Rejecting the Alpha

10 Kylie

I was as ready for him as I could be when he came for me for supper. I was dressed in an outfit Marie had provided, a fairly conservative knee-length skirt and a blouse with minimal cleavage. I didn't really care what I wore, because I had other things on my mind.

Other things, like how I was going to get the remainder of my people out of the prison. As long as he had them to hold over my head, he would have leverage over me.

When he opened the door I was waiting. He nodded to me and went directly into the washroom. I heard the shower turn on and a few minutes later he emerged. He dropped the towel and I turned my face away from those rugged muscles I had felt on top of me the night before.

My face heated along with other parts of my body. I cursed our mate-bond.

"We don't have time for that now," he said.

The fact he could tell only made my face even hotter. I likely looked like a strawberry, but fortunately he wasn't looking in my direction since he was getting dressed. A few minutes later he was ready, and I was leaving the house for the first time since he had brought me inside.

The gathering hall was unsurprisingly large, and already full of people. Instead of focusing on the overwhelming crowd, I looked at the hall itself. It was decorated with a nature theme, bouquets of sticks and flowers scattered around on the tables, and simple white lights adorning the ceiling. I followed Alpha Gavriel to the head table, and I sat down.

I could practically feel the gazes of the pack burrowing into me and I tried not to shrink back. Being in this position at home would not have been bad, surrounded by the pack I loved.

Here, I was more isolated than ever. I tried to hold back tears and steady my mental shields against him because I could not stop my thoughts.

Some of the wolves here had been the ones to kill my mom and dad and my brothers. Andrea's parents and I had not seen her brother in the cells so he was as likely as not also dead. My alpha. My luna. Their son, the boy who was once to have been my future alpha, their infant daughter. I hadn't spotted Rodney, Malcolm, Jane, Anastasia, friends who I had grown up with amongst the trapped survivors either, nor most of their parents.

The list could go on and on.

Maybe a few of them had escaped, but most likely they were dead.

Killed on the orders of the man beside me, the man who had taken my body the previous night. And deep down, I had enjoyed it, hadn't I?

I hated myself. This was pulling me into two pieces, I had to get away.

I studied the pack in front of me, wondering which ones were murderers and which ones only supported and loved the perpetrators of that recent genocide. A few tears escaped and I couldn't stop them. How could they sit here looking happy after that?

There could be no justifiable reason for my mate to have done that to anyone. Even if my alpha had been doing something that made attacking our pack necessary, the slaughter had been beyond justifiable.

I swallowed and glanced at him, keeping my shields firmly in place. He seemed unaware of me, which was good. My conflict seemed to confuse him and my escape would be impossible if I did not manage to lull him into a sense of complacency.

Alpha Gavriel stood up and spoke, his gravelly voice enthralling to my ears. "I called you all here tonight for a very specific purpose. Meet my mate, Kylie Leland. She'll be inducted into Stonemason this week on the next full moon."

There were a number of excited murmurs throughout the room. I supposed that they thought that this occasion was something to be celebrated. Supper went by painfully slowly. Their gazes were nearly tactile upon me, and I didn't want to meet any of them.