Saving the Alpha's Dream Mate

"Sienna!" The sound of my name made me cringe as I wiped the flour from my hands down my front, leaving a powdery white stain on the drab grey dress. It wasn't like it mattered. The dress was barely more than rags anyway, and it was covered with patches of material sewn on to cover the holes. I hurried down the dark stone hallway from the kitchen to my Mistress, Star. She stepped out from a side room and blocked my way, slapping me hard across the cheek before I could even ask her what she wanted. "You're late," she growled. Star didn’t give me any indication of what I was late for, but I knew she would hit me again if I asked, so I nodded and apologized to her. She grabbed my arm, squeezing me so tightly that it hurt, and yanked me into the room she had just emerged from. The lowest ranking members of the pack were already preparing dinner, but the lunch we had worked so hard on all morning was still untouched on the table, because nobody else had taken it up to the Alpha and his Warriors yet. I swallowed nervously; if they hadn't taken it up, it was because our Alpha was angry and they were afraid of him punishing them. Star smirked at me, and her ruby eyes flashed as she revealed her fangs for a moment. It was a warning - either I took the food up to the men, or she would be the one to punish me. I choked back a sob and quickly hurried to the table to pick up the hot trays of food, balancing two trays on my arms; they were so hot that they were burning me before I even left the room. I couldn't take them up one at a time, because I would be shouted at for keeping the men waiting, so I smiled and put up with the burn. Unfortunately, I had to serve Alpha Lincoln first, but he wasn't in the Warrior's dining room, so I hurried past to find him. The Warrior's were talking and laughing happily, still wearing their shining metal armor, and I started to shake a little because if nobody was willing to bring up the food when the Warrior's were happy, Alpha Lincoln must have been really angry about something. I decided to try and be brave, and I put the trays down on a table in the hallway so I didn't drop them while I was shaking. The longer I took, the angrier he would be, so I lifted them again, balancing them on one arm, and took a deep breath before approaching the door to his office. It was open just a crack, and I moved closer so I could try to listen to what was going on. I needed to know how furious he was, because he would find something to punish me for even if he wasn't angry. I heard voices, but I couldn't make out who it was or what they were saying, so I moved as close as I could and pushed the door open a tiny bit more and finally saw Alpha Lincoln. He was wearing his armor and pacing in front of the huge open fireplace in his office as the flames crackled. I saw Beta Leo standing beside Alpha Lincoln's desk. He was facing the fireplace and he had his hands clasped behind his back. "Fetch the papers," Alpha Lincoln growled, and I took a step back cautiously as Beta Leo turned around to pick up a stack of papers from the desk. He handed them to Alpha Lincoln and he threw them into the fire without reading them. "Alpha, are you sure this is wise?" Beta Leo sounded afraid, and I started to shake again because that meant something serious was happening. "Do not question me!" Alpha Lincoln growled and I could hear that he was close to transforming into his wolf form. I hadn't seen the new armor in action before - it shifted its form along with our Warriors. If I hadn't been so afraid, I might have been enthusiastic about seeing it in action. It was black, but shiny, and our pack's emblem, a blood red eye, was emblazoned on the breastplate. I was the only Pack member without red eyes. That was why I was the lowest ranking Pack member, and everyone made fun of me for my eyes, even though I liked their emerald shade. Beta Leo took a step back from Alpha Lincoln, and I moved so that he wouldn't see me watching them at the door if he turned around. "Alpha, you know I would never question you," Beta Leo said with a shaky voice, "it's just... this would be a declaration of war and..." "...that pathetic excuse for an Alpha the Hightail Pack follows is the one who declared war on our pack when he stole my woman." Beta Leo ran his hands through his hair. He was a devious man, and he always preferred espionage and assassination to either war or negotiation. It was his answer to everything. He was trying to reason with Alpha Lincoln, but our Alpha was not a reasonable man. "With all due respect, Alpha, I do not think Alpha Walker was aware that the Lady Katelyn was promised to you by her father. The poor girl was clearly a bargaining chip and it is her brother who has betrayed you." I was never told much about what was happening in our Pack, but even I knew that Lady Katelyn of the Battlepelt Pack had been promised to Alpha Lincoln, and it seemed that he had been tricked by her brother. I smirked when I realized Alpha Lincoln had been humiliated, but the smile vanished from my face when I realized that was why he was so angry. He was embarrassed, and he still didn't have a suitable mate, and he was going to have to tell our entire pack that he had been outwitted by Alpha Kaleb of the Battlepelt Pack when he was 17 and barely more than a boy. My Pack hated the Battlepelt Pack more than any other Pack, and this was supposed to be a sign of peace between us after many years of fighting. Our Pack, the Crimson-Eye Pack, were losing, and Alpha Lincoln needed to do something to save us from embarrassment. He was blaming this indiscretion on Alpha Walker and the Hightail Pack because he probably wouldn't lose to them, but he would definitely lose to the Battlepelt Pack. "And what will you do when we win?" Beta Leo asked, tentatively, "Do you plan to kidnap the Lady Katelyn?" "I will show them the consequences!" Alpha Lincoln barked. "You will make her brother angry if you do that, Alpha. Our Warriors will be tired and some of them may be injured - they will not survive if they have to fight the Battlepelts after defeating the Hightails." He was right, and Alpha Lincoln must have known that because he span around and glared at Beta Leo with his crimson eyes glowing in the dim room. "You are underestimating our men, Leo. This armor gives us a great advantage and they will not have any trouble fighting either of those treacherous Packs." I shuddered to think what Alpha Lincoln might do to the Lady Katelyn if he captured her, but the brief moment of silence was an opportunity to 'arrive' with the food, so I hurried to fetch it and carried it carefully to the door. The last thing I needed was to drop the trays and turn Alpha Lincoln's wrath onto