Chapter 5 - Nolan

I felt the weight of Brianna’s father’s alpha command as soon as the words left his mouth. I was centimetres away from getting the one thing I had wanted for so many years. It was much too close to have it all taken away from me so cruelly. 

I have loved Brianna for as long as I can remember. It wasn’t her beauty, even though she was the most beautiful woman that I had ever seen. What really attracted me to her was her strength, she worked incredibly hard to prove herself to her family. Nothing she ever did was good enough for them and yet Brianna didn’t complain or give up. I gave my heart to her years ago, I was more than ready for her to give me hers in return. 

“Don’t listen to him, Nolan. Mark me and make me yours forever.” Brianna pleaded. Her words gave me the courage to fight her father’s command. As I lowered my canines towards her neck I could hear her father’s forces breaking through the door beside us. My eyes closed, her skin was so close that I could feel the heat of it warming my face. 

That warmth was there one second and gone the next.

Brianna’s father had broken through the door and forcibly pulled me away from his daughter. My body was pushed against the wall at the other side of the hallway so hard that pain spread through my shoulders and down my back. But that was nothing compared to the pain I was feeling in my heart, knowing I would never get to be with the woman I love. 

“Take my daughter home, I will deal with her later.” Brianna’s father growled. 

His warriors shuddered slightly before dragging his daughter away. I had no choice other than to watch the love of my life being taken away from me. I didn’t even know if I would ever see her again after tonight, and if I did she would likely have already been marked by another man.

Just thinking about it was breaking my heart in two. I had been so close to getting everything I had ever wanted, only to have it ripped away from me again. If I had been one second faster then I am sure this night would have had a much better ending. 

“I expected better from you Nolan.” Brianna’s father shouted, drawing my attention back towards him. It was ironic that he was disappointed in me considering how he was treating his own daughter. I wasn’t going to say that to him though, I didn’t have a death wish. 

“I love her.” I told him, not that I expected it to change his mind. 

“That is hardly news. The fact that you can’t seem to control yourself is, however, a concern.” 

He started pacing in front of me. I didn’t like the way this was going. Most of the anger he had shown earlier was gone now, and I knew from stories that other pack members shared, that was when he was at his most dangerous. Some of those stories were enough to give me sleepless nights when I was younger. Although, I never found out how much of those stories were fact and how much were fiction. 

“What should I do with you?” He purred, causing a chill to travel up my spine. He continued to pace, if he noticed my increasing anxiety at least he had the decency not to gloat about it. 

“Even though what you did isn’t technically a crime, I can’t let you go free. Especially not when there is a chance you could ruin my plans.” 

“I have an idea.” My father interjected, as he walked up the path towards my house. He gave me a sympathetic look but he was quick to avert his gaze when Brianna’s father looked in his direction. 

“We could send him after those rogues that have been plaguing us and the neighbouring packs. That would keep him busy until your daughter is marked.” My father continued, his words plunging another dagger into my already shattered heart. 

“I agree to your suggestion on two conditions.” Brianna’s father waited for my father to acknowledge his request before proceeding.

“He will leave tonight and you will watch him constantly until he has left the territory.” 

My father quickly agreed, not waiting for any input or affirmation from me. It didn’t matter to either of them what I wanted or what Brianna wanted. They were much too determined to trade her to another alpha to gain a little extra power and influence. In my mind this was almost as bad as if they had sold her for money and there wasn’t a damn thing anyone could do to change my mind. 

“We can’t let this happen.” I said, with more than a hint of desperation in my voice as I watched our alpha walking back towards his house. 

My father had already started collecting some of my belongings together but when he heard my exclamation, he turned to face me again. The look on his face was somewhere between panic and anger. I have never seen my father like this before, he was usually so composed. 

He glanced around as though he expected someone to be standing just outside the door listening to us. When he spoke again his voice was quiet, barely above a whisper.

“You need to stop this, you are going to get yourself killed.” Now that my father was so close I could see just how afraid he really was. His eyes were wildly darting around and his heart was beating so rapidly that I could see it in his neck.

“Taking a chosen mate isn’t illegal.” 

Although my point was accurate, it was more of a technicality than anything else. There had been a time when taking chosen mates was common, so common that many alphas had more than one mate. But now it was rare to reject your mate and even more rare to take a second mate. Most people fell head over heels in love with their fated mate and frowned upon those who didn’t.

Then again most of those people also frowned upon someone selling their daughter to a ruthless alpha. So I guess logic wasn’t exactly something that could be applied to this situation.  

“Do you really think that matters? He would have you killed and make up a story to cover for it later. Do you have any idea how close he came to ending your life? Do you even care?” His words made me shudder. 

I had never really believed the stories that I heard about our alpha. I thought that they were nothing more than rumours that people used to make sure their children behaved themselves. Now, looking at the way my father was looking at me with such fear in his eyes, I wasn’t so sure. 

“Is he really that dangerous?” 

“He is the most dangerous man I have ever met.”  

My father let out a deep sigh. He took hold of my arm and led me through into my living room, he pushed me down on my sofa and kneeled down in front of me. He gripped my shoulders so tight that I was worried he would shatter my bones under the force of his grip.

“What I am about to tell you can’t leave this room, do you understand me?” 

I nodded my head in agreement. My throat suddenly felt dry and I knew there was no way I would be able to speak a coherent sentence if I tried. Everything I thought I knew about my pack and my alpha was clearly a lie and I wasn’t entirely sure how to process it. 

“He enjoys playing games with people and he doesn’t care about the consequences. There is a reason that he didn’t give you an alpha command to stay away. He wants you to disobey his orders so that he has an excuse to punish you, it isn’t the first time he has done something like this.” He took a deep breath before continuing. 

“A few years ago there was a new warrior working under me and our alpha took an instant dislike to him. He made that warrior’s life difficult, giving him more and more difficult assignments in the hopes that one day he would leave or quit. But he never did, eventually the assignments got too dangerous.” 

“He was put in charge of a small group of warriors who were sent after a group of rogues. It was a trap, many of them were injured and one of them was killed. All of the blame was laid at the feet of the warrior who he didn’t like and that warrior ended up getting exiled from the pack.” 

The implication of what my father was saying was clear. Brianna’s dad wanted me to come back so he would have an excuse to have me exiled or killed. I needed to get out of here as soon as possible but that didn’t mean I was ready to give up on Brianna just yet. No frigging chance. 

I had friends in this pack and I would find some way of helping Brianna without getting on her father’s bad side. I didn’t know what I was going to do yet but I couldn’t allow her to be claimed by somebody like alpha Dalton. She deserved better than that. 

After my father’s pep talk I started getting ready to leave the pack. I didn’t know if I would ever be able to come back here after what I had planned so I had a lot of packing to do and very little time to do it. If my father was right then I didn’t want to know what would happen if I was still here when the sun came up.