Silent Strength: The Female Alpha Leads the Purge

Chapter 3

Sam

I stood frozen. The warrior, Marcus, took his smug face and walked out the door after my mate, after Kristi. She didn’t want me. She was making it obvious. Or at least, she didn’t want me the way I was. I would have to learn, grow, and prove my love before she accepted me. But she had marked me. Or at least her wolf had, so I had won half the battle. I knew she couldn’t reject me without damaging her own strength, but I didn’t want a mate who was simply stuck with me. I didn’t want the pain of her being with others if that was what she chose. It was exactly what Joshua’s father and Stewart had forced upon their mate’s lives. I needed to act fast if I was going to prove myself to her.

I felt a hand on my shoulder and I turned to see Joshua looking sympathetically at me. I shrugged his hand off.

“Keep your f*****g hand off me. I don’t need your sympathy. Go home and play house with your mate and keep pretending others aren’t affected by your short-sightedness.” I pushed past him heading toward the door but was met with his forearm across my neck and my back slammed up against the wall. Wrong move. I was done holding back. Something in me changed. His Alpha aura no longer worked on me. I grabbed the front of his shirt, forcing him to the ground where I held my knee to his chest before punching him in the face. Crimson blood fell to the floor and pooled next to him. His face was a shade of red which attempted to match the fluid and only got worse when I stood holding his glare.

“Do not touch me again. I am no longer your Beta, I am her mate. I will do what needs to be done to support her and the two of you," I shouted as I looked between Joshua and Damien, "can leave us the f**k alone.”

I stormed out of the hospital room but not before glancing again at Damien, who somehow kept a neutral expression. I walked down the hallway through the sea of curious faces who had no doubt heard my threats. Flinging the double doors open, I almost slammed into Clara, as she turned in surprise while rubbing her growing belly.

“Sam, is everything okay?”

It had been a while since I had seen my childhood friend. I was so happy when Damien turned out to be her mate and enjoyed watching her get revenge on her father for the pain he caused in her life. She rose to her rightful place, becoming Luna of the Red Savage Pack.

“No. I’m not okay.” I admitted. I took a deep breath and tried to calm down. No use being pissed in front of a pregnant female, especially Clara. I would have to deal with her and Damien’s wrath if I stressed her out.

“I saw Kristi heading out with her pack. I tried to convince her to stay longer, but she seemed set on getting back to their territory. I was surprised you weren’t with her. Are you going to remain Joshua’s Beta?” Her voice held disapproval as if I were the one turning my back on my mate.

“No, Joshua can go f**k himself. He stood beside her while her father cut her throat. I know he’s your brother, but I can’t forgive someone who wasn’t there to protect my mate like I protected his.”

I knew that look. She was angry. I used to see it before she would kick the crap out of one of our peers in school.

“You know what it’s like when you have a mate. He went home to check on Scarlett. She had been kidnapped. How can you fault him for that?”

“You’re right. I do know what it’s like to have a mate. I could probably have kept mine safe if my Alpha wouldn’t have kept me from her and made me wait. I saved your life by freeing you from the cage your father held you in. I was ready to die for you to protect you from our f****d up Beta. Damien repaid that debt by being there for my mate. Joshua forced me to wait, knowing Kristi was in danger. I protected Scarlett from rogues, I tracked down her abductors, I tightened security in the pack, whatever was needed. Joshua knew his mate was safe, yet he didn’t come to check on mine. I’m not having this argument.”

I started to walk away as guilt washed over me and I turned back to her.

“Clara, congratulations. I know how much this means to you. You’re going to be a great mom.”

She smiled, but I could see the fear. She had been so close with her mother until her father got a new concubine and Clara’s mother started using her as a means to get attention from him.

I walked on, not quite sure where I was going to go. Kristi made it clear I needed to learn to sign, and I wanted to. I wanted to do anything that would bring me closer to her. Unfortunately, the only person I knew who could help me was a child. Joshua’s stepchild who I would only gain access to by asking him and I knew I had just pissed him off. Plus, going to see her would mean reentering the Crescent Pack grounds. I was no longer their Beta. I had denounced myself, but I was still a pack member. So were my parents. I needed to talk to them. I needed guidance on what the hell I was supposed to do.

I reluctantly headed that way. I didn’t have a car with me, nor did I own one, and I definitely wouldn’t be asking Joshua for a ride. I needed the time anyway, needed to run and clear my head. Once in the woods, I stopped, pulling my clothes from my body and tying them to my leg before relinquishing control to my wolf. Then I ran. I ran with everything I had in me. I ran for clarity, for regulation, and for her. I needed her. Noah needed her wolf. He knew no other instincts but to protect her once he found her and she was refusing him that right.

I crossed the border between the Red Savage and Crescent Packs in the all too familiar spot where Clara killed her father. I remembered that day, remembered watching the Moon Goddess hold Damien back, knowing none of the rest of us could as Clara fulfilled her destiny and proved her worth. I remember the look the Moon Goddess gave me that no one else saw. That divine deity who created our kind looked at me pitifully. She knew, she had to know what I had been training for. She had to know the work I put into strengthening myself enough to fight Joshua’s father for the Alpha title in order to save our pack. Then she watched as that plan fell apart. Or maybe it was because she knew my mate would do this to me. I didn’t know. I could only focus on one step at a time, and right now, that was learning the language of the beautiful goddess I was blessed to call mate.

I made it nearly to my parents’ house when I was tackled to the ground. Regaining my footing, I looked over into the eyes of the wolf facing off with me. His growl all but shook the ground as he circled me with his face low and his eyes narrowed. I matched his energy. Wrong day for this s**t. Maybe I will be Alpha of the Crescent Pack after all.