Man Gone Rogue

Chapter 3

Jade's eyes widened as she saw the massive pack house they were coming up on. Of all the packs, her mate was the alpha-to-be of one of the largest ones? Really? She chewed on her lip nervously. While she didn't know the name of this pack, her parents had warned her away from these woods, alerting her of the potential danger of the notoriously large pack within. How they had found out about it, Jade had no idea. She figured it had something to do with the danger of pack territory. It was well known that any packless–or as pack wolves called them, rogue–wolves caught inside pack borders could be attacked, imprisoned, and even killed. Yeah, definitely not a good way to go.

If only Jade had been able to heed her parents' advice. She stayed in her seat like a disobedient child, only starting to unbuckle and get out once Arlis opened her door and gave her a look. As soon as she was out, her arms were grabbed again by "Drew" and the other one. Jade tried to jerk her arms away and say she could walk on her own, but the duo was absolutely not having it. She once again found herself cursing their better strength. Jade still refused to look at either of them, her gaze only moving from Arlis, to the ground, and back to Arlis again.

"This is really unnecessary and impolite." she grumbled, and Arlis gave her another toothy grin.

"We gave you tons of chances, Mate. You chose this."

"Don't call me that!"

"Then tell us your name."

"No!"

Arlis chuckled softly, shaking his head with amusement. "Come on, it's only a little further now. You're lucky my dad's office is on the first floor and not the fifth." Jade sighed in exasperation, locking her knees back together and letting herself be dragged. She knew that she probably looked like a stubborn pup and that these werewolves were probably strong enough that they were unaffected by her antics, but she just wanted to be as annoying as possible to deal with. She caught herself staring at Arlis several times. Once or twice, she managed to catch his eyes and she quickly looked away. She couldn't believe he was her mate.. she almost expected that she wouldn't have one since she's half-human. She had hoped that she wouldn't have one. Stupid bond. She couldn't help it as she kept looking at him, even though she would have much rather kept her gaze on the ground.

Arlis's officers-to-be marched her into the pack house. Jade's nose was immediately assaulted with the tangy scent of pack wolves. She had to admit that it smelled quite a bit nicer than the asphalt and gasoline scent that most rogues picked up. Jade wound up ducking her head in embarrassment as she considered how awful she must smell to everyone in the pack house, before she quickly snapped out of it. It didn't matter how she smelled! She shouldn't be thinking about trying to impress these wolves. If they didn't like how she smelled, fine! Even as she thought it, she could feel the slight twinge in her heart at the idea of this pack not liking her.

Arlis calmly knocked on the wooden door with a gold plate that read 'Alpha.' The door immediately swung open to reveal a tall and muscular man. It was definitely Arlis's father, he had the same dirty blonde unruly hair, even if it was graying with age. His blue eyes on Jade felt like they were piercing her skin, clearly Arlis's brown eyes came from his mother.

"So, this is your mate." He started casually, standing back to allow the three wolves plus Jade into the office. Arlis wore a small smile that admittedly tugged at Jade's heart.

"Yes, father." Arlis looked back at her. He reached out to touch her arm, but she managed to jerk away even while in the hold of Drew and the other one. She almost regretted it when she saw the deep yet momentary hurt flash through Arlis's eyes. His father nodded his head.

"Drew, Colton. You are excused." Jade was ecstatic that she could finally put a name to her third captor. Not. She watched as the two dark haired males exited the room, shutting the door behind them.