The Wanted Alpha

Chapter 3 - Unwanted

April

I honestly couldn't say how long it had been.

A few minutes, a few hours, or even a few days.

I don't know if I was sleeping or had just simply zoned out. Wherever I was, I was not focused on reality. I did know that I had run out of tears. The whole thing felt both real and like a dream, like I was watching through another person's eyes. It hadn't made it any less painful. I had wanted my mate, my true fated mate. But I knew that being a rogue would probably be a difficult thing to look past. I had hoped that the mate bond would have given him pause to think, to maybe see there was more to me than rags and dirt...I guess I was wrong. It was stupid and naïve to hope, but I least now I knew. I could feel my wolf, but August was just a ball of her own pain and pity. She wasn't particularly responsive right now, not that I blamed her.

I still couldn't understand his reaction, did he feel anything?

I felt the tingles of the mate bond, did he feel it too? Or was he too blinded by rage?

Is that the only thing that saved me? Right now, in this moment, the alternative felt very much preferable.

A hand, gently shaking me, brought me back to reality. I hadn't even registered anyone entering the cell, let alone any footsteps.

"Hey, you doing ok in there?" it was a male's voice, but not the Beta from before.

I hesitantly peered over the edge of my blanket and up at the man crouched in front of me. He had a deep ebony complexion and hazel eyes, with handsome features and low fade, short dreads.

"Hi there, pretty lady. Jude asked me to come check on you. I brought you some stuff and some dinner, you gotta be starving" he spoke soothingly.

I sat up, still clutching the blanket around me. He moved forward, but the sudden action made me flinch backwards hitting my head against the wall. I winced, rubbing the spot. My head was still throbbing from earlier.

"Whoa there, I was just gonna help you up" he eyed my throat with a frown, before looking back up to meet my eyes. I guess my bruising hadn't faded much.

"I'm really not here to hurt you...I know our Alpha kinda s**t all over any trust you might've had, but, that guy...there's a lot of things you don't know" he sighed "probably shouldn't have said that."

He sat back on his heels before standing up fully and holding his hand down for me "think you can stand?" he asked.

I ignored his hand and stood on my own, using the wall as my aid. Goddess, every inch of me hurt. The man in front of me didn't look offended that I had refused his help and simply stood back a little, giving me some space. He was quite tall, a few inches taller than myself around 6'5 and looked quite toned but not built like the Beta. He had a calm but authoritative aura, he must be the Gamma.

He indicated two huge containers that smelt like they held something incredibly delicious.

"Hope you don't mind if I eat with you? My mate's working late tonight, plus I need to take you to the shower room afterwards. It's chicken and dumplings from the pack kitchen, it's pretty damn good too!" he enthused.

He placed the container on the bed with a spoon and sat crossed legged on the ground digging into his portion, guess I didn't really have an option but to accept. I slowly moved over to the bed and reached out for the container, opening it. It was a thick mix of meat, vegetables and big, fluffy dumplings, it looked as good as it smelt. I resisted the urge to shovel it down my throat as fast as possible due to my hunger, damn it was good though.

"So...you're the Gamma here?" I asked quietly.

"Well I'll be damned, she speaks!" he exclaimed "yeah, Carrick Haynes, probably should've said earlier. Sorry 'bout that."

I nodded, not knowing what else to say. I hadn't really ever been social, not because I didn't want to be but because I couldn't be. And to be honest, he looked too engrossed in eating right now to want conversation. We ate in silence and he took the empty container from me once we were done, placing it in the bag he brought it in.

"So what's your name? Don't want to have to keep calling you pretty lady" he smiled at me.

So this is why he was here. To get information from me.

All this 'being friendly' front was some act to get me to talk, to manipulate me into spilling my identity.

Was it that Alpha's plan?

To get my name, where I'm from, so he can contact my pursuers and hand me over to them himself...or to reject me?

Screw that!

"f**k you!" I yelled, jumping up and moving away from him "you're not getting anything from me! Tell your Alpha to f**k off too."

"Whoa, whoa. Take it down, like, 10 notches! I just asked your name, it's called a conversation. Look, there's no agenda here. If you don't wanna say, that's fine" he said, holding his hands up with a perplexed look on his face.

I just scowled at him. I wasn't about to trust any of these people.

"Here, I got some bath stuff for you and some clothes if you want too. I can take you for a shower if you want. If you don't, I can just leave you to it and you can go in the morning" he said while holding up a duffle bag.

Ok, I may have overreacted...just a tad. And I probably could do with a shower, I could suppress my scent but not dirt and I was most likely caked in it.

"Ok" I whispered, not really wanting to meet his eye.

"Ok, then. Come on" he replied gently, moving to the cell door and holding it open for me.

Was he seriously leading me straight out? Just like that? What was the catch?

I followed, reluctantly and warily.

I scented another male outside. I saw the Gamma standing in front of the door facing me, waiting. To his left was a male, tall and broad with black hair and teal eyes; obviously a warrior, the mark on his neck suggested he was mated. He offered me a small smile but said nothing.

