THE ALPHA'S REJECTED MATE

THE PACK

# EPISODE 2 — THE PACK

Lena had never been this close to running without knowing where she was running to.

The shadows between the trees wouldn't hold still. Every few seconds another pair of eyes caught the moonlight somewhere in the dark, watching from a distance she couldn't judge.

Adrian stood in front of her, his attention locked on the trees. He hadn't let go of her hand, and she could feel the tension running up his arm like a pulled wire.

"How many are there?" she whispered.

"Too many."

Not the answer she wanted.

"And we're supposed to get out of here how?"

"There's a path behind you."

"I don't see one."

"You will."

He pulled her forward, and she went, though every instinct told her not to trust a stranger who'd introduced himself by announcing she was his mate.

The word still didn't sound real in her head. She'd heard it in books, always dressed up in drama. It wasn't supposed to be something that happened to real people.

Neither were werewolves.

Yet here she was.

A branch snapped to their left. Adrian went rigid.

"Keep walking," he said, without looking back.

They hadn't gone far when a figure dropped into the path ahead — a young man, handsome in an unsettling way, a streak of silver through his dark hair, his eyes too bright.

He smiled at Adrian. "You actually thought you could take her?"

Adrian's face hardened. "Move, Rowan."

"So it's true." Rowan's gaze slid to Lena. "The lost Vale girl. Alive."

"Why does everyone keep calling me that?"

Neither man answered.

"You haven't told her anything, have you," Rowan said.

"That's none of your concern," Adrian said.

"It becomes my concern when the whole pack pays for your decision."

"What decision?" Lena asked.

Silence.

"You should take her back," Rowan said.

"No."

"Adrian—"

"I said *no.*"

Rowan looked at Lena again, something almost pitying in it. "Do you even know what happens when an Alpha finds his mate?"

Adrian cut in. "Don't."

Rowan ignored him. "The bond gets stronger as the wolf wakes up. Once it settles, you can't pull mates apart anymore."

Lena's eyes narrowed. "So that's why I feel strange around him."

"You're starting to feel it," Rowan said.

"Feel *what?*"

"The bond."

"Enough," Adrian said, and Rowan stepped aside.

"Take her home, Alpha. Before someone less patient finds her."

Adrian didn't thank him. He kept walking, Lena beside him.

"Who was that?" she finally asked.

"Rowan. Part of my pack."

"*Your* pack." She tested how absurd it sounded. "You expect me to believe all this?"

"You've seen them."

"I've seen glowing eyes. That's not proof."

"They're not people."

Lena stopped walking. "You keep saying things like I'm supposed to just accept them."

"You're right," he said, catching her off guard. "You shouldn't. Not just because I told you to."

"Then tell me something I can check myself."

He studied her. "You're not human."

"Not exactly reassuring."

"You've been feeling sick for weeks. Your senses have gotten stronger. Sounds too loud, smells unbearable. Bursts of anger or energy you couldn't explain."

She said nothing. All of it was true. She'd blamed stress.

"Tonight your body started preparing for your first shift."

"My first *what?*"

"Shift." He said it like the weather.

"You mean turning into a wolf."

"Yes."

She laughed, breathless. "No. Absolutely not."

"You'll have to accept it eventually."

"Easy for you to say."

"I've known what I am since I was a kid."

"Well, I haven't. I found out tonight, from a man I met an hour ago." Her voice cracked. "Yesterday my biggest problem was what to do after graduation. Tonight strangers broke into my house, my mother told me to run without her, and you told me I'm a werewolf. I don't even know if she's alive."

Something in his face softened. "We'll find out."

"You can't promise that."

"No. But I can promise I'll look."

She studied him and noticed, for the first time, how tired he looked — not from tonight. Something older.

They kept walking until the trees thinned and a high stone wall rose ahead, an estate glowing gold beyond it.

"Where are we?"

"Blackwood territory. My home."

Shapes waited near the gates — not people. Wolves, too large, eyes catching the moonlight.

Lena stopped. "They won't hurt me?"

"They won't."

"How do you know?"

"Because I'm their Alpha."

