Torn Between Her Fated Mates

Chapter 9 - WTF?

MARCO'S POV

Hearing him refer to her as his mate makes my eyes slightly twitch, and a low growl rumble from my chest; she is mine, not his. At this moment, I have to keep focused that yes, I will let him take her right now, but she has my mark. I am hoping the bond is strong enough that she will reject him; the rejection will weaken him and his pack. After that, I will take her back, and this will be over.

At the very least, he will reject her because of my mark, and when I fully make her mine, we will both destroy his wolf and then take over his pack.

"Mate?" I repeat his word as a question “Ahhh…you mean the deliziosa lupa anonima che ho incontrato al mercato? Ahhhh, you don't speak Italian, too bad; Breelynn thinks it is very sexy. I'll translate for you. I asked if the female you claim to be your mate was the delicious unmarked she-wolf I met at the Farmers' Market today? Yes, any minute now, your Gamma will link you that he has her, she is fine, and they are leaving out the back door. If that is all, you may go. Arrivederci!"

Turning away from him, flaunting my disrespect and lack of fear, my actions dismiss him as if he isn't worth my time. I casually walk back up the steps to the porch, disappointed that he didn't even attempt to challenge my contempt. I had kind of hoped he would have been a least a tiny bit of a challenge; he is weaker than I had thought. Knowing his best trackers and warriors are watching, they will see his weakness and my strength making them more willing to follow me when I take over.

At the top of the steps, I turn to face him again; I can tell he is linking with someone, most likely his Gamma. I watch his Beta; it's obvious he is included in the link; they are a powerful pack despite Aldric, and I am excited at the prospect of commanding them.

Half of his wolves take off to the woods; I would assume it is because they have gotten Breelynn out of the house. He looks so smug as we make eye contact; I am guessing his Gamma didn't tell him about the mark or hasn't seen it yet. I wish I could be there when he notices it, but having her come back to me will be almost as satisfying.

"So, Marco, just to be clear, I am not an Alpha that needs his ego stroked. I could care less if you turn your back on me; in fact, I could care less about you. I know who I am and what I am capable of, and so does my pack. We are leaving with our Luna; if you come near her, my territory, or my pack again, I assure you, it will not end in a civilized conversation."

The wolves that have not retreated to the woods take a few steps closer towards Aldric, showing their support. Yes, this is the pack I have been looking for, not a bunch of rogues for hire that my father and the Elders believe will satisfy the promise they made me. I will show these wolves that Aldric lost their Luna and that she chose me over him. I will show them how weak of an Alpha he actually is. After that, they will gladly follow me.

It appears that he is linking again. He smiles, and his wolves get up and turn toward the woods leaving him and his beta. After a long silent moment, the beta shifts, shredding his clothes and follows the rest of the pack out. Aldric and I stare at each other, waiting for the first one to blink.

"I believe you have overstayed your welcome, Aldric. I am certain we will meet again, and I imagine it will be quite an exciting reunion." I turn around and walk into the house; I can hear him shift as his clothes tear.

BREELYNN'S POV

Colton leads us out of the house, through the backyard, and into the dense trees without any trouble. When we catch up to the other guy who helped us, he is still smiling and talking with the now awake woman we rescued first. Thankfully, she is wearing the tee shirt I draped over her because I saw more of her than I needed to.

The first woman runs up to me as we approach them and bows her head. "Thank you, Luna, for rescuing us. I don't know what caused you to be here, and I hope you weren't harmed, but I am grateful." As if guided by an instinct, I bow back, silently accepting her gratitude. That's twice I have bowed to these people, once with the other guy and now her. This place is getting to me.

Just as I am about to ask what is next, I feel a vibration. It was mild and barely noticeable, but I was on such high alert that I could feel it. As the pulse became more apparent, I saw the leaves starting to shake, and then there was the sound.

It was thunderous, the kind of sound you could feel in your chest and makes it hard to breathe. Before I could process what was going on, it seemed as if the forest itself was moving, morphing from an unknown assailant, when all of a sudden, a pack of wolves raced past us with such speed I could feel the gust of wind from their progress.

My heart stopped; I was frozen in utter fear. Those wolves were f*****g humungous. I mean, I knew wolves were larger than dogs, but I had no idea they were that big. And there were so many of them, and they flew past us like we weren't even there. I glanced at everyone else, expecting them to be as shocked as I was, but they seemed fine, disinterested even. In fact, their lack of acknowledging the wolf stampede made me question if I actually saw them. Maybe Marco and all his talk about werewolves finally caused me to crack.

"Did anybody else see that?" What a stupid question; of course, they saw it; there is no way you couldn't see it. Twenty-some-odd wolves just ran past us.

