Chapter 5

Raven

The scouts sat in a circle around me as I waited for Ethan to return. They watched me like statues, still and never blinking. I feared they’d attack me as soon as I dropped my guard.

I refused to let them see that fear, though. I stood with my head held high, proud but not arrogant, and kept my eyes straight ahead. I forced myself to keep my breaths even and my hands soft at my side.

I was still the daughter of an Alpha, after all. And their ruler was my mate. I would not let their soft growls deter me from helping my mother and my unborn child.

We waited for what felt like hours. The air was eerily still around us, as though the world waited for the Alpha’s decision as well.

Finally, Ethan returned. He stepped between the scouts and up to me before transforming. I didn’t flinch as his tall human form glared down at me.

“The Alpha will not see you,” he said, lips pulled into a tight frown. “No Cross is welcome in our lands.”

My heart stopped for a moment as I searched his face. There was no mercy among these wolves.

“No, please, you don’t understand!” I pleaded, eyes watering. “It’s urgent – I must speak with him! I swear, I am loyal to your Alpha!”

“Get out of our territory,” he growled, taking a menacing step towards me.

“I’ll do anything to prove it!” I shouted, falling to my knees. “I’m begging you! I have to meet with the Alpha!

“Your tricks won’t work on us, little wolf,” he continued.

“I’m carrying his child!” I finally screamed before I could stop the words from coming out of mouth. Immediately, I stood up, horrified that I’d let my secret slip under the pressure.

The four wolves around us leapt to all fours and began growling. Ethan’s eyes narrowed.

“Lies,” he sneered. “Our Alpha would never mate with someone from the Mars Pack.”

He stepped closer to me again, faces so close our noses nearly touched. This time, I couldn’t hold back my fear. My hands trembled, and they instinctively flew to the collar of my cloak.

“Now get out of our territory before I have my scouts rip you apart.”

I kept firm eye contact with him, trying to think of something else that would convince these wolves, but the growls and snarls coming from around us made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck. I’d already tried telling them I had the Alpha’s pup. If they didn’t believe that, they wouldn’t believe anything I said.

Defeated, I hung my head and unfasted my cloak, shifting back into wolf form. I began slowly padding off, but one of the wolves nipped at my feet, making me pick up the pace.

When I crossed the border back into Mars Pack territory, I slumped to the ground, winded and lost. The wolves didn’t follow, but I could hear their mocking howls as they wandered back off into their territory.

What was I going to do now? I had nowhere else to go!

I laid there for a long while, trying to formulate a plan, but my body was fatigued and my mind whirled.

Alpha Marcus must have sensed that I was his mate as well. If I could just find a way around the scouts and talk to him in person, perhaps he would recognize my scent…

Finally, I found the strength to stand again. I couldn’t give up yet. My mother and my pup were counting on me.

I would just have to find another way inside of the territory.

I padded along the border for hours, trying to sniff out where the scouting parties most often patrolled. Their defenses were tight. I couldn’t find any weak points in the border where I would be able to use.

Focused as I was on the border, I didn’t notice the rope until it was already around my legs.

Suddenly, my paws were wrapped together by a bolas, and I was yanked further into the trees.

A few of my father’s men stood above me, smiling down at my whimpering form with greedy eyes.

“Thought you could get away from your Pa, did you?” one of them asked. He was missing several teeth and looked far too happy to have a helpless animal tied up before him. “He’ll pay us handsomely to get you back!”

I couldn’t move my legs. I tried to bite at the ropes, but the men quickly wrapped my jaw with a muzzle.

There was nothing I could do as they dragged me back to my father’s mansion.

Somehow, this time in the dungeon was more devastating and hopeless than the last.

I hadn’t seen any members of my family when I’d been dragged through the halls and thrown back into the same cell from before. It was freezing down here, and the only sound was the occasional scraping of boots as the guards posted at the front of the dungeon shifted.

I sat huddled in the corner of the cell, holding my knees to my chest. I hadn’t moved since I was tossed in here yesterday. My legs and back ached, and I was sure there were cuts and bruises I should’ve attended to from being dragged back here.

Drained of hope, though, I couldn’t find the energy to move. I could scarcely find the energy to think.

My mind was blank and hollow. I’d tried my best, and it wasn’t enough. There was nothing more I could do.

I wasn’t sure how much time had passed when two guards came to my cell and unlocked it. My head shot up, and instinct flooded into that hollow space.

This was it. If I didn’t escape now, my father would force me to abort my pup. I refused to let him take my baby away!

As they reached for me, I snarled, springing up from my crouched position. My hands were half-transformed, and I scraped them across one of the guard’s faces, leaving deep gouges.

I managed to slip past the other as his partner screamed and fell. He reached out to catch the initial guard, and the moment of surprise was all I needed to run past them and out of the dungeon.

I needed to get out of here. Even if my mate wouldn’t help me, I had to find someone who could.

As I burst through the front doors of the mansion, though, another pair of hands seized me. I tried to struggle, but these ones were much stronger. I looked up and grasped – Ethan!

Eyes wide, I looked around the front of the mansion. Unfamiliar wolves stalked our grounds, and the bodies of wolves I’d known my entire life littered the grounds.

Mom – where was my mom?

I snarled, using all my strength to try and pull away from the beta, desperate to find my mother. I shouted for her, digging my feet into the ground and pulling harder, harder, harder!

Nothing seemed to faze the warrior, though. When he tired of my struggling, he simply put an arm around my waist and lifted me effortlessly.

He carried me to the other side of our grounds. The wolves jeered as they began throwing torches towards the mansion to burn it. I still hadn’t seen my mother, and tears prickled my eyes as I thought about where she could be. Had she managed to escape?

Ethan dropped me at the feet of another man. A chorus of snickers and whistles followed.

I looked up into the eyes of Marcus Hayes.

His amber eyes glowed savagely as the fires grew. His auburn hair seemed ablaze as well, and the jagged scar down the side of his left cheek made him look ghoulish in the firelight.

“Raven Cross,” he drawled, hands neatly folded behind his back. His smirk was cruel as he stared down at me. “I suppose you got the meeting you wanted after all.”

“What have you done?” I whispered, unable to peel my eyes away from him.

“I’ve defeated your father,” he continued. “Mars Pack is mine now. By werewolf law, the Alpha’s fate, as well as his offspring, are in my hands.”

He crouched then, his smirk making my skin crawl. He was more like a devil than a wolf.

“I will take great pleasure in ripping out your father’s throat for myself,” he said, words dripping from his mouth like honey. “This victory has left me feeling merciful though.”

I held my breath, hopeful.

“I won’t kill you,” he said. “I’ll simply exile you. You are never to step foot in my lands again. Next time, I won’t be so merciful.”

He stood then, snapping his fingers. Ethan reached to grab me again.

All I could think about, though, was my mother. Would she be exiled as well? Or would she be put to death with my father?

Or would we be made into rogues?

I couldn’t stomach it. My mother, my pup, they could never survive the harsh wilds I’d heard stories about.

The only was was to tell Marcus the truth. He hadn’t allowed me an audience before, but if I could just tell him everything, just get him to believe I was telling to truth, we could be free. We would be safe!

I grasped the ankle of the Alpha’s pants and screamed, “I’m carrying your pup Marcus!”