Taking What's His

Chapter 23

My leg bounced anxiously as I glanced out the window to see how far the Alpha's car had gotten, waiting in tense silence for there to be enough distance between his car and the one my family and I were following him in before I started talking. It had taken a lot of convincing to get him to allow me to ride in my family's car in the drive over to his house instead of going with him. He looked extremely reluctant, even as I promised not to run away. It had taken my mom stepping in to say she would drive and promising she would follow him to his house for him to agree. 

I sat next to Nora in the back.  She had turned herself towards the window but the tears that dropped from her chin onto her jeans leaving little darkened marks in the light blue denim gave away that she was crying. I cupped her cheek in my hand, gently guiding her face down onto my shoulder and she curled into me. Hugging onto my arm in a way that had my eyes stinging and a lump forming in my throat. 

"I will never let that wolf anywhere near you." I promised, pressing a kiss to her forehead. She stayed quiet for a moment before lifting her head from my shoulder to look at me.

"How Athena? Now that Alpha Onyx knows he'll tell Russel and they'll be keeping an eye on our family to make sure I can't run away." 

"We'll find a way. You will not spend your life tied to a mutt." I said and my mom called my name sharply, her red-rimmed eyes connecting with mine in the rearview mirror as I looked up and she gave me an admonishing look. 

"I'm the mate of their Alpha, they're not going to toss me in jail for calling a wolf a mutt." I said. 

"Still be careful, we don't need any added attention at a time like this." My mom said and the air went out of me.

"You're right, I'm sorry. How did it happen?"

"We stopped for gas but the pump wouldn't accept my card so I went in to pay cash. The wolf was there in line, he seemed to smell Nora on me the moment I walked in." My dad said, glancing back at Nora with an incredibly guilty look making it clear he blamed himself for all of it. I tried my best to hold back my wince at the sight of his rapidly darkening bruises, hating that there was nothing we could do to keep those beasts away from us. 

"He knew the scent wasn't mine and asked who I was there with. Before I could even respond he had run out to the car and it was unlocked. " My dad said, trailing off as though unable to tell the rest.

"He dragged me out of the car, I didn't even see him coming. I was so surprised I didn't even make a sound. Mom was screaming at him to let me go and Dad tried to get him off of me and that's when he hit him." Nora continued, her voice strangely detached even as tears dropped from her big eyes, running down her cheeks dropping down her jaw. 

"No one helped us, even as we screamed and begged him. He was so strong, none of us could move him. He was completely beastly at first but he turned back to talk to me, tell me I was his and he was taking me home. He lost it again when I started struggling." 

"You must have been so scared, I'm so sorry." I said, finally letting the tears fall as the guilt of being the reason they had ever been in Onyx's territory overwhelmed me. I should have fought him harder on not inviting them, then the wolf would never have met Nora. 

I went rigid as I suddenly recalled the only other way for a wolf to find their mate. Barely able to hear a word as my parents and Nora tried to convince me it wasn't my fault. An Alpha could tell by the scent of someone whether they were the mate of one of their pack members. Onyx had known all along that Nora was one of his pack member's mates, it was impossible for him not to. He had known and he had kept it from me. 

"What is it?" Nora asked, sensing how tense I had suddenly gotten.

"Nothing." I said, forcing myself to focus as I looked down at her, the silvery tear tracks on my little sister's cheeks steadying my resolve to make the Alpha regret it.