Amara: The Alpha's slave mate

Chapter 9

July 16

“What is it?” The deep voice asked, echoing around the hall and I hesitated, regretting instantly not having a plan. Words failed me as I glanced back along the corridor towards the main house where I knew the Alpha would be before turning to see Alpha Williams glancing back at the occupants of his room.

The beta and Gamma stood inside the open door, partially obscured by the Alphas wide frame, but there was no mistaking their curious gazes. Of course, they were curious, I had broken all manner of social etiquette by turning up here unannounced an uninvited, and me, a slave to another pack who was fated to become their Luna.

My nerves got the better of me and I felt myself tremble as I pulled my eyes back to the Alpha while he watched me with a calculating expression.

“Leave us.” He demanded and I swallowed hard, taking a step back into the hallway as horror raced through me. He wasn’t even going to hear me out. I squeezed my eyes shut as that sank in, the man who singularly held my fate in his hands was dismissing me as though I meant nothing, and of course I did, it was only inside my deluded brain that we cold have a happily ever after.

“Amara?” The softly spoken question had my eyes flinging open to meet his gaze, even as I registered that the Beta and Gamma were leaving his room. Both men offered me a small smile as they made their way farther along the corridor, no doubt to their respective rooms, but I could barely focus on that as realisation hit me, he wasn’t dismissing me. The door opened wider in his hands, and he stepped aside to allow me entry.

On shaking legs with trembling hands, I stepped into the room that was so familiar to me, I had been cleaning it for years after all.

Without permission or direction, I found myself stood before the window, looking out across the grounds of the pack house and trying with everything in me to find a way to steady myself. The sound of the door clicking shut made me flinch but neither of us spoke a word as his soft footsteps sounded in the room, padding across the carpet and coming to a stop so close to my back that I could feel the heat against my chilled skin.

For too long we stood there, not moving, not speaking. But eventually I knew I would have to face this. I would have to explain myself. With all the strength I could muster I turned on the spot, coming face to face with my fated mate, his expression was worried as he gazed back at me, and I sent up one last prayer, please be good, please be a man I can count on.

“I’m under orders to keep you occupied for the night.” I whispered, my voice shaking in the otherwise silent room. “By any means necessary I am to keep you in here, if you leave before morning I will be killed.” I stated, then held my breath as I waited for his reaction.

“What the f**k?” He snarled, his own voice low but deadly and I winced as he stepped away from me, pacing the length of his room before pulling his phone out. “Get in here.” He stated with so much anger in his voice I wondered if I had ever actually seen him angry before. His own hands were shaking as his eyes blazed with a fire the likes I had never imagined as his bones started cracking against his will, I watched mesmerised as the Alpha fought against the pull of his wolf all while his clothes tore from his body, replaced with the thick black fur of the wolf I had met once before.

The door opened but my eyes never left my mate as he growled at the newcomers. Both the beta and the Gamma froze in place at the rooms threshold, their eyes swinging from their Alpha to me and back again. The wolf in the room backed up to stand in front of me, like a guard protecting a treasure and without conscious thought my hand found itself tangled in his fur. Stroking with small movements, soothing him, as I watched his back move with his deep breaths.

“What?” The question was a confused one and my eyes flicked up to the Beta, a started expression on his face as the Gamma looked on with something akin to amusement.

“Um..” I uttered glancing back to my mate. “Maybe you could shift back? To explain?” I asked, feeling like I was signing the death certificate I had already handed him by practically giving him directions, but the Alpha didn’t react, he just shook his head before inching closer, so close that he was pressed against my side, his snout nuzzling into my stomach as I continued to try and soothe the anger in him. It was like a physical entity in the room, radiating from him in waves so strong that we all felt it.

“Amara?” The Beta asked his eyes fixed on my hand atop his alphas head. “What’s going on?”

“Could… um… could you come closer? I don’t know who’s listening?” I whispered. Both men took a step into the room, closing the door behind them, but the warning growl from the Alpha tucked into my side, stopped them both in place.

“You wanted them to know, you wouldn’t have called them otherwise. He could be listening.” I whispered down to the beast that had somehow managed to soothe my nerves. I watched as he seemingly took a restraining breath before nodding his head. And with cautious gazes the other men crossed the space of the floor to stand before us.

I eyed them both for entirely too long before biting the bullet, now, not only was I putting my trust into my mate’s hands, but the hands of his pack also.

I whispered the words, the same ones I had forced myself to speak to Alpha Williams and watched as both men’s faces contorted in a rage so profound, I actually stopped breathing.

“You have nothing to fear, he will never lay a hand on you again. I promise you that.” The beta stated through clenched teeth, and I watched as both men took deep breaths glancing back and forth between the occupants of the room.

“Why? What could he possibly be up to?” Beta Greyson asked the quiet of the room, his words a whisper I could barely hear over the loud breathing from the Alphas wolf.

The gamma gave a nod in my direction, a signal of some sort that I couldn’t decipher but the beta seemingly understood.

“She’s our Luna.” He stated in answer, I just wished I understood the question.

“Not yet she isn’t.”

“Well, she’s not exactly loyal to this pack is she?” The beta stated like the idea was preposterous and I considered that for a moment.

Was I loyal to Red Mist? Had I ever truly been so? I followed orders, but for selfish reasons, to keep myself alive, to help my friends, the other girls. But if I was given a choice, if I could choose to stay here with my own free will or leave to find a home of my own choosing, what would I do?

