Untie my heart

Its game time River

I am a nervous wreck. I keep trying to convince myself that nothing is going to happen, I will meet with Gus, pick Hope up and run. Easy in, easy out but I never go this close to the territory line.

When I was young before my mom passed away she would always tell me the rules of rogues. Mom would constantly tell me that the worst thing I could do was accidentally step over into pack territory. As an overly cautious individual I made it a personal rule to stay at least 5 miles away from any territory line.

Now here I am meeting a criminal rogue less than 30 feet from not just any territory but the royal territory, my ex mates and future queens territory..... I may throw up.

I give myself one last pep talk and meet Hope at her school.

"Hey bug" I wave to Hope, "are you ready for ice skating?"

Hope smiles up to me while running closer, "I can't wait! We are supposed to learn how to do jumps today!"

"That's awesome, my little sister the soon to be Olympic ice skater" I joke. "Once we get to Michigan I will sign you up for more classes if you want", I say as we walk to the ice rink.

"Thanks bro but once we get settled I think I want to just take it easy for a while, it would be nice to actually stay home once in a while"Hope says as we stop in front of the ice rink.

I smile down at her, "you can do whatever you want bug, after tonight we are free."

With new determination I look down at her one more time, "okay Hope, I am going to get what I need from my buddy and then I will pick you up after your class. If I am late, wait exactly 20 minutes and then follow the backup plan. If we get separated I will met you at our hide out", I say while handing her skate equipment over to her.

"Yes sir" Hope replies with a salute. "I love you big bro and I will see you after class" Hope says while running inside.

I shout over to her, "love you too little sis, see you soon".

I set up a contingency plan years ago for Hope just in case something ever happens to me. I keep 3 weeks worth of food and clothes at the tree house along with enough money for her to run to a human town and find a police station. It is not ideal but if I die, or can't get to her I know she will be safer in human foster care than with her so called father. I have drilled the plan into her head so many times that she will be on auto pilot if anything ever happens.

After watching Hope enter the building I check my watch. I have exactly 20 minutes to get to the meeting place, 10 minutes to make the deal and run back (in human form unfortunately) in time to pick her up and make our way to the train station. The train to Illinois does not come in until 8 so we have time to get to the station, buy tickets and be a good ways away before our father realizes we are gone.

I wonder how he will react, will he regret how he treated us? The though fills me with sadness, I knew my father as a loving dad but my sister has only ever known a monster. No matter what it takes I will make sure Hope lives the rest of her life feeling loved, no more fear, no more sadness, she will finally be able to be a kid.

With one last deep breath I head into the woods. The path to this old abandoned house is grown over, years ago kids used to have parties in this house but over time it has been forgotten. As I walk through the forest I can't help but enjoy the quite tranquility the woods bring, nothing like the storm that has been going on inside my head. I wonder what life could have been if mom had never died, I wonder if I would be heading to college instead of runny away.

As I get closer to the meeting place I shake off all thoughts and focus on my surroundings. I can see the house and border clearly. I try smelling to make sure it's only Gus but my nose has still not healed enough..... damn. I notice that the boarder is very quiet, part of me worries but I don't actually know what border patrol should look like, I never get close enough to check.

I hesitate slightly reaching for the door handle, take a breath and enter the house. Looking around I don't see Gus.

I whisper yell, "yo Gus are you here?" Gus pops his head out from what I assume used to be the kitchen, "hey man" Gus says, "come on in here."

I walk over quickly, ready to get this over with and get the fuck away from this creepy house and the royal border. Entering the kitchen I freeze, sitting at a small old decrepit table is my ex mate, future queen Becca.

I make eye contact with her, I am sure my eyes are showing how shocked I am and I don't even care to mask how I am feeling. Becca is looking at me with sadness in her eyes but I don't waste a moment to move my attention over to Gus.

"What is going on here man?" I ask rather rudely.

Gus puts his hands up in surrender and shrugs his shoulders, "nothing personal dude, money is money" he says.

At this point I am confused, "what do you mean? Do you have what I came here for" I ask

"Naw man" Gus replies as he starts to walk away, "good luck dude", is the last thing he says as he runs out the back door of the house.

I am stunned silent for a moment before I turn to Becca.

"What is going on your majesty?" I spit out with more venom than I had intended.

Becca flinches slightly before taking a deep breath, "please sit River, I need to talk to you".

My mind is spinning, I don't have the documentation I need to take Hope away from here, I can't take another beating, If I don't leave now I won't make it in time to get Hope..... as I continue to process my current situation Becca interrupts.

"River, please sit, I need to speak with you" she says. I shake my head, clearing my confused thoughts before looking her in the eyes.

"Becca I don't have time for this shit, what do you want huh, to rub salt in my wounds, to talk about how I am not worthy enough to be mated to you, to get a laugh at how you just totally ruined my plans of escaping this shit hole town?"

At this point I am glaring at her, I can feel hatred boiling up inside me looking at this woman who spent every moment of our school lives treating me like crap.

Becca takes a deep breath and starts talking, "River, it's not like that okay, I asked Gus to have you meet here so I could apologize for rejecting you, treating you poorly, everything. I am so fucking sorry" she continues, "I just needed to talk to you to make you understand that I regret everything, I accept you as my mate River please sit and talk to me"

For a split second I am shocked but it quickly turns to anger, "what the fuck Becca, what's your game huh? What, you want to trick me into falling for you? Ah that's it I say, you can't deal with the fact that I did not fall apart when you rejected me so you want to trick me into falling for you so when you reject me next time I am crushed", I laughed. "Not going to happen Becca, now if you will excuse me I have places to be" I snap as I start to make my way to the door.

"STOP", Becca commands using her alpha tone, for a brief moment I hesitate but with every ounce of will I have I start walking away again.

"River" Becca calls out while getting up to follow me, "it's not like that please listen to me" she begs.

Suddenly it dawns on me, something I learned while reading wolf history books. I stop and turn around to look at her, "oh I get it now Becca, someone filled you in on what happens when an alpha rejects their true mate, you are not regretting the rejection because you care about me, it's because without your true mate you are not as powerful".

With that Becca breaks eye contact and looks to the ground, after a moment she says, "yes I was reminded of that but please understand I regretted the rejection even before I found out about getting weaker"

I laughed, actually laughed, as I started backing up away from her, "listen Becca" I say, "I am sorry that this did not work out but I won't stay here, and I won't be your mate just so you can become even more powerful than you already are. Find a nice alpha you can get along with and choose him as your mate, I am leaving".

Becca looked sad for just a moment before her eyes lose focus and she looks past me, most likely mind linking someone.

"I am sorry", Becca says "but this is how it has to be" After she said that warning bells start going off in my head, who did she mind link and why, I back away, still looking into her sad eyes as I made my way to the door, to freedom, to Hope.