ROSE
I woke up the next morning, hoping that last night's events were all just a dream. Unfortunately, reality came in the form of a brunette with green eyes- Carina. She insisted on "talking" with me about throwing my mate in the basement. I truly didn't see what was wrong with it. I just threw my mate into the cold, windowless, foodless basement along with his pack. Absolutely fine. I mean, it wasn’t as though I’d let him die or anything.
Of course, Carina harboured something called compassion. A horrid thing to harbour, if you ask me. It made one quite weak! She went on and on about how mates are amazing and how my mate will make me stronger and take some of my work load off because I was, and I quote, "cranky".
"I'm not cranky. I'm just..."
"You're just lacking love. And a mate comes with that!" She said as she sat on my bed and watched me search for a pair of shoes in my cupboard.
I turned around and sighed, "I don't know how many times I have to tell you this, but I'm not lacking love. I don't need it, just like I don't need him."
She shook her head and got up, nearing me.
"Then why don't you reject him?" She almost whispered this. I guess she was still curious as to why I didn't.
And so, I sighed and explained, "I made a deal with the Moon Goddess... I get to keep my title as alpha as long as I don't reject my mate... which I was never supposed to have."
This seemed to confuse her.
"So... I'm not seeing the problem." She said.
I hit my hand on my forehead, "You and seeing things are enemies. The Moon Goddess only controls our werewolf magic and keeps it in balance. Balance means that mates stay together, accepted. If I reject him, not only is the deal between the Moon Goddess and I null and void regarding me being alpha, but I also would become weaker. I thought making a deal with her would be easier because she didn’t recall matching my heart with anyone else’s, which she said sometimes happens.
You see, she only pairs hearts together. She doesn’t know who they belong to, she can only sense their magic and pair them accordingly. Mine was apparently strong enough to survive a mate less life. Maybe she-“, But I cut myself off before saying something insulting.
The moon Goddess only kept balance… she was never really in control. All the power in the world, and her only use for it was to give it away. What a waste.
Carina sat down again, sighing.
"Okay... I see your point now. But I'm sure she knows you have a mate now? Won't she want him to become our alpha?" She asked. My blood boiled at that and my hands began to shake. It was werewolf tradition for males to become alphas. That was why if an alpha and luna conceived a daughter, she was “blessed” with a strong mate to become alpha. However, in this case, I became an exception. Power was the only thing a craved more than anything and I was not letting it go.
As I thought this, I felt my hands begin to shake in worry of my title being taken away from me.
I shook my head after regaining my own sanity, "She told me she wasn't sure I had one, which is why she made me alpha in the first place, and again, why I made that stupid deal with her. As far as I am concerned, she still thinks that I am mateless... or she would have said something when she saw me that day when Deamian visited.” That was what I hoped.
Again, she asked why, if the Moon Goddess was unaware of my mate, I did not just reject him.
“I can’t risk it. And besides, as I have already said, rejecting him would make me extremely weak… you know how many males here are itching to become alpha.”
" Do you plan on hiding this forever?" She asked.
I shrugged. I was still trying to get over this whole "Mate" thing.
She then sighed and rested a hand on my shoulder.
"At least check up on him..." She blinked numerous times and tried to make a pouty face. I scrunched my nose up in disgust.
"Please stop, I'm almost to the point of losing my breakfast. I don't want to check up on him." I shrugged and folded my arms, showing her how much I actually cared- not at all. At least, that was what I tried to convince myself.
She looked taken aback and replied to my stubbornness by saying, "You're only checking up on him... besides, he needs to stay alive, otherwise you will become extremely weak."
She made a point.
"I hate that the Moon Goddess chose my best friend to become my Beta."
She just shrugged and smiled but I could sense there was something bothering her. She knew I was keeping things from her. So, I said goodbye to avoid her sceptical gaze.
I placed my head in my hands and sat down as she left, finally being able to sit down to regain a bit of strength. I hated to admit it, but not having my stupid mate near me was really frustrating. I was becoming weaker and I could feel it.
I sucked in a sharp breath, tied my laces from my recent finding of shoes and walked out of my home.
My home was located in the far corner of the pack grounds, away from the residential area. Away from everything including my office. I liked space.
After I walked quite a distance, I reached the residential area and I noticed that the pack members were up and about, eating breakfast, visiting neighbours, or getting ready for school. It was an average day for them. As they saw me, they saluted and nodded in respect for me and I acknowledged them with a slight nod or faint smile. I could tell that their respect was false though, it always was.
