Banished by the Alpha

The Bookstore

Lucas POV

It wasn't required that the losing Alpha be banished from the pack; many previous Alpha families happily lived on pack grounds  but I knew Corbin’s oldest son would be strong enough to overthrow me eventually and I didn’t want to risk having to fight him. I knew we were no longer friends after I challenged his father, and certainly not after I won the fight, but we had been close before and I didn’t want to risk having to kill him in a challenge in the future. Only pack members could challenge their Alpha, so by no longer being a pack member, I eliminated that issues.

Part of me always felt bad for his wife and younger children who had grown up in the pack house and were now classified as rogues though. They had never known what life outside the pack house was like, let alone living without a pack altogether. I especially felt bad for their youngest daughter, Corinthia, I was always oddly drawn to her and would find myself randomly watching her doing everyday tasks. That would no longer happen I guess.

Today was one of those days I was dwelling on if I had made the right choice or not while my mother was dragging me around the mall near the southern pack border to get a new suit for my little brother’s upcoming wedding. He had found his mate and while I’m truly happy for him, I really didn't like special occasion attire. Mom insisted that I get a brand new, tailored suit for the occasion so here I sit, near the window to the suit shop, getting measured for something I never want to wear when I smelled her.

A couple of young women walk by chatting before going separating and heading in different directions in front of the bookstore across from me. The older one that kept walking down the hallway looked vaguely familiar but I couldn't place her. The other seemed to be just a couple years younger and my wolf, Granite, had started pacing in my head since her scent had stirred me from my deep thoughts.

She smelled like fresh cut hay and honey; it was intoxicating. Granite was insisting we go after her and while I would much rather hide in the stacks of books than where I was, but Mom would kill me if I didn't finish my fitting. For a rather dainty woman of average height my mother, Marjorie Raven, could be formidable to say the least.

Twenty minutes later and the tailor was finally finished with me. He hands me my slip and tells me when my suit would be finished. I half listen as I’m still staring at the bookstore entrance, she hasn’t come out yet and that’s exactly what I was hoping for.

I quickly dart across the hall and inside the store before Mom could realize I ran off. She's been harassing me the last four years about finding my mate, as if it were my choice when I find her. Basically, since the hour I turned 18 she’d been driving me nuts. She and everyone else acts like I’m not trying or don't want to find my mate but I have thrown parties and invited allied packs in several attempts to find her. Even though I hate the attention of holding, or going to parties as an Alpha, I desperately want to find my mate. Growing up in a pack, everyone always talks about how a mate completes a person and makes you whole, and now I’m 22, preparing for my 19-year-old, baby brother’s wedding. Perfect.

I step into the store and easily find her tucked in a chair in the fiction section with a werewolf fantasy book. I chuckle a little at her choice of book since I can clearly tell she’s a wolf herself. I watch her from a distance for what seems like forever, pretending to look through nearby bookshelves. She seems totally entranced in her reading and doesn’t seem to notice that there’s a man staring at her between books a few rows over. I know I’m being a bit creeper-like but she looks too peaceful and content to disturb.

Granite has started whimpering at the fact that I refused to go right up to her and kiss her.

She’s our mate!

Dude, that’s so rude and will probably scare her off! I’m not going up to a total stranger and shoving my tongue in her mouth.

I didn’t say you had to be forceful about it.

He was being ridiculous and even he knew it but acting irrationally seems to be part of finding a mate. What would I know about it anyways, I had only heard stories about mates finding each other until now.

Her phone suddenly broke both of our concentrations. She glares at it before answering. I use my wolf hearing to listen in on her conversation. I no longer care if I’m being rude, this woman has my full attention and I want to know more about her.

"Cory! I know you're lost in some book but you promised you'd meet me to pick out your shoes so we could go home! Neither of us wants to miss dinner and mom would be pissed." I hear a voice half whine, half scold her.

Granite doesn't like anyone scolding our mate and a small growl escapes my throat before I can stop him. Her head whips around looking for whoever the sound came from and I duck behind some books. I’m sure I’ve been caught spying on her.’s watching me. I’ll buy the book I’m reading and head straight to you. K?”

    “Oh jeez, of all the excuses Corinthia.” She just loved using my full name to scold me.

    I had barely answered my sisters phone call when I heard a low growl come from a nearby stack of books and I knew that not only was someone watching me, but it had to be another wolf. I needed to make sure I didn’t bring trouble home with me and figure out why someone was watching me instead of just approaching me. Anyone who would have recognized me would have been a family friend and most likely taken the opportunity to catch up and then go about their life as if we hadn’t seen each other. We had only been banished after all and since we weren’t on pack lands we had done nothing wrong.

    That’s when it hit me, an amazing new smell, and Opal started pacing and begging me to follow the delicious scent. It was like summer sun and sweet fruit. I needed to find that smell, it was making my mouth water and my wolf anxious. I started to walk towards where I had heard the growl to see someone’s back rushing around the next aisle. I quickly headed for the next aisle from my end. Just in time to slam face first into a man who was practically running in my direction while looking over his shoulder.

    My face was at his chest, and I wasn’t short at 5’6” but he towered over me. I guessed he was at least six and a half feet tall and the amazing smell was radiating off of him. His shirt was just slightly tight over his fantastically muscular chest and stomach muscles but stretched to their limit beneath massive biceps that rivaled the size of my thighs. He was just slightly tanned with a dark brown buzz cut and trimmed facial scruff. As he looked down to see what he had hit, his beautiful, deep green eyes looked straight at me and Opal practically screamed, MATE! inside my head. It was then that I realized it was Lucas Raven himself that stood before me.

    “s**t” is all I managed to mutter before darting out of the store, tossing my book on the floor so I didn’t steal it as I fled.

    I ran all the way to the shoe store and grabbed Emily, yanking her away from the six pairs of shoes she had selected for my outfit.

    “We have to leave NOW! Forget the shoes!” I yell while yanking her arm.

    “What the hell Cory!? It’s not going to kill you to pick a pair and wear them to your graduation ceremony!”

    “That’s not it, we have to go! I was being watched in the library! It’s Alpha Lucas! He saw me, well ran into me and WE NEED TO LEAVE!”

    “Oh my god! For real?” I watch her eyes go wide as she understands why I’m so frantic.

    As we rush towards the exit and the car, we hear him yelling after us in a slightly rough and sexy voice, “Stop, please, I just want to talk to you!”

    Emily grunts, “yeah right, just talk and then declare us and our family as attacking rogues and have us executed.”

    We made it home in record time and, amazingly, without getting pulled over for speeding. We made a deal in the driveway to act like nothing had happened and Emily even decided that she had a pair of brown strappy sandals that would go with my outfit so we had an answer if mom asked about shoes. We walked in the house just in time to drop the bags off in my room and get washed up for dinner. We proceeded to act as though it was a regular trip to the mall for us and that I had simply been annoyed the whole trip by having to try on so many clothes.

    We had almost gotten away with it when there was a knock at the door and I nearly came out of my skin. It didn’t help that Opal was on edge since I had run from the person, she claimed to be our mate. It was just one of our egg customers picking up a few dozen but my anxiety was through the roof and dad and Connor had noticed. Crap.