Chapter Seven: I Want Our Mate 

By the time we reached Valcrest, the blood on my dress was dry.

We left the damaged car behind and continued in a replacement from the nearest patrol post. Bren travelled with Soren. Dario called my father before we moved, and Thiago assured me that I could speak to him properly when we arrived.

I nodded, keeping my hands wrapped around the clean cloth. Whenever I let go, they started shaking again.

The gates into Valcrest stood between two stone towers. Warriors waited on either side, already aware that the convoy was bringing wounded men. A tall man with tawny skin and short black curls came straight to Thiago’s window.

“Kellan,” Thiago said. “Two escaped into the woods. Dario has the location. Keep the boundary patrols together until we know where they went.”

“And the prisoner?”

“Ivara takes him. No one questions him before she arrives.”

Kellan’s amber eyes moved briefly towards me, then to the bandage beneath Thiago’s open shirt. He did not ask about either.

“The healer’s rooms are ready.”

He stepped back and waved us through.

Beyond the gates, Valcrest was much larger than I expected. Farther along, I could see young wolves at the training ground.

I watched them until the road curved.

All those people belonged to his pack. I wondered how many would look at me the way the warriors on the road did if they knew what I was.

Nia moved close inside me. “Bren didn’t.”

“He needed help.”

“And you did help him.”

I looked at my stained hands. Before we left the roadside, he thanked me. It was such a small thing, said while Soren fastened a bandage, but I kept hearing it.

Thiago got out first. Celeste followed, speaking into her phone. A woman with copper-brown skin and short black curls came to meet me.

“Tessa will show you to your suite,” Thiago told me. “Soren will check on you again after he settles the injured men.”

“I’m all right.”

His eyes dropped to my hands. I stopped twisting the cloth between them.

“Just let him do his work.”

I wanted to argue because he made it sound so easy to tell me what to do. Then I noticed the dried blood around the dressing on his shoulder. The torn skin at its edge was already closing.

“Only if he checks that too.” I pointed at his shoulder.

He glanced down. “He will.”

“Before you decide you’re too busy.”

Dario turned away, but I caught the movement at the corner of his mouth. Thiago looked at me for a moment longer before nodding.

I went inside with Tessa.

“You must be tired,” she said, leading me towards the stairs. “Would you prefer food first or a bath?”

“A phone call.”

“Of course. There’s a charger in the room if you need one.”

She did not ask why my dress was stained or why the Alpha brought me there. I liked her for that before we reached the landing.

My suite overlooked a garden. There was a small sitting room, a bedroom and a bathroom with pale green tiles. Someone put fresh towels beside the sink. My case stood at the foot of the bed, and my bag of books rested on a chair.

Tessa handed me the key. I tried it before I could stop myself, then looked up, embarrassed.

“If you need anything, ring the household desk and ask for me,” she said. She gave me time to put the key in my pocket.

“Do you look after everyone here?”

“Their rooms and meals, mostly. I draw the line at making the Gamma eat vegetables.”

I looked at her, and she smiled.

“He thinks moving them around the plate counts.”

A laugh escaped me before I expected it. It felt strange after the afternoon we just survived.

“I’ll bring you something to eat,” Tessa said.

“Thank you.”

She closed the door behind her. I stood still for a few seconds, listening to the quiet, then went to wash my hands.

The water turned pink beneath my fingers. I washed again, carefully this time, getting beneath the bracelet my father gave me. When I looked up, my reflection was watching from the mirror. My hair was tangled around my face, and the skin beneath my eyes looked tired.

I was safe in a room with a lock. My body did not seem to believe it yet.

I removed the small dressing on my arm. The scratch was already closed, leaving a faint pink line. After changing into a clean dress, I called home.

My mother answered before the second ring. “Amara?”

“I’m here.”

“Let me see you.”

I turned on the camera. The moment her face appeared, my throat tightened.

“I’m all right, Mother.”

“Dario said that. I needed to hear you say it.”

My father moved beside her. His face looked older than it did when we left Willowmere.

“Were you hurt?” he asked.

“Only a scratch. It’s already healed.” I held my arm up to the camera before telling them about the attack and Bren. Mother covered her mouth when I reached the part about opening the car door.

“He was right there, Mother. I couldn’t leave him.”

“I know, darling.”

“Celeste helped me pull him inside. Soren thinks he’ll be all right.”

“And Thiago?” my father asked.

I looked towards the door.

“He stayed between us and them. Even when they tried to make him hand me over.”

My father closed his eyes briefly.

“He got hurt,” I said. “He could have let them take me, but he didn’t.”

“I would never have agreed to you leaving with a man I believed would do that.”

“I know. But I needed to see it for myself.”

My mother leaned nearer the screen. “Does that make being there easier?”

I thought about the cloth Thiago pressed into my hand. The blood on his shoulder. His voice when he stood beside me.

“A little,” I admitted. “At least I believe he means to protect me.”

That did not make his beliefs disappear. It did not explain why he looked at me with suspicion one moment and touched my hand so carefully the next. But it was something I did not know about him this morning.

My father asked whether I had privacy and whether anyone tried to question me. I showed them the sitting room, then the pile of books that made my mother smile.

“You remembered those.”

“I forgot my hairbrush.”

“I put it in the side pocket.”

Of course she did.

