Chapter 3

I closed my eyes tightly and raised my hands up in surrender. Lies began to spew out of my mouth. “I swear, I'm not here to steal anything. My dog got lost and I-”

“Shut up!” One of the men holding the guns barked. I whimpered, squeezing my eyes shut as I trembled visibly.

My bladder felt full and I prayed I wouldn't lose control of myself. On second thought, maybe they'll feel disgusted if I do and then let me go.

“What's your name? Who sent you here?” The same voice asked.

I stayed quiet, trembling. My eyes were still closed but I could feel the very presence of the guns in my face.

“Open your eyes and answer the question before I give you a reason to cry,” he said in a tone that sent chills up my spine.

Cracking one eye open before the other, I took in my immediate surroundings. It was dark but with the light that creeped into the building, I could see the four guns pointing right at me. I couldn't really make out the faces of the men holding the guns but clearly, none of them were smiling.

“I'm…I'm Elara. And nobody sent me here,” I reply honestly.

“Let’s take her to him,” one of them said, just before I feel the nozzle of a gun at my lower back. “Move!” He barked and my feet move automatically. Both my hands remained in the air as I went in the direction they were pushing me in.

If Grannie Alba should know where I am, she just might have another heart attack that would take her life.

As we approached a door at the far end of the building, an oddly sweet scent traveled to my nose. It made me restless and if it weren't for the guns keeping me in place, I would have ran towards it.

The scent grew stronger with each step and soon enough, I was no longer shaking from fear but with anticipation.

As soon as I entered the wider room, my eyes landed on a pair of dark ones that were staring right into my soul.

I heard one of the men talk but the words sounded as though they were coming from very far away. My eyes remained trained on the devilishly handsome man standing across the room from me.

If my wolf wasn't dormant, she would have been so restless and threatening to come out. She would have been giddy with excitement and prancing around in my head while chanting one word.

Mate.

It was unlike everything that had ever been described to me about the mate pull.

“Leave,” I heard a deep voice say. At first, I thought I was the one being referred to until I saw the men with the guns and others that had previously occupied the room before me, all walking out.

“Mate,” he growled lowly and my heart jumped to my throat.

He closed the wide gap between us in three short strides and I swallowed hard.

I felt the power radiating off his presence when he was steps away from me and now that he stood right before me, I almost went down on one knee.

This man was born into leadership. Was he of Alpha Blood maybe?

My heart was full of joy and my chest wanted to explode in excitement. I wasn't sure what I was expecting at that moment but I felt that my life was about to change.

“What's your name?”

“Elara,” I whispered.

“Louder.”

“Elara. Elara Rossi”

“Alpha Moretti,” he said in response.

I pursed my lips together to stop my mouth from dropping open. An alpha! My mate is an alpha!

“What pack do you belong to?” He asks again.

Something told me these weren't first conversation questions but I was too excited to even mind.

“Open Creek Pack.”

I saw an eyebrow raise slightly and I could tell he wasn't impressed. There was nothing impressive about Open Creek.

“An omega,” he muttered to himself.

I shivered under his gaze. He cocked his head at me, keeping his eyes firm on mine and then barked a single order that sent shocks travelling down my spine.

“Shift!”

I stood still, unsure of what to do. He said nothing else. I had a feeling he wasn't going to repeat himself. It wasn't as though I had never shifted or that I didn't know how to. Rather, I hadn't done it in so long that I wasn't sure I remembered how.

My wolf had stopped responding to me for a while and so I didn't bother shifting because she probably wasn't there.

“I….I can't,” I stuttered quietly. “I don't know how to,” I lied.

His thin lips curled into a snarl. If there was any uncertainty left in him, it probably disappeared at that very moment.

The last time I stood under the moon, I couldn't even feel my wolf's presence. It took some time for me to force my devastation away but I eventually did.

Now, I could feel the pain, fresh in my head. My wolf had gone dormant.

“Shift!” He said again. This time, surprisingly calmer than I expected.

“I apologise Alpha, I've lost connection with my wolf. I could explain how it happened now or perhaps as we get to know each-”

He cuts me off by raising a hand. The building was so silent, you could hear a pin drop.

“I, Alpha Alessandro Moretti of the Moretti Brun Pack reject you, Elara Rossi as my mate,” he said, his voice vibrating off the walls in the room.

My legs gave up under me and I fell to the ground.

My vision grew clouded, I trembled like a leaf on the ground. But why? I asked myself.

“I cannot have such a scrawny, insignificant, and utterly inconvenient female who embodies weakness and vulnerability as a Luna for my pack,” he said calmly as though he heard the question in my mind.

“I'm not weak,” I said in a shaky voice. Even to my own ears, I sounded pathetic. “It might take me some time but I'll learn to be a good Luna to you.’

He shook his head, disgust clouding his features. “You are beneath me, a liability I cannot afford. I can never claim you as mine.”

My ears were ringing, I was reeling from the pain and humiliation. With the last strength I had left, I rose to my feet.

“I, Elara Rossi, reject you as my mate and I accept your rejection.”