His Lover, My Mate

Four: The Night Pack

*Aletha*

Her neck was aching with raw pain. Aletha could still feel his sharp teeth assaulting her, drinking in her blood as he severed the bond she had with Lucien. Now she was only aware of this male, this deadly Alpha with sharp grey eyes and a cruel smile.

Now he brought her out of the gates of the Shadow Pack. She turned back to take one last look at the pack she knew for seven years. All she saw were tall, sinister-looking men who looked at her scornfully. She didn't want their Alpha, after all. They didn't trust her.

She yanked her hand away from Rush, hugging herself as she began to shiver. She couldn't believe it. She was being snatched away from her pack, and none of Lucien's men or Lucien himself could do anything. She wasn't his Luna anymore. She wasn't his wife or mate anymore. She never was.

Rush gave her a sidelong glance, his dark brows slanting down disapprovingly. "Start walking, we don't have all night."

She couldn't get her feet to move anymore. She'd never been out of the Shadow Pack's territory in so long. The last time she was out, she'd been running from rogues. "Please," she began. "Please don't take me. Please just let me stay here!"

Rush turned around now. "You're coming with me. I'm taking you to the Night Pack, whether you like it or not." He looked past her to his men. "Shift," he told them.

At his word, they all turned into monstrous wolves that ranged from black to different shades of grey. They all had gleaming red eyes, and they watched her hungrily.

She took a step back, something telling her to run. The way they watched her wasn't normal, like their hunger stemmed from their souls. She didn't realize that she was stepping further away from them until her back hit the Alpha. She scrambled away, only to be yanked back by the him.

He hadn't shifted yet, and she had the feeling he would appear even more terrifying than his men. He examined her silently, looking at her face before his gaze travelled to her hair. He took a lock of it, studying it. "Dark crimson," he said. "What a lovely color. The color of blood."

She'd never been so terrified of a man before. She stepped away, shaking her head. "Please...please let me go."

"Shift," he commanded her in a very cold voice.

She didn't want to obey him, but he was an Alpha, and not just any Alpha. He was now her Alpha. Her mate. Her body would always obey him. She started to scream in protest as fur ripped through her dress and her body morphed into a wolf. On the ground was her tattered dress and in front of her was Rush, still watching her like a hawk.

"Interesting," he said, reaching out to touch her fur. "I've never seen a red wolf before." Her body shivered when his skin met her fur, and she wanted to moan out in pleasure, but she growled instead, stepping away from him.

Behind her, his men growled louder, threatening her to lower her head before one of them killed her for challenging their Alpha.

But Rush raised his hand to silence them. "That's alright. She will learn to accept me." He turned away from her. "She has no one left to accept but me." Then he shifted into his large grey wolf. In a way, the color suited him well. It was the same shade of his stormy grey eyes that burned and haunted.

She hated them.

Let's go, Rush ordered. His Alpha tone was stark this time, burning through the link. She knew he used the authority because of her, because he knew she wouldn't move if he didn't.

She felt her body obey him. And she followed behind him, her heart tearing more and more as she leaped further away from the Shadow Pack. She felt tears coming out of her eyes, but she was still forced to obey the Night Alpha. She was forced to leave her home and enter an unfamiliar, hostile territory.