Chapter Two: "For Your Services."

~Amber’s POV~

‘Mate.’

Roxanne’s voice filled with that same purr slammed into me with such deafening impact that it completely overwhelmed the understanding of what was happening to me, the knowledge she’d just sent flooding into my head seconds ago.

I blinked, trying to push myself up to see the person responsible for the command that had torn through the night.

Responsible for the heat rippling through me with a blinding intensity.

All I caught was a blur—the biggest wolf I had ever seen with fur to match the darkness—tearing through the rogues in what felt like seconds. Claws. Teeth. Blood.

The cracking of bones followed the last growl of pain and then I felt him next to me.

His scent hit first.

Pine. Rain. Something wilder.

It coated my entire senses, drowning out everything else until I couldn’t smell the blood or the forest or anything except him.

“Mate.” I whispered the word, trying to see his face, trying to make out the man the Moon Goddess had predestined for me, but my nose was the only sense functioning properly anymore.

Everything else had gone hazy.

“Mine.”

The growl reverberated through me and my entire body shivered as something brushed the spot on my shoulder where the Rogues must have slashed my skin.

His fingers.

Checking the wound.

But the moment he touched me, something else ignited.

The heat that had been building exploded outward from where his skin met mine, racing through my veins like wildfire. My breath caught. My thighs clenched together on instinct as wetness pooled between them, sudden and overwhelming.

The full moon.

It had to be the full moon because nothing else could explain why my body was reacting like this, why every nerve ending felt like it was on fire, why his scent alone was making me ache.

“Please.” The word left my mouth before I understood what I was begging for.

He made a sound, low and guttural, and then his mouth was on my shoulder, right where the wound was, his tongue sliding over the broken skin.

I gasped, my back arching off the ground as the sensation shot straight through me.

“You are hurt.” His voice was barely human, rough and strained.

“I don’t care.” My hands found his shoulders, gripping hard. “I don’t—”

He kissed me completely, cutting me off.

Hard. Demanding. Like he had been holding himself back and couldn’t anymore.

I kissed him back just as desperately, tasting blood and something wild and him, and suddenly I couldn’t think about anything except getting closer, needing more.

His hands moved down my sides pulling me towards him then his mouth was on my neck, my collarbone, moving lower, and every touch sent another wave of heat crashing through me.

“Mine.” He growled it against my skin. 

Something feral flashed in his eyes as he lifted his head, and even in the darkness I could see how completely black they had gone.

Then he was moving, positioning himself between my legs, and I felt the hard length of him pressing against where I was already so wet I could feel it dripping down my thighs.

He pushed inside in one hard thrust and I screamed.

The pain was sharp, immediate, tearing through the haze of heat for just a second before it was swallowed by something else entirely.

Fullness. Pressure. The impossible stretch of him.

He froze, every muscle locked tight but I was already moving, hips rolling, needing friction, needing more.

“Move.” I dug my nails into his shoulders. “Please move.”

He pulled out and slammed back in, harder this time, and the moan that left me was a sound I had never heard from myself before.

Then he was moving in earnest, driving into me with a force that pushed me up the forest floor with each thrust, and I couldn’t hold onto anything except him.

His hands gripped my hips, holding me in place as he took me with a wildness that matched the heat burning through both of us.

“Mine.” He growled it again, his mouth finding my neck. “Mine. Mine. Mine.”

His teeth grazed the sensitive skin there and I cried out, pleasure spiking so intensely my vision blurred.

He did it again, harder this time, and my body responded on pure instinct.

My claws extended without warning, raking down his back hard enough to draw blood.

He roared, the sound primal and possessive, and then he was moving faster, harder, each thrust sending sparks of pleasure through my entire body.

The pressure was building toward something I didn’t understand, something that felt like it was going to break me apart then his teeth found my neck again, pressing down right.

And that was all it took.

Everything inside me detonated.

The pleasure crashed through me so violently I would have screamed if I could have found the breath, my entire body convulsing as wave after wave of it tore through me.

And in that exact moment, his teeth sank into my neck.

The pain mixed with the pleasure, creating something that rewrote every nerve ending in my body, and I did scream then, my claws digging deeper into his back as the bond snapped into place with a force that felt like lightning.

I felt him tense above me, felt his own release hit through the bond like it was my own, felt everything he was feeling crash into me all at once.

Possession. Need. Mine. Mate. Mine.

It was too much.

The bond, the heat, the overwhelming sensation of him still moving inside me, everything combining into something my body couldn’t process, couldn’t hold onto for one more second.

My vision started to blur at the edges, darkness creeping in from all sides like a wave I couldn’t fight.

“Are you—” I heard him say, his voice rough and desperate, breaking through the haze, but the rest was swallowed as the darkness dragged me under completely and everything went black.

And with what felt like the same force that had pulled me under, a gasp tore from my throat and my eyes snapped open.

