My Exotic Mate

The Return of Apollo

Marise

Flashback… Nine years ago

My sisters and I were in one of our rooms as our parents met with someone in their study. They always kept us separated saying that we don’t need to worry about adult things. I always wondered what they were talking about. While my sisters ran around the room playing, my ear planted against the door trying to hear what they were saying. Miren and Mesai’s’ laugh overpowered, making it hard to hear.

“Mari! Come here,” Mesai waved her hand.

“Shhhh,” I waved them off as I tried to listen as hard as I could. I still couldn’t hear anything.

“You do this all the time.” Miren huffed with annoyance.

Mesai rolled her eyes. “Just forget it, Mir. She’s trying to listen to them again.”

I looked over at them as they went into their own world. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to join them. Of course I did, but I couldn’t help but wonder who my parents were talking to. I can hear my sisters giggling about their future husbands.

“I want my husband to be a strong man like daddy,” Mesai blushed.

“Well, I want a husband that will love me unconditionally. I want him to shower me with gifts and promise me the world. What kind of husband do you want, Mari?”

“Shhhh,” I hushed them again.

“Mari? A husband?” Mesai laughed. I glared at her as she continued to tease me. “Mari is not wifey material, she’s not obedient enough.”

Obedient enough? Why the hell would I be obedient?

“You’re right. I don’t want a husband. I don’t need a man to defend my honor. I don’t need a man who would buy me gifts as a way to keep me silent while he sneaks around with his mistresses and I definitely don’t need a man who doesn’t see me as his equal.” After saying my peace, our mom entered the room, telling us that we can come meet their friends.

We followed her all the way to the family room where my dad sat with a man and his son. When we entered they smiled. I knew right then that our life was about to change.

“Ahhhh, my beautiful girls,” my dad waved his hand over. We all walked shyly over to our father.

“This is my friend, Ruben and his son, Apollo.” Both of them smiled and Apollo had his eyes on me.

“Ruben, these are my girls, Miren, Mesai, and Marise.”

We exchanged greetings and I tuned out the rest of the conversation. Apollo was staring intently at me. It was uncomfortable.

“Father, I want her to be my wife.”

My eyes quickly darted to my father, but he didn’t say anything.

“Are you sure son,” Ruben asked.

“Very,” he smiled.

“Okay so the boy has spoken.”

I gave my dad a pleading look. “Dad? What’s going on?”

“Marise,” he cupped my cheek. “In our for our families to join as one, you and Apollo are set to get married in 6 months.” I shook my head as I looked at Apollo. I was too young. How can my father be okay with this? He basically just gave my hand away. Apollo had to be at least 22 years old compared to me being only a month shy of my eighteenth birthday.

“But father! I can’t marry him!”

“Are you rejecting me?” Apollo gave me a disgusting look.

“Yes I am. I will not accept this marriage! Dad say something!” But he didn’t. He could barely look at me. “Mom!” I looked at her. She look at my dad but he just shook his head. “I’m sorry dear, but your father has spoken.” No, this isn’t happening.

“I don’t want to get married . Even if I did, I definitely don’t want to it to be him.”

“You are a spitfire, but that’s definitely going to change once we’re married. You will be the most obedient wife, I promise you that,” he threatened.

“Now let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” my dad finally chimed in. “I get that we have a deal but I will not let you threaten nor hurt my daughter in any way. Especially in front of me.”

Apollo smirked. “My apologies, sir. Where I grew up, women were known to be obedient.”

“I’m sure they were, young man, but my daughter is a goddess and will be treated as such.” Ruben didn’t say a word but glared at me. I knew I would not be able to go through with this so I needed to figure out how to get out of this.

Present….

“Marise! We need help!” Miren yelled. Kai and Rafael dragged Malik's b****y body inside.

“We need to heal him, he was hit by an arrow.”

“You know we can’t do it without hurting ourselves!” I argued. She frowned.

“Are you serious! We owe it to them. They took us in and didn’t have to. Marise, come on! You can’t let him die.”

“Okay, okay.” I wasn’t trying to be selfish, of course I don’t want Malik to die. We both knelt by him and placed our hands over his wound. The glow of light formed and the wave of pain surged through our bodies. My eyes began to water. I can feel myself becoming weak as I begin to lose strength. My hands began to tremble and I can feel my eyes rolling to the back of my head. I wasn’t able to feel my knees. My body became its own form of anesthesia as I succumbed to the darkness that consumed my vision.

When I woke up, it was so dark. I was still too weak to move but I did it anyway. I needed to check on my sister and Malik. I tried to get out of bed and jumped at the sound of a voice. His voice.