The gates opened, and the moment they stepped through, every conversation in the courtyard died. Dozens of faces turned. Whispers spread.

*Is that her? The Vale girl? She's alive?*

A woman broke from the crowd — elegant, composed, her eyes dropping to Lena's hand in Adrian's, then snapping to his face.

"Adrian. You brought her *here?*"

"Yes."

"You know what that means."

"I know exactly what it means."

"And you brought her anyway."

"She's under my protection."

"That might not be enough." Her gaze cut to Lena. "Who are you?" Lena asked.

"Isla. Isla Blackwood."

"Family?"

"My sister," Adrian said.

Isla's eyes stayed on Lena. "You're not welcome by everyone here."

"Fine. I wasn't planning to stay."

"Then you're already making a mistake. Once the Alpha's mate enters his territory, the pack feels the bond."

Heat rushed to Lena's face. "They can feel it?"

"Not exactly. But they sense something's changed." Isla glanced at her brother. "And something has."

"Isla," Adrian warned.

"I'm only telling her what she needs to know."

A low growl rolled across the courtyard. Everyone turned. An older man stood beneath the archway, gray-haired, severe.

Adrian straightened. "Councilman Elias."

Elias's eyes dropped to the silver mark glowing on Lena's wrist. His face went grim. "You should not have brought her here."

"She's safer here than anywhere else."

"No. You've made the same mistake your father made."

The courtyard went silent.

"What did you say?" Adrian asked.

Elias looked like a man who'd said too much — but it was already out.

"What does my father have to do with this?" Lena demanded.

"Ask your mother."

"My mother doesn't tell me anything."

"Then maybe it's time you learned the truth."

"Not tonight," Adrian said, stepping between them.

"You're forgetting your position," Elias said.

"No. I'm protecting it."

"You're protecting a girl whose blood could start a war."

Lena's stomach dropped. "My *blood?*"

"The Vale bloodline disappeared eighteen years ago. We were told there were no survivors." His eyes narrowed. "We were wrong."

"Why would my blood start a war?" Lena asked. Adrian said nothing.

Elias answered instead. "Because your family was responsible for the last one."

"That's impossible."

"Is it? I've never even heard of a war."

"Of course you haven't." Elias turned away. "Your mother made sure of that."

Lena watched him go, her mind racing. Her mother had lied about her father, about the forest, about Lena being ordinary. How much else was buried?

Adrian came toward her. "Lena."

She stepped back. "No."

"Listen to me."

"I've been listening all night. You knew about my father, my family, what I was — before you ever met me."

"I knew *some* things."

"*Some?*"

He hesitated. "I didn't know you were alive. Not until tonight."

She searched his face for a lie and found none. That made it worse.

Sharp pain suddenly lanced through her wrist. She gasped.

"What is it?" Adrian reached for her.

"I don't know—"

The mark on her wrist flared. Sound crashed in — heartbeats, breath, dozens of them, too loud, too close. She pressed her hands over her ears, but the noise wasn't coming from outside.

Then the smell hit her. Smoke. Blood. Something from her dreams.

"They're here."

"What?"

"The people from my house."

She could hear them — not with her ears, but somewhere underneath her ribs.

A growl rose beyond the wall. The courtyard broke into motion.

"Lock everything down," Adrian said, moving toward the gates. Wolves shifted around them, guards falling into position.

Isla pulled Lena back. "Come with me."

"Where's Adrian going?"

"To stop them."

"And if he can't?"

"Then this whole territory becomes a battlefield."

A howl split the night. Then another, closer.

A figure stepped into the moonlight beyond the gates — one of the men from her house. He smiled, unhurried.

"Give us the Vale girl, Alpha."

Adrian stepped forward. "You'll have to come through me."

The man laughed. "You still don't understand what she is." His eyes found Lena's. "Ask her mother why she was so desperate to hide her."

The gates shuddered as more shapes gathered in the dark.

"Ask Mara Vale," he shouted, "what really happened the night your father died."

The gates slammed shut.

And in the sudden silence, Lena finally understood the truth she'd spent her whole life avoiding.

Her father hadn't simply disappeared.

Something had happened to him.

And her mother had spent eighteen years afraid Lena would find out what.