Saving the Alpha's Dream Mate

Eyes of the Goddess

I sat in silence for a long time after the initial screaming had subsided, and the Pack members began to buzz around me as they tried to find out what had happened to Lady Katelyn.

I watched them react to the situation, but they remained oblivious to my presence and it offered me a unique insight into what the members of this Pack were really like.

Alpha Lincoln always called the Hightail Pack weak, and he considered Alpha Walker pathetic.

Now that I was in their midst it was clear that he was wrong about them. They weren't weak, or pathetic, or any of the other things he had called them.

They were working together to find out what had happened, and nobody was mocked for their reaction to the tragedy.

Alpha Lincoln wouldn't have cared about losing a mate - it would have wounded his pride, but he wouldn't have grieved the way Alpha Walker was.

He didn't leave her side, and he didn't try to hide the fact he was devastated at losing her; that was what Alpha Lincoln considered pathetic, but I saw it as a sign of strength. He wasn't afraid that the members of his Pack would lose respect for him if they saw that he was hurt, and my heart ached for him.

There was no way I could have saved her, but I felt responsible for her death somehow and I wanted more than anything to comfort Alpha Walker and tell him I was sorry that I hadn't been able to warn him that she was in danger.

I knew that my Pack were responsible, but he might never know that, and Alpha Lincoln would never have to answer to anybody for what he had done.

I couldn't bring myself to leave Alpha Walker alone with Lady Katelyn. It felt wrong, and I had nowhere else to go; I was stuck here, and I hoped that my presence might be comforting to him, even if he wasn't aware of me.

He didn't want anybody to move her, and after several attempts to persuade him from various Pack members, he shut the door and sat with his back against it so they wouldn't disturb him.

He sat with his knees to his chest and he buried his face in his hands as he cried - he was shaking with the effort it was taking for him to hold himself together, and I knew that I had to find a way to help him somehow.

I called his name, tried to push a cup from the table, and reached out to touch him, but nothing worked and I was exhausted and dismayed when I sat down beside him and accepted I had no way of easing his pain.

"I'm sorry," I whispered beside him. He didn't hear me, but I needed to say it. "I wish I could have stopped this."

He closed his eyes, and it seemed as if he was trying to steady himself as he drew heavy breaths and wiped the tears from his cheeks with a trembling hand.

When he stood up his expression was blank; he was still devastated, but he was pushing the feelings back and he straightened himself up in a mirror and strode to the door.

His confidence evaporated as he touched the handle, but he shook his head, took a deep breath, and opened the door.

He had been vulnerable and grief stricken in this room, but he was the Alpha of a Pack who were afraid of what might happen to them if their Alpha's new mate could be murdered with no sign of who was responsible.

"Alpha..." he had barely taken a step outside of the room before he was approached by the man I thought was his Beta.

"What is it, Markus?"

"You can't..." the tall blonde man with faint lines at the corner of his eyes glanced into the room behind Alpha Walker, "...she shouldn't..." he cleared his throat and stood up a little taller, "we cannot leave Lady Katelyn there, Alpha."

Alpha Walker closed his eyes, dug his nails into the palm of his hand, then looked at Beta Markus.

"I know. I can't give that order; please don't ask it of me. I will be spending the night in the room down the hall."

Beta Markus stepped closer to Alpha Walker and laid a hand on his shoulder; he was trying to comfort his Alpha, and I felt my chest tighten again as I watched the moment of intimate companionship.

"I am sorry, Alpha."

Alpha Walker hung his head, but he muttered a thanks before regaining his composure again and walking away from the room that was supposed to be shared by him and Lady Katelyn.

I followed him to the bedroom at the end of the hall.

There was no reason for me to follow him, but I didn't know what else to do and I still thought I might find a way to communicate with him if I could just try a little harder to get his attention.

He closed the door behind him, and bolted it closed before he slumped down on the large bed at the end of the luxurious room.

I sat in silence beside him as I watched him try to organise his thoughts. He didn't cry this time, and I thought he may have started to consider how this had happened and who might be behind it.

He stared up at the ceiling above us for a long time, then sat up rather suddenly before pacing over to a desk positioned beneath a large window.

