Go now and guard her with your life. You don’t want to know what I am capable of doing if something happens to her. I haven’t been overly confident in your ability to care for her. Seems like you are kind of lazy, but remember you have been warned.
(Marie’s POV)
That boy is a typical alpha prick she thought, pushing everyone around in the name of his mate’s happiness. Truth is he does what makes him happy. My daughter would hate his guts if she knew he was forcing me to do things. I don’t need to be threatened or alpha ordered to care for my own child.
He’s just like his father, abuses his power, both of them forcing me to do their will. He is going to regret that someday. It’s because of his selfishness that my baby might get hurt. Why did he have to push the issue? If he truly loved her, he wouldn’t do this. He would have taken the time to talk it through with her and they would have made a joint decision on what was best for both of them as a couple. Not demand and dominate.
I tried to tell him when he came up with this idea that it was the wrong decision. The pack would expect to see Kalli at his side during the challenge. If she wasn’t there they would use it as another excuse to ridicule her. A future Luna should be present. She should stand by her mate’s side with pride. He should want the pack to see what it is he is fighting for. Not have her hiding in the shadows. It makes her appear weak, and weak wolves are not respected.
My mate had been nothing like Lucas. He truly did put my needs above his own. I wasn’t a kept she-wolf I was his partner. We decided everything together. I wished my daughter could experience that kind of love. Lucas’s love was a bit twisted.
It was harder for a strong wolf to learn to be a good partner, but they could if they were motivated. My own father was an alpha and he treated my mother with both respect and love. They shared in leading the pack together. He would never use his alpha to force her or anyone she loved into doing something they didn’t want to do.
I sighed and got into the car. I tried to make my face look neutral so that my daughter didn’t ask any more questions. I hated lying to her and I really hated that I was going to have to do this but my wolf wouldn’t let me break an alpha’s order. I turned over the engine and mashed the gas.
Chapter 15
(Kalli’s POV)
I can’t believe my mate just alpha ordered me away from him. Did he have any idea how much he was hurting me? I am supposed to be his mate. I should be at his side during an alpha challenge. He says that he loves me and that he is doing this to protect me. I feel like he is ripping out my heart. The pack will notice my absence. It will make what little chance we had of acceptance become impossibility. Why wouldn’t he just listen to me?
I cried for the first hour we were in the car. My mother tried to comfort me multiple times but my wolf and I just couldn’t accept what felt like a pure betrayal from our mate. Mom must have driven a lot slower than Lucas because I started looking around and realized we had been driving for an hour and were still in pack territory.
Mom pulled over to the side of the road and abruptly got out of the car. I watched as two of Alpha Logan’s lieutenants got out of a truck and walked up to her. I tried to get out of the car but my wolf refused. For some stupid reason she thought she would be disobeying Lucas’s command. I sat that watching my mother converse with the enemy.
Then my mother did the unthinkable. She shifted into her wolf and took off. The two lieutenants walked up to the side of the car and roughly pulled me out by my hair. I pushed them away from me. I knew if I could put just a small distance between us I would be able to get away. I was fast. When Lucas had chased after me in BlueRidge he only caught me because I let him. If I could just get him off my arm I knew I had a chance of surviving this.
I managed to punch one of them in the face and felt their blood splatter against my face. The other one took advantage of the distraction and slammed a needle into the side of my neck. The pain enraged me. I kicked out with my foot and managed to connect with his shin. He let go of my arm. That was all I needed, I took off like a bolt of lightning.
It didn’t take long before I felt myself slowing down. I don’t know what the hell was in that needle but it was really messing with my head. My vision was blurry and my legs didn’t seem to want to keep moving. I heard a chorus of howls and knew more wolves had joined the chase. If I had to guess there were at least a dozen on my tail. I forced myself to keep moving. If I could just get to the territory boundary they would have to give up the chase.
My instincts told me the border was less than ten miles from where I now stood. I paused long enough to catch my breath and make sure that I was headed in the right direction. My eyes were getting really heavy, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep myself awake for much longer. I needed to make every movement count. I reached out in my mind and tried to reach my mate. I called to him, but there was no response. I wasn’t surprised. For some reason I had never been able to connect with pack members telepathically. I had just hoped beyond hope that I would somehow reach him.
I heard the wolves closing in and took off again. Before much longer, I found myself stumbling and knew that the chase was nearly over. I wasn’t going to make the border. The wolves were going to tear me limb from limb.
(Nikoli’s POV)
I felt her soul trying to tell me goodbye. I bolted awake knowing that my beloved was in mortal danger. I could tell it was around noon and the sun was at its peak. That didn’t matter; I needed to get to her immediately. I could figure out what to do about the damage from the sun later.
I kept thinking how lucky I was that I followed them and stayed the night. I hadn’t planned on it, in fact I had planned on heading in the opposite direction to seek out an elder. Then, something made me stay. I didn’t trust these wolves. I guess I was right.
