Intransigent

Intransigent | 21

Chapter 21

Emma's POV

We were the last ones to make it to the kitchen. My parents, Rick, Aly, Will, Elizabeth and Lisa were already seated around the table and grinned when we finally walked into the room. The platters on the table were still pretty full so I knew we weren't that late.

"Good morning," I greeted everyone as I took a seat on the side of Aly that Will wasn't occupying and Ashton sat down next to me.

Everyone replied with their own greetings as Ashton and I worked on filling our plates with some of Elizabeth's delicious breakfast. I moaned as I scooped up some of her special hash browns. "You have no idea how much I've missed your cooking, Elizabeth," I told her, savoring the delicious food with its mystery ingredients.

She smiled happily at the compliment. "Well, you've got it now, so enjoy it before you have to head back to your new pack."

"That's the plan," I told her with a wink. "Oooh, guess what I did?"

Elizabeth laughed at my quick change of topic and asked, "What did you do?"

"I taught the omegas in Ashton's pack how to make rainbow pancakes!" I told her proudly. It was something I only did with her before and I was glad I was able to teach my new pack members as well.

"How did they like it?" Elizabeth asked with a grin.

"They enjoyed making them. It gave Cindy a break in the kitchen and I taught her two daughters, Cara and Emily, how to make them. I think we will continue to make them every day until Dane eats one."

We chattered happily throughout breakfast, enjoying the time that we had to catch up. We kept everything light and happy, ignoring the fact that a very dismal discussion was looming after breakfast. We couldn't avoid it forever though.

Elizabeth and Lisa cleared the plates and my dad stood with a sigh. "It's that time," he stated, motioning out of the dining room. We all stood and followed him out of the room, heading for his office where we could talk without anyone overhearing the discussion.

My dad sat behind his desk, folding his hands together. The rest of us, Ashton, Rick and I, chose chairs in front of his desk.

"Since you won't tell us about the two years that Max held you, why don't you tell us what happened the day you were taken?" my dad suggested.

I nodded, taking a moment to gather my thoughts. "I was out in the woods, playing with a large number of the pack children," I began. "We were playing tag, I think. Lisa was chasing me and I looked over my shoulder to see her. I slammed into someone, the scent immediately warning me it was a rogue. I told Lisa and the others to run before I attacked the rogue, but three more appeared. The girls hadn't listened and we're trying to help. I snarled at them to make them go back, but one of the rogues knocked me out while I was distracted. I just wanted the kids to be safe."

I felt a tear roll down my face and Ashton reached out to take my hand. He gave it a reassuring squeeze and nodded in encouragement for me to continue.

"I woke up in a cold jail cell; everything was concrete except the bars. They were steel, but coated in silver. I couldn't touch them. I could still feel Mel, but she was weak and wasn't able to connect with the pack. I wanted to test the bars, but Rick warned me that I couldn't break them. He was right of course." I looked over at Rick and he grinned and winked at me. I shook my head, a slight smile on my face despite the seriousness that I was revealing.

"We talked for a little while, mostly just introductions, until we were interrupted by Max. I didn't know who he was at the time, but I knew he was the alpha. He tried to be friendly, but I cut him off, asking what he wanted. It seemed to amuse him, but he told me he had brought me to his pack to mate with his son. Even asked if I wanted to meet him. I refused, naturally. I wanted to go home and I told him so. My refusal made him angry. I didn't back down. I told him that he couldn't make me mate with his son."

"She was magnificent," Rick interrupted. "Bared her teeth and snarled right in his face."

My dad smiled slightly, though not much. There wasn't much that could distract him from the horrifying picture I was painting for him.

I continued on. "He called Jeremy in. He looked me up and down as if I were some farm animal before telling his father that I 'would do'." Ashton growled and I squeezed his hand. "I yelled at him some. Quite a bit actually. I was naturally offended. We conversed a bit. The normal 'I won't mate with your son', 'you'll do what I tell you' kind of conversation. I assured him that I wouldn't mate with his son no matter what he did to me. He took my challenge."

My dad was shaking, his eyes black in anger, Ashton was the same beside me. I rubbed my thumb across the back of his hand in a comforting manner as my dad growled, "What happened then?"

"I'd rather not go into the details right now," I told him quietly, trying not to let the memories break through. "I lost contact with Mel completely after six months. Rick was the only thing that kept me sane."

The room was silent. My dad was vibrating in his chair and Ashton jerked me into his lap, burying his face in my neck for comfort. Both he and Axel needed it badly. Rick gave me a sad smile and I returned it. He understood why I didn't give them any more detail than I had. They couldn't handle it right now, and I wasn't sure I could either.

When they were calmer, my dad asked, "And how did you escape?"

I smiled slightly. "Rick heard fighting upstairs and woke me. We both knew it would've been the perfect time to escape, but we couldn't get out of the cells. Rick tried anyway, only managing to burn himself. He sat back down with me and we resigned ourselves to waiting, hoping their enemy won and was nicer than Max. Rodney, Max's six year old son, ran down the stairs and unlocked our cells, giving Rick a backpack of supplies. He said he was sorry for his father and that he hoped I'd get better soon. We offered to take him with us, but he said he had to stay for his younger sister. Rick carried me out and ran out of the territory. He laid false trails all over the banks of the river and then we settled down to rest. I couldn't shift until I was rested enough to feel Mel again. We slept overnight and I was able to shift the next morning, though barely. We ran until we were intercepted by Dane."

My dad took a deep breath and closed his eyes. I could tell he was trying to calm himself down. "I'm going to kill him," he whispered after a moment.

"Me too," Ashton agreed, Rick nodding in agreement.

I snuggled into Ashton's chest, needing some comfort of my own after rehashing all of that. He smiled slightly and gripped me tighter.

"I think we should wait for him to try finding you again," my dad stated. "We'll see if he can accomplish that. If he hasn't found you in a couple weeks, we'll take the fight to him."

I nodded in agreement, liking the plan mostly because it would give me time to get to know my new pack. I wanted to spend some time with them before things got crazy.

"We'll need to up the patrols slightly, though," Ashton added. "We need to make sure that we see any of Max's scout wolves. For this plan to work, we can't be taken by surprise."

My dad nodded in agreement. "That's true. I'll work patrols tonight and get them fixed up. I don't know who Max will check first. Emma is from here, but your pack is close by. He's not stupid, he'll know that she and Rick needed help."

Rick nodded in agreement but said, "I think he'll check you first, Sir. He will know that Emma and I were rogues because we were separated from our packs for so long. Not many packs greet rogues nicely, and Dane wasn't much of an exception."

Ashton growled slightly and I patted his chest gently. "Calm down," I told him. "He wasn't rough with us, he just wasn't very friendly."

Ashton nodded, kissing the top of my head before looking up at my dad. "So we wait it out for a while."

My dad nodded. "We do. Give Emma some time to settle into your pack and her Luna duties. Let us get a feel for what Max does and then we'll formulate a plan of attack." His voice hardened and a snarl appeared on his lips. "We're going to take him down and we're going to take him down hard."

~~~*~~~Author's Note~~~*~~~

Sorry it's a little shorter than usual. I ran out of prewritten chapters and wrote this up last night. I'm crazy busy this week, but I wanted to make sure that you still got your chapter :) I hope you guys liked it. It should start picking up speed again in a few more chapters.

Happy monday and have a wonderful one!

~Haley~