Chapter Four

Hunter’s POV

“WHERE THE FUCK IS SHE!” I yelled in the room. My Gamma instinctively bared his neck in submission -understanding he’s failing me.

“Her trail ends at the bottom of the driveway,” is all he says.

The news of Selene’s escape came early, when I was sleeping soundly with Sandy in my arms. My mind-link was shut, so my Gamma resorted to pounding on my bedroom door. I instantly woke, believing we were being attacked, and forgot my chosen mate.

Once my Gamma explained the situation, I was instantly mind-linking the commanders of my patrols to hunt her down and bring her back.

A few hours later, with the best pack hunters on the scent, this was the only intel I received?!

No!

“I know who helped her,” Sandy simply stated. “Alpha Damen.”

“Why the fuck would a powerful Alpha help a wolf-less nobody?” I snorted.

“While you were away for five years, Selene and Alpha Damen became friends,” Sandy explains. “Your parents wanted her presence at all diplomatic meetings to prepare her for the role as a potential future Luna.”

I slammed my hand down on the wooden desk, the oak taking the brunt. My rage is simmering. My wolf, however, chuffed with gladness in the back of my mind.

” Good!Morpheus praised. He’s been moping deep inside my head for the last month and has refused to come out, but only interrupts my need to cum when Sandy is pleasuring me. He made it even more painful during sex!

My balls never ached so much in my life!

” Good!”Morpheus gleefully repeated.

The Moon Goddess help me with such a wolf!

“Alpha,” my Gamma interrupted. “Perhaps we should request an audience with Alpha Damen and try to negotiate her return?”

“Fine,” I mutter. I knew I couldn’t go to war with the Full Moon Pack. I NEEDED Alpha Damen’s business support! “Make the call.”

Selene’s POV

The witch’s words hit me like a hammer.

“I’m not an Alpha! There’s never been a female Alpha!” I tell her.

“Not true,” she grins. “A female Alpha is born every millennium. She unifies the packs again.”

“How do you know it’s me?”

“Your wolf speaks to you?”

“How did you know?” I whisper as I hear Damen suck in a shocked breath.

“Only Alphas can speak to their hosts,” the old woman matter-of-factly states.

“I didn’t know that.”

“It’s a secret we only share with our Betas and Gammas,” Damen says. “And we Alpha command them to never speak about it.”

Shit

“Why did Alpha Richard command me not to speak of my wolf?”

“Because an Alpha female is prized,” Rhiannon explained. “The pups of two Alpha parents would be unstoppable. And if you were forced mated with an evil wolf…” she drifted off with the thought.

“But the Moon Goddess fated me to a fucking psycho!” I yelled in frustration. “Even though he rejected the fated bond, I’m still forced mated to him!”

“The Moon Goddess NEVER makes mistakes with a fated bond,” the witch calmly said. “She does everything for a purpose.”

Awesome!

“What now?” I ask, not knowing where my future will head.

“Now, you train,” Damen states.

Shit.

Damen’s POV

It’s been a month since Selene’s rescue, and her health was restored faster than expected when her wolf, Diana, finally emerged.

Selene still hasn’t performed her first shift, but I’ve been helping her grow stronger for when the time comes. Her beauty has also grown, her skin glowing with an ethereal light and her hair glistening in dark mahogany.

Too bad I don’t feel anything more for her than friendship. Or a brotherly love. And I know she feels the same. That’s why I’ve been holding off on Alpha Hunter’s incessant calls to meet; I needed to be sure that Selene was ready to defend herself.

She was a speedy learner and an excellent warrior. She could use the Alpha command on the first try on my unsuspecting Beta. The look on Grayson’s face was priceless.

“Alpha,” Grayson interrupted my thoughts. “Alpha Hunter is at the border requesting a meeting.”

I snort, unamused by Alpha Hunter’s tenacity. But I can’t put off the inevitable confrontation any longer. “Let him come. Inform Selene to go to the witch’s house while I handle this.”

“Yes, Alpha.”

Rhiannon’s house was strongly warded. Selene was safe there.

A few hours later, Alpha Hunter strides into my office. His anger is palpable as storm clouds form in his eyes.

“Alpha Damen. You have something that belongs to me. I want it back.” No sweet words. Straight to the point.

Good.

“You rejected your fated mate and then almost tortured her to death. You gave up your rights to her by your actions alone,” I smoothly replied.

“What bullshit are you spewing?!” He roared. “She was a servant whom I kept fed and clothed. Just because she had to work doesn’t make it torture!”

Wow! He really is clueless!

“So you didn’t know she was being whipped every night with silver lashes dipped in wolfsbane and given one meal a day?”

My words must have hit a nerve because color drained from his face.

“What lies are you telling me now?” He questioned calmly, his expression not wanting to believe my words.

I sighed and lifted my tablet to project the evidence on the large TV on my office wall. Images of Selene when she first arrived appeared. Her face was gaunt with hollowed cheekbones, demonstrating her starvation. My next image showed her bony back with the scars and open bleeding wounds from the whip.