"Don't worry, Luna. That was Liam and the decoy pack. We will follow their tracks, blending in, and in a couple of miles, they will stop and wait for us to catch up. Once we do, a few of them will join us and continue to run home; the others will hold up for a bit making sure we are not followed. You're safe, I promise."

My surroundings seem to blur as if everything green has merged, then it begins to swirl as if I am looking through a kaleidoscope, and I have difficulty keeping balance and holding myself upright. "Are you okay, Luna?" Colton's voice almost sounds sincere rather than commanding. I want to tell him that I am emphatically not okay, but I can't form words, so instead, I nod my head yes; why did I tell him yes?

"Good, Aldric will be here any second, so we should all shift. Omega's, let's hope you can do this."

And that is when it happened. My entire world altered in a matter of seconds as I watched skin turn to fur. Hands and feet into paws, tails growing out of nowhere, and faces being transformed into muzzles. Pointed ears and holy s**t, fangs. Like honest to goodness sharp-ass fangs. The enormous dark brown wolf with what looks like tan highlights and accent markings on its face stands where Colton was. A gray and white wolf with his tongue hanging sits causally right where the other guy was and where the females were are now two beautiful petite wolves similar in tan fur.

I look back to the large dark brown wolf and wonder where Colton went, f**k me, Colton didn't go anywhere; that's Colton, but that is impossible, right? Then the wolf that can't possibly be Colton tilts its head like it's confused by me. As if I am the thing that doesn't make sense right now. My mouth opens to scream, but I can't make a sound; my voice is paralyzed, hell, everything is paralyzed. That's when everything goes black, and it feels like I am falling,but never hit the ground.

ALDRIC'S POV

When I approach the rendezvous point, everyone is naked. Bryce is standing next to two bruised omegas, and Colton is crouched down next to my Luna, who is the only one still dressed. She is out cold and lying on the forest floor. I shift back to my human form and kneel on her other side. "What the f**k happened? You said she was unharmed?"

Her beautiful face is turned to the side, exposing the cut from earlier. Still not fully healed, her bruising has gone down some but not as much as it should have. I recognize her scent, but it seems a bit off, and I can't understand why...

"She was; we were only here a minute when we saw Liam leading the decoy pack past. She panicked; I told her it was okay, that they were ours, I knew you would be here any minute, I told everyone to shift, they did, she lost all color on her face, I think she tried to scream and then she hit the ground."

I look up at the omegas; they are nervous and keep looking back toward the pack house, "Who are the omegas, and why are they here?" Addressing the group, my patience is gone, and I want answers now. Colton stands up, we both know that I am not going to like the answer. "They were tied to beds; they most likely belong to the Beta and the Gamma. The Luna saw them and refused to leave without them."

Picking her up, I hold her bridal style, her head naturally rolls into my chest, and her hair cascades around her neck and down the front of her body. Not being able to take my eyes off my mate, I don't even look at the omegas as I address them, "You are not obligated to come with us, but if you want to, you can." I glance up at them, seeing the extent of their bodies' damage.

Keeping her eyes lowered, one of the omegas says, "If your Luna's kindness and empathy are any indications of how your pack treats omegas, I would like to come with you." The other one nods her head in agreement. "Me too," she whispers.

"Fine, one of you will shift, the other will put on one of those tee shirts and hold on to my mate while Colton runs you back." Colton immediately shifts as the omega who spoke earlier puts the tee-shirt on and straddles over Colton's back. Reluctantly, I hand Breelynn over, "If anything happens to her…" she doesn't let me finish, "It won't, yes, I am an omega, but I am strong, I can hold her, and I won't let go of Gamma Colton."

Something inside me knows I can trust her, that somehow this she-wolf would die to protect my Luna. Colton looks me in the eyes, his wolf ready to run. "If they show up, you keep going. She is the priority. Bryce and I will be the ones to stay back, understood?" His wolf bows to me; it's his silent promise that nothing will happen to her.

The other omega, who had already shifted into her wolf form, snorts at us and pounds her front paws into the ground, letting us know that she also will fight with us. This is the best course of action; I know that if Marco's wolves approach us, Colton needs to be the one to take our Luna, and I need to stay and fight, but letting her go is the hardest thing to do.

Colton shifts his weight, getting ready to take off; the omega adjusts with him repositioning her passenger and gathering Breelynn's hair back to keep it contained during the run. That's when I see it; that's when the ground has been pulled out from underneath me; when my wolf howls and demands that we go back and rip the neck out of Marco even though we can't because I don't know what it would do to her. This is the moment when my heart has been torn out of my chest because not only did I have to learn the name of my mate from that son of a f*****g b***h, but this is when I notice the two puncture holes on her neck.

"He f*****g marked her?"