We talked until my breathing settled. Before we ended the call, my father promised to speak to me again that evening.

“Whatever you remember about last night, tell me,” he said. “Even if it seems unimportant.”

“Have you found anything?”

“We are still checking the accounts. I won’t give you guesses.”

I wanted to ask whether Rukaiya was there, but I could not decide what I wanted to say to her. I needed to remember that glass. I needed to know why the last familiar person in my memory was my sister, and why she seemed to remember so little afterwards.

When the call ended, I held the phone against my chest for a moment. Then someone knocked.

Tessa came in with a tray. I helped her make space on the table, moving my books from the chair.

“Could you ask Soren whether Bren is doing better?” I said.

“I’ll find out.”

“And whether the Alpha let him check his shoulder.”

She looked up, but there was no teasing in her expression. “I’ll ask that too.”

***

Thiago’s POV

Soren removed the dressing from my shoulder and wiped away the dried blood. The torn skin was closed now, leaving red marks where the teeth went in. I rolled my shoulders. The affected part still felt tender, but the sharp pain was gone.

“It’s healing well,” he said, setting the dressing aside. “You won’t need another bandage.”

“And Bren?” I asked.

“His leg is healing, but he lost a lot of blood. I’m keeping him with me until he gets his strength back. Amara and Celeste helped keep him alive.”

I pulled on a clean shirt. I could still see Amara on the floor of the car, her hands covered in blood. When I reached for her, she asked about the injured man.

“Tessa says she’s asking whether you let me check that shoulder,” Soren added.

“She should worry about herself.”

“You can tell her. I have patients to see.”

I found Dario, Kellan and Ivara in the small council room. Ivara’s black braids were tied behind her neck, and a phone lay beside the papers in front of her.

“The trucks were hired this morning,” she said. “Before you left Willowmere. Whoever arranged this knew where you were going.”

“Does the prisoner have a name?”

“The one he gave belongs to a dead man. I’m working on the payment.”

“Find who received it.”

She gathered her papers. Kellan waited until she reached the door before speaking.

“The escort heard what she is. Some have already told their mates.”

“And?”

“Bastian is downstairs.”

Of course he was.

“Send him in.”

The elder entered with Maela Renn. He rested a hand on the back of a chair.

“You brought an Unbound into this house?”

“Yes.”

Maela pushed back a loose strand of silver-streaked black hair. “Why?”

“Someone drugged her and put her in my room. Someone else sent men after her before we could reach Valcrest. Until I find out who and why, she stays.”

“The law—” Bastian began.

“I know the law. I've given my word that she will be safe here.”

“The pack will have questions.”

“They can ask me. Anyone who thinks he can frighten her into leaving will answer to me too.”

Bastian’s hand tightened on the chair. Maela looked towards Kellan. “Was it true that she helped one of our warriors?”

“Bren,” he replied. “She pulled him into the car.”

“Then I would like to hear what he says when he’s well enough.”

I nodded. “For now, see to the families of the injured. Kellan, keep the patrols together. Two attackers escaped.”

Dario opened the door. Bastian looked at me once more, then followed the others out.

“Evren needs to hear about the attack from us,” I told Dario when we were alone. “Tell him she’s my mate. Keep her family history out of it.”

“He’ll ask what changed.”

“Nothing has changed. We still don’t know who sent those men.”

Dario looked at my shoulder. “That’s not what he’ll mean.”

“She hasn’t been tried for a crime.”

“Remember that when you read the other reports.”

I turned towards him. He did not lower his eyes. I wanted to remind him what those reports contained, but the captive’s voice returned before I spoke. He claimed to be following my orders.

“Bring them tomorrow,” I said.

Dario nodded and left.

Alone, I went to the window. Amara was somewhere upstairs, settling into a room I chose for her. She was frightened, exhausted and still finding time to tell me what to do about my shoulder.

I looked towards the door. It would take a minute to check on her. Perhaps two, once she started arguing.

I stayed where I was.

Nero pushed against the restraint I kept around him.

“We should go to her.”

“She needs to rest.”

“Then we stay while she rests.”

“No.”

He growled inside me. I turned from the window and rested a hand on the desk.

“You will wait until I know what happened.”

“We know she was hurt.”

“We know someone drugged her. We do not know everything she is capable of.”

“She saved our warrior.”

“I saw her.”

“Then stop speaking like you did not.”

I closed my eyes. Amara’s face returned too easily. The way she glared when I gave her an instruction. The way that anger disappeared when her mother touched her. The hand she closed around my wrist before I left the car.

I wanted to know what she meant to say then. That curiosity belonged to me. I could not blame Nero for it.

“There is Celeste,” I said.

“You chose her. Not me.”

“I made a promise to her.”

“Then you figure out how to handle that.”

Nero never reached for Celeste. I used to tell myself that it did not matter, that a chosen relationship could be enough when the Goddess refused to send my mate.

Now she sent me a woman whose kind I spent years hunting, and my wolf would not even hear the word rejection without fighting me.

“I will not abandon everything I believe because you want her.”

“Then look at her when you say those things about her kind.”

I opened my eyes. “I am trying to find the truth. Until I do, you stay under control.”

For a moment, he was quiet, and I felt him settle close, making certain I could not mistake his silence for agreement.

“I need to make my stand clear. I want our mate,” Nero said, “and I will never accept another.”