Soon, after passing the training grounds, local stores, restaurant, and the school, I reached my office. I walked past it towards the entrance of the woods. I carried on, entering the densely wooded area, making sure I wasn't followed. The further I walked, the thicker the plantation became, and I knew I'd find what I was looking for. I eventually found my "special place". I fumbled between the plants on the ground until I found the hidden lever. Wrapping my cold fingers around the metal thing, I pulled hard, revealing a hole in the ground. A ladder was against the walls of the hole and lead into an underground room. I climbed down and entered. It was as I always remembered it, cold, dark, stuffy, and wet. As I walked past the huge cages, chills ran up and down my spine as horrid memories bombarded my brain.
My shoes made clicking sounds against the cold concrete floor and I could hear them echo against the almost emptiness of this room of isolation.
Soon I reached the cages with my mate and his pack members. They were very quiet and very few. Only about twenty of them survived my pack's vicious slaughter last night. Looking back, I guess I was lucky I found my mate before any of my other pack members did.
Ryker looked up as I neared his cage. His blue eyes which seemed to be the only thing I could actually see properly were filled with pain and hunger.
"Come to torture us some more?" He hissed. He looked so angry at me... okay he looked like he was ready to kill me.
I shook my head, shifting my weight to the left leg and folding my arms. I was trying to show my disinterest in his pain, but there was a part of me that wanted to open his cage and bury my head in the crook of his neck and wrap my arms around him so I could just take in his scent. That part was however almost non-existent.
Why was I actually here again? Oh yes! My best friend slash beta made me.
"I'm just here to um..." great, I didn't think of an excuse. Now he's going to think that I actually care.
I shook my head, regaining my thoughts, "I came here to tell you that I'll bring food later. I can't let you starve to death. It's against my pack rules.... And since you're part of the pack now, I need to make sure you are at least... Fed." I said. Although Carina had suggested I come here, I was my plan to visit him all along. I needed to gather information on why Ryker and his pack had come to attack my pack.
All hope of answers was however thrown out the window as I stole a quick glance around the basement. The rogues could barely keep their eyes open, let alone talk. I knew Ryker would not have any information. Omegas were never trusted enough.
Ryker walked closer towards the side of the cage, towards me. His blue eyes fixed on my own eyes. I was already standing so close to his cage, now he was just making the distance less. Eventually he was mere inches away from me, he bent slightly to match my height and wrapped his fingers around the holes in the cage. He was so close I could just kiss him.
"Alpha... is this your worst? Because this is paradise compared to what we've been through. Your torture is nothing."
I rolled my eyes and said, "Look omega, I'm not in the mood for your... actually I don't know if you're trying to scare me or make me pity you more than I already do. All I want is to tell you that yes, you're my prisoner, but you are still part of the pack. Don't make the mistake of thinking I actually care. Your existence is a burden enough to me, caring would be illogical."
And with that I attempted to leave... emphasis on attempted. The omega decided to squeeze his bony, long fingers through the holes and graze them against my skin. Shivers ran through me at the sudden contact and I turned back at him. He looked at me in shock. It was however clear that his attempt at physical contact was just to get my attention, and, unfortunately for me, it had worked.
"What could make such a beautiful lady like yourself so... cold. I've never met someone crueller than you. You lock your own mate in a cage and insult him. I get that you are disappointed that I am an Omega, I get that you hate the fact that you and I are bound. But can you really be so heartless as to not even try to... get to know me? What are you so afraid of?"
I refrained from answering and instead said goodbye and left. He was slowly getting under my skin. I hated him... I hated him more than I hated anything. And I hated that he asked that question… He had no right.
Slowly I went to my home and gave instructions to Carina to feed the new additions to the pack. I then went to my room and had to sit down. Seeing him was too much... being down there and hearing what he had to say was even worse. I couldn’t even get his face out of my mind. The way it felt when he touched me, those sparks. I could still feel them crackling against my skin.
Life just got a whole lot more difficult. I felt for the first time in a while that I needed an escape... I needed to... leave. This was too much; he was too much. I started pacing around my room with his question ringing in my ear until an envelope on my desk caught my attention... It was Deamian's invitation. Slowly I moved towards the desk and held it in my hand the soft paper tempting me to open it. Tempting me to go.
Could this be my escape? My escape for one night?
