Chapter 2

Viola’s POV

Derek sucked in a breath behind me and gripped me harder, not to hurt me but in some kind of shock. 

His scent was much stronger, stronger than my mother’s even, but she hadn’t had me encircled in her arms either. It was like smelling the Earth’s sweetest scents. His heart seemed to beat faster than I would expect and I even felt his pulse. I loosened my hands from the sword and Derek set it down with one hand and put his other on my hip as he turned me around to face him.

“Do you feel it?” He whispered with wide eyes as he brought his hand from where he dropped the sword to my other hip. “Viola, is she there?” He had moved even closer, my breasts lightly pressed just under his chest. His face was etched with concern.

“I, I don’t know.” My head started vibrating in a way that should have been painful but it wasn’t even a little bit. “My head.” I dropped my head into my hands as I started to sway. Although not painful I was getting increasingly light-headed. Derek picked me up and brought me to the office connected to the training room setting me down in the chair. My breathing quickened and I felt a burning sensation under my skin. Like it was starting to catch on fire. 

“Derek?” I pleaded not sure what I needed or even wanted other than to know I wasn’t alone.

“Breathe, Viola, breathe. She’s trying to break through.” I nodded my head at his words knowing he spoke of my wolf.

Then, just like earlier, everything stopped. My breathing slowed and Derek was sitting in front of me on his knees with his hands grabbing my legs and rubbing circles on my thighs.

“How often has this been happening?” 

“It just started this morning when I left for the training rooms.” I replied shakily.

“Viola, I think there’s a reason you haven’t had your wolf. Why she isn’t breaking through properly.” He sucked in some air and let it out. “I think you were poisoned. Your wolf. Poisoned and bound. She smelled like she had been bound.”

*****

I had been sitting in front of the gates to Shadow Pack territory since Derek had the revelation about my wolf. I couldn’t breathe, much less think. Poisoned and bound? Who? Why? The usual questions filled my brain. Derek mind linked my father to meet in person and discuss the situation after he had realized, but I had no idea what that would entail. When he hadn’t had the answers I needed I ran. I didn’t stop until I was outside of the gates. 

My brain was so muddled, I felt dazed. 

I had thought I was alone, but after three hours of sitting there I still felt chills under my skin, prickling on my neck. I initially chalked it up to my nerves, but as my breath came easier and I started to calm down the sensations were still there. I was being watched. Instead of going back I stood up and began looking around further into the woods, the sensations under my skin started to feel like crawling.

“Who’s there?” I rubbed my arms and pulled my elbows to my sides. I can’t say I got far before I heard the growling behind me. I quickly turned around to see Drew in his wolf form. “What are you doing Drew?” I managed to choke out.

He stalked towards me slowly, playing with me. I backed up until I got to a tree, stopping me from going any further. “You’re really going to attack the alpha’s only child?” I tried to sound fearless but it was pointless. He could smell how terrified I was. The sweat from my palms. It didn’t matter that I could hide their violent shaking behind me against this tree. He knew. I closed my eyes and turned my head desperate not to see what happened next. 

The explosion to our right stopped him in his tracks. Someone, a man, walked from where the explosion came from. His hair blacker than midnight, and his eyes were red. 

“She’s mine.” He growled.

Drew took off after another growl, but not before turning his hateful eyes to look at me one more time.

“Looks like you’re in the wrong place at the wrong time Viola. Tsk, tsk, tsk.” He wraps a hand around my throat while pushing my hair back with the other and forces my face up to look at him. “Your mother called for aid, it seems your wolf abilities are becoming a problem.” He puts his head to my collarbone and smells me rubbing his face against me as he does. 

Once again my senses become heightened as he pins me between himself and the tree. The hand not on my neck moves to my waist as he breathes in my scent. What I couldn’t smell on him moments before he grabbed me suddenly filled my head, the scent of a cool misty breeze, something sweet and intoxicating. I feel him hardening against me.

“I, I’m not.” I gasp out trying to think of anything to get him off of me. “I don’t know what you mean.” I say as I try to push myself even closer to the tree, a futile attempt to get away from him and the sensations brewing in my body. “Who are you?”

“Mmm, I’m sure you don’t Viola. How could you?” He chuckled. His face moved from my collarbone to my neck and finally my face brushing his cheek against mine. The hand on my waist grips tighter as the sensation of fire begins in my body again, similar to earlier except this time the sensation is stronger. 

“Your scent when she is there though, so powerful.” His hand moves from my throat to hold the side of my face that his wasn’t on, trying to bring me closer, as if he could when he was practically melting into me. “Getting rid of her will be such a shame.” He kisses my neck as he tangles his hand in my hair.

A growl sounds in my head vibrating inside my skull as the man presses closer to me, grinding against me. I gasped as I realized he was supposed to be my mate and that he and my mother had no intention of me having a wolf at all. 

I hear a hum in his chest pulsing as he lingers against me.