Bronze

Chapter 9

Leah

I was in my head again. 

Two times in the same week was really rare. And I had a feeling it was because of a certain alpha.

She didn't wait for me to call her. She pounced and knocked me over, hovering just above my face. 

She smiled. I smiled.

"Hey," I said, rubbing her neck. She backed away and laid her head at my feet. "Is it just you and me this time?"

A twig snapped.

I guess not.

Kane's wolf approached from behind. He sat on the other side of me and huffed. His eyes were narrowed at my face.

"What?" I asked.

He nudged my cheek and tried nipping playfully at my ear. I pushed him away when his teeth grazed my neck.

He was mad. "Is this about Andreas?"

Both of the large wolves growled at me in unison. 

"It's not my fault this mate bond happened. Do you think I like it?" I said aggravated by their assault. 

Kane, being the possessive jerk that he was, knocked me over with his paw and forced me to stay on my back. He narrowed his golden eyes as his hot breath mingled with mine. It was like he was saying, "This bond is a good thing."

Finally, my wolf pushed him away and allowed me to sit up. 

I sighed in defeat. "I'm sorry, okay?" Kane took a few steps back and plopped to the ground. "I'm just not ready for a mate yet, especially to an alpha. You're so much bigger...stronger than us."

My wolf nodded in agreement, but she still pleaded with me to stop.

I continued. "We ran away from an evil man, and-and I can't stop running. The last thing I wanted was a mate. And, to top it all off Kane-" He jerked his head at the sound of his name. "...a mate who hurt me, a mate who will continue to hurt me the longer I stay with him."

The tears pricked my eyes, but I forced them away. He didn't need to see me cry. He didn't deserve to see my tears.

He lowered his head and licked my fingers carefully. He was so gentle, so caring, I had so smile at him. Even if he was a wolf, he wasn't as beastly as I thought. 

"You're not supposed to be here," I said to him as I rubbed his forehead. "What if Kane calls you? What if he needs you?"

The brown wolf shrugged his shoulders and nuzzled my arm. 

"You are just as stubborn as your human," I commented. In some way, he thought that was funny. He snorted in my face, blowing snot and hot air everywhere, and snuggled up against me.

**********

When I woke up, we were barely there. 

A few more hours to go, they told me. When I tried to ask to use the bathroom, Andreas said that they couldn't make any stops.

So I sat silently, holding in the urge to strangle someone for making me wait to pee. 

When we arrive, all urges had vanished. In their place was the sense of awe and wonder. Standing tall in front of me was a three-story cement building, shaped like an upper case L.

The guardhouse.

Pack territories sometimes can be referred to as wolf countries. They functioned almost the same way. They had the capital, which would be the packhouse, and then they would have boundaries. 

Scattered throughout these boundaries, depending on how big the territory is, would be checkpoints called guardhouses. 

These large 'houses' would be where the guards would eat, sleep, and train. They protected the area and stopped anyone, that wasn't human of course, from trespassing. 

Two men in dark grey uniforms came up to us. One had sunglasses blocking his eyes while the other did not. 

"Alpha," they both said, bowing their heads in respect. 

"What's wrong?" Kane asked when they lifted. He scanned the area around them and sighed when there was no sign of trouble.

The two guards looked at each other and then turned to lead the way. Kane motioned with his head for us to follow. 

The closer I got to the house, the more terror I felt. 

I had only been in one before, while in the Marble pack, and it scared me so much I didn't dare step foot into another one again. 

All the screaming and crying. The howls of pain. Blood everywhere.

"When will the Luna arrive?" Beta Ekon asked, keeping up with his alpha. 

My brows furrowed together at the mention of Katherine. Ugh, I hated her so much. Even hundreds of miles away from her, she still managed to get under my skin.

Kane looked back over his shoulder to connect with me. He could feel my anger, feel the heat radiate off my skin like I did his. 

"In an hour," he said gruffly. Ekon nodded and fell back in line with me. 

We stepped into the building and it was silent. I didn't hear any screaming nor any crying. Blood didn't taint my nose.

The main lobby was dull, as to be expected. Eggshell white tiles lined the floor. The walls were covered in a pewter grey color. Every few feet, a painting of some kind was hung. 

The guards led us all down a hallway toward a set of stairs. They went down to a darker, more sinister hallway. Here was where I smelt the blood.

It hit me in waves. First, it was dull, and then it began to build. The coppery scent smacked me first, and then the rest of the metallic aftertaste. It became stronger the farther we walked. 

Kane stopped abruptly, turning on his heels and signaling fo the others to continue walking. I tried, but he took me by the shoulder and guided me to another, less smelly, room. 

"Leah," he said my name with a husky undertone. I smiled at the use of my name, and I saw that he felt the way it made me feel hearing it. "I don't want you in there, okay?"

"Why?"

"You wouldn't understand."

My skin warmed where he touched me. I couldn't concentrate on anything but his hand. So I nodded, biting my lip to stop myself from whimpering.

Kane disappeared with a muddled groan. 

It was becoming harder and harder to resist this mate bond. The closer my wolf gets to his, and the closer I get to the wolf as well, the more exhausting it will be to fight it. 

I couldn't keep doing this to myself.

I had to find a solution. Fast.

I studied the room around me. It wasn't big, maybe the size of my room back at the packhouse, but it was less decorated.

Was this a waiting room?

There were two large sofas in the center facing each other and four metal end tables at each end. An old radio sat snuggly on the coffee table between them. 

That was it. No windows or pictures. No rugs or other tables. Not even a plant.

I heard the screaming when I sat down. It was a male voice. 

I understood now why he didn't want me in there. 

I held my ears shut and prayed to the Moon Goddess that everything would stop. I wanted the screaming to be over with. I couldn't bear it. I couldn't handle the pain. 

How could Kane do that to someone?