The biggest consideration were the people I had come to love, could I leave them to suffer this fate every day, knowing that I could likely ease their burden? Maybe not. But that didn’t make me loyal to the pack, just to the people in it. I certainly felt no remorse for betraying the pack Alpha, that was for sure.

By the time the thought had waned, Alpha Williams breathing had calmed and the two men in the room were discussing something so far beyond my comprehension they may as well have not been speaking English.

“But we have given him no cause to distrust us, no reason to believe we are anything but sympathisers to his way of life.”

“What about Amara?” The Gamma asked and my eyes shot up to meet his as the Alpha growled lightly at my side.

“What about her?”

“Well, the Alpha hasn’t exactly been discrete in his attentions.” The Gamma stated and I considered that for a moment as I caught on to the train of their conversation.

“I never told anyone.” I whispered, fearing that I was overstepping by joining in the conversation.

“What?” The beta queried his eyes on me

“I never told anyone that Alpha Williams is my mate.” I stated feeling silly saying it out loud. My mate, like that actually holds any meaning here in Red Mist. “He’s not the first Alpha to take a liking to one of the slaves, the Alpha that was here last month took too much of a liking to Carly, she’s still recovering.” I stated, my words trailing off as I recognise that I have probably said too much.

“What do you mean, still recovering?” The Gamma asked his brows furrowed and I took a moment to take him in. He was slender in comparison to the Alpha, but not skinny by anyone’s imagination, he is what Mrs H would call lean muscle.

“He wasn’t exactly gentle with her, they never are.” I stated with a shrug like its nothing out of the ordinary, and I guess it isn’t, as horrific as that sounds, this is our norm, and has been for all of our lives, brutality and horrors.

“That f*****g monster.” The Gamma whispered, his own eyes hardening as the meaning of my words sank in. “Who was it?”

“Sorry?” I asked, not understanding.

“The Alpha that hurt your friend, who was he?”

“Oh, um…” I trail off in thought. I can picture his face like he’s standing before me, his image will forever be burned into my nightmares and I can still hear Carly scream in agony, but his name, I have no idea. “I don’t know his name. I could find out.” I suggest thinking that Mrs H would surely know. I swear she keeps a catalogue.

“That’s a matter to deal with another day. For now, we need to figure out what the hell is going on here and what we’re going to do about it.” The beta stated and I felt the Alpha wolf shift at my side, seemingly a lot calmer now, he gently pulled away from my side, stepping further into the room, the familiar sound of his bones breaking disturbed the silence as he shifted back into his human form, his naked human form.

Never in my wildest imaginings did I expect that the first time I ever saw a man naked, it would be my fated mate, while we were stood in a room with two other men.

I felt the blush stain my cheeks as my wolf yapped exceedingly inappropriate suggestions inside my head, with his back to the three of us as he stepped toward the wardrobe and grabbed some clothes, I couldn’t tear my eyes away from his bare skin, tanned, smooth taught skin rose and fell across the muscles that rippled as he moved, tattoos ran across both his arms, winding patterns that were mesmerising in their own right, up across his shoulders across his neck and down his shoulder blades. His trim waist led down to perfectly shaped buttocks and my wolfs instructions to grab hold of the smooth globes of skin almost had me moving from my place by the window.

The clearing of a throat and slight chuckle had me snapping out of my musings, my eyes swinging around to see the beta and Gamma watching me watch their Alpha with amused expressions on their faces.

My face flamed and I had no doubt that by now I was as red as the hallway carpet, there’s a saying, something about being swallowed by a hole. I never understood the point of it until that very moment.

“What?” Alpha Williams asked, his eyes swinging back and forth between his Beta and Gamma, obviously having missed my embarrassing display.

“Nothing.” The Beta chuckled, shaking his head and I offered him a thankful look, my face still red and burning. I wondered briefly if either man had found their own fated mate, if either of them had had to deal with their own wolves incessant chatter creating mental images that were really hard to ignore.

I kept my eyes pinned to the carpet as I shoved back my wolf as much as possible and tried to control the blush. Unfortunately, I was less than successful, and the Alpha stepped before me lifting my chin with the crook of his finger, an amused expression on his face. Someone had told him, that or he was just more perceptive than I gave him credit for.

“Your wolf?” He asked and I sighed deeply, remembering with renewed embarrassment, that this was not the first time he had caught me in the middle of lewd thoughts of him. I nodded slightly, too embarrassed to ever admit that the majority of the fixation had been entirely my brain, and nothing at all to do with my wolf. My eyes skittered across his face, my cheeks still burning and I swallowed hard, not knowing what to do with myself.

“Don’t be embarrassed.” The Alpha stated with a gentle smile I had yet to see and I took a deep breath, it was easier said than done. “I can promise you, every thought you are having, I’ve already had.” He stated with a wink before dropping his hand and stepping away from me, now fully clothed in tailored trousers and a white shirt.

“Until we know what the hell is going on, Amara and I are stuck in here, there’s no point in guessing, go. Find out what you can and report back as soon as possible.” The Alpha stated, directing his men who left the room with serious expressions, all trace of their amusement gone.

Well, what do we do now? The thought was like a bulldozer, it wasn’t yet six in the evening, and unless the Beta and Gamma of Silver Lake came back with same answers I was going to be stuck in here with my fated mate, all night.

I ignored my wolfs suggestions of what we could do, instead keeping my eyes fixed on the tense back of my mate. Did he have expectations? Would he follow through on the thoughts he admitted to having, and the biggest question of all, did I want him to?