Bound To The Billionaire Alpha

#2 - Escaped

"I thought you said you could see the future, woman!" I gritted my teeth as the latest wave of nausea hit me, almost sending me rushing to my office's bathroom for the umpteenth time. The damn poison was taking too long to get out of my system.

"Couldn't you have seen that she would use this God forsaken concoction and warned me about it?"

"Oh, don't be such a baby your majesty." Isolde dabbed a wet cloth on my forehead, the damn thing doing little to ease my discomfort as I lay on my office couch. "A little wolf's bane never killed anyone." She cooed and I bared my fangs at her knowing it was not just a little wolf's bane, but that did nothing to wipe the wide grin still plastered on the witch's face. "And to be fair, I did warn you that she would fight back. The girl is not as useless as they pegged her to be at the Nightshade pack."

Isolde was damn right about that or I wouldn't have spent the last three days purging my body of the moonshade serum; a concoction of wolf's bane and a whole host of other herbs I did not dare think or ask about that Natalia had injected into me in the blink of an eye.

I'd never seen a feeble creature of her kind move so fast and no one had ever addressed me so informally. You talk too much, Octavius... Those damn words rang with a defiance that still rubbed me the wrong way and made me hate her a little more for daring to attack me and actually succeeding, risking my reputation.

"I still can't believe that you finally found her." Isolde pointed out.

I couldn't either. After years of searching for someone like her, the whole thing had been by accident. My attending of the negotiation dinner at the Nightshade pack was purely out of the need to remind the useless pack of who was boss, but then the seeker amulet I always carried suddenly awakened when the luna and alpha of the pack appeared in the large dining hall I'd been led to, changing the whole reason of my presence there.

"And she'd better be worth it, witch. I'd hate to find out that letting go of settling my score with the Nightshade pack was for nothing."

"Excuse me, but which one between the two of you thought it wise to move my patient from my wing?" Eamon, the healer and Seer Guardian of the Solara Covenclan, my clan, demanded once he entered my office. I was not in the mood for him and knowing I'd not touched any of his experiments in his hospital wing, I didn't bother to acknowledge him.

"Don't look at me, I know better than to involve myself in your affairs." Isolde murmured while I gritted my teeth, not in the mood for another argument between the witch and the guardian.

"I know that, but this involves the matter of the human? Only you two knew that she was there at all." At Eamon's claims I jumped to my feet, growling, knowing only one particular and very important human was ever in the building.

"What do you mean, moved?!" I towered over the guardian effortlessly as I impatiently waited for him to make himself clear. Being the healer, Natalia had been left in his care when she couldn't wake up once I brought her to the Mystic Manor.

The ancient man only frowned. "Does this mean she was not moved on your orders?"

Damn it! I cursed as I sprang into action, mind linking Theron my best friend first with my suspicions. "Lock down the damn building if you have to. She couldn't have gotten far!"

"You think she escaped?" Isolde shot to her feet too. "And where do you think you are going? You are in no shape to be on your feet yet." The witch scowled at me, but I ignored her, buttoning up my shirt in a flash. "I advise against it, Octavius."

"And I'm not obligated to take your advice." Ignoring both the witch and the loud protest in my body, I pulled up the live security feed on my phone, keenly scanning it, determined not to lose Natalia. Determined not to lose the century old chance at finding my destined mate, of which the human girl was the key.

"Where the hell is she?!" I cursed a thousand times more when every frame of the feed revealed nothing. If I had not been witness to how she'd slipped out of the Nightshade pack without anyone noticing, I would have demanded a more physical search, but that would only waste time.

"Even if she is awake, she won't be in a position to carry herself anywhere." Eamon pointed out and clearly he knew nothing of the person he was talking about. The damn girl had a determination as strong as a raging tempest, driving her forward through any obstacle. That damn trait had dared me in more ways than one when she held my gaze at her old pack.

"Octavius..." Theron drew my attention the moment he briskly entered my office.

"Anything?" I asked impatiently.

"Clearly she's done this before. She managed to fool everyone," Theron said, handing me his phone that displayed a different portion of the security feed.

I stared at it and cursed when I spotted her calmly walking out of the building. And what the hell was she wearing? I found myself glaring at the tiny dress that left little to the imagination and the time stamp on the feed. It said she'd already had a twenty minute head start.

"Find her!" I walked to the open office window and jumped through, much to Isolde's horror. Her protests and curses accompanied me all the way down to the curb, but I was not about to go back. Not even on my own account. Solara was no place for a wandering human. It would only be a matter of time before Natalia met trouble and I couldn't have that.

"She won't be able to get that far." I said to Theron when he joined me a second later. "I want her alive and unharmed." I instructed as I went off alone. I was always a lone hunter and tonight would be no different.

As expected, Natalia's scent was non existent even in the vicinity of Mystic Manor which left me with option number two of my tracking abilities. Letting the sights and sounds I wasn't interested in fall away, I zeroed in on the actual sound I was looking for as I blended into the night crowd of Solara Heights. The steady rhythm of a human heart, a couple of blocks away from my current location had me sprinting after her. I was barely there when a foreign unwelcome scent hit me, sending me in guard mode.

"Thaddeus." I hissed when I came face to face with the wretched night scavenger in a dark alley, carrying my girl in his filthy arms. My girl? The strange thought slapped me, catching me off guard, but I ignored it together with the budding desire to protect her beyond the reason I had her in the first place.

"Put her down!"

Thaddeus only flashed me a mocking grin. "Aww, but you know the rules Octavius when it comes to her kind... finders, keepers, even in Solara Heights-"

I didn't let the bastard finish his sentence before I attacked, severing his arm. He let go and I caught her in my arms.

"Goddamn it! Why did you do that for?" The scavenger hissed, but I was already on my way to the car waiting for me.

"Take care of the bastard. No one touches what's mine." I barked as I placed Natalia at the back of the car. She was out, by compulsion. It took me a moment to decide not to go back and tear the bastard's heart out for daring to imprint himself on her in any way.

"Wake up, Natalia." I undid Thaddeus' compulsion easily and those big baby blue eyes stared at me with awe, knocking out something in my chest and leaving me breathing uneasily. "Are you okay?" My hand shot out before I could think better of it and caressed her face.

"You!" Recognition turned her admiration into a scowl and the hate I knew she held for me. It was enough to flip my switch and snap me out of protector mode.

"What the hell do you think you are doing running away and placing yourself in danger?!" I glared at her, but she only flashed me a rueful smile.

"I told you, Octavius Thornevale, that I belong to no one." She poked my bare chest before she passed out, her touch waking me in ways I hadn't expected.

I stared at her limp body, letting out an exasperated sigh. "You are so wrong, Princess."