The Rogue Alpha's Mate

CHAPTER 3

LYCANDRA POV.

A snarling noise behind me cuts my train of thought and instinctively I look behind me. I wish I hadn't. Huge glowing eyes were coming at me fast and in a panic and not looking where I was running, my foot got caught on a protruding tree root. I yelp as I feel myself falling forward and I hit the ground, hard, hitting my head on one of the rocks on the forest floor. Fear coursed through me as a feeling of déjà vu swept over me as I remembered my vivid dreams of being chased, except I wasn’t a wolf like in my dreams.

Dazed and in pain, but at least I didn't render myself unconscious. I shook my head For a moment I have no Idea where I am or what I was doing as I lift myself up on shaking arms and knees. A angry snarl behind me makes me whip around to face the threat, but just as quick, I am pinned down onto my back and I scream in pain. My head is spinning and blurring everything around me till the point of wanting to throw up. Squeezing my eyes shut, I force the feeling down. What is happening? Where am I? I think confusedly to myself, and I jerk when something growling, cold and wet nuzzles into my neck. My eyes jump open in shock to see a huge black wolf on top of me. His hind legs are caging in my legs together and one clawed front paw is digging into my shoulder to the ground whilst the other is next to my head.

My body fills with dread and a sob escapes my throat as my mind clears and I remember what happened. The party. The fight. Me running off. Rogues in the forest. OH GODS! I'm going to die here. I whimper in fear as more sobs escape my body and this elicits a growl from the wolf who was sniffing and licking me intensely making me shiver and my skin tingle.

He lifts his big head and icy blue eyes stare into my own and for a moment everything stops. My heart, my breathing, even the noise around me fades away and I gasp as an intense feeling starts building inside of me, almost like a tidal wave pulling me into the sea of his eyes and instead of the fear I was feeling, a calmness washes over me, pulling me towards him like a magnet and my body humming in expectation and heat, but of what I didn't know. I'm vaguely aware of him shifting on top of me but I watch in awe and admiration as his face morphs in front of my eyes that are still looking into his and I gasp for breath as I gaze at the most handsome man I've ever seen in my life. Yes. A man. There was nothing boyish about him.

He was clearly older than me, but it couldn't be by too much, I guessed. He had a short black beard that looked as though he hasn't shaved for more than a week and he had a crease between his eyebrows that made me think that he frowned a lot, but at this moment he was looking at me with a strange expression on his face. Not angry, but not happy either.

A dull ache in my shoulder breaks my staring spell and I whimper when I fully register what was going on and this seems to pull him out of it too as he frowns down at me before jumping up from me as though I burned him. The sudden movement, sends a searing pain in my shoulder, making me cry out in pain as my eyes tear up. I hear him growl in annoyance, but it was cut short when more howls pierced the air around the trees and again these were not from my pack.

"W-who are you?" I ask on a whimper of fear, but I only receive an angry throaty growl in reply. I force myself through the pain to sit up and try to get to my feet, but my body is visibly shaking. Seeing as he was not attempting to attack me again, I start shuffling backwards on my good arm whilst keeping eye him in my sight. Fresh fear runs through me as I see him taking a step towards me for every few feet I backpedalled until my back bumped into one of the trees, making me utter out a cry in pain. I catch something shift in his eyes, but it was gone just as fast as another howl pierces the air. Closer this time. My heart jumps in fear. Oh Gods, is he waiting on the rest of them before he starts tearing me apart or or... What is he going to do to me? My mind rushes through of what my dad said about rogues. About how ruthless they are. Taking what they want, especially woman even if they were willing or not and as my thoughts whirl around in my head, I fail to notice him that he came even more closer to me.

I start in fright when he stands directly in front of me and for the first time, I realize that he was completely naked and I blushed furiously through my fear and I quickly look away from him. I turn my gaze onto my aching shoulder and see that there were four long s***h marks cut into it and I whimper in pain again when I try to move some of the shredded fabric from the torn skin.

"You're human." I jump at his deep voice, snapping my head back to meet his gaze and I see confusion and the beginnings of anger staring back at me. "What is a human doing on werewolf territory?" He demanded as though I crossed into his own lands. Anger stirs in my chest. I'm so tired of everyone holding it against me for being different. "That's none of your business rogue." I snap back before I could stop myself. My anger cutting through my fear for a moment and just as suddenly I regret it as he lounges for me. I cry out in pain as he grabs me around the throat and pulls me up to eye level with him, pinning me to the tree. I pant in pain, trying to draw in breath from his tight hold and tears roll down my face. "Look at me!" He demands but I shake my head as best I could. I can hear him snarling at me, but I refuse to open my eyes to look at him and this only makes him angrier. He pulls me towards him a little before slamming my back against the tree, making me scream out in pain and he slightly loosens his grip.

"I said, look at me MATE!" He demands and growls out on the last word. I feel my body go limp and cold, my eyes snap open to his of their own accord as all breath leaves my body and I swear my heart stopped just then. NO no no no. My mind suddenly spins, and a sob escapes my throat as I stare at him in disbelief. He smirks down evilly at me and a new tremor of fear rakes through my body as more sobs escape my throat. "NO." I cry out which only caused him to laugh at me.

Suddenly the forest came alive around us as various coloured wolves came out of the darkness and encircled us. I didn’t recognise any of the wolves which only confirmed my fear that they weren’t from my pack. The dark-haired man that claimed me to be his mate, didn’t even look around at the others as he kept piercing me with a stare with those blue eyes. One by one they shifted back to human until naked men and women stood around us and I quickly lowered my gaze. Part of it was in embarrassment and the other part was because of the pain in my shoulder that made me clench my teeth so not to utter any noises.

“What do we have here Max?” One of the men asked closest to us and I hear him huff in annoyance. So, his name was Max. I thought through the pain, and I dared to look at him though my hair. He wasn’t currently looking at me as he had his head turned towards the dirty blond to the side of us. From what I could see of the part of his face, was that he was scowling at the other wolf but the other only smirked back. “Apparently…” He said and turned back to me who caught me staring at him and I quickly looked away. “This is my mate.” He said as he sneered at me. He said it with venom in his voice that made me tremble. “Your mate?” Uttered the blond and I could hear in his voice that he wasn’t smiling anymore. “You found you’re mate in one of these wolves?” he asked in amazement, but Max snarled at him. “She’s not a wolve, she’s human.” He said in what sounded now like disgust and the others gasped.

Before anyone else spoke, a familiar howl pierced the air and I uttered a small noise in relief that didn’t go unnoticed by them, but it was cut short and replace by a loud cry of pain from me when Max roughly pulled me from the tree, he had me pinned on and picked me up bridal style, pressing my injured shoulder against his chest and I whimpered in pain, but he ignored me. Snapping of bones and growling surrounded us again and I knew that his men, and women, have shifted back into their wolves.

The forest came alive with life again, but this time to the relief to see my pack emerging from the shadows. Snarling and growling, ready to attack. “Dad.” I sobbed in relief when I saw that my dad was the one in the lead and he had murderous eyes on the naked man holding me. Max jerked in shock that I addressed the wolf as my father and to that to the alpha no less and he tightened his hold on me before growling in retaliation.