inhaled. Sandalwood, jasmine, musk, and something so primal that it scraped at the deepest parts of him. Omega, worming its way into his heart and burying itself in his soul, Pure, beautiful, and perfect Omega.

His Omega. His mate. The other half of him. His head sagged as the realization hit him like a ton of bricks. His brain is screaming at him. MINE. OMEGA. CLAIM. OMEGA. MINE. the words repeated over and over again. He didn't realize he was moving until he looked up. The sound of footsteps breaking through the words pounding through his head. He realized then that the words were not just running through his head; they were pouring from his mouth. His eyes snapped to the curtain next to the counter as it was thrown aside, revealing a doorway.

Clary almost ripped the curtain from its rail; she was so desperate to get to the source of the all-consuming scent that had taken hold of her limbs, forcing her forward, that she was completely oblivious to anything around her. She took no notice of her sister and her mate, following a little more cautiously. She forgot all about her meeting with Damon. All she could think of was getting to her mate. After all these years, it was finally her turn to find a chance of happiness, and a flimsy sheet of material, even if it was an irreplaceable 16th-century family heirloom tapestry gifted to him by Queen Victoria herself for his grandfather's services in enabling her to bear children, was not going to stand in his way.

Damon stopped breathing again when his eyes zeroed in on the woman standing in the doorway, breathing hard as he stared right back. Damon drank every detail of her in as the woman took a step forward, her entire body shaking. She devoured the black hair, the perfectly arched eyebrows, and a tiny little scar in one of them, breaking the perfect symmetry but adding to their perfection rather than detracting. He saw a jaw so sharp it could cut a diamond at fifty paces. She had a beautiful body, and her physique was plainly obvious even through the white shirt and dark jeans she wore. And her arms! Wow! Damon thought as he stared at the woman's arms, her forearms exposed where her shirt sleeves were rolled up to the elbows. He was pretty sure he was about to have a heart attack when he saw them. His gaze swept over the wide shoulders and trim waist before his eyes swept back up the woman's body to meet her gaze. He stared into those eyes—the most beautiful eyes he had ever seen.

Clary took an involuntary step forward. She could see nothing but her Alpha's beautiful brown eyes; she couldn't tear her gaze from them as her pupils blew and her vision tunneled. She lost track of the seconds, minutes, and hours. As she stood staring at those perfect eyes, the color of the finest dark Ecuadorian chocolate. She drew a lungful of air into her straining lungs as her gaze swept over the rest of his face, taking in the beautiful deep golden skin tone, the square jaw, the adorable almost triangular-shaped eyebrows, the perfect spikes of his mohawk, and the most beautiful lips she'd ever seen. She stared at the perfect shape of his cupid's bow, almost biting into her own bottom lip when she saw the perfectly proportioned bottom lip quirk up at the corner before her gaze swept back up to land unerringly on those eyes. She couldn't even break eye contact to look at the rest of her Alpha's body; she was too lost. She felt her soul settle in place as she stared at the other half of her as she stared at her home.

Damon hadn't realized that either of them had moved until it dawned on him that he could see every color in the woman's eyes. Multiple shades of blue more than he realized existed, with an equal number of shades of green and the odd fleck of grey all mixed together and swirled around a small orange ring, wrapped around each pupil. Pupils that were getting larger by the second as they dilated. He felt the furious beating of his heart and the expansion of his lungs, finally filling with oxygen again as his world fell into place and his soul settled inside him, just in time to hear his Omega speak.

"Hi, I'm Clary," his Omega said in a sinfully beautiful deep voice that shot right through Damon, a dazzling smile breaking through his mates' perfectly plump lips. At the exact same time, Damon introduced himself, a huge grin almost splitting his face in half.

Damon felt his mate's breath float over his face, where it was almost pressed against his as the words registered, punching a gaping hole through his lungs as his entire world fell apart.

He had found his mate. His mate was a mixed-blood omega. The one thing that, as a royal blood Alpha, was forbidden to him.

Clary felt as if somebody had shoved a knife into her chest, her heart shattering into a thousand tiny shards when she heard the word from her mates' lips.

"Fuck," they said in unison as they stared at each other. Their worlds were burning to ash as they each stared at something they wanted so badly, something they each desperately needed but could never have.

The curse. The one and only Moon Goodness curse.

Royal blood can't mate with mixed blood, or it will start the war.