me. He had his back to me again, so I took a deep breath and prayed to the Goddess that he wouldn't find anything wrong with the meal. I was horrified when I pushed the door open just as he growled again. "You have one chance, Leo. Get rid of Alpha Walker and the Lady Katelyn by the end of the week your way, or we will be at war with Hightail." He turned to give Beta Leo a warning glance, but his blood blood-red eyes met mine instead and I had never seen him look so angry. I dropped the trays of food and they landed with a crash at my feet. The scolding hot food splashed against my legs but I didn't feel the pain, I was too afraid of Alpha Lincoln to think of anything else. He appeared in front of me in a flash and grabbed me by my throat, pinning me against the wall beside the door. I could barely breathe but he didn't care about that - his hypnotic eyes were fixed on mine as he stared at me and read my mind. He knew what I had seen, and what I had heard. I knew that he had been humiliated, and that he was planning to assassinate Alpha Walker and the Lady Katelyn. I knew that he was going to send our Warriors to war if Beta Leo didn't succeed, and that most of our men would be killed by the Battlepelt pack if that happened. "Alpha!" I croaked, and I tried to pull myself away from him but he wouldn't let me go. Beta Leo had taken the opportunity to sneak past and I was alone in the office with Alpha Lincoln now. I knew what he intended to do with me, and I was afraid; I was going to be tortured, then killed, and nobody would even notice I was gone. I started to panic and I tried to pull away from him, but there was only so much I could do when he was holding me so tightly. I knew that my fate was sealed and that I was going to die... My vision was fading and the look of pure hatred was still there on Alpha Lincoln's face as he began to smile at my suffering. "Alpha, I must object to this," Beta Leo said as he returned to the room. "Killing the girl in your office like this will lead to questions and we must protect this secret at all costs." Alpha Lincoln loosened his grip on me for a moment as he turned to his Beta and for a second I thought he was my saviour. I believed that he was here to save me from a painful death at the hands of my Alpha, but then I saw the heavy wooden box he was holding and my heart froze. "No..." I choked out in a whisper as Alpha Lincoln kept me pinned to the wall by my neck without choking me. It was so easy for him that he didn't even bother looking at me, but I saw a wicked smile revealing his fangs when he saw what Beta Leo was holding. The box was opened, confirming what I already knew- its crimson velvet lining was padded for safety, but I saw the contents glistening in the light: two pairs of heavy silver shackles to bind my ankles and to constrain my hands behind my back, and a heavy silver chain to hook my ankles to my wrists. The shackles were designed for men - for the more noteworthy Warriors captured from other packs - and they were far too big for my slender wrists and ankles. That didn't really matter when they were silver - they iced over my bare skin and I could feel them biting into my flesh. The pain was excruciating; a million times worse than anything else I had experienced in my life; but Beta Leo ripped a strip of the dirty fabric from the bottom of my dress and shoved it in my mouth as a gag so I wouldn't make too much noise and attract unwanted attention. "Where do you plan on taking her, Leo? I appreciate your wisdom when it comes to making her death less questionable, but I don't want to parade her around the place - that will attract just as much attention. Beta Leo smiled; he had thought of that already. "There are plenty of cells free in the cellars, Alpha. I know you do not like being told what to do but my humble suggestion is that you send Sienna there as a punishment for dropping your food - an act that will not raise any questions - and dispatch her in a couple of days when everyone has forgotten about her. We'll keep her gagged and shackled in the meantime so she doesn't do anything stupid like revealing your plans. "Very well," Alpha Lincoln smirked. "And if anybody does notice she is done, which I very much doubt, we can say that she tried to escape from the cells. She is a small, helpless thing - we might as well have some fun with her." Alpha Lincoln turned back to me, smiling at the thought of what he was going to do to me in the cellars below the pack complex. I was pale and trembling as Beta Leo shoved me hard in the back to get me to move. The silver that was binding me was making me weaker than I already was and Beta Leo shoved me every few steps to get me to keep walking. I fell down the last few steps to the cellar and landed in an undignified heap at Gamma Kai's feet. He had been kind to me once, when we were still children, but his parents warned him not to associate with me and there was no hint of the compassion he had shown me once, now that I had been sent to his cells for imprisonment. "Now, be a good girl and stay quiet," Beta Leo hissed in my ear as he yanked me to my feet and pushed me toward Gamma Kai. "Beta?" Gamma Kai glanced at me before turning his attention to Beta Leo. "Do I need to know what the girl has done?" Beta Leo paused to consider his options and then shook his head. "She's a clumsy, foolish girl, and she stumbled into Alpha Lincoln's office with a tray of food - she dropped it, and he was furious. She is being punished for her mistake, and you will see that she learns her lesson. If he wants to do more than lock her up for a few days," Beta Leo stuck his hand into his pocket and fumbled for a second before producing two gold coins and pressing them into Gamma Kai's hand, "you will not question his motives. Do you understand?" "Yes Beta, of course." Gamma Kai nodded and tucked the coins away before he opened the door to one of the cells and shoved me into it. I fell to the floor again, and I was too weak to stand up, but he locked the door behind himself -he didn't care about that, and he was not going to remove the silver restraints because I had clearly enraged Alpha Lincoln. I was on my hands and knees struggling to get to my feet when Gamma Kai returned. "Sienna..." I looked up at him when he said my name, and I saw a look of genuine pity in his eyes. I couldn't respond - the foul tasting rag was still shoved in my mouth as a makeshift gag and I didn't dare to spit it out. "Whatever it is you did..." He stopped speaking then, and he left me in the cell. I didn't know what he had been about to say, and I didn't care. The silver restraints were taking their toll and my head was spinning; I collapsed to the floor again as my consciousness slipped away.