Unexpected: Forever His (Book 1)

Chapter 45: Lost

*****Kayla's POV*****

Dante opened the door for me and I took a deep breath as I rose out of the back of the car. The trees caught my attention and I smiled up at them. The breeze blew softly at my neck and Aeron cooed in my arms. He looked up from the buttons on my shirt long enough to smile up at me and the limbs of the tall trees blowing in the wind caught his attention. He seemed mesmerized and he cooed even louder.

Dante slid his hand around my back and we stepped together towards the house. I looked up at my mate and smiled as I shifted Aeron into my right arm and slid my arm around his back. "I thought they would have been here waiting. I wonder..."

"It is strange. Alpha Mark would usually be here to welcome a member of another pack."

"Right, but you are not just a member of another pack. You are the Lord Alpha of Syros." He stopped and looked down at me. His eyes burned down at my own and I felt my body heat up. "I doubt if you will ever truly understand how it makes me feel to know you recognize who I am, Kayla."

I smirked up at him. "I recognized that the moment you won that pathetic challenge against Aiden. As if there was ever a chance that you wouldn't have won anyway." He laughed. "I could have let him win, but Eleric would have feasted on my shame."

"Eleric?"

He stared down at me, eyebrows furrowed, briefly before he answered. "An old acquaintance, amica mea." I nodded. He looked back up at the house in front of us and I sighed. "I guess we should knock." He nodded and I shifted Aeron again in my arms as he stepped forward and up the steps. He held his head high and prestige flowed from him heavy. He knocked three times against the wooden door and waited.

After a minute or two, I heard movement behind the door and it was slowly pulled open so that a streak of darkness could be seen. I couldn't see who it was from my viewpoint, but it seemed that Dante could.

"Your Alpha is expecting us. Did he not tell you?"

The door was jerked open suddenly, and my dad came into my view. "I do apologize, Patrick. It seems it skipped my memory to alert you that the Lord Alpha and the Queen of Queens would be visiting us." He briefly acknowledged Dante before he looked at me and bowed his head emphatically." Patrick glared up at him and nodded his head in a slight bow. "Yes, the Lord Alpha who killed Aiden."

Dante took a step closer to Patrick and smirked. "If the pup hadn't come to Syros to sniff out a female that no longer belonged to him, he would possibly still be alive." He looked out towards me. The Beta's eyes turned darker and I heard a low growl radiate from his chest. "He was tricked into a challenge by that fool vampire. I begged him not to go. You should have recognized that he was not in his right mind. It should have been obvious to someone like you. He loathed Kayla. He never would have challenged for her!" He glared down at me. "Queen of Queens! Ha!" He bolted forward and jumped off the side of the porch. He stopped right in front of me and stared down at Aeron before he looked back up at me with a dark-eyed glare. "You aren't worthy of a title like that. Why do you think he didn't want you? Aiden shamed you in front of this entire pack and you expect us to recognize you as some sort of heroic queen now just because a book said there would be one? You should be treated as exactly what you are here. An omega!" Aeron wriggled in my arm and started to whine. I lifted my free hand to shield him and Patrick stepped closer to me and lifted his hands.

Whatever he had planned to do, he never got the chance because in the next instant, Dante held him by his neck and forced him to his knees in front of me. "You do understand I would have no reservations of snapping your neck on her behalf. You disrespected me first. I tolerated it. The disrespect of my mate is something I will never tolerate." Patrick made a gurgling noise, but Dante held him still. "Your place in front of her is on your knees. Since you do not recognize this, there is no reason for me to not punish you for your behavior." I stared down at him. His eyes were still black. Anger still poured off him. I shivered as I realized everything he said he had meant. I lifted my head back up high as Dante looked up at me. "It is up to her. If she tells me to allow you mercy, you shall have it. If she tells me to give you none, you will die." I opened my mouth to give my answer but in that moment, I heard a cry on my right in the small crowd. I glanced in that direction and saw Myra. Patrick's mate. Her eyes were filled with terror as she looked at Patrick.