ROSE"Grayson, get off your phone and help your baby sister get the cereal from the cupboard... I'm not joking Gray! Right now!" I yelled as I put the kettle on.Grayson, the young boy I'd rescued nine years ago had grown into a handsome, healthy and very grumpy teenager. I treated him as I did his younger sister, my own biological child and expected him to take the role of alpha... After I transformed him into a werewolf (it was a promise I made to him). I absolutely adored both of my children."Mom, can't she use a ladder to get it down herself." Gray yelled as he took his headphones off.I shook my head at him, grabbed the cereal and handed it to the copper haired girl with piercing blue eyes."Here we go Rachel."She smiled and sat next to her brother, sticking her tongue out and teasing him. I chuckled. Soon Deami
ROSEI was lying on the floor, winded and in shock. What kind of sick and twisted person was she? She must have been a teenager when she'd instructed Adamson to do such a thing... How sick was Scarlett... And how sick was Adamson to obey her. A young girl giving a slightly older boy such an instruction. It was then that I remembered it all. Adamson. He was why I became what I became. He was ruthless when it came to my torture and the deaths of my parents, an older teenage boy. That's what he was back then. A teenager committing acts of terror. And if he was so young and could do such horrible things, what stopped me. When I'd finally escaped, he'd left.It was then that I grew angry. I felt my bones begin to crack and I howled out as fur began to sprout from my skin. I was turning."What?" Scarlett gasped. I guess she forgot about my little unusual ability to transform.
ROSEScarlett stood there in shock. She still couldn't believe it. However, in a matter of minutes her face grew to desperation and she grabbed a nearby rogue."This will have to do!" She said. She cut him, bled him into the ceramic, recited something in ancient tongue and then drank the mixture. It honestly happened so fast that I had no time to react and in a matter of moments, her body began thrashing forward and back, her eyes rolled back, and she fell to the ground. Horrified but still aware of her growing threatening presence I inched closer to her now still body which lay on the ground. Suddenly, her eyes darted open, her hair immediately changing into a dark silver colour and her eyes started becoming a reddish colour. This didn't feel right. What did she do to herself?She stood up so quickly I barely saw her, and then smiled. What the hell."See I may not be
ROSEI didn't know how to feel or how to act. By this time, Deamian had explained everything to me and I was in a state of utter shock. Apparently, Scarlett was taking her revenge on Deamian because she expected to become the next and final moon goddess since they were in love. Now she had a whole revenge plan calculated and constructed to perfection. She was the one who dragged him out of the place but could not bring me along because they hadn’t had enough time. They needed Deamian's Moon blood seeing as he was half of his mom's species. They also needed me for the moon flower essence which I had absorbed, which meant I walked right into their trap. They needed to do it now, before the essence integrated with my DNA and it became impossible to extract. That meant, they only had today. I wish I'd known. I wish I'd been more aware, less naive and gullible. I wish I were alpha Rose and not Rose, Moon Goddess with actual emotions.
ROSEScarlett and I were quiet as we drove. We both knew that when push came to shove, I'd have to use what little power I had... And that would leave me vulnerable and ready to be caught, just as they wanted. There was no denying that this was a trap, that they knew I would stop at nothing to find Deamian who was currently more important than I was when it came to fulfilling their plans.Soon we passed a sign that read "Nightfall Valley". The infamous public werewolf graveyard. Although it was now old and abandoned, there'd been rumours of ghosts at night haunting the place. That was probably true... But I highly doubted they were ghosts. We passed the entrance and I parked on the pavement, next to a pile of rotting wood. Once we exited the car, I felt it. The lingering feeling of the bond between Deamian and I."He's here!" I said, and then grabbed the rifle and swung it around me. It would
ROSEThe next morning, I woke up to the feeling of a cold and empty bed with nothing but a scribbled note next to me. It read:Would have grabbed you too but your boyfriend gave us quite a struggleImmediately goodebumps formed on my flesh and I began shaking. They had taken Deamian in our sleep. They had taken him, and I had no clue where the hell he was. Immediately I jumped out of bed, following his scent out of the house and towards the centre of the pack grounds, not caring that I was in pyjamas because the place was practically deserted with all the killings that had happened the previous night.Panic ran through me as I reached the end of the pack grounds at the gate and the scent of Deamian just disappeared. I even tried to tap into our mind link, try to enter his mind, but I felt still so weak, like a new-born baby.&