Rejecting the Alpha

3 Kylie

I curled up in the centre of the bed, my eyes on the door that had shut my mate away from me. My wolf was a mass of twisting confusion. She was afraid of him, but she also wanted to be close to him. I could feel him even though he was gone through the mark he had forced onto my neck.

It didn't feel like any of the bonds to my pack. He felt cold and empty where there should have been heat and emotion, at least anger or rage. But there was nothing, like he was a void where a person should be.

My eyes welled up with tears as everything hit me, hard and painful. So many were dead. I didn't know what happened to my parents or my siblings. They more than likely were dead. I tried to reach out to them and my friends in vain, and my heart broke with every failed attempt. Surely Andrea was still alive, but the frayed pack bond must have finally snapped.

I was alone, except for the empty monster who had claimed me as his.

I cried until my head hurt and my eyes ached and no more liquid pushed out of my eyes. I needed to escape this place, but first, I needed to find a way to get the survivors away. I was the only one who even had a chance to save them, so I was going to need to be brave.

There had never been a need to be brave before. I wasn't a warrior, and I had still been deciding what I wanted to do with my life when he had destroyed everything.

I sniffled again.

There had to be a way to escape. I just had to survive until I found it.

—————

At a certain point, I tried the door and discovered it was locked, as were the doors to the balcony, as I had suspected. I wandered his room for a while, still wrapped in the blanket. Would he really keep me locked in his bedroom, naked?

This was nothing like the innocent dreams of a mate I had once had. This was a nightmare.

More tears. My throat was dry, so I went into his sickeningly high end bathroom and lapped water from the tap. If I completely wasted away, the remainder of my pack was doomed.

They might be, anyway, but I had to try. I could live for that, for now, and for my eventual escape.

I inspected the mark on my neck in the mirror. It had already healed, but it was still visible, more red and angry than normal mate marks, probably because of the way he had forced it on me. I hated him so much, I wondered if he could feel it through this new link. I almost hoped he did.

Abandoning the bathroom, and passing the repugnant bed, I walked over the wide window. The ledge was fairly wide, so I curled up on the corner of the windowsill and looked out at the world I couldn't reach, half hoping to see someone familiar alive and...not well, but at least still breathing.

When the door handle began to rattle I was still sitting there. I tried not to react to the sound, but my heart sped up anxiously. My wolf whined pitifully in her confusion.

He stepped inside and all my muscles stiffened.

"Mate."

I didn't move, not sure what I could do. He brought over a tray and set it on the windowsill next to me. It was covered in an array of food, and my stomach grumbled against my will. I kept my hands curled around myself instead of reaching for it.

He was standing there silently.

"I can feel something through our link, I don't know what. Is it fear?"

Obviously I was afraid. He was a monster.

"Are you afraid of me, mate?"

I finally looked at him. "Of course I'm afraid of you. You killed my people, probably my whole family, and now you're holding the safety of the other survivors hostage. You marked me against my will. How could I not be afraid of you?"