Taken as their mate

Chapter five

~Ralpheal~

My sons were acting like fools, falling for Kiara and fighting over her in front of the other. They were embarrassing themselves, she had no standing and was not suitable for them to mate. My mind drifted to how she looked as she walked into the dining hall, the green dress I sent her wrapped around her body like a second set of skin. I had to admit, she was attractive, and I enjoyed our conversations, finding her lack of filter refreshing.

I finished my drink and went to pour myself another one. I hoped that this full moon pack had other inviting females in it that would stop the infernal bickering within the pack. I knew it was not just my sons that lusted for the girl, but the betas and some of the warriors too. If I was being honest, I did find myself thinking of her as more than just a member of my pack. I mean sure I was far older than her, but you would not think it to look at us, thanks to werewolves stopping aging in their early twenties.

My mate had died long ago, killed by a rival pack as payback for a mistake I made. Her death had been the price for my screw up and I had never managed to get past it. It was then I vowed to make my pack strong, to ensure that all high ranking wolves were feared by all so that no one would fear strike against us again. However, that stance has led me to my current predicament. The few unmated females that there were in the pack, did not wish to mate with the high ranking wolves, fearing their cruelty. Another handful of them took to being whores, spreading their legs for any wolf that wanted a quick release, in exchange for favours and preferential treatment. With more unmated males than females, these girls spent the majority of their time on their backs and would never be considered mates to anyone.

My mind drifted back to Kiara, now if she was a w***e I would have her bent over my desk in a second, crying out my name in pleasure. Her small moans as she ate increased my wolfs interest in her. She would never be a w***e though, she had too much fight in her. My wolf whined at the thought of not having her, but she had no standing, how could I make her my mate, especially with my sons fighting for her affection as it is. Although she would be more suited for me than either of them, having already had a proper mate.

My wolf growled at the implication that Kiara would not be a proper mate. I clarified to the wolf that she would be out second mate, not our first, and so her standing would not matter. My wolf smiled at this, she could be ours, but only if the other wolves that were brought back were better suited for Stephan. He needed a strong mate to fight against his pig-headedness. He had the potential to be a good strong alpha, but his ego easily got the better of him.

There was a light tap at my door. "Come in." I boomed. The door opened to reveal Lucy, the weak beta female from the winter moon pack. "What do you want?" I asked with a sigh.

"I have information alpha, information that you may find interesting."

"Oh yes, and what is that?"

"Nothing is free alpha." she said as she moved closer.

A growl rumbled up my chest. "If you want me to let you leave this office alive, you will tell me what you came here to say!"

"A-alpha." she stammered. "It is Kiara." she said, grabbing my attention. "She has no wish to stay here, she is planning on running away before you choose a mate for her."

"I would be surprised if she wasn't." Lucy gasped. "Please child, you think I would trust that a wolf like Kiara would just plan to sit around and wait to be declared as someone's mate for life. I never made her promise to stay, I just told her I would kill you and that other Evelyn wolf if she left." I smirked as Lucy paled." She will not get far. Even if she managed to flee my territory, she will be brought back. " I stood up and walked around my desk." If you want to please me there is something you can do. "

"Anything alpha." she said in a pathetic tone.

"Keep me apprised of Kiara's actions and I will see that you are mated to at least a warrior class wolf."

"But alpha…"

I grasped Lucy by the throat. "You mention the word beta and I will end you now."

"Y-yes alpha, I will do as you ask." she stammered and as I let go of her throat she ran from my office. The stupid she wolf thought she could blackmail me, bend me to her will. I bend to no one's will!

"Sir." my Beta Sebastian links me, he is currently scouting the packs we plan to take down. He has the gammas with him as they can move unseen much easier than other wolves.

"Yes Seb." I link back.

"The other betas have linked me, they are worried about the discourse caused by a wolf named Kiara."

I sigh. "Yes I am aware, that is why we have moved up the attack on the full moon pack to tomorrow."

"Yes alpha, just keeping you informed. We will make our way over there and do one last scout then before the warriors arrive tomorrow."

"Thank you Seb. I'll see you soon." and with that, the link went dead. I had to hope that the full moon pack provided a better calibre of she wolf than the winter moon pack.

~Kiara~

I woke up early, restless from what happened with Zad last night. I let my guard down, I would not be doing that again. I thought he was different to Stephan, but they were the same, all the wolves here were. They were monsters and I needed to get far away from here.

