Chapter 6 - Weak foundations

Amara POV

“I can explain.” I murmur out, wanting to explain why he can’t feel my wolf. Why it’s not as bad

as he thinks. Why I wouldn’t blame him for rejecting our bond now.

“You don’t need to.” I’m surprised as his hand reaches up and tucks a stray piece of hair behind

my ear. His eyes watching me carefully as I flinch slightly under his touch. I was rarely touched

unless it was to punish me or take my blood.

A frown forms onto his face as he drops his hand before his demeanour turns back to cold

again. Those eyes regarding me as they did before…coldheartedly.

Even though I didn’t want his touch, I find myself oddly missing it, my body colder now than it

was before. Goosebumps erupt across my body, a chill spreading into my bones.

“The key?” He abruptly turns to my father, his hand placed out expectantly.

“Excuse me?” Father grunts out as his arms cross over his chest, his eyebrow quirking

challengingly.

I feel like I need to warn Erik, explain to him how you talk to an alpha…or that the alpha talks to

you. You never give an alpha an order…he was a rogue, he just didn’t know these things.

The heat from their burning glares directed at Erik makes me feel protective of him, even as

Catherine stares at him, I want to shield him from them. Block him with my body. He didn’t know

their true intentions; he was a rogue offered a place in a pack…little did he know that he should

have walked out of that door and not marked me.

It doesn’t matter that he has just marked me…I would do it to any other soul…

“Father, I think…” Before I know what I am doing, I find myself spluttering out the words.

All eyes turn to me as I start to defend Erik, try to soften the tension within the office. Defend

him from their angry looking stares.

“The key…for the pack house you promised Amara if she traded mates. You said she would be

done with this place and could spend her time near the borders. Did you not?” What was he

doing, he was picking a battle with an alpha that never liked to lose.

I’m frozen in a state of panic and disbelief. I can’t believe he has just done that. Not only has he

spoken to an alpha rudely, but he had reminded them of their promise. A promise I don’t think I

truly expected them to honour.

He was preparing to argue with them, nobody ever argues with them especially not a rogue. He

was facing an alpha with his back straight and his shoulders broad, he didn’t seem to listen to

pack status.

“Well, we still need Amara here…her presence is vital to the alpha family.” Stepmother

responds, her eyes narrowing on Erik who wasn’t shrinking under her lethal gaze. Her clever

hand of hers stroking along father’s crossed arms, her usual tactical technique in getting her

own way.

“It’s not like I’m taking her off pack lands. Besides newly marked couples need privacy…” His

voice is meant to sound light-hearted but there is an anger within it. An anger I believe is a result

of being shortchanged with his new mate.

My heart drops at his words.

Newly marked…privacy…he wanted to mate with me. Complete the bond.

I could feel my heart rate quickening, feel it start to thud against my chest as I mentally pray for

Father not to give in, not to agree to this.

He won’t, I can take some reassurance in that fact.

Until I am stunned by Father’s movement to his desk. The small sigh escaping from his lips.

“Very well, it needs work. But it would be fitting for a rogue and his new mate.” Father reaches

into his desk drawer before throwing a set of keys out to Erik.

Erik catches the keys, his cold eyes not leaving Father’s.

“You understand that we still have expectations?” Stepmother quietly seethes into Father’s ear,

his eyes darting between Catherine before landing on mine.

“Amara has appointments that I expect her to maintain.”

Erik places the key into his front jean pocket before snaking an arm around my back and moves

me out of the office. Before the door closes, I glance backwards, the four of them watching me

exit…Stepmother’s eyes a picture of anger.

“Do you want to pack first?” Erik grunts to me, his words capturing my attention as his lips hover

just by my ear. I feel lightheaded as I lose all sense of personal space around me. A woody smell

invading my nostrils.

“No, it’s fine. I can come back another time.” Besides I don’t have a lot to pack.

I was still in a state of perplexity, confusion. Everything in my life had just changed in the space

of a few minutes. Not only was I marked by another, but he also now expected me to mate with

him in a run-down pack house.

I had a mate last night that I stupidly thought loved me, wanted to be with me…now I am marked

by a male I do not know…that clearly despises me so much that he can only converse with me

with a grunt.

Erik pulls the set of keys out of his front pocket to reveal the house number. 153, of course it

was.

Father was a generous man to Catherine but not to me, which is something Erik is about realise

when he is introduced to his new home. Not even now, when I have done everything they have

asked of me, can I get the modern simple home that I have always dreamed off.

They continue to punish me, and now my new mate.

“153, do you know where it is?” He flicks the key in his hand, spotting me watching him.

“Yes, you could say that.” I sigh out.

He was about to have a wake-up call if he thinks he’s taken a step up that pack ladder. If

anything, he was better off remaining a rogue.

I pluck up the courage to place my hand around his, our eyes snapping to one another as we

both feel that static shock from my sudden touch. I swallow down, refusing to follow that

instinctive need of mine to pull my hand away.

At least with Erik I didn’t have to be secret, I didn’t have to hide him away like I did with Jason. My

Father can’t punish Erik or me, he is the reason we are now mates.

“Are you sure you know where you are going?” He asks out, his voice void of any emotions as we

start heading towards our allocated pack house. When Catherine said I wanted to live as far

away from the alpha home as possible, she wasn’t lying. I’m just sorry that it will impact Erik’s

ability to settle into this pack.

But then he has marked the unwanted daughter of the alpha, he would never be given he same

chances of others here.

“Yes, it ‘s just up here.” I point my finger out to the direction of the building.

“What’s that?” He stops, his eyes looking towards the purple tint of the monkshood fields. To

anyone else it may look like fields of innocent lavender poetically swaying in the breeze, but the

real crop was the complete opposite.

“That’s the monkshood fields. Come on, nearly there…” I pull him, eager to keep the topic off the

grower’s fields. It’s not really something that is discussed within the pack, so for him to be a new

pack member I didn’t know how much I can tell him.

Pack members are raised knowing we grow the plant, and children are told to stay away from

the fields. Overall, it’s tolerated being our main income. I may not be privy to alpha meetings,

but that’s not to say I haven’t found things out myself.

As we arrive to the pack house it’s not a complete surprise to find that Erik’s mood has changed.

I knew it would, his new house is symbolic to his new mate…both defected.

“It needs a lot of work I know…” I find myself already apologizing for its aesthetics, the inside

wasn’t much better.

“Hmm.” He grunts out, as he pushes open on the wooden front door, the unmissable creaking

sound of wood as he takes his first step in. His eyes scanning the hallway that is covered in

cobwebs, dust and broken floorboards. The plastered walls have giant holes that need fixing,

the smell of damp stinging at my nose.

“I can say something…You shouldn’t have to live like this.” I take a deep breathe in, the thought

of having to march back to the alpha house and ask for another place terrifying me.

He turns to me, those amber eyes holding some kind of hypnotic ability to them as they hold me

in a trance.

“You are weak, just like this house.” He growls out.

“I…”

“No, it wasn’t a question. This is how they’ve made you, how they want you to feel. Come, let’s

have a look upstairs.”

I take a step back not sure I was ready for what going upstairs might imply.

“Don’t worry Amara Bloodstone, I won’t mate with you…” He takes a predatory step closer to

me. His body almost touching mine.

“..not yet.”