The Alpha's Rogue

Chapter Twenty-two

A small triumphant smile tugs at his lips only for a brief second before he quickly replaces it with his stone cold Alpha appearance. "You heard me correct. Amelia. Francesca. Ivy. Shadows." He says my full name slower this time, sadly I had not misheard him.

"Where did you learn that name?" I shake my head in disbelief. There is no possible way he could have found this out, I mean how is this possible?

Michael is quiet as he stalks over to me in long strides. He's now inches away from my body, I can feel his heat rolling off him, his scent fills my nose sending my senses into overdrive. "I know who you are, little wolf, I know everything about you." So that's why he came after me? He came to kill me, to hold up the law and excite me for my crimes. He didn't come to win me over and force me to stay again. He doesn't want me. How could I have been so stupid.

I took a small step back from him. "You have no fucking clue what you're talking about." I lied, mainly to myself.

Michael let out a rouged breath before he closed the distance between us, seizing my hips in his grasp. "I know who you are, Amelia. You're not going anywhere." He pauses as his eyes rake over my face as if seeing me in a new light. "Amelia Francesca Ivy Shadows, daughter of Alpha Aldrich and Luna Aubrey of the Shadows pack. You know it took me a while to figure out why you still believed I was the second tier Alpha in the country, but now it all makes sense. Before me, your father was the strongest Alpha this country had seen, he was powerful and a great leader."

"I... I need to leave. Please Michael you need to let me go." I hated how vulnerable he made me, I hate how even after finding out my own mate was about to kill me that he still made me feel vulnerable and like I needed to protect him still.

Michael simple shook his head as his hold tightened on me. "There's no reason for you to run Amelia, I know who you are." He pauses and drops his voice to a whisper. "I know what you've done. I can protect you, little wolf."

I shook my head in shock. "Protect me? You can't possibly protect me." I pause wanting desperately to ask him, but not knowing quite how to phrase it, eventually I force myself to blurt out the question. "Why would you even want to protect me?"

"Amelia, I know the reason you were banished from your pack. Forced to become a rouge at such an early age. You were accused of high treason, accused of killing your Alpha and Luna- and their son- accused of killing your own family. So you ran. You ran for your life and you have spent far too long running." One of his hands left my hip to caress my cheek.

I leaned into his touch instinctively, only pulling away when I realized what I'd done. I shook my head at Michael. "Michael..."

"I know you're innocent, little wolf, I know you wouldn't do that." Michael speaks softly to me.

I shake my head at him again, my eyes dropping to the forest floor ashamed of what I was about to confess to my own mate. "It's true Michael." I pause as my eyes slowly find his to see he doesn't understand what I had meant. "I killed my parent." I say, forcing my voice to remain strong.

He tilts his head at me. "Amelia..."

"I have to go Michael, I'm so sorry." I went to turn to leave when Michael's hand caught my arm and spun me back to him with such a force that my body crashed into his.

"Amelia, sweetie, you didn't kill your parents." He says softly.

I shake my head as I tilt my head to look up at him. "Yes I did, I was there. I lit the fire that killed them." I felt my heart sinking as I spoke these words aloud for the first time since that awful night, I felt my body weakening at having to speak these words to my own mate.

"Little wolf." His hand raised to tuck some flyaway hairs behind my ear. "You didn't do it, you were to little, to young at the time to have lifted such a heavy carton of gasoline and pour it all over them, I've seen the crime scene photos Amelia, I examined the evidence myself the second Branson had received the documents from his source. I know it couldn't have been you." He pauses before spelling it out for me. "You were framed, Amelia, someone went through a lot of effort to make it look like you had done it. I don't know why someone would, but they did."

Branson knew too? Is that what was so urgent earlier? Is that what was in that manila folder? All my information, everything about my parents deaths?

I look into Michael's eyes, still confused. "But I was there. I lit the fire."

"I can't explain that part, but the only part of evidence that you did it was your confession. Your prints weren't on the gas carton- if you somehow managed to lift that you would have left prints but it had been wiped down completely." He dropped his forehead against mine. "You confessed to a crime you didn't actually commit."

I shake my head, this can't be true. I did it. I know I did. I remember doing it, it haunts me every second of every day. What I did haunts my dreams even to this day. "I remember doing it. I remember hearing their dying screams. I remember killing them." I could feel my eyes welling up at the thought of their deaths, I wanted so desperately to hold them back so I didn't appear weak, but my emotions were too strong and soon tears started slowly beading down my cheeks

Michael lets out a long sigh as both his thumbs drag across my cheek, collecting my tears before moving to rotate in circle the more I cried. "I'm sorry that I do not have all the answers, but I am one-hundred percent sure that you're innocent."

"Maybe I can help." An amused voice spoke from behind me, it sounded slightly familiar but I couldn't quite place it. "I can give you the answers you seek."