Dawn

Chapter 2

Ares

The moment I walked into that shitty bar, the smell of wildflowers and honey caught my wolf off guard. We had given up on finding our mate. I know mates are rare, but I always had a feeling I would meet mine at some point in my life. Now, at 26, I had given up almost all of my hope, but when I smelled her scent, the wolf inside me went wild. Almost as soon as it entered my lungs, it was gone, and if I didn't know any better I would have thought I imagined it. That was until a rush of chestnut brown hair disappeared out of the door I had just entered. It was her. She left. She left? My wolf growled in anger. How dare she leave?! I mind linked my men and ran outside after her. When I finally confronted her, I couldn't stop my eyes from gazing over every inch of her body. Her hair fell in soft waves around her shoulders and her brown eyes were big and doe eyed. She was tall and lean with long legs that were shown off by her small skirt. It made my wolf growl in possessiveness. She had slightly tanned skin, plump pink lips and a small button nose. Her cheekbones were defined and connected to a scowl as I continued to growl in both possessiveness and approval.

There have only been a few times my wolf was able to take full control since I was a child, and when Athena told me she did not want a mate, that was the last straw for him. He took complete control and was dead set on marking her right there and then. If it wasn't for her strength in pushing us all back, I'm not sure I could have stopped him.

I'm not quite sure how she was able to push us all back, but in that instant I felt deep regret. Athena had clearly been combing through her thoughts the entire time she had been looking at me from the beginning and when I reached out to comfort her she jerked away. She was afraid of me. She called me a murderer. Not only that, but accused me of murdering her family.

I am far from innocent, but I do not murder in cold blood. I do what I must do as an alpha to protect my pack, but I have never killed anyone who didn't deserve it. I had been under the assumption that Athena was a rogue or lone wolf. Her scent gave off a high rank meaning her parent was an alpha, beta, or gamma and she was the first born. If her parents were defectors of that rank, they would be killed on sight. Was it my pack? Was it me?

My beta, Dominic, and I sit in the back of the SUV with my mate curled up, her head resting on my lap. The scowl on my face has yet to fade and my two enforcers in front can feel my anger through our pack bond.

"They did the right thing, Ares. She wasn't going to listen; she was going to run. We could all see it in her eyes." Dominic says. He is right of course. My stubborn mate was going to run away. She was not going to listen to a word I said, and I had to get her to hear me out. I couldn't lose her now that I've found her.

"They shot my mate." I growl, while protectively tugging Athena closer to me, her scent calming my wolf down.

"We just darted her, sir. She'll be awake in a few hours. We apologize greatly, Alpha." Jon says, his eyes firmly on the road.

I growl again, but I know they all mean well. They all knew how badly I craved a mate, a bond. They had been nagging me for years to take a chosen, but a part of me knew my mate was out there somewhere, and it didn't feel right choosing someone else over the one the goddess chose for me. Now that I had found her, they knew they needed to keep her to ensure my sanity.

"Do we know who she is yet?" I ask Dominic, hoping to change topics into something more productive.

Dominic shakes his head. "So far, no matches for her name and description, but I'm sure she will tell us more when she wakes up. We looked into rogue deaths by our pack and nothing of high enough rank to be her family. Nothing actually for generations, so I'm not quite sure she is telling the truth."

I nod and look out the window, stroking Athena's hair gently.

"May I speak freely, Ares?" Dominic asks.

"Dom, of course. We've known each other since we were pups. You are my beta, I trust you with my life."

Dominic smiles then frowns, "There is something off about her. I know you don't want to say it but the way she forced us back in the alley and the past she seems to be hiding. I don't know, just be careful, ok Ares? I know she is your mate and all, but just be careful."

I trust Dominic, I do, but his words don't help the pain stabbing my heart. A mate is supposed to be instant love, the other half of your soul, and here mine is, trying to run away from me. She blamed the goddess for pairing us and apologized to her mother for our matehood. She already hates me and she doesn't even know me. This is the mate I was waiting for? I want her love, and I'm going to make her my mate.

As we drive the last thirty minutes in silence to the safe house, I can't help but think about what is going to happen when she wakes up. She is going to be pissed, I already know that, but I want to talk to her. I need to hear her voice again.

As we pull up, I scoop her into my arms and carry her to my room. She snuggles her head into my chest, and though she doesn't know it's me, she feels safe in my arms. As I open the door to my room and kick it closed, I pop my shoes off and climb onto the bed with her still wrapped in my arms. I nuzzle her flush against me and take a deep inhale of her scent. It soothes my wolf instantly, and within seconds we are drifting off into a deep sleep with our mate finally in our arms.