There were just over a dozen chasing after her. I watched her slip and fall and my heart nearly burst from my chest. I grabbed the first one I could and cracked his spine in half. He fell dead at my feet before he even realized I was there.
I reached for another and bit deeply into his neck pulling his jugular out before he could even whimper. I needed to take out a few more out before they realized what I was doing. Vampires were much stronger than werewolves but the odds would be a little better at six to one than twelve to one.
I moved in behind my third wolf and launched myself onto its back. Unfortunately it was a female and she managed to get her mates attention before I could silence her. Her mate turned growled low in his throat at me then attacked. The real fight was on. I stayed on the females back and forced her to lie beneath me unable to move. Fighting in this position also forced the attacking wolves to watch exactly what they were biting at. No wolf wanted to injure the mated female below me.
I batted at them like they were toys easily throwing them more than a hundred feet away from me often having them slam into the side of a tree. I could hear their bones crushing on impact. They weren’t going to be able to keep this up much longer. They too must have realized they were fighting a losing battle because they turned their attention from me back to my beloved.
She was lying limply just ahead of me. Her hair was spread around her like fan. She looked like a sleeping angel. She was so perfect in every way. Her skin was olive toned and so flawless with the exception of the light freckles on the bridge of her nose. Her breathing was shallow and she had the distinctive smell of someone who was drugged. Three wolves moved in on her at the same time.
I pressed harder on the back on the she-wolf I was kneeling on. I heard her whimper then pass out from lack of oxygen. Her mate growled again then threw back hi head and howled. I jumped off of her and he immediately went to her side and shifted back to a human. I saw him lift her body still in her wolf form and run in the opposite direction of my beloved.
With my speed I easily reached my beloved before the three wolves. I lifted her in my arms and took off. I would bring her home with me where she belonged. In my home and wit
h me she would be safe. It was clear to me now how foolish I had been. My beloved needed me and I needed to remain with my beloved. I may not be able to complete the blooding, but I would never again leave her side. I would need to invite the elders to come to me.
Chapter 16
(Marie POV)
I can’t believe I just left my daughter in the care of those two thugs. I tried hard not to, but it was impossible not to follow an alpha order. I had been dreading this moment since Alpha Logan came to visit me earlier this week while the kids were still in BlueRidge. Alpha Logan had anticipated that Lucas was going to come home and challenge him. He wasn’t happy about it, and had reminded me how his pack had given Kalli and I refuge when we both should really have been dead. He’d given me orders to keep him up to date with everything I knew about Lucas and Kalli.
I tried to fight his orders, but the pain would become too intense, and eventually I had to give in. I called him every time they called me. I told him everything they said and did. Last night Alpha Logan called and told me that I had to hand Kalli over to his lieutenants. I begged him not to make me do that. I told him I would take her away and we would never come back. I promised and cried. He didn’t care what I said he made his mind up and I was going to have to follow his orders.
I couldn’t even warn my daughter or Lucas. I did try to give him hints. I would say things like you know you aren’t the only alpha that can issue orders. Then, I all but told him that his father always had a backup plan. I even told him what would happen if he kidnapped Kalli before the challenge in hopes that he would smarten up and keep her real close to him. Instead he played right into his father’s hands and sent Kalli and I off together.
I had finally decided to push Kalli. Maybe if she could use the mate card he would change his mind. But no, Lucas wouldn’t change his mind. He wouldn’t really even listen to me or my daughter, now they had her. I looked back at my daughter and felt tears well up in my eyes. Oh god I thought, please don’t let them hurt her. I shifted into my wolf form and ran as hard as I could back towards my house.
Time for plan mama! I had spent a lot of time thinking about how I was going to save my baby. I was forbidden from telling anyone what happened, but not being able to say anything was going to stop me. I am a smart self sufficient woman. I can get my point across without saying a god dang thing.
I ran as hard as I could, but it still took me almost twenty minutes to hit the center of town. I was worried sick. Twenty minutes was a long time for them to have her. I really didn’t know what the end game was. What if they killed her immediately? I shifted and stood in my naked glory in the middle of town square. Believe you and me that got people’s attention. It took no more than another few minutes before Lucas arrived.
I think he started to put the pieces together the moment he heard I was standing in the town square naked and without my daughter. I heard his bellow long before I saw him. He was angry, and started screaming questions at me the moment he saw me. I tried to speak but they were all questions that I couldn’t answer. Finally he must have realized that I was under an alpha’s order and got smart. He stopped asking questions I couldn’t answer and instead ordered me to do something I could do
“Marie, I order you to run back to exactly where you just came from”
Clever boy, I thought. Maybe, just maybe he could get to my daughter in time. I shifted back into my wolf and took off. He too shifted and was following behind me.
(Lucas POV)
My wolf was crashing around inside of me. He was furious and just wouldn’t calm down. I am going to clean house when this was over. I will make every single one of the pack swear allegiance to me and my mate and I will slaughter any who opposed me. I have very few people that I trust. At the top of that list is now Kalli’s mom Marie. She proved she is a very worthy shewolf and I felt guilty that I had ever thought differently. It was clear she loved her daughter with all her heart and she was just as worried as I was.
