Resisting My Mate (Book 2 of the Complicated Mates series) Editing

Chapter 17

I know, it's been ages since I updated this story. Time has been sparce but hope you like the chapter and thanks for sticking with this story and me:)

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Ashtyn

As my paws pounded against the grass covered ground, I was torn between wanting to take down the rogue threat, or rush back to Arianna to make sure she stayed safe.

A growl of frustration erupted from me as I remembered her lying submissive in my arms, ready for me to take all that she had to offer. Unfortunately I was pulled away from that offering because of a rogue and some hunters. Not only were they going to pay for daring to step on our territory, but for taking me away from my mate and putting her in danger.

It was still a mystery to me why a rogue sighting was paired with the scent of human hunters. That was far too closely related to be a coincidence.

Running as fast as I could, I caught up to my father just as we approached a circle of our wolves. They broke away, leaving a path for us to reach the middle. The atmosphere was tense, but calm which told me whatever threat that may have existed had been controlled or eliminated. Reaching the middle of the circle I saw it was the former.

Hunched down with it’s belly on the floor and head resting on it’s paws was a female wolf. A very frightened one at that if the tremors running through her body was anything to go by. One of our best enforcers had his jaw on the scruff of her neck, ready to snap it on command.

Suddenly the air radiated with power which could only mean one thing, Alpha Harris had arrived. He shifted and was tossed a pair of shorts before he spoke, “I’m going to have my enforcer release you long enough for you to shift. Don’t try to escape, or I’ll be forced to kill you myself.” He nodded for the enforcer to do just that, but even after he removed his jaws from her neck she didn’t shift. At first it seemed she was defying the Alpha, but we soon picked up on her discomfort and a shirt was tossed her way. She shifted and quickly placed the shirt over her head covering her nudity, not that any of us were staring indecently; she was a rogue and therefore equivalent to scum.

She stood before our Alpha with her head down, her face covered by a curtain of blonde hair. She was slender and looked as if she hadn’t had a good meal in some time. When our Alpha commanded her to raise her head, she did. She wasn’t obeying because of his authority, Rogues answered to no one, she was obeying out of fear. It permeated the air like a thick fog, so much so I almost felt sorry for the girl.

“Why are you on our land?” he asked.

“I-I was running from the hunters,” she stammered.

“Why were they chasing you?”

“I was searching for food a little too close to their territory without realizing it.”

Something about her answer seemed practiced, as if she had been fed those words, but Alpha Harris continued, “Why were you doing that? Were you alone?”

“I was hungry and y-yes, I was alone.”

Alpha Harris studied her a bit before asking, “What is your name? Where is your family? What pack are you from?”

“Amelia. I d-don’t have any, sir. No family, no pack,” she stammered. She didn’t fit the description of a normal rogue which is probably why the Alpha assumed she had belonged to a pack. “It’s just me.”

“What happened to them?”

“Hunters. We were a small pack. It was just my family. They snuck up on us one night. My mother hid me in our underground basement and I listened to them being slaughtered. I’ve…a…been on my own ever since.”