My Blood Wolf

Chapter 7

Chapter Seven-Mate

            I stayed as quiet as I could, hoping to be able to listen in on their conversation. But their voices were too low and far from the door that I couldn’t even hear a word. I pulled Hope closer to my chest and instead focused on their footsteps, following where they stepped. At the moment, I could tell that they are sitting in the lounge room because of the noise from the TV. It actually sounded more like one of them was sitting, while the other was pacing the floor. Rather loudly too. In my arms, Hope rustled and slowly woke up.

            “Mummy OK?” she mumbled, rubbing her still tired eyes.

            “Yes, I’m OK. Dom’s nephew is here, we have to stay quiet now, OK?” I thought over my original plan and decided I couldn’t risk the chance of Dom hurting Hope, even if he never has before, or the risk of Dom’s nephew being willing to help. I decided it would be better to stay silent and escape when Hope gets a little bigger or maybe even when she shifts. She’ll have a lot of power coursing through her when she does.

            “OK mummy, I stay quiet.”

Hope settled back down in my arms and fell back asleep. I settled back down as well, but I couldn’t get to sleep. Something drifted in under the door of the basement. A smell; a rich aroma of chocolate and honey entered my noise and my senses heightened until I could hear what Dom and his nephew were saying.

“…that smell?” an unfamiliar voice asked that sent shivers down my spine.

“What smell? Are you saying my house smells, boy?” That voice defiantly belongs to Dominick.

“No, well, yes, but not a bad smell. I don’t know where it’s coming from, but something smells nice.” There’s that voice again. I laid my head on the floor of the cell and continued to listen.

“That’s OK. I was starting to think that you had lost your manners while you were away.”

“Of course not, uncle. I’m just as polite as ever.”

He sounds a little full of himself, I thought to myself, but of course, Audreanna could still hear me. She chuckled in response. You wouldn’t think a wolf could chuckle, but in their minds, they can.

“That’s good, John. Now, I’m going to get a drink, wait here.” He sounded polite, but I would bet anything that his eyes demanded that ‘John’ stay where he is.

Footsteps sounded as Dom walked out of the lounge room and walked past the basement door to get to the kitchen. “Quiet,” he whispered down to me. I don’t think John could’ve heard that I barley did and I’m closer to him at the moment. I didn’t respond to him, because that’s what quiet meant, instead I returned my attention to his nephew’s steps, who had started to move around.

* * * * * *

            (John’s POV)

            “Of course not, uncle. I’m just as polite as ever,” I said sarcastically.

I wasn’t as mean and cruel as I used to be, but that was because I have Dominick as my uncle. He’s the cruel one and me being a little boy looking up to his uncle, I thought everything he did was amazing. I copied him and learned from him and in turn, he turned me into a smaller version of himself. That’s why, when I decided I wanted to be a pack doctor instead of a Beta, I moved as far away as possible to become one.

“That’s good, John. Now, I’m going to get a drink, wait here.” I hate how demanding my uncle has become. Ever since I left, my father says that Dominick has become bossy and demanding because his little ‘pet’ left him. And that’s true; I did leave because of him.

As soon as my uncle left the room to go to the kitchen to get a drink, which I know for a fact is going to take a while; I decided to go in search of where that intoxicating scent is coming from. I took a big whiff of it and the scent increased as I walked out of the room, down the hall towards the kitchen. I followed the light of the kitchen, walking down the hall of a house I haven’t stepped foot in over two years. I past bedrooms doors, the downstairs bathroom, linen cardboard, but as soon as I passed the basement door, the smell increased and then just disappeared.

Wait…

I walked backwards and stopped directly in front of the door and the smell intensified until I was consumed by it.

Mate, my wolf Shadow, whispered to me. My mate is on the other side of that door. Why the hell was she in my uncle’s basement? My uncle couldn’t possibly know that someone else is in his house. She could be poor and is trying to steal some food and hid in here? But that’s ridiculous, my mate would not be poor, she had the packhouse to live in. What if she’s rouge? Well, she won’t be one for very long. I made up my mind and stormed through the basement door and scurried as quickly as I could down the stairs, without tripping over and making myself look like a fool, in front of my mate. But once I got down there, I halted in my steps at the sight before me.