He pulled the crimson velvet drapes closed, then sat down at the table and retrieved a paper and pen from a drawer in the desk, then stared at the blank sheet of paper without writing a word.

Eventually, he held the pen close to the paper with a shaky hand; I couldn't take my eyes off him and I waited anxiously to see what he was going to write.

He kept moving the pen away, and it seemed like ge was unwilling to commit his thoughts to paper.

My heart raced when he set the pen down and left it on the table beside the paper - I couldn't speak to him and it had been impossible for me to do anything else to make my presence known, but this felt like fate, and I was determined to find a way to leave him a message.

I decided to wait until he was asleep, and spent the next few hours thinking about how I would try to pick up the pen, and what I could possibly write.

The door was bolted closed, but he might think someone had left the note as a threat if I said the wrong thing, and that was the last thing I wanted.

Everything I thought of felt ridiculous - the situation I was in was unbelievable and he was never going to believe whatever message I might leave.

I was still going to try. Even if I lifted the pen without writing a word I would have achieved something, and that was the important thing right now.

By the time he lay down on the bed again it was late into the night and it seemed like he was only giving in to exhaustion.

I stood beside the bed waiting patiently for him to fall asleep so I could get to work and try to achieve the seemingly impossible task of picking up a pen, but as his eyes drifted closed I began to feel dizzy and weak and as I looked down at my body I saw myself fading away.

I was afraid - I was certain that I was dead, but I hadn't considered whether I would be trapped in this afterlife for an eternity or if this existence was only going to be fleeting.

As my body faded and I felt myself slipping away I closed my eyes and prayed to the Goddess I wouldn't wake up in that silver cell at the mercy of Alpha Lincoln.

There was a moment I thought was the end; a feeling of serene emptiness overcame me and I felt truly calm for the first time in my life, but the feeling didn't last and a second later I drew a sharp, gasping breath as my eyes snapped open again.

I wasn't in the room anymore, and my heart sank when I thought that this might be my new reality - a fleeting glimpse at worlds I could never be a part of before I was dragged away to somewhere new with no hope of connecting with anybody.

At least this place was pleasant, and it felt different to the Hightail Packhouse.

I looked around, trying to figure out where I was, and took a tentative step on the stone pathway that wound its way through a forest of beautiful lush green trees.

There was a light fog but the air was still and the temperature here was balmy and warm; when I looked up I saw a bright white full moon surrounded by glittering stars high in the sapphire blue sky.

It was strange - it wasn't as dark as it should have been when the sky was that shade and the stars were visible, and the more I observed I realized there was something odd about this place.

This wasn't a place that existed in reality, but it felt as if I was a part of it, and that it was a place that I was meant to be.

I crouched down to run my hands over the jade green grass on either side of the pathway before it reached the forest, and I was filled with a mixture of excitement and relief when I felt it brush against my fingertips.

I smiled, then looked down at myself and ran my hands over the fabric of my dress.

It was a soft pink silk and I had never felt anything so opulent in my life.

I couldn't see what I was wearing completely, but the dress was flowing and it reached the floor, pooling around my feet at the front. There was a long train at the back of the dress, and I thought it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, even though I probably looked ridiculous.

The gown had no sleeves, but there were strands of creamy white pearls draped at the shoulders, and I wanted more than anything to see what I looked like in this extraordinary dress from another realm.

I paced along the pathway until I reached the edge of the forest, and felt myself drawn to continue along the path.

I didn't know what was in the forest, or whether I would ever leave it, but I knew this was where I was supposed to go and I let my intuition guide me further along the path until I finally reached a clearing surrounded by a ring of large, majestic trees.

I gazed up at the sky above me as I stepped into the clearing, and I felt like I was looking into the eyes of the Goddess as I focussed on the impossibly bright stars.

"It's so perfect..." I whispered as I walked further into the clearing, finally tearing my eyes away from the hypnotically twinkling stars.

My heart froze in my chest when I saw what was on the other side of the clearing, and I nearly turned and ran away.

It was Alpha Walker, and this time his eyes were fixed firmly on me.