“I see you’re feeling better.” Even though I couldn’t see him, I could easily recognize Kai’s voice. From the way these sheets felt against my skin, I knew I wasn’t in my room.

“Where am I?”

“In my room,” he answered smoothly.

“Where is Miren?” I asked. I needed to make sure she’s okay.

“Your sister is safe. She woke up hours ago, she’s looking over Malik with Rafael.”

“I need to go see her.”

“You will, but I have some questions for you,” he turned on the lights which caused me to squint my eyes. I rapidly fluttered my eyes until I was able to adjust them to the light. Kai strolled closer to me. My heart beat picked a little quicker than normal, not because he scared me, I wasn’t scared. The better word for it was curious or intrigued. Since we met, he has shown a few sides of himself, his teasing side, caring side, and his wolf side. My mind only wondered at what side I would see now. From the expression on his face, I couldn’t tell if he was angry or not. His tone was calm, but I could hint at the tension in it.

He pulled something out of his pocket and held it up to my face. My mouth dropped open and I’m sure all of the color drained from my face.

“Now, we were just attacked by guys with some arrows. We managed to kill a few of them and I found this in one guy’s hand. Who is it that’s coming after you and your sisters?”

I couldn’t answer it because I knew exactly who it was. How did he manage to track me? Were we being followed the entire time?

“Marise, my brother almost died because of you,” his tone became deadly. His eyes darkened as his brows drew together. “So I suggest you answer my question.”

“I-I, I don’t know,” I lied. I tried to keep my expression cool. We needed to get out here. I don’t need to cause anyone more pain. Miren and I can find Mesai on our own.

“You’re lying,” he sneered.

“No, I’m-“

“You are! I don’t like being lied to. You better start talking or you will be missing two sisters, instead of one.”

I tried to swallow the anger that was growing inside of me. I knew Kai was upset, but to say something about my sister, he hit below the belt. That seed of rage grew within my body and came out as hot as a wildfire. With my hands, I pushed his body against the wall. I looked into his eyes as I held him hostage against the wall. I knew he was about to shift. His eyes changed colors turning darker than they normally were.

“Don’t you ever in your f*****g life threaten my sister,” I spat. I expected him to turn into his wolf form, but he didn’t. It was like he was telling the wolf within not to come out. But unexpectedly, he flipped out positions and now he has me trapped against the wall. My arms are stuck above my head and no matter how much I tried to pull away, he was definitely a lot stronger than I expected.

“Marise, Marise, Marise. You are going to tell me the truth. I don’t want to hurt you. I know you’re not the enemy so don’t try to become one.”

I scoffed, “Right says the man who has me trapped against the wall.”

“You gave me no choice, although I would rather have you in this position under different circumstances. But you don’t seem to be the obedient type. You have disobeyed your alpha.” I hate that word. Obedient.

“You are not my alpha and even if you were, I will never be obedient to you or any other man.”

“Is that so?” He trailed a finger down the side of my breast. I can feel my anger simmering down as it was being replaced with some other feeling. I started to feel hot.

“Very much so. I’m not some mat that you can just walk all over. I’m a f*****g Goddess.” His eyes were still dark but I could see the glint of tease hidden in them.

“Yes you are. You are a Goddess that’s trapped in the Alpha’s room with nowhere to escape.”

I smirked, “Who said we were still in your room?”

Even though he held my wrist, I was still able to manipulate his environment. His eyes bulged as he saw that we were now standing in the forest against the tree. He quickly released my wrists as he changed back to his complete human form.

“What the hell? How did you do that?”

“Don’t worry about it,” I answered.

“Marise..,”

“Kai..,” I mocked him. “Listen, I'm sorry about your brother. I never wanted to cause you or your pack any pain. I just didn’t think he would find me, especially not here.”

“Who are you talking about?” He frowned.

“You guys weren’t attacked because of me and my sisters, it was just because of me.”

“So you do know who it was?”

“I believe so. I lied because I didn’t want to get you deeply involved. I don’t know why the sources led me to you, but my past shouldn’t have followed.”

“Marise, I want to help you, but you need to tell me who is after you.” He can’t help me. No one can. The last time someone helped me, they ended up going away. I can’t let that happen to Kai or any members of his pack. I may have selfish tendencies and that is something I need to work in before it causes more pain than pleasure in life. But Malik almost dying, honestly scared me. So even if I didn’t want to tell Kai the truth. He deserved to know.

“The person that is after me is my ex fiancé, Apollo.”