Nihal sighed, looking at the fidgety girl before him.

"Are you going to say something or are you just going to stare at the floor?" Nihal finally asked, tired of waiting for her to speak.

"What do you know about mates?" Yara questioned in a soft voice.

Nihal's eyes narrowed upon hearing her question. It was already strange for her to come and talk to him and if that wasn't enough, she was asking him incredulous questions.

"What is it to you? How does it matter whether I know about it or not?" Nihal questioned back instead of answering.

"It does. I will explain everything later after you answer my question." Yara insisted.

Nihal stared at her, looking unamused. Yara too stared back, not giving up.

Nihal sighed giving up on the little competition.

"As far as I know that your kind has a soulmate for everybody. You feel the bond that makes you fall in love with each other," Nihal answered unsurely, not knowing if his knowledge was accurate.

"Mate bond creates affection. Loving is up to us," Yara corrected him politely.

"Okayyy," Nihal trailed out, not understanding where this conversation was moving.

"Umm..actually..you see..I am..no I mean..we are...we are mates."

After lots of stumbling, Yara finally managed to blurt it out. She had anticipated disbelief on his part but she never expected him to outright laugh on her face.

"Nice plan," Nihal complimented between his laughs.

"What?" Yara whispered, looking wary.

Nihal finally stopped laughing and looked at her keenly.

"It was a really good plan. Acting like you are my mate would be best way to get some inside information from me and help Vivaan. I applaud you for your performance, but I think you should leave now." Nihal made a show of slow clapping and then pointed towards the door.

"No, it's not like that. Nihal I—" Yara suddenly choked on her words and fell down gasping for air.

"Woah! Yara Yara." Nihal ran towards her to help her out but as soon as he sat beside her, Yara's eyes rolled back and she fainted.

"Shit!" Nihal cursed.

He tried patting her cheeks, sprinking some water on her but nothing worked. Giving up, he carefully lifted her up and laid her on the bed, before going outside to call someone for help.

                          ★★★★★

Hritika and Vivaan got shocked when the room's door was burst open and a frantic Nihal came out.

"Hritika, Yara...." Nihal paused when he saw Vivaan standing there.

Vivaan didn't waste time on hearing Nihal and immediately ran inside the room for Yara, slamming his shoulder against Nihal's shoulder in process.

Hritika and Nihal too went back to the room to see Vivaan crouched on the floor beside the bed where Yara was sleeping.

"What did you do to her?" Vivaan snarled, turning to face Nihal with bloodshot eyes.

"I didn't do anything. She must have been scared of your reaction as she failed her mission. You must have threatened her and so she fainted in fear," Nihal argued.

"What mission?" Hritika asked.

"Yes, what mission?" Vivaan inquired too.

Vivaan's forehead had furrowed upon hearing Nihal's nonsensical claims.

"Look at you, acting so innocent." Nihal taunted Vivaan and then turned towards Hritika to he explain.

"His Beta came here to tell me that we are mates. I guess they did this to extract information from us and then eventually back stab us," Nihal explained, causing Vivaan to stand up with a roar.

"She is really your mate and she is in this condition because of your false claims," Vivaan shouted, clutching Nihal's collar.

"Woah! Stop right here this instant." Hritika came in between the two.

"Do you really want to fight when that girl is unconscious?" Hritika questioned.

Listening to Hritika, they both backed off but that didn't stop them from glaring at each other.

"There's a height of lying. Mates? Seriously? Wasn't the whole council held because Dad being with Mom was hazardous as she was a human? Then how come your Beta is my mate? We both are from different species," Nihal asked or rather spat out his question.

"Look, I understand that this is hard to believe but listen to me once," Vivaan stated as calmly as he could.

He so wanted to punch Nihal on his face but his Best friend's life was on line.

"Then explain." Hritika gestured to speak.

"It's rare but there are few human mates around the world. Those humans have some genes that make them compatible to us. Your mother was in danger because she wasn't his mate. Even though your human side is dominant, you still have werewolf genes in your DNA.

"This is not our plan. Mates are very precious for our kind and I would never ask Yara to fake something like this," Vivaan explained, hoping that they would believe him.

"Then why did she faint?" Nihal inquired, now getting serious about the situation.

Vivaan ran his hand through his face in exhaustion.

"Yara was trying hard to hide the fact that you were his mate. Because of this, Sachi's health declined. She was on the verge of dying and your reaction must have been like a last blow."

"Sachi?" Hritika asked in a low voice.

"Yara's wolf," Vivaan replied, looking at Yara's sleeping figure.

"She must have been aware of the consequences then why did she try to hide?" Nihal questioned, looking at Yara too.

"For me," Vivaan answered in a sad whisper, falling onto his knees as a lone tear escaped his eyes.