Chapter Seventeen

He made us feel so strange; we did not understand the things he said to us, but his touch was soothing. My whole body tingled whenever he touched me; it felt like tiny electric shocks racing over my skin where his fingers stroked it was strange but exciting. I was so locked in her own thoughts of this powerful Alpha that I  had not noticed the Healer moving closer to me, so that when she reached out and touched me, the shock was so violent it jolted me back to the here and now instantly. Instinct made me cry out as sharp pain exploded in my mind. I  tried to pull away from her, but the Healer wrapped her fingers around my wrist in a vice-like grip and locked her eyes on mine.

‘No, no, stop, don’t please don’t.’

My distress at her actions quickly communicated itself to Kaiden, and he raced into the bedroom.

‘Let me go, let me go.’

I was struggling to free myself from Lucy’s grasp

‘Alpha, grab her, hold her tightly.’

Kaiden reluctantly did as he was told, wrapping his arms around me, pinning my arms to my sides and my back to his front. I fought him wildly; I could not let this happen to me. My eyes turned golden as Solar came forward, my fangs elongated, but Kaiden put a stop to my shifting.

‘Don’t you dare shift, little mate.’

He commanded his voice low and full of his Alpha power, forcing Solar to retreat instantly, bowing her head in submission. I was furious, fighting him harder than ever, but I was no match for his far superior strength.

‘Stop fighting me, this is for your own good.’

He said, but I was not my wolf, and I had no intention of obeying him

until Lucy released her wrist and placed a hand on either side of her head.

‘Look at me, Dakota.’

Lucy demanded as the young woman squirmed and looked anywhere but at her.

‘No, no, no, no, no.’

I chanted, looking at the floor, refusing to meet her eyes, terrified of what I would find there, so Lucy met Kaiden’s eyes,

‘Hold her head.’

He did not want to; my fear and obvious distress were seeping through his veins, and his wolf was snapping and snarling in his mind.

‘Protect mate.’

Midnight growled, ready to attack the Healer until her eyes met his.

‘Relax, Midnight, calm down. I am only going to help her.’

Instantly, the wolf backed off, curled into a ball and went to sleep. The Healer’s power was strong, and it made Kaiden chuckle.

‘You always did know how to calm him down.’

They were brought back to the job in hand when I  suddenly snarled, and my body went stiff again. I had dragged Solar forward and was preparing to shift even though my wolf did not want to disobey her Alpha.

‘I warned you, little mate, I forbid you to shift.’

Kaiden ordered using all his Alpha power to subdue me, although to his surprise, he felt me still resisting him,

‘She is strong, Healer.’

He linked to Lucy, who quickly agreed.

‘She is very special, but she does not know it; we must work to help her understand her true potential.’  

Her gaze moved from his, and she nodded as he held my head still and she connected with me. The surge of her power through me made me gasp in agony, but she broke through the barriers that I quickly tried to erect.

‘Don’t fight me.’

She spoke into my mind and saw the way my eyes went wide in shock.

‘How are you doing that?’

I tentatively spoke back to the Healer. I had no understanding of this form of communication; the Mountain Top Pack had deliberately kept me cut off and isolated from their Link.

‘All Packs speak through their Pack mindlink; surely you did this with the Mountain Top Pack?’

Lucy asked in confusion as she sent soothing, reassuring waves through my taut body, trying to get me to relax. I felt no animosity from her, only gentle caring, so I decided to take a leap of faith. I had already sensed that this Pack was very different from the one I had left. When Solar had used our wolf senses to reach out, she had found no hostility, no hate, only acceptance and a willingness to accept us. They did not want to hurt or abuse us. I was not the lowest of the low within this Pack; I  was not a slave. They called me their Luna, but that was silly, I was not a Luna, I was a nobody, definitely no one of importance like their Luna should be, but if they would accept me as I was, then maybe I could stay within their protection.

So I stopped struggling against Kaiden’s hold and let my body go limp in his arms, his warmth instantly surrounded me, and for the first time since my mother's death she felt safe in another’s hold. Then I  lifted my eyes to Lucy’s and opened my mind to the Healer, letting her see all those memories I had kept locked away inside me. I gave her everything that I  had suffered under the Mountain Top Pack; she saw it all through my eyes, losing my Mama, the brutality that had befallen me when they blamed me as a tiny child. The years of hard labour slavery, the bullying, the exclusion from all normal Pack activities, even the way I had been starved, thrown into their dungeons for the most minor of indiscretions. Tears streamed down Lucy’s face at the horrendous suffering this young woman had gone through, and yet she saw that when I  had been given the chance, I  had the strength to stand up to them. Lucy watched me stand before that awful Pack with its pathetic Alpha and bravely reject them, accepting rogue status rather than continue under their hate.