Out Running the Alpha

Que the Tragic Backstory

"My father sent you?" I asked astonished. I knew that they would be worried about me, but I never thought that my father would challenge Bastien.

"Yes," he whispered, "We can't go now, but I want you to be ready when I come for you". He slipped away. I wanted to run or call after him, but that would have attracted attention and I knew that if Jax or Flint caught him here he would be killed.

I slipped back to my bedroom where Jax and Flint were waiting. "Where were you lady. We couldn't find you anywhere. With Bastien gone you have to be in our eyesight at all times" Jax growled frustratedly.

"I was just coming back from the library," I said innocently. It was true enough I guess I just had stopped in Bastien's office and ran into a Were who wanted to rescue me on the way.

They looked unconvinced but didn't press the matter. They apparently hadn't forgotten my previous escape attempts. I wondered what I would do about Victor's offer to help me get home. On the one hand, I desperately wanted to go back to Grayson and my dad, but on the other hand, even if I did manage to get away Bastien he would come for me putting everyone I cared about in danger. I also was starting to wonder if I really wanted to leave Bastien. I knew it was probably the bond, but I already missed him. I ached for his touch and I remembered how he'd held me in the library. I'd felt how much he had wanted to kiss me but hadn't because he didn't want to push me. The gentleness he had shown me contrasted with his volatile nature and I was starting to think that it wasn't an act. Even if it wasn't an act it was still impossible to tell if it was actually him or the bond changing him. If it was the bond I wondered how it would change me.

I spent the next several days reading as much as I could about Rogues. If I did decide to go with Victor back home to Virginia that would bring me closer to Brandon. It wasn't until the third day that I found something remotely useful. It said that the reason Rogues turned cruel and violent was that when they rejected pack life it damaged their soul. The soul sounded a lot like spirit. There might be a way I could heal him with spirit. I just hoped that if I could do that then it would reverse the coldness I'd seen in his eyes.

Now I just needed to find out if that was even remotely possible to heal with spirit. The problem is that there was so little information about spirit since there had only been a handful of spirit users and of those few there wasn't much written about them.

I also started training with Flint despite Jaxs protests. He was helping me figure out the most effective ways to use the elements in a fight although he wouldn't actually touch me. I guess no one was exempt from Bastien's rage.

After a training session, I headed down to the kitchen starving. After these training sessions I was always left starving and exhausted. "Can you get anything?" Flint asked following me in.

"Yeah, could you make me a sandwich?" I asked hopefully sitting at a barstool at the marble kitchen island.

"You know he's really not a bad guy" Flint said taking bread and sandwich meat out of the refrigerator.

"What?" I asked confused from exhaustion.

"Bastien. He's not a bad guy" Flint said gently. "He might be ruthless, but he's fair and he's a good alpha. He looks after everyone in his territory even the humans. He takes in those who were attacked by rogues whereas most packs shun them leaving them to become rogues themselves or just killing them onsite".

"Wow, he's such a saint" I rolled my eyes. "It seems to me that a good alpha wouldn't make his pack members fight to the death".

"You just don't understand him," Flint said gently.

"Ok, que the tragic backstory" I rolled my eyes.

"You can make jokes, but I think hearing about how Bastien grew up will help you understand why he is the way he is and you'll stop seeing everything he does as pure evil," he said.

"I'm sorry, but I don't think anything you say can make me forgive him for kidnapping me, forcing me to watch people fight to the death and marking me against my will," I said listing just some of the atrocities I'd seen him commit. I lifted my chin as if to brandish the forced mark as the smoking gun.

"Just hear me out," he said handing me a sandwich. "Lucien, Bastien's father, was very strict with him growing up raising him to what he thought an alpha should be. Lucien was very traditional and believed in traditional punishments".

"Traditional punishments?" I asked confused.

"Silver collars and drinking water laced with wolfsbane are just some of what Lucien forced Bastien to do when he miss behaved," Flint said giving me a meaningful look and I was chastened. I felt bad that Bastien had been forced to go through that, but it still wasn't enough to excuse his actions, plus I didn't even know if FLint was telling the truth.

"What about his mother?" I asked feeling curious despite myself.

"She died when Bastien was ten" Flint explained.

"That's horrible. How did it happen?" I asked shocked.

"She tried to protect Bastien when Lucien flew into a rage after Bastien tried to run away. And after his father blamed the death of his mother. Bastien has never said so, but he also blames himself for her death." Flint explained.

"That's horrible" I gasped. As someone who had experienced terrible parenting I was sympathetic to anyone who had problematic parents. I remembered how Bastien had looked when I'd told him about my childhood. I'd thought that it had been pitty, but now looking back now though he might have been pitying me because he saw his own childhood reflected in me.

"It is after that he did everything that his father wanted him to. He became cruel and hard. That started to change when he met Delilah" he said.

"Delilah?" I asked trying to ignore the jealousy rearing up in the bond.

"She was Bastien's first love" Flint looked at me sadly. They were going to mate with each other even though they weren't true mates. He loved her so much he'd started to change back into the sweet kid that he had been when he was younger. Then Delilah found her true mate the alpha of a neighboring pack. He tried to convince her to stay, but she left him anyway. That's why he's so desperate to hang on to you. He never thought that he would have a true mate. When he found you it was all he could do to keep from hunting you down when he smelled you in the forest".

I finished my sandwich in silence thinking about what Flint had told me. Perhaps the change that I'd seen in Bastien wasn't due to the bond after all, but instead was him starting to trust me after what he'd went through with Delilah. It also made me realize what he'd do to keep me from leaving him as Delilah had left him.

I lay down on his bed engulfed by his scent and breathed it in deeply. I hated how much I yearned for him. I'd never really gotten involved with a guy before this. Greyson had been the closest thing I'd ever had to a boyfriend and I resented Bastien for forcing this on me.

Outside a chorus of wolves howled and I knew that Bastien had returned.

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Authors Note: Hey guys please let me know what you thought of the chapter and if you have any ideas of what you want to see going forward. As always please comment and Vote! Shout out to @DestinyAlpha94 @RofiReader and @BrittneyLathan! For a chance at a shout out please vote and comment!