I glanced at Hunter, taking in his reaction. His mouth hung open in shock, and I thought I saw guilt.

“She lived under your roof for a month as a servant. Did you not see her at all?” I asked.

“No,” he gritted out through clenched teeth.

I clicked on the last image of her battered and bruised stomach. “This is from you fucking your whore,” I coldly informed him. “This is the evidence of your betrayal of the mate mark.”

I wanted to jump over his desk and rip his fucking throat out for how he treated Selene. No fated mate should ever have endured what she went through.

Hunter turned back, his features schooled and stoic, and I was unprepared for his words. “Did your precious friend tell you about how she murdered my baby brother Colin?”

Selene’s POV

I hate to hide and wait for Damen to fetch me from the witch’s house.

Her house was small and cozy. Crystals were placed in strategic locations to help accentuate the cheerful, modern decor. You would have assumed the old crone would have a bubbling cauldron in the kitchen. But no.

She had a very modern kitchen with expensive appliances. The only thing she had that could be considered witchy was a hanging wall garden nurtured through hydroponics. The house smelled of fresh herbs, making it even more cozy.

Rhiannon was not much of a talker, so I just sat around her house and watched the news with her while time slowly dragged on.

“Alpha’s coming,” Rhiannon suddenly mutters, and the front door bursts open. Damen strides into the room as if he owns the place, glancing around until his amber eyes land on me sitting on the couch. His expression is grim, and my heart sinks.

“What did he tell you?” I sighed, immediately understanding Hunter’s tactic of sowing doubt in my protector.

“Rhiannon,” Damen orders. “Please stay and bear witness.”

Damen places his phone down on the coffee table and presses a button. “Tell me about Colin.”

The name always invokes a deep grief that has never left me since childhood. Colin.

I closed my eyes and took in a deep, calming breath.

“I need to start by telling you that I was found abandoned in the woods as a young child,” I start. “The Crescent Moon pack found me and placed me in the pack orphanage. When I was primary school age, I was testing way above the other orphans, so I received a rare scholarship to the pack’s elite academy.”

I sigh at the memory of my first day at Crescent Academy. “I was extremely unwelcome by most of the faculty, parents, and peers. They believed I didn’t deserve to be there because I was an orphan. Except for one student. Colin Bradley, the Alpha and Luna’s youngest son, and Hunter’s baby brother. It was also through Colin that I met Sandy.”

I softly chuckle at the memory because, with hindsight being twenty-twenty, I think Sandy used Colin to get to Hunter.

“Hunter was in his last year at the school before he attended the Alpha Academy. During that year, he avoided me like I was the plague. Even Colin was surprised by his brother’s hostility towards me and defended me whenever Hunter verbally bullied me.”

“The next year, Hunter was gone, and Colin, Sandy, and I were inseparable. I was still bullied, but not to such a severe degree when Hunter was there.”

“How old were you?” Damen interrupted.

“Ten. We were ten that year. It was March, and we had a brutal winter. Crescent River froze for the first time in decades. There was new snow on the ground from a recent blizzard, and Colin, Sandy, and I got into a snowball fight. Colin got me, and I chased after him, not paying attention to our surroundings.”

I took a deep breath for the next part.

“He fell through the ice.” My eyes glazed over as my mind shifted back to that time. “I jumped in after him. God, it was so cold!” The memory took hold as I could feel my limbs burning from the freezing water, and my clothes weighing me down with the current pulling me.

“I couldn’t see anything, but somehow I felt Colin’s gloved hand, and I grabbed it. But the river’s currents were too strong, pulling me away from him and his glove. I tumbled in the water, my head striking a rock, and I blacked out.”

I didn’t wait to gauge Damen’s reaction and continued.

“I woke up a month later in the pack hospital,” I quietly told him. “The Alpha and Luna were there the minute I awoke. They told me that a local hermit heard Sandy’s screams for help, and they had a ready-made fishing hole a little further downstream. That’s where he was able to retrieve my body and resuscitate me until the medics arrived. The hit to my head and lack of oxygen forced me into a coma. Diana also made her presence known when I woke up.”

“I also learned that Colin didn’t make it,” I quietly explained, tears streaming down my cheeks. The image of the beautiful ten-year-old boy resurfaced, making my heart constrict with grief. “He was caught up in a large tree branch, where he fell through the ice and drowned. The funeral service was already done, so I never got a chance to say goodbye to my best friend,” I sniffed.

“The Alpha and Luna decided to adopt me for risking my life for trying to save their son,” I ended.

“Does Hunter know any of this?” Damen inquired.

I shrugged. “There was a full investigation with the hermit’s and Sandy’s accounts and testimonies. Hunter went back to school when I moved into the Alpha’s house. When he came home for a holiday weekend, I approached him and tried to tell him how sorry I was for his loss.”

“What did he do?”

“He told me to stay away from him and pushed past me, causing me to fall down the stairs. I broke my arm, but I told the Alpha and Luna I was clumsy when walking down the stairs.” I finally glanced up at Damen and took in his reserved expression.

“So,” I continued. “Now that you heard my version, what did Hunter tell you?”