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Kathy’s mouth falls open and I gasp in a breath as I look up to see the Alpha staring at his daughter, the warning clear in his eyes. She starts to sputter, I’m sure to back pedal or something. Anything.
Alpha Thomas has never stepped in to stop the abuse before. He glances down at me, but his eyes are glacial. If he actually cared about me, I would see pity there. Right? Something other than calculating coldness?
When I look at Samuel, he’s standing there with uncertainty on his face along with a heaping side of regret and remorse. For me? I might have believed it was real years ago, but I’m not sure anymore.
Kathy sounds unsure, “She needs to know her place?” When the Alpha doesn’t say anything, her brain seems to start firing faster and words start tumbling out of her mouth, “She needs to know she’s trash. She’ll never be good enough to be the Luna of this pack. She’s nothing. She deserves pain and to be tormented.”
Tears well up in my eyes. Not because of her words, I’ve heard them all before. It’s just hard to believe it was ever different between us. The memories of when we were best friends are like fog in the early morning being burned off by the heat of the sun. It’s there, but is it really? Is it tangible or something that will be erased without a trace?
We used to stay up past our bedtime when we had sleepovers and watch movies about princesses and princes. We used to talk about finding our mates and how we hoped they were both in Waning Moon because then we’d be able to have houses next to each other. We called each other sisters.
Now, looking at Kathy, I don’t know the woman she’s turned into.
It breaks my heart, but I can’t let them see my weakness. I can’t let them know how much those memories cut me because of how far away they are. Then they’ll know what to use to break me.
I won’t let that happen.
Alpha Thomas opens his mouth, but a loud growl comes from somewhere outside the packhouse. It’s so loud that I feel the floor below me shake and a shiver races up and down my spine. My wolf is fully alert in my mind, her ears perked up and listening for another sound from whoever growled like that.
I’m surprised as hell when Alpha Thomas looks down at me and I see fear in his eyes. It doesn’t make me feel brave though, it makes me scared. Who the hell could make our Alpha fearful?
This does not bode well for anyone, I’m sure of it.
“I like this jackass of an Alpha being afraid,” my wolf huffs.
I stand up on shaky legs as Alpha Thomas, Kathy, and Samuel race out of the Beta office, barely giving me a second look. No one has made an announcement through the pack mind-link about an attack or anything. Would I even get included in the link? I really don’t know.
Small black dots start to dance in my vision as I make it to the stairs of the packhouse and grip the banister to help me walk down. I’ve been left behind to fend for myself, but there’s nothing new about that. My wolf chuffs in my head and I roll my eyes. This pack really is the fucking worst.
“Where is she? Where is my mate?” The angry shouting is coming from a very pissed off male downstairs and something about his voice, maybe the urgency in it, tugs at me. I move a little faster, wanting to see who the voice belongs to. He growls menacingly, “Why the fuck do I smell my mate’s blood on you?”
I hobble down the last few steps and make my way into the entranceway of the packhouse. The sight which greets me has me freezing. There’s a man standing there and he’s seething with rage, his hand wrapped around Kathy’s throat and lifting her into the air as if she weighs nothing.
To him, she probably does. He’s the largest man I’ve ever seen. He must be at least 6’6” and considering I’m on the shorter side for a werewolf at 5’5, I know he’ll tower over me. Todd is standing there along with Alpha Thomas, both of them a little over six feet tall and I almost snicker at how they look like little boys compared to this man. It’s not just his height either—it’s everything about him.
He’s massive. His shoulders are broad and muscular. His hair is dark brown and longer on top than on the sides, so it falls across his forehead, making him look put together and messy at the same time. There’s an air of dominance around him that I wish I could wrap around my shoulders like a blanket and snuggle into for the rest of my life.
The air in the room fills with tension, and I swear I can smell the ozone in the air. It’s the same smell right before it rains. I’ve never welcomed a storm more than I do right now.
When his eyes meet mine, it’s as if a bolt of lightning strikes me. His eyes are so green and…familiar. Something snaps inside of me, and I suck in a lungful of air, trying to make sense of everything going on. The black spots in my vision grow and tremble, making it harder for me to see. Harder for me to understand.
I can feel myself falling just as I hear a crash right before warm arms the size of fucking tree trunks catch me. I take another deep breath; cedar and a hint of berries are all I can smell. I let go knowing I’m safe for the first time in far too long. Darkness takes me under, and I can only hope my green-eyed savior will be there when I wake up.
“Mate,” being growled against the crown of my head and rumbling through my body is the last thing I hear.
CHAPTER 6
TRISTAN
I look down at the gorgeous woman in my arms and my heart fucking breaks while it soars at the same time. She’s been beaten and, considering I smelled my mate’s blood on the bitch on the other side of the room, I have no doubt she has something to do with it. If my mate hadn’t walked into the room, I’m pretty sure I would have strangled the woman.
They look like they’re about the same age. Shouldn’t they be friends?
It doesn’t make any sense to me and it’s clear that whatever happened to my Serenity wasn’t something at training. Sparring can get out of control, especially when we’re talking about wolves, but this is something else entirely. It’s clear from the way she’s injured that my mate didn’t fight back.
I wish the fresh blood wasn’t the only signs of abuse on my mate. She’s underweight and looks fragile, like she’s about to break. There are bruises on her arms like look like they’re almost healed completely which, even with our wolves, can take a while. Then there’s the scent of desperation and desolation coming from her. It almost completely masks her natural caramel and vanilla scent, the same scent I’ve been dreaming about for eight years.
When I looked across the room and into her gorgeous blue-grey eyes, I could see the pain there. It was like she reached into my chest, grabbed my heart, and squeezed. I wanted to fall to my knees, but I couldn’t because she needed me to catch her as she passed out.
