Claimed by the Alpha

Escape

Quiet breaths.

Quiet footsteps.

Soft paws padding against the cold stone floor, too loud, we have to be quiet!

I can hear him breathing, just on the other side of the door.

Slow breaths.

He's finally asleep.

In my wolf form I am much stealthier, but my scent is stronger. I figure too much noise would wake him before our scent did.

I round the corner, my eyes locked on the door at the end of the dark corridor, the door that leads to the gardens.

My wolf is still uneasy, the idea of leaving our mate going against her instinct.

He was made for us.

I huffed at her in annoyance, wincing as the sound reverberated off of the stone walls.

Yah well I hate him, and you know I'd never let him touch us in the way he'll desire most. This is the only option.

With that she agreed, still shaken to the core as I was with our first experience. She had taken some of the pain as well, as much as she could, trying to spare me from such trauma.

We're strong, she reminded us.

I had been doubting that myself lately. I had felt so week, so vulnerable, unable to defend myself for the first time since I was a child. And underneath all of the hatred and pain, there was... guilt? Why was I guilty? I had done nothing to deserve that.

He was a monster, we are not to blame.

No, we were not, but that wasn't it. I wasn't pure anymore, and my mate didn't know. What would he think when he found out?

He never will, my wolf growled, and I smiled at her conviction. She would never let someone touch me, us, like that again. Not until we were ready.

I was brought out of my thoughts by the sound of a door closing ever so softly. I lifted my nose to the air, searching for any familiar scents.

A deep forest musk drifted by, sending uncomfortable shivers throughout my traitorous body.

Sinn.

What was he doing up at this hour, prowling the castle?

Fear pooled in my stomach, causing my lungs to work overtime. Looking for us.
But he was going in the wrong direction, heading out into the night. Surely he would have sensed us.

Follow him.

Well obviously. I rolled my eyes at her and padded through the halls, pausing in front of the steel door that led to the gardens. Something was off.

His smell, my wolf supplied.

I had noticed that too. Something about his scent was off. The musk was familiar, the smell of earth and trees and masculinity. The smell of an Alpha. But underneath all of that there was something else, something bitter, something dark and powerful.

We could be sensing his emotions. This was plausible, but unlikely. It was normal for mates to sense each other's emotions, their thoughts, but not until after the mating. And that definitely hadn't happened. Just thinking about it made me blush.

The cool air ruffled my coat, the smell of hundreds of roses making it hard to pick out his scent. Eventually I found his path, winding down into the ravine behind the castle, into the darkness of the trees. Surely nothing could hurt us inside of the castle walls, but I wasn't stupid. I would proceed with absolute cauyion, and the stealth of a wolf from the wild, not a werewolf.