Everything slammed into me at once—the memories playing out in vivid flashes, the realization of what I had done settling like a stone in my chest. 

I had found my mate. He had saved me from the Rogues. And then we had…

My eyes widened as the full weight of it hit, and my hands flew between my legs even though I could already feel the soreness radiating through my entire body. 

A mix of feelings hit me all at once. 

Grateful. 

That had saved me from the rogues, grateful I was alive and not torn apart in that forest.

But confused and so completely, devastatingly lost about the fact that I had met my mate and slept with him so suddenly, so violently, without even knowing his name, without even seeing his face clearly in the darkness.

What kind of person did that make me?

I pushed myself up despite the ache protesting every single movement, my muscles screaming, rationality finally kicking in through the fog as my eyes scanned the space around me.

A strange room. Unfamiliar walls. My mate nowhere to be found.

But his scent filled  my lungs with each breath, still so overpowering it made my head spin and my wolf stir restlessly beneath my skin.

I realized why the moment I shifted my weight.

The jacket I hadn’t even realized was wrapped around my body slipped from my shoulders and fell to the ground with a soft thud.

I bent down immediately, my fingers closing around the fabric before my brain could catch up to the action, and I brought it to my nose, breathing him in. 

My other hand rose unconsciously, fingers finding the mark pulsing on my neck, and the moment I touched it, the bond flared to life beneath my skin, searching for him, aching for his presence.

Just then, the door opened without warning.

Roxanne, who had gone quiet to give me a chance to process everything that had happened, surged to the surface in an instant, ready to defend, her instincts sharp as an unfamiliar man walked into the room.

It hit me then, really hit me, that I hadn’t seen my mate’s face clearly in the darkness of the forest.

But without a single doubt, I knew this man was not him.

As if the man wished to emphasize that very fact, disgust curled across his face the moment his eyes landed on me.

“You have been asked to leave and I have been tasked with ensuring you return to the Cambridge Pack with immediate effect.”

The words made me pause, my grip tightening on the jacket still clutched in my hands.

How did he know I was from Ian’s pack? How did he know where to send me?

Or the better question—who the hell was he?

I said the last part out loud, my chin lifting as I stood taller despite the fact that I was wearing nothing but a simple gown that my mate must have put on me. 

 “Who the hell are you?”

The disgust in his eyes grew as he scanned me from head to toe, his gaze lingering just long enough to make my skin crawl, and when he spoke, his voice dripped with contempt.

“I am this pack’s Alpha’s right-hand man, and I find it insulting that a lowlife Omega like you would dare think herself worthy enough to be in the room prepared for the Alpha.”

He reached out suddenly, yanking the jacket from my hands before I could tighten my grip. “And go as far as touching his things.”

My years of royal training kicked in automatically, forcing my mind to work faster, to put the pieces together even as anger flared hot in my chest.

The Alpha.

My mate was the Alpha of this pack.

But I needed confirmation. I needed to hear him say it.

I met the man’s eyes directly, refusing to look away, not caring for the disgust radiating off him in waves. “The Alpha of this pack brought me here? And that jacket belongs to him? What pack is this?”

“The only thing you should concern yourself with,” he snapped, his jaw tight, ignoring every single one of my questions, “is walking out of here. Now. Or you will force me to use force.”

Roxanne, having had enough of his tone, his presence, everything about this situation, flashed to the surface, and I felt my eyes shift as her voice came through mine.

“I would like to see you try.”

The change was immediate.

He backed away instinctively, his body responding to the Alpha aura I couldn’t fully suppress even in this form, and I saw the flicker of uncertainty cross his face.

I capitalized on it immediately, stepping forward even as my body protested the movement.

“Go and tell your Alpha that his mate demands to speak with him right now.”

Surprise flashed in his eyes, genuine and unmistakable, and for a single heartbeat I thought he  was going to do exactly as I had commanded, that he would turn around and bring my mate to me so I could understand what the hell was happening.

But instead, his hand went to his pocket.

He pulled out what I realized was money, bills folded together and stretched it toward me like it was something dirty he wanted to be rid of.

“He said you might make things difficult and asked me to give this to you for your… services.”

I opened my mouth.

Closed it.

Opened it again.

Because for a long second, all the words and thoughts left my brain entirely, scattering like they had never existed, and all I could do was stare at the money in his outstretched hand.

The realization crashed through me like ice water and I snapped out of it, fury replacing the shock so fast it burned.

“If he wishes for me to leave,” I gritted the words out, my voice shaking with barely controlled rage, “then he should have the guts to come here and do it himself.”

As if the man had been waiting for me to say those exact words, as if he had anticipated this entire conversation, a cruel smile curved his lips.

“Unfortunately, that won’t be possible.” He paused, letting the words hang in the air between us, his smile growing. “Because my Alpha is busy making preparations to meet his fiancée as we speak.”