Once A Princess, Now A Slave

20- His POV

Connor's POV

"Why didn't you tell her you were the one who asked me to save her?" I jump on my place after hearing my father's voice."Jesus!" I exclaimed.

I just shut the door behind me. I did not notice my father is leaning on the wall with his hands inside his pockets. He straightens his back and fixes his stance. He then faced me.

"Why didn't you tell her you can read her mind?" he added.

I shrugged. "It's none of your business, dad," I answered.

I walk past him. I still have to cook Kelsie's food. I forgot to f*cking asked an omega to do it earlier.

"Where were you earlier? She woke up and looked for you," he added.

I look back at him. "What did you tell her?"

"Told her you were picking up her food because that's what you told me."

"I did," I replied.

He tilts his head and looked at me intently. "Then what was the scream that I heard earlier?" he raised a brow.

I sigh. "Just disciplining them," I answered.

My jaw clenches when I remember what I felt after sensing it. I was in the forest with Garnor and Brent, (the Delta and the Gamma), when I felt a sudden pain in my chest. I felt like someone put a hole in my heart and I couldn't breathe properly. We were having personal training and we are all in our wolf forms. We hate doing training on the Black Claw's training ground because it's crowded and the audience always watches us and we do not like being watched.

We were practicing our hunting skills on the wolf form here on the farthest part of the forest. If I am not mistaken, this portion of land is not already part of our territory, but since no one ownes this, we are free to use it. Besides, if ever we encountered rogues, we know we can handle ourselves. We hold the highest ranks in our pack. And knowing that Black Claw pack is one of the stringest here in the country, no one will dare touch us.

The three of us rans when we saw a movement from afar. However, in the middle of my run, I halted. My paws slides onto the rough ground as I force myself to stop. I watched the two running and chasing something, but my mind is not already in the hunt.

My chest started tightening and the beating of my heart is slow yet hard.

'Our mate!' Shadow exclaimed.

The word 'mate' made my heart beat. I know she already rejected me but I did not accept the rejection yet. She may not feel it already but I can still feel the effects of our mate bond. I can feel her emotions. I can feel if she needs help.

My jaw clenched. My heart aches as the beating became louder and faster. Whatever is happening to her, I know it is something that I won't be happy about.

'Alpha, what is happening? We found a deer here. We can bring this to the pack--' Brent, the Gamma's son said in my mind. They are in the far part of the forest already and if I roam my eyes around, I could not see them.

'Alpha, where are you?' Garnor asked.

In other occassion, I would tell them to stop calling me Alpha. Even if the whole pack already assumes that our family will be the next alpha of the pack, I still doesn't want to grab the title until it was given to me.

Calling them out is not my top priority right now.

'We need to get back to the pack as soon as possible,' I explained in a serious tone.

I can sense the two getting attentive. I did not wait for their responses and cut the line. I ran back to the pack.

The run will take 1 hour in maximum before I'll reach the pack house if I will run in my fastest speed. By then, I do not know what might already happened to my mate.

I felt Brent and Gatnor behind me, catching up. I swiftly looked behind to see our distance. Good thing they managed to close our distance in just a matter of seconds. They will not be put on the highest ranks if they were incompetent.

They did not ask any question, but earlier, I sensed the curiosity in them. I'll explain it to them later. This is not the right moment to waste time. Kelsie needs me.

'F*ck. We won't make it!'

Even my pride won't let me, I contact dad. I used my mind linking to connect to him. I am sure he's in the pack house since everything's need to be handled by him. He even cancelled his meeting from the other packs last week because he was too busy inaide the pack. I lent a hand to help him. Since there is too much in our place, the wokf ranking was put into a halt and will continue it after all the things that needs to be addressed in the pack.

'Dad!' I called when I felt our mind linking.

'Yes, what's up?' he casually answered.

'Find Kelsie for me. I can sense something's going on,' I answered. 'We were having our training here in the forest, miles away from our teritorry, but we are now on our way home,' I added.

I sensed him getting alerted on the other line.

'What do you think is happening?' he answered in a serious tone. I bet he jumped out of his chair and grabbed his coat.

'She's in pain but she's enduring it. I guess she had a fight,' I answered.

Kelsie is indeed having a hard time socializing with the pack members. But whenever she's gotten into a fight, she was never beaten up. I an certain something's going on.

'I'll handle this. aget back here as soon as you can,' he said.

'I will.'

Kelsie is also important to him and treats her like his own.I know I can trust Kelsie on his hand.

I snapped back in reality when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I lift my head and saw my father's hand on mine.

"I know you were upset--"

"I'm not." My jaw clenches. "I'm not upset. I'm f*cking mad."

The image of Kelsie's face lying on the bed with bruisies all of her body makes me furious. Aloha Aydig took care of her. Until his last bteathe, he was worried about her. He trusted me to her. Yet, after days of his death, Kelsie was hurt. I will never forgive myself on this.

"Connor..." My dad called in a serious manner.

"What they did to Kelsie was wrong. But remember that you will be the next Alpha. You can't just do what you want because you are holding the highest position. You know hiw politicis and good governance work. Practice the latter," he explained.

I get what he is pointing out. I will be the next Alpha after him. I have to do things in accordance with our law.

"Tell me what you did to those guards," he commanded.

I took a deep breath as I reminisce what I did earlier.

"What happened to Kelsie?!" I angeily asked as I barged inside the Alpha's house.

In the lobby, I saw Luna Denette and Kristine on the long table.

Kristine slightly jump on her chair when I opened the door harshly. It tooke her a couple of seconds before standing on her feet and closing our gap. She tried to reach for my arm but I avoided her.

My eyes roam around. When I couldn't see what I am looking for, I darted my eyes to Kristine.

"Where are the guards that beat her?" I asked in a low voice.

Kristine remain silent. Her thin straight lips frustrates me. I need a f*cking answer yet she's giving me silence!

"U-Uhhh, Connor?" I looked at Luna Denette's direction.

I know either or both of them is responsible to what happened to Kelsie today. But out of respect to Alpha Audig, I'll stand down... but I can't promise if I can let it past if this will hapoen again.

"What happened to her, Luna?" I asked.

Kristine tried to hook her hand in my arm. I let her do whatever she wanted while my eyes are all focused to her mother.

"S-she hurt Kristine and disrespected me, Connor. It is an unacceptable behavior," she reasoned out.

"And you think getting her beaten by the guards is acceptable behavior as the Luna?" I asked in a low tone.

"Connor, Kelsie was the first one who disrespected us--"

"That's not what I heard," I cut her off.

Kristine gulped. I gently remove her hand on my arm. It slowly slips off me.

Before I went here to ask them for the details, I already did my own research. One if the members that I trust told me about what happened.

Indeed, Kelsie did not obey her stepmother's order when she called for her, but it is not justifiable to drag her on the underground dungeon and let the guards beat her.

"I hope this won't happen again. As the future Alpha, I will never tolerate such action, no matter who they are and what position foes they hold," I said in a warning tone. I looked intently at their eyes. I've never used my future title when it comes to dealing with my problems, but this is different. My mate is involved. I won't take any chances.

Luna Denette only nods her head at me, but I can feel her not wanting to. On the other hand, Kristine looked at me with her bloodshot eyes. I can sense she will cry any time.

"I'll meet the guards," I said and welcomed myself inside without waiting for their responses. I even heard Kristine calling me in her quivering voice but my mind is already clouded with anger.

I will make sure these guards will suffer more than what they did to my mate.

-----

Unedited. English is not my first language. My apologies for the grammar, sentence construction, and wrong spelling.

-----

Once A Princess, Now A Slave

By: Joanne Cristel

©2023