His substitute mate.

Chapter two

Dom was seated beside his father in the large and spacious conference room of the huge and exquisite Wolf Manor estate, when his phone rang. There were no less than 25 people - male and female - in the room, all elegantly dressed and seated round the unusually large mahogany table at the center of the room. They all paused their side talks and whispers as soon as Dominic picked the call. They waited patiently as he conversed on the phone with whomever was at the other end.

They knew something was wrong when Dom who hardly ever showed any form of emotion creased his brows at some point.

After dropping the call, he signalled to his father and they both excused themselves from the group. They walked gingerly into his father's study with Mr Jake Ravens in front. He sauntered straight to his executive chair behind the brown finely polished office table placed near the half closed curtains covering the long glass windows overlooking the vast parking lot outside.

"Is everything alright?" He asked after sitting.

They were having a serious meeting at the conference room and it was very unlike Dom to cause a distraction or interrupt it, let alone request his presence in private. Hence, his heightened curiosity.

" Elena is missing" Dom responded, his face expressionless.

Mr Ravens raised a perfectly arched eyebrow at his son - something both father and son shared in common and could do so well.

"What do you mean by Elena is missing?" He queried.

"She's not at her house. Her dad says she took some of her things and left. They haven't seen her since....."

" Wait." His father cut him short. " You mean she ran away?" He asked, unsure of what Dom was implying.

"Yes, dad." Dom answered. His voice gave nothing away. Absolutely nothing.

"Why?" His father asked calmly.

"I don't know. Perhaps she was scared" he shrugged.

"Scared of what exactly.....marriage?" Mr Ravens quizzed further.

" No. I showed her my wolf form last night. It probably unsettled her." Dom answered in an emotionless voice and countenance. Although, he braced himself for what was coming.

"What!!" His father bellowed, his voice shaking the mansion. "You did what, Dominic Ravens?" He asked again, anger lacing his voice.

Dom unsurprisingly remained calm. He had been at the receiving end of his father's blazing anger for as long as he could remember and has learned over the years not to be moved by his exorbitant outbursts.

Plus, he knew before hand how his dad would react to his confession and had enough time to prepare his mind for his blazing rage. Jake Ravens never took likely to anyone breaking the wolf clan's rules, regardless of whomever they are.

"First, I warned you not to marry from the humans. I said 'pick a mate from the clan.' I asked and practically begged you to marry Annabelle but no, you being the stubborn fool you are refused and claimed to have fallen in love with some livestock." He said in disgust.

" 'she brings out the fun side of me' you said." He continued ranting. "Then, you stupidly marked her as your mate and went ahead to propose marriage to her. As if that was not enough, you managed to reach the height of stupidity by revealing your wolf form to her without first turning her, you fool!" He continued, gesturing angrily with his wolf claws.

Whenever Jake Ravens gets extremely mad in rage, he becomes very dangerous to those around him, and sometimes even to himself. He found it difficult to conceal his wolf form whenever he is mad. Over the years, he had managed to learn how to control himself from shape-shifting completely when angry, but he couldn't quite stop his wolf claws from always coming out during his angry moments.

"We can't be humiliated like this. I won't accept this! We must find her. Get her scent, and hunt her down this instant." He ordered.

" That won't be possible" Dom calmly replied.

" Why?" Jake Ravens fumed.

"I told her how to kill her scent so a wolf can't trace her. She must have done it, because I can't track.... "

Dom couldn't finish his sentence as his father's claws tightly clutched his throat. It all happened in an instant. One second, he was seated on his chair and the next, he had shape shifted into a werewolf, moving towards his son with supernatural speed and clutching his neck, his eyes blazing.

He howled loudly, causing everyone in the mansion to rush into the study, many of them assuming their wolf forms.

All the while, Dom remained calm and unmoved in his father's hold.

"You fool." He growled and almost suddenly transformed back into a human, letting go of his son's neck. He seemed to have calmed down and even surprisingly let out a sly smile.

Dominic Ravens was one of the bravest son of a b***h he has ever known and that was one thing he both loved and hated about his son. If it were any other werewolf in his place, they would have s**t their pants and pleaded for mercy, talk more or less a mere human. They'd probably have fainted or worse, died even before he strikes.

Regaining his composure and stoic, authoritative demeanor, he addressed one of the people who had dashed into the room at his outburst earlier. He was one of only 3 people who had rushed in, in their human form.

"Damian, find the human."

The man - a young, very attractive man, with blond hair and hazel eyes, dressed in a black turtle necked sweatshirt with matching black tight jeans and black sneakers- nodded. He signalled to two other men in the room to come with him before exiting the study.

"We'll have to work something out, because we can't be humiliated like this and get too much attention placed on us by the humans, especially from their news-hungry media." Jake Ravens said, turning back to Dom who still remained calm and quiet.

"I recall the human has a sister, yes?" He asked after pausing for a while to think.

" No. She is her cousin" Dom spoke for the first time. He was a little perplexed as to why his dad would ask that. " Why do you ask?" He quizzed.

"You'll get married to her instead, while we find Elena" his father offered.

" No! I will not." Dom retorted. " I have already marked Elena as my mate and I will only get married to her. She was just scared, that's all. I will find and bring her back, and explain everything to her. I'll make her see reason and then turn her only if she agrees to........"

" Shut up! You fool." Mr Ravens barked. "You will defy my orders no more." He roared.

"Go. Get ready. You have a wedding to be part of." He added with a tone of finality.