#Chapter 5: Fated Mates

Isla's POV

When I blinked my eyes open, I was lying in a pool of my own sticky blood in the back of a moving van.

Two of the enforcers were up front, one driving and one in the passenger seat. The third was sitting behind me, nearer the back door, as if guarding it.

Everything hurt. My entire right side was burned from the pavement and bleeding. I definitely had an open wound on the side of my head.

Yet even with these wounds, my wrists and ankles were tied. My arms were behind my back.

I tried to stay still, not wanting these brutes to know I had awakened. Even injured, even restrained, if they underestimated me, maybe I could still find a way out of this…

That hope was dwindling fast, though. My head hurt so badly, I could barely think straight.

"Alpha said to bring her back alive," the enforcer by the back door said. "Are you sure you didn't rough her up too much? She looks like the hells."

The werewolf in the passenger seat scoffed. "She's a traitor. A criminal. A Lycan! She deserves worse. Besides, she's still breathing, isn't she? That means she's alive."

"Adrian wants his revenge," said the man behind the wheel.

"And he'll have it," said the one in the passenger seat. "He'd probably love to see her sliced into a million pieces, so long as he gets to have the finishing blow."

"I hope you're right," the one by the back door said. "Or it's our asses on the line."

"Don't be a spineless coward," snapped the man in the passenger seat. He must have been something like the leader, with how he spoke with such confidence and the others bent to his words. "Alpha will likely reward me for roughing her up like this."

"If you say so," the man by the door said.

The car went over a bump in the road, and I grit my teeth, trying not to cry out from the pain. Fortunately, it was so intense that it didn't take long before I passed out again.

When I came to once more, I was thrown over someone's shoulder and carried into a familiar building that I knew well.

From the outside, it appeared like a community center, but inside, it was where most of the politics of the pack took place, complete with offices for the Alpha and other important members of the pack, and a large open room for events and meetings.

And judgements.

I was carried into that room, and then unceremoniously dumped down onto the linoleum. I cried out, unable to fake unconsciousness anymore.

Opening my eyes, I saw that I had been dropped at the feet of Adrian, with Gideon, the son of the former Gamma, standing at his side.

Both men were glaring at me.

Gideon's eyes flashed with pure hatred. Adrian's gaze was much more complicated, as it seemed careful cool. Whatever he was really feeling was hidden behind a wall of ice.

That was new. In the past, he had shown every emotion to me openly.

Yet, in that moment, as I was looking at him and he was looking at me, something shifted inside of me, like a key sliding into a lock and clicking open. I felt a surge of love and desire, of hope and home.

Then came the dread, knowing just what this feeling was.

Our inner wolves finally recognized each other as our fated mates.

Years ago, I had dreamed of this moment.

Now, all I wanted to do was cry in misery.

Adrian watched me without expression for the length of a heartbeat, and then he laughed, cruelly, callously.

He stepped closer to me, and knelt down in front of me. He roughly grabbed me by my chin and forced it upright so that I couldn't look anywhere but into his eyes.

Through our new mindlink, created with our mating bond, he taunted viciously, "All these years I searched for my fated mate, without success, only to discover that it has been you all this time. Of course it had to be you. A disgusting traitor."

Adrian had grown since I'd last seen him. His shoulders were wider, his muscles more pronounced. He was stronger, every inch the Alpha he had always been destined to be.

And he was so incredibly handsome. His boyish features had hardened into the hard jawline and pronounced, sharp cheekbones of a man. He'd always been attractive, but he was devastating now.

Yet, in his eyes, there was a lack of warmth. He had once looked at me with hope and love. Now, I saw only a blizzard in his blue eyes.

I shivered. Realization slipped into my mind.

This was why he had been so desperate to find me. Not just for revenge, but also because my death was now a necessity.

So long as we were mated, he couldn't move on. To find his second chance mate, he would need to kill me.

He also likely didn't want anyone to know that I belonged to him. How humiliating that would have been for him, for his pack to know he was bound to a traitor.

A low growl escaped Adrian's throat, and my pain amplified.

But then it abruptly cut off.

A bead of blood had fallen down my face and dripped onto his fingers. His eyes went to my head wound, to where the blood had matted my hair. Then he dropped his gaze to take in the rest of me, as if now seeing my wounds for the first time.

Perhaps his anger had made him blind to my injuries. Or the spark of the mating bond had distracted him.

But it was clear he could see it now.

Aside from my head wound, my shoulder was the worst off. It had taken the brunt of the weight when I had been shoved down onto the pavement. The burn had worn a hole in my shirt and the skin was gnarled and bleeding.

Adrian released my chin and traced one finger around the worst of the burn.

His voice void of any emotion, he asked, "Who did this?"

The leader of the three enforcers stepped forward at once. "I did, Alpha," he said, pride in his voice. He was clearly expecting praise for what he'd done.

In that moment, I wasn't certain that Adrian wouldn't give it.

Adrian released me, stood, and walked toward the enforcer. "You?" he asked.

"Yes, Alpha," the enforcer replied.

For a second nothing happened, but then, in a flash, Adrian's boot slammed into the man's chest.

The enforcer flew across the room and crashed into the far wall so hard he left a dent. Then, he slipped down, collapsing onto the ground.