Alpha's Runaway Mate

Chapter5

Adeline

I walked up the rickety steps and into the house. The house was exactly the same and I was filled with overwhelming emotions. I hadn't put River down and squeezed her tight against me, causing a small squeak to shoot out from her lips.

"I'm sorry sweetie! Let me put you down." I sat the little girl down and she took off back out the door. I took in the comforting interior. Nothing had changed and I was hit with heartwarming nostalgia. Memories swarmed through my mind like a colony of buzzing bees. My brothers chasing me around the house, my mother teaching me how to bake, my father dancing around the living room with me standing on his feet. All the warmth and love that surrounded my childhood home flooded me with a longing I didn't know existed within me.

"We're finally home." Athena purred and for once I agreed.

"Addy, your room is still the same as you left it. I didn't have the heart to change anything. You can go unpack and get settled." My mother ushered me to the stairs, and I climbed them slowly, scanning all the pictures on the walls. Me on Alec's shoulders his eyes looking up at me with laughter on his face. Adam, Alec, and my mother, tears glistening in her eyes with them in their cap and gown on graduation day. New pictures had sprung up on the walls as well now. Cassandra and Alec at their mating ceremony. I didn't miss the way her eyes were on Zeke instead of my brother. The one beside it was of Adam and Tawney looking down at her swollen stomach. The farther up I climbed I saw pictures of Haven and River as babies being held snuggly by my parents, one in my mother's arms, the other in my father's. There were pictures of Cassandra in glamor shots here and there but hardly any of Alec and her together, which I found odd.

I shook it off and wandered farther down to my room. The sign that said, "KEEP OUT!" still hung on the door. I opened it and smelled the fresh scent of lemon and basil. I sighed. My mother still used the same Meyers cleaners. I took comfort in knowing not much had changed. I sat my luggage down on the bed and looked around. My posters of the human body in both skeletal and muscular form hung on the wall. Mr. Bones stood solemnly in the left-hand corner of the room. Medical books were lined on the bookshelves to the right that stood on either side of my old oak desk that matched the rest of my oak furniture. My father had let me pick it out from the old Amish stores up in Illinois when we had visited the Great Northern Pack. No sooner had I gotten up to my room, than two little chocolate haired girls came barreling into my room.

"Aunt Addy! Aunt Addy! Can we make cookies now? Please? Oh please? Oh please?" The two little cherubs sung out in unison. I chuckled softly at them. "Alright. But first wash your hands." I chased them out of the bedroom door and down the stairs, the two of them giggling the entire way.

"Hey you three! No runnin’ in the house!" My mother called out from the living room.

"Let them be, Emily. They're havin’ fun." My father nuzzled her neck.

"Dammit Lee! This is why they never listen to me! 'Poppy said we could!' You always under mind me and spoil them. You did it with Addy and you're doin’ it with the twins now!" She snapped.

"Hey! Don't drag me into your squabble." I called out.

"Hush, you!" My mother shot me a dirty look. I held my hands up and backed away into the kitchen where the girls had already drawn up two step stools to the island in the center and were wiping their wet hands direct onto their pants. I shook my head and got to work pulling all the ingredients from the cupboard as we got started making cookies. Contrary to River's promise, she and Haven continuously stuck their little fingers in the batter. I didn't mind though. They were only little once and should have fun.

I was hardly paying attention when the scent of chocolate and whisky tickled my nose. It caused me to salivate and my skin to burn with a strange intensity. A deep growl reverberated around the room.

"Mate."

I looked up into a pair of sea blue eyes and for a moment I was lost as my lips parted. "Mate!" Athena growled out, jumping around excitedly in my head.

It wasn't until I shook myself out of the daze I was in did I realized who it was that stood in the doorway to the kitchen.

"Uncle Zeke!" The girls called out.

"Zeke, dear, what a lovely surprise! Can I get you some tea or cof-" my mother grew silent as she stared shockingly between the two of us.

"Lee... come here." she said warily. She knew how much I hated Zeke Taylor and I suppose the look of utter disdain on my face proved nothing had changed.

"Emily, I swear it wasn't me who gave the girls that Little Debbie. It was Add-y..." he said slowly, staring between myself and Zeke. Once my father realized what was going on his lips closed in a thin line and he grabbed my mother's arm.

"Well, f**k. Come, Emily. Let's leave these two to it." He tugged on her arm, but my mother just shook him off.

"Addy, is this what I think it is?" She said with a glittering smile. I cut my eyes at the woman who birthed me and the smile on her face fell away. I turned on my heels and stride to the back door, throwing it open and storming out, slamming the door behind me.

"Why did you leave? Go back to Mate! I want my mate, Adeline!" Athena screamed in my head.

"No! He is not my mate!" I shouted at her.

"Yes, he is! The moon Goddess made him just for us! Now get back in there and climb him like the mountain he is!" She bellowed.

"You know what he did to me! I will never be his mate!" With that I shoved her down deep into the recesses of my mind, just as I heard the back door open and close.

"What the f**k, Adeline!" His deep, sultry voice called to my soul, but I buried those feelings down.

"I, Adeline Elizabeth McCloud, reject you Ezekiel Levi Taylor, as my mate and Alpha!" I shouted. The pain that rippled through my chest brought me to my knees. I cried out into the early night air as I heard a painful roar leave Zeke's lips. He stared daggers at me, but underneath that anger was a deep hurt.

"You rotten b***h!" He spat, venomously. I could hear the whimpering cries of my wolf rattling around in my head.

"Accept it!" I screamed at him. He narrowed his eyes at me as a cruel smirk filled his beautiful features.

"No!" He roared. I stood on shaky legs and sauntered over to him. I reached for every bit of strength I had as I lifted my leg up and kicked him hard in the face. His head snapped back as blood spurted from his nose.

"f**k you, Addy!" He screamed, grabbing at his face. My anger bubbled up inside me. I climbed on top of him and started swinging.

"f*****g accept it, you piece of s**t!" I roared out at him.

"No! You fuckin’ psycho b***h!" He was trying to cover his face, but it did him no good. I was hitting him anywhere and everywhere that I could get to, and I was swinging hard. I felt one of his ribs crack under one of my powerful blows and he groaned out in pain.

"f**k you Zeke! You f*****g garbage person! I f*****g hate you! Accept it! Accept it or I'll f*****g kill you!" I could feel my rage pouring out of me. I was about to extend my claws and rip out his throat when a pair of strong arms grabbed me, hauling me off Zeke.

"Son, you better just accept the rejection. I don't think my Addy here will stop until she kills you." My father was trying to hold me back as I struggled in his grasp. I saw the pain flit across Zeke's face before he finally uttered the words I longed to hear.

"I, Ezekiel Levi Taylor, accept your rejection as my mate and Luna." I felt the battered thread that held us together snap and I fell to the ground as my screams pierced the night.