Of my bro’s I was seriously starting to wonder what Rob’s end game was. I could swear he was edging himself as top pick for next alpha. The rest of them could fall on either side of Rob or me. I would have to wait and see. As for the pack well, too many looked the other way on what my father was up to. Some even after knowing the truth clearly didn’t even really try to look for her. Several flat out disobeyed my request for them to help in the search. I was losing it!
If something doesn’t change soon, there just might not be a pack left to disobey me. They will pay if even one hair on my mates head is hurt. I will leave a bloody path of destruction behind me. If I’ve lost Kalli forever, they were all going to lose their lives. They will rue the day they followed my father and stole my mate. I couldn’t stop thinking about what could be happening to her.
It’s been three days since my mate went missing. It was really hard to wrap myself around what happened. Her mother had shown up in the town square naked and without Kalli and somehow I knew. I knew that my scumbag father had gotten to her. I knew that he’d sent people to take my mate. I knew that he’d planned for this moment since the night he found out my mate was the hybrid. I’d known my father was a snake, I just never thought he’d go this far.
I sat down on the bed and tried to close my eyes to get some rest. I hadn’t slept much in the past three days. Every time I tried I would find myself reliving the day Kalli went missing. We’d rushed through the woods back towards the mustang when I scented my mate. I turned in her direction and followed along the path I knew she ran down. I followed her scent deeper into the woods. That’s when I saw the first dead wolf. It back was clearly broken.
I rounded a corner and saw six more dead wolves, but no Kalli. I called the boys, and we systematically searched the area in all directions for more than ten hours. We looked everywhere but Kalli was gone. Based on the tracks, we knew only two wolves left the woods that day. We followed their tracks and managed to find them the next morning.
They were holed up in a cave just off pack territory. They were a mated pair that I didn’t really know well. We’d questioned them for hours. They refused to say anything until I applied the right pressure. The male finally caved when I threatened his mate and told me a vampire attacked them and carried her off.
I wondered what kind of deal my dad made with a vampire. I also wondered if it was the same male that had attacked Kalli while we were in BlueRidge. I knew my father was the only one with answers, so I’d left Rob and Ryan to handle the pair and rushed to my parent’s house. I burst through the front door with the intention of fighting my father to the death if necessary. I needed answers and he was going to give them to me but my father wasn’t home.
Turns out, Kalli wasn’t the only one missing, in fact half the pack and both of my parents are gone. Looks like they all decided to leave town at the same time. I could only assume it had something to do with the fact that my father didn’t want to fight an alpha challenge. What else he has up his sleeves is a mystery to me. I don’t understand why he hasn’t called and given me terms yet. I just know that he is going to pay when I find him. My father’s days are numbered and I am going to be the one that ends them.
I rolled back over and thought about the information Marie shared with me earlier today. I played with it over and over again in my mind trying to figure out how to use it to my best advantage. Both pieces of information came as a bit of a shock. Marie says neither Kalli or I should have existed therefore, it only made sense that the fates paired us. If my Mom had been with her true mate, I wouldn’t have been born and if Marie hadn’t been injected with vampire blood Kalli wouldn’t have been born either. The fates were denied by both our parents so Kalli and I got lucky and got to be true mates.
Turns out my mom and Marie’s bother were true mates. Marie's dad Anthony Howard was Alpha of BlueRidge his son Tony was my mother’s true mate. When Anthony Howard died Tony was too young to take over as alpha so Howard's beta Lucian took the alpha position.
Lucia
n is my grandfather my mother and aunt Risa’s dad. Aunt Risa is the mother of Rob and Ryan. Tony went away for a couple of years to college and when he returned home he found my mom already married to my dad. When he approached my dad and requested a challenge to claim my mom his true mate my dad agreed, but that night he mysteriously was murdered in his sleep. Everyone believed my dad orchestrated but it couldn’t be proven.
Marie’s mate and beta to Alpha Lucian then stepped into the alpha position at BlueRidge however he was killed by so called rogue in less than ten days of taking the position of alpha. It was then, that the BlueRidge pack gave up its rights as an individual pack and was forced into cohabitation with the Northern Star pack.
Marie believes that I should give up fighting with my dad and take the softer more righteous path. She thinks I should go home to BlueRidge and offer safe passage to any from Northern Star that want to go home as well. Technically, Kalli and I are the true heirs to the BlueRidge pack. Honestly I don’t care. I just want Kalli back. Once I have her safe and sound in my arms we can figure it out.
Chapter 17
(Nikoli’s POV)
My beloved was even more special than I could have imagined. She had such a quirky sense of humor and her mind was sharp and intelligent. She was also much stronger than she or I could have imagined. I’d spent the last several days pushing her out of her comfort zone and testing her physical and mental strength. My beloved truly was an amazing young woman.
Mated & Blooded, A Blood Ties Novel, Book 1 Page 7