A beautiful young girl lay naked in the bottom of a metre length square cage. With a quick question to my wolf, he confirmed that this young woman is my mate. She had red hair that almost looks like fresh blood, grey dead looking eyes and with just a quick glance at the rest of her body, I could identify many scars all over her arms, hips and legs. I growled in anger at the thought of someone hurting my mate. I looked back into her eyes and her eyes locked on mine until a sound interrupted us.

“Mummy, who that?” I looked more closely and noticed an even younger girl, a baby, in my mate’s arms. My mate looked to be a couple of years younger than my twenty years and this child looked to be about three years old. I growled again. My mate had a child at fourteen and it’s not mine.

Our mate wouldn’t have a child without us, agreed my wolf.

But she has, why wouldn’t she wait for us to find her? I snarled at my wolf, anger filling my head.

She wouldn’t have a child without us.

But she did. Look at the child in her arms.

“I think this is Dominick’s nephew, Hope,” at the sound of her saddened voice, my anger wavered and lessened.

She wouldn’t have a child without us. My wolf continued to repeat the same thing over and over. Then it clicked. Our mate wouldn’t have a child without us unless it was against her will. I looked deeper into her eyes and noticed that they looked dead for a reason, inside she was dead.

“Is my uncle holding you captive?” I warily asked my mate.

“What was your first clue? The fact that I’m in a cell? That I’m naked? That I’m covered in scars? That I had a child when I was fourteen?” Wow, my mate has a little mouth on her and I’m going to kiss it until…

I stopped that thought, “Sorry.”

“Yes, Dominick kidn*pped me. Clearly he rapped me and Hope was the result.” As she said this, she covered Hope’s little ears so the little girl couldn’t hear. The way my mate said this told me that she held little thought of what would happen to her, but the love in her eyes as she gazes at Hope also tells me that she’ll do all she can to save her daughter.

“Has your wolf spoken to you? About me?”

“Yes, she has. You are my mate, what are you going to do about it?” her voice held so much accusation that even if I had the tiniest thought of rejecting her, which I don’t, I would’ve instantly changed my mind.

“I’m going to save you, and your daughter. How do you open this cage?”

“What?” I was speechless.

“What?”

“You’re really going to help me?” Her daughter shifted and gazed at me through the cell bars.

“Of course, you are my mate. Even though I just meet you, I will do anything to protect you from here on out.” There were several moments of silence.

“Like him,” whispered Hope, who, until this moment, remained silent. “Trust him, mummy.”

Even though she would feel the mate bond, she still seemed reluctant to listen to her own daughter. “OK. You can open the cage if you use the gloves over there on the table; the bars are silver,” she pointed to the small table that I walked past on the way down the stairs.

I grabbed the gloves, growling at the fact that my mate is trapped in the basement of my uncle’s house, in our cage, made of silver; silver, which is most harmful to werewolves. Even though I was mostly protected by the gloves, I could still feel the heat of the silver. It didn’t hurt enough to stop me from gripping onto the bars and ripping them apart. I watched as my beautiful mate slowly crept out of the cage, keeping far away from the sharp silver bars that were still in place. Once she was safely on the ground, I stared at her sunken-in-body. I could count her rips she was so skinny, her hair was clearly naturally red, but it looked burnt and dead and worst of all was all the cuts, burns, bruises and blood all over her body. I could also clearly see ragged scars all over her back. My wolf growled at the sight. When she bent down to lift Hope into her arms, I stopped her.

“Here,” I said and gave her my shirt, so she could at least have some form of coverage. She turned around, so her back was to me and while she put the shirt on I picked up Hope. “You may be a werewolf, but I don’t think you’re quite strong enough to carry Hope and run at the same time.”

“I don’t know,” she paused, walked over to one of the thick metal pipes that I, admit, would have trouble with and punched it once. Now there’s a big dent in it and water is spraying everywhere, “I think I’m strong enough to handle her.”

I handed Hope over and didn’t question her further. I motioned for my mate to follow me and for both of them to stay silent. I slowly crept up the stairs and pushed the door of the basement open. I listened to identify where my uncle was and heard that he left the kitchen and was now in the bathroom upstairs. I looked back and used my hand to motion to them that the coast was clear. I grabbed my mate’s hand and pulled her along as I walked through the house.

I don’t know how, but somehow we got out the front door without being caught by my mate’s captive. I helped my mate and her daughter into my car and got in myself. I drove us over to my house and for now, we were free.