I was pleased to find three sets of training gear had been delivered to our room. I got up and checked if Evelyn and Lucy wanted to train with me, to my surprise, they both agreed. We got dressed and headed out of the pack house. To warm up we ran three laps of the territory, I was taking in the patrol schedule, the defences I could see, looking for gaps in their perimeter, for a way to escape. Satisfied that the best course of action would be to climb one of the trees near the border and jump to the other side, we got back to the clearing near the pack house and I instructed them each to select a tree and climb it repeatedly.

They looked ready to pass out or argue but did as I told them to. "How is this going to help them?" I heard a voice ask from the ground as I made my way swiftly to the canopy of the tree again.

I looked down to Ignatius who looked bemused by my actions. "Climbing improves strength, stamina, balance and resilience." I assured him before I kept to the ground landing in front of him. "Can I help you with something?"

He smiled. "I wondered if you were coming to the training ground today."

"Later, after I have finished with these two."

"We are not finished yet?" Lucy screeched as so leaned against her tree, sweating and panting.

"This is just the beginning." I smirked as I dashed up my tree again. "You need to ensure that you can climb the tree as quick as that, then you will be ready. We will move on for today though." I said from the top of the tree before again leaping to the floor. "I'll be by later." I say to Ignatius as I lead Lucy and Evelyn further into the clearing. We do a series of push ups and sit ups before I show them some basic moves. I could see how tires Lucy and Evelyn were but I pushed them more, taking turns trying to attack them so they could defend and then fending off their attacks, giving them pointers on moves and stance. Eventually they were too tired to continue so I told them they were done for the day. They went back inside and I headed to the training ground.

When I got there, no one was around. Remembering that I was told yesterday that most came after lunch, I started to practice moves that I remember from the instructor in my old pack. The thought of their deaths fuelling my rage. They did not treat me nicely but they were not bad people, they did not deserve to be slaughtered. I closed my eyes and got lost in the fluid motions that I took my body through. When a hand wrapped around my closed fist my eyes shot open to see Ignatius stood in front of me. "You came!"

"I said I would." I said clearly, looking around to see we were alone. "Where are the others?"

"Preparing for the raid tonight." I just nodded, feeling sick that another pack would suffer the same fate as mine had. "I can practice with you though." I gave him a brief nod and then we began. Ignatius was a good teacher, I could tell why Zad had chosen him as his beta. As much a Evelyn and Lucy needed to improve, I needed to improve too, to help protect them, to get us free of this place.

After showing me a few moves and letting me practice them with him we decided to have a sparring match, with my request that Ignatius not go easy on me. I needed to assess their true strength. Despite Ignatius's seemingly light attitude, he was a vicious fighter like the rest. I managed to dodge his first few blows but then they were less telegraphed, landing hard and causing me to grunt in pain. I landed a few bows too but they lacked enough power to make him even wince. I tried to push past the pain as I usually would when I would get injured, usually from miscalculation when climbing trees or pulling a muscle practicing, nothing like this. It was hard yesterday when I sparred with Jackson, this was unbearable.

He landed a hard kick to my leg, sending me to the ground and within seconds he was on top of me wrapping his massive hands around my throat. I tried to submit but my wolf was having none of it, she was smearing and snapping her Jaws, wanting to rip his head off. "Submit Kiara!" he shouted.

"I'm trying." I gasped, clawing at his hand. My vision started to blur as my hearing became muffled. "Stop." I commanded, and to my surprise, Ignatius did.

His hand loosened and I took in gulps of air, as Ignatius just stared down at me. "How did you do that?"

"What?" I coughed as I started to feel a bit more normal.

"You commanded my wolf!" he growled.

"I didn't… I mean, I didn't mean to." He looked angry, like he was ready to start strangling me again. "What's wrong Ignatius?"

He huffed as one of his hands gently stroked my sore swollen cheek. "Alpha will not pair a male wolf with a female who can command him. I will never be your mate." he leant down and rested his forehead on mine, looking deep into my eyes before placing a brief, gentile kiss on my lips. He then pushed off me and stormed out of the training ground.

I laid there confused for a minute, how could my wolf command a strong beta? Sometimes even weak alphas could not control betas. This made no sense. A sense of fear ran through me at this realization, if Ignatius told someone about this, I would be a more appealing match to the Alpha brothers. I jumped to my feet and ran off in search of Ignatius.