The Alpha's Mates (The Three Sister's War, Book 1)

Chapter 5

Reese

My head snapped up as the door opened and I shoved my hands behind my back, trying to hide the loose chain. A look around at the destroyed bed made me realize that I wouldn't be fooling anyone. I'd managed to find some pants and a shirt to change into. Even with as tall as I was, I had to roll up the bottom of the pants to keep from tripping on them.

The beautiful woman who walked in had dark hair with gray at the temples. Her smokey gray eyes crinkled at the corners with her smile as she surveyed the damage to the bedpost. It was split in half, with shards lying around the room like it had imploded.

My smile was sharp as I studied her. "It's not smart to keep an alpha where she doesn't want to stay."

She cocked her head, studying me. "I'd begun to lose hope that I would meet you child."

My brows drew low as I frowned at her. "What do you mean?" All thoughts of escape dropped, at least for now. Her eyes were so genuine, I wanted to trust her. I scolded myself for being so easily distracted.

"May I sit?"

"It's your pack," I told her with a shrug.

Her beautiful dress flowed around her legs as she moved. She looked like she belonged at some fancy party, not like she was a shifter living in the middle of the woods. Granted, from what I'd seen of their house, they had the same amenities we'd had at the coast. Only their house was well furnished and was much nicer than any I'd lived in. If they had a home like this, I doubted their people were living in hovels built into the ground.

Only your pack lives without luxuries.

She gave me a winning smile as she sat down at the desk. She motioned for me to take a seat on the bed. "Please. We have much to discuss."

"The only thing we need to discuss," I replied, "is your alpha letting me go so I can go find my pack. He has no right to keep me here."

Her lips twitched, but she waited silently until I sighed and sat on the bed. The chain rattled as I moved.

"What's your name?"

Considering my choices, I looked around the room again, avoiding her gaze. I shouldn't be here talking to her. I should leave before those alphas came back, but her gentle grandmother-like nature was comforting. She reminded me of my mother. Missing my mother was a constant for me. She'd been the only bright spot in my life—besides Emma—and the night she died a piece of me had left with her. The guilt of her death was a living, breathing entity inside me.

"Reese."

"I'm Vera. Soren sent me in here to speak to you about The Moon Goddess."

That got my attention. Sitting up straighter, I nodded for her to keep speaking. Me and my pack had been trying to figure out a way for females to get out of being forced into cadres against their wills. That wasn't the teachings we'd grown up on. The stories we'd been taught were full of love and acceptance between cadres and their females. The Moon Goddess chose mated pairs, and later, mated cadres. While some thought she had abandoned us for good, my mother hadn't believed it. She thought that the Goddess's magic was fading, though she hadn't known why, and that was why there were fewer and fewer mated cadres every year. Why there were fewer females being born.

Emma and I had been searching for answers. Maybe Vera and the Venat Pack could help us find some of those answers. All we knew for sure right now was that no one seemed to care whether she was blessing cadres with their mates or not. They just took the females they wanted. The women we'd rescued from abusive packs hadn't been mated to them. Not officially in the way of our kind. They'd just been too weak to defeat a pack of alphas to gain their freedom. Anything Vera could tell me about The Moon Goddess and the shifter's plight might help with our own mission. It was our last remaining hope at a free life.