"This is Bryce, he'll be one of your guards."

"You think I'm gonna cause trouble?" I asked quizzically.

I was in a silver lined cell, how much of an issue did they think I was going to be? I suppose I did knock out three of their patrol warriors. This was going to make escaping difficult if I was going to have eyes on me all the time.

"The few inmates in here are all males. The guard's here to make sure you're unharmed. Alpha's orders" the Gamma spoke pointedly.

The Alpha wanted to keep me...safe?

Why?

He didn't want me. He all but rejected me. He might not have broken the bond, but he certainly wanted nothing to do with me. Why did he care about my safety?

'Look, I know he's not made the best impression...but...he's got his demons' Carrick spoke in my mind.

Now we were out of the silver cell, my mind-link worked. It wouldn't work at any great distance as I wasn't part of the pack, but it would work farther than most as I was an Alpha, not that anyone here knew that.

I just stared at him, not really knowing what to say in reply. I don't know what the moon goddess's plan was here, but I highly doubted this was it. That fact this guy was mind-linking me suggested he didn't want the other guy to know about the Alpha and whatever f*****g issues the man had.

The Gamma led me a few paces down the corridor to a room with no door. It had basic shower heads, a steel side-counter and mirror, that was it. The entire room had zero privacy from the hallway, obviously specifically designed so that inmates could be monitored as they washed. Carrick placed the bag on the counter and deposited its contents out. Inside was everything I could need; shampoo, conditioner, leave-in hair oil, moisturiser, body wash...a loofah? I didn't know much about cosmetics and such, but even I could tell these were all high end products. I doubt these were normal items given to prisoners.

"Is this a prison or a health spa?" I asked incredulously.

"You're not a prisoner"…" he trailed off.

"Then what am I?"

"...Complicated."

That was a f*****g understatement.

"Am I seriously not going to have any privacy? I'm not like you pack. I'm not used to...people looking."

Wolves shifted multiple times and often in front of others. Generally we lost our inhibitions on nudity pretty quickly, especially males. I hadn't exactly had a normal werewolf upbringing and I certainly wasn't used to men...seeing me.

"Don't worry, we're not going to look. Me and Bryce are gonna wait out here till you're done. Take all the time you want, we will have to keep talking to you though. Make sure you're still with us. And we'll need to make sure all the items are accounted for after, none of this can leave here" he indicated with his hand the items on the counter "I can trust you with a shaving razor right?"

I just nodded.

"Ok, there's a couple of towels here. And we didn't know your size, so just pick out what fits in this stack. You leave the towels and clothes to be washed behind, with everything else. If you need anything, just say" and with that, he left the room to stand just by the doorway out of sight. The other guy, Bryce, stood on the other side, also just out of sight.

I turned to look in the mirror, much to my horror. I was caked in dirt. I started by taking my hair out of the braid and brushing it through. Next I started to strip out of my clothes, they were all filthy so would need a thorough wash. Was I seriously getting a laundry service here?

Without my clothes in the way I could see the heavy bruising on my neck uninterrupted. It looked worse than it felt right now, but it was just another reminder of my unofficial rejection. I grabbed what I needed to clean myself, plus the toothbrush and toothpaste since there wasn't a sink in here and headed over to a shower head. I didn't want to hang around as I was very conscious of the two males standing outside. It took longer than I would have liked to get the dirt off of me, but I was finally clean. I quickly toweled myself dry and my hair as much as I could, applying some of the moisturiser and hair oil, because why not? I tried on a few of the items of clothing but they were all a little big. I was on the skinny side having not eaten consistently since I was incarcerated in the Monkshood Moon pack, 4 years ago. Wolves tended not to conform to the human ideals on body image, we liked our people with meat on their bones. Only, the meat on my bones was currently sparse. I sighed, making do with some jeans and a baggy sweater. I left everything behind, just grabbing my boots and the hairbrush and headed out to meet my jailers.

"Sorry the brush has to stay behind. If you want it, your guard will bring it to you. You can keep hold of the boots, but the laces have got to stay in them, they'll be checked daily" Carrick stated, seeing the items in my hand.

I sighed but complied, leaving the hairbrush behind and followed the Gamma back to my cell. He led me back inside, saying that either he or the Beta, Jude, would check on me in the morning.

"Bryce is gonna stay here through the night. You need anything, you ask him. The viewing port on the door will be open so he can check on you. I suppose try and sleep the best you can, ok?"

Sleep? Like that was going to happen. I never slept more than a few hours at a time. It was dangerous being unconscious as a she-wolf in the wilds. I had only ever met one ally I could trust living rogue, Conner he said his name was, just after I escaped from Monkshood Moon. I hadn't trusted him at all at first, but he was kind to me. He showed me how to survive, how to fight a little. I think he was like me, running from something or someone, not that we ever told each other our past.

I just nodded at the Gamma, my standard reply at the moment, and headed over to the bed, curling up into a ball.

"If you need any water, you can get it straight from the tap. It's all clean drinking water here. Goodnight, pretty lady."

And with that the door was closed, leaving me alone inside.