I stood there shell shocked as the unknown man pressed up against me.
He could smell my fear and he was taking it as an opportunity to make me as uncomfortable as humanly possible. He sniffed my hair. "You smell pretty, like peaches. I wonder how much the big Alpha would pay to get his pet back."
He'd have to sell me dead. I'd rather kill myself than escape from one prison to another. I rammed my elbow as hard as I could to his stomach. He doubled over and I managed to get as far away from the blade to hit his man parts with my knee.
This time he fell to the ground, moaning and cradling his fragile parts.
"Aw what's wrong? Cat got your tongue now." I wanted to stay there and gloat some more but I remembered that I was trying to run away. I turned on my heels and bumped into a hard chest.
"And where do you think you're going?" Elian drawled. He ran his gaze down me and back at the guy behind me clutching his parts and moaning. When he looked at me again, a brow was raised. "Remind me never to get on your bad side."
Despite myself, I smiled. Elion sidestepped me and crouched next to the guy. He hooked a hand under his chin, pulling his gaze up to meet his. "Who are you supposed to be?"
The guy just spat in Elion's face. Elion growled and backhanded him so hard I flinched. He dragged him up again by his collar. "You and I are going to have a talk, and this time you're going to act more civilized."
Or else. Elion dragged him up, the lower part of his body still on the floor and nodded at me. "You better get back up there, princess. I don't want to have to drag you back too."
I was tempted to just say screw it and run but Elion was looking at me like he just wanted me to try him. Like it would actually be incredibly fun to chase me down. If I thought he was any better than the man who held a knife to my throat, lord was I kidding myself.
Another man came round the corner. Elion told him to escort me back to my room. I shot another glance at the dark forest, there was no chance of me escaping now. I silently walked back to my room, different questions flying through my head. Who was that man? And what did he want with me? Why did he think he could use me to threaten Alpha Kaison?
I still didn't understand most of this werewolf stuff but it was obvious I needed to learn, if I wanted to get out of here alive. He delivered me to my room and waited until I stepped in and shut the door. Outside, a deadbolt slid into place. I was locked in. Now there definitely was no way of me escaping.
I stepped out of my trousers and fell on the bed in only my nightshirt. Might as well get some sleep. I didn't know what tomorrow held but maybe it would be a little better than today. With that thought in mind, I closed my eyes and slipped into Dreamland.
*Kaison's POV*
"Amara tried to escape." Elion said and nudged the guy sitting at my feet. "This idiot thought it would be a good idea to threaten her."
I didn't know the man who clearly wanted death sitting at my feet. He want one of mine, or else he would have thought twice before trying to harm one of my own.
"Where is she?"
Elion knew who I was asking about. "In her room. We locked her in."
I nodded. Amara was—something else. She wasn't what I expected her to be at all. She was fiesty and had an incredible sharp mouth. And I could tell she was stubborn as hell. She wouldn't stop trying to escape. She couldn't be kept down. I would have to tell her the truth.
We were in one of the underground dungeons. The intruder was chained to the ground, his face already bloodied up, Elion's handwork. The place smelled like urine and mildew, but I think most of the urine was the intruder's fault. So disgusting.
"Where are you from?" I asked the intruder in my calm, alpha voice.
It seems like Elion had done more than just 'soften him up' before bringing him to my attention. Or maybe he knew I wasn't playing. "Red river pack."
I made a disgusted face. Red river pack was the most disorganized packs I had ever seen. They only cared about one thing; their wine. So if they were dumb enough to do something like this, I had to assume they were drunk off their heads. "Your alpha sent you?"
"Yes. He said you were growing weak. An alpha without a mate is easy mark. He said you had lost your power." He grinned maliciously, blood shining on his teeth.
My jaw clenched. I wasn't so much as angry at what he had said. I was more angry at the fact that it was the truth. I was weakening, I could feel it everyday I went by without a mate. Ifi could, I would have gotten one. But no one felt right.
Until Amara. Yet, she was human. An insignificant human girl who infuriated me with every word dhe spoke. But she was my mate. My heart clenched just recalling the conversation we had. I wasn't sure how my marriage to a human girl would go in the pack. But I was certain I was going to marry her, my power was weaning and my pack was in danger.
"You made the greatest mistake crawling into my side of the woods." I brought my face dangerously close to the rat's one. "And now you're going to see just how weak I am."
Elion took that as his cue to leave. I met him outside when I was done, he silently handed me a rag to clean my bloodied hands. "Get rid of him."
Elion nodded. Elion was my trusted Beta. I trusted him with my life because he took all this in stride and because he had been my best friend since we were boys.
"What are you going to do about Amara?"
"I'm going to marry her."
Elion's gasp told me I hadn't told him this particular but of information before. I raised a brow at his exclamation. "She's my mate."
"She's a human girl." He said as if I didn't know that. "It's not done."
"You think I don't know that?"
"What about Clarisse?" .
Clarisse was a powerful werewolf in my pack. We had all thought that if I was ever going to mate with someone, it would be Clarisse. But my wolf never chose her. "It's Amara. My wolf cried out her name today."
He was getting weaker and weaker and I was losing the powers that made me Alpha of the Whitebane pack. "I'm going to marry Amara."
"The council won't agree." Elion said, not at all helpfully. "There would be outrage. Other packs will not understand it."
"I don't care. If I don't marry Amara, Elion, I will die. She's the only way to ensure Whitebane's survival."
Elion's silence was palpable. His jaw clenched until he finally spoke. "Yes, you are right."
"She cannot escape again."
"I'll keep an eye on her."
I clasped a hand on his shoulder. "Thank you, brother."
Only Elion could argue with me and see my soft side and he never took advantage of that. I knew he was worried about the implications of having a human mate but he chose instead to follow my instructions. I was glad for it, in this pack business, you could only trust a certain amount of people. I was glad Elion was one of them.
It was still dark when I retired to my room. It was the early morning and a few doors down I could feel Amara's quiet slumber. It was going to be a long night.