Untie my heart

Well this looks familiar River

I slowly start to wake up, the familiar feeling of waking up after being drugged hangs is the air like an old friend. I roll myself over to the side of the bed with my eyes still closed. My feet touch the ground and I slowly open my eyes.

My head is pounding and the room is spinning and even with that I almost instantly recognize the room I am in. I sigh, and move my neck from side to side stretching my sore muscles. Part of me is grateful that I have been "saved" from the rogue queen but the other part is scared to death of how Becca is going to retaliate for my escape attempt.

I take the familiar position of face in my hands, elbows on my knees while I try to come up with some kind of solution to save Hope. My stomach drops at the thought of Hope getting hurt because of my stupid plan, I just pray that Becca will agree to punish me and leave Hope out of this.

I hear some commotion outside the bedroom door and suddenly the door bursts open and in hops a very happy Hope.

I almost cry when I see her, happy and unharmed. I jump up, a little too quickly considering whatever drug the rogue queen gave me is still in my system, and I lose my balance and fall back sitting on the bed.

Hope laughs at me, which causes an instant smile to form on my face. I hold out my hands towards her and she runs over and pulls me into a tight hug. We hug, not saying a word for a long time before I finally build up the courage to ask Hope if she is okay.

I take a deep breath and pull away slowly so I can see Hopes eyes and I ask, "did you get hurt?"

Hope smiles gently and shakes her head no and I let out a sigh of relief.

"What happened after we separated?", I asked. Hope looks down and starts telling me what happened. When Hope told me how kind Becca was to her it really warmed my heart, but I still can't shake the worry that Becca will still hurt her to punish me.

Hope asks me what happened to me and I am honest about almost everything, leaving out anything PG13 or worse and replacing it with me reading.

Basically Hope thinks I just got locked in a room and read books all day which to be honest is for the best. Hope has basic knowledge of the rescue but does not know or did not tell me about what happened with the rogue queen. I would love to think that I will never see her again but until Becca tells me she is dead, I don't think I will ever be confident that she will leave me alone. Something about the way the rogue queen looked at me makes me wildly uncomfortable and I honestly pray that we never see one another again.

Hope and I stayed chatting for a while before Jake comes in with food for us. I introduced Hope to Jake and we all chat like old friends and eat.

Suddenly in the middle of speaking Hope stopped talking and her eyes looked far away, it dawns on me that she was receiving a mind link and I freeze. In all of our conversation Hope has never mentioned joining the royal pack.

I try to cover my shock and fear so Hope wont see how uncomfortable I am with her being in the pack but she picks up on it anyway.

Hope smiles sadly at me and squeezes my leg, "I know you are hesitant to join the pack bro" Hope says, "but they really do love us, and you should really give Becca a chance. You deserve to be happy, you deserve to live your own life and not constantly have to worry about me, but above all", Hope continues, "you deserve a wonderful mate who will fight the super scary rogue queen to save you".

I smile and roll my eyes at her, "first off" I say, "you have never and will never be a burden little sis, and secondly, it kinda feels like you love Becca more than me now... I was only gone for a few days", I say, with my hand on my heart, pretending to be sad.

Hope punches my shoulder hard and tells me to shut up, then leans in kisses me on the cheek and excuses herself so she can "go school clothes shopping with the queen". I give Hope one last hug and watch her disappear out the bedroom door.

Jake stands up, gathering the dishes from our breakfast, he looks me right in the eye and says, "I am so glad that you are home safe sir River, we all missed you so very much".

I smile warmly at him not really sure how to respond to that. Part of me wants to yell that this is not my home, I am still considered kidnapped and most likely Becca will do something awful to Hope or me to punish me for running away from her, but I decide to just go with the flow, too tired to fight this insanity.

Jake recommends that I shower, telling me I reek of the rogue queen and I actually agree, a nice hot shower will do me some serious good.

Jake and I say our goodbyes and I make my way to the shower. While the water runs down my body I think back on how this whole mess started, I think back to the awful memories from school with Becca, the terrible way she treated me, all of the pain, both emotional and physical she inflicted on me. I then remembered the rejection, how mean and hateful she was, how broken both my wolf and I were.

Closing my eyes tightly, I can't help but wonder if I could ever forgive her for forcing herself on me, marking me against my will, kidnapping my sister and drugging me. I just don't know if I could ever forgive her, could I ever love her?

My wolf growls lowly in my mind, "I have already forgiven her River" he says with conviction.

My eyes shoot open, I am completely shocked, I say, "how?"

He replies strongly, "look River, she has made mistakes, but she is our mate, I will always find it in my heart to love and forgive her, I know it's harder for you but please give her a chance, for me....for Hope" and with that he retreats back into my mind.

I can't think straight, everything is so confusing. I finish up my shower, my head is pounding and I just want to lay down. I walk out of the bathroom and sitting on the edge of the bed, looking remorsefully up at me is Becca.... Fuck