CHAPTER TWO

Rosie’s POV

Uncle scanned the room, surely seeing that everyone was enjoying it. The place was a bit of a mess at this point. 

He let out a low growl as he came closer to me. His scent of cedar and cypress overwhelmed me, making my head spin. I felt my legs grow weak, a strange arousal taking over me. 

“Rosie, what have you done?!”

With Mia, my wolf, shouting mate excitedly, I noticed things I never had before. The swagger when he walked. The way he had a stray hair curl over his right eye. It was sexy, and I blushed as my breath caught. 

Surely, he would smell my arousal, and it made me embarrassed. Like I needed to cover up. 

It wasn’t until he growled again that I snapped back to reality, stuttering as I explained, “I… I just wanted to help you find a new mate.”

Uncle approached me, so close that Mia was becoming intoxicated with his scent and very hard to control. Didn't he feel this too?

"Listen, I don't need a mate or a Luna," he husked out with authority, making me shiver.

Was he… rejecting me?

I wanted to cry and beg, Mia shaking within me to get out and touch her mate. Instead, he called upon the guards. “Take her to her room!” His words were the ultimate authority, and I quivered.

‘Come on, convince your mate!’ Mia insisted. 

Desperate, I rushed forward and grabbed Uncle, my fists beating into his chest and clawing at his shirt. “Didn’t you feel the attraction?”

He coldly replied, “I felt nothing."

Four guards came up to me, and though I growled at them alongside Mia, I was no match. They lifted me like a baby up the stairs. 

“Lock her in,” Uncle added, following behind. Marco gave me an apologetic look but can’t speak a word under his Alpha’s rage.

My eyes stung with unshed tears. His scent and his cruelty were mixing together and making a confusing disaster for my brain and heart. 

Mia was howling as I was plopped onto my bed. 

I tried to rush the door, but it was shut and promptly locked. 

"Three days," I heard him growl through the door. "Three days to think about your poor decision and your behavior."

I thought that was it, and I curled up into the fetal position in my bed only to hear him sighing outside my door again. "This is partially my fault. My recent focus on training the warriors has caused me to neglect you. I see how this has led to foolish actions due to lack of attention and supervision..."

I knew from the following silence only a moment later that he and the guards were gone.

Lying in bed, I felt heartbroken. I didn't go into this thinking I would find my mate, but I did. And it didn't even matter.

I held my chest as Mia whimpered from within. It was like I was falling apart.

It wasn't too long until the servant brought me dinner, but I couldn’t eat. Not after my mate, who was also the Alpha who raised me, had been so cold.

I turned to Mia, asking, “Was the mate bond I felt real, or was it a mistake?”

“It couldn’t be wrong. He’s really our mate.” Mia insisted.

I sank into despair, realizing he didn’t want us. The mate I had longed for was my uncle, but he didn’t want me. What should I do now? How did anyone get through something like this?

Buzz buzz. Buzz buzz.

I reached for my cell phone. It was Chris.

"Hi, Chris," I sighed, trying not to sound as pathetic as I felt.

"You okay?"

"Locked in my room for three days. No, I’m not okay. Apparently, I need better supervision to learn not to make foolish choices." I hated the whine in my voice. I was 17, not 5. But I couldn't seem to shake it.

"Damn, Alpha Hickman is so cold. Especially saying he didn't need a Luna like that and sending everyone out, and now locking you up. No wonder he has the reputation of being a hot-tempered Alpha."

Mia whimpered in my mind again, and I silently told her to shut up. It wouldn't do us any good to go on like that.

I sat up, hair flopping over the hand holding the phone to my ear. "But everything he does is for the pack. He's the reason that Midnight Pack is the most powerful in the territory anyway."

It was the truth. Which made all of it hurt all the more.

"Look at you, the Alpha's biggest fan," Chris teased me.

I shook my head as if she could see it. "No. I am just acutely aware of all he has done for the pack and the way he makes decisions. Sometimes a leader has to be harsh."

I had always admired the way he did things over the years, even if I thought he was too harsh at times for doing it.

Chris laughed through the receiver. "Alright. Quit defending your captor and open the window now."

I turned toward the window to the right of my bed. I made my way to it and unlocked it, popping it open slowly so as not to make too much noise.

I didn't want the guards to realize they'd technically left me an exit. When I looked down, I saw Chris and Tyler in a car, waving at me.

"C'mon. We were supposed to be having fun tonight. You did something great. You don't deserve this," Chris egged me on. "Let's go to a club."

I was nervous about getting caught. "What will Uncle do if he finds out, though?"

She teased, “What, are you going to stay locked up like a child forever?”

I hesitated, head hanging out into the fresh night air.

Chris added with a laugh, "Look, I promise to sneak you back in. No harm done."

'Don't listen to her crazy talk. We shouldn't disobey Alpha,’ Mia warned me.

I paused for another moment. But I felt Mia was aching for freedom as much as I was but just didn't want to piss off her Alpha.

That was it. I jumped out of the window and told Mia I needed to blow off some steam.

No, I deserved to.