The Mate's Curse

Chapter 5

(Cassie’s POV)

We were given two days to get our affairs in order before someone would arrive to pick us up to take us to our new home. My mum and dad spent the majority of the time in hushed talks with Thomas, Helen and Layla. I would walk into a room and they would all stop talking and either smile at me or avoid looking at me altogether. 

I just felt like crying, everything in my life was changing. Pack life was so different from human life. I remembered bits from my early childhood and from the occasional visits to other packs. I knew that the majority of the pack lived in a central dwelling and it was the mated families that lived in the surrounding houses. All of this was on private territory which was heavily guarded by pack warriors. 

I didn’t know much about the Black Stone pack despite it being the official royal pack for Europe but I did know that it was also one of the largest packs so I expected the territory to be pretty sizable. But that didn’t stop the feeling of claustrophobia that kept creeping up. I hadn’t even arrived yet and I already felt trapped. 

As an Omega we were forbidden from leaving the pack territory without express permission. No more trips to the beach, no more shopping trips to London, no more business events or client weekends. Hell, no more clients or business. That last part made me the most angry. Omegas were only allowed low-level service jobs in the pack. They acted as the cleaners, cooks and janitors of the pack, and were certainly not allowed to run a business. 

I had spent the last three years building up my design business only to have it all be taken away in an instant. My dad had signed over his share of the construction business he ran to Thomas. He’d also signed the deeds to the house to Layla so she could gain some money from renting it out or something. I had been forced to contact my clients and tell them I was no longer available and r****d thousands of pounds back to them. I hated it. 

I even considered running, just getting in my car and driving away, anywhere. The last night before we were to be collected, Thomas had set a bonfire in his back garden, and everyone had come to say goodbye. There were lots of tears and hugging, and more tears. 

Everyone was chatting away amongst themselves and I excused myself to the bathroom. While no one was looking I slipped out of the house and ran down home. I grabbed my car keys from the hook and marched out the door, silently apologising to Noah, who I had said could have my car. 

I opened the door and was about to climb in when I heard a cough. I turned around and standing under the streetlight was Beta Declan. “Going somewhere?” he asked with a smirk. Crap! I looked down at my hands trying to think of something to say that would sound feasible. I heard him chuckle and I looked up, immediately pissed off. 

“What, is this funny to you?” I snapped, slamming my car door shut and storming into the house. He followed me in and stood silently as I stormed round the kitchen grabbing a glass and then filling it with water from the tap before taking a long drink. I kept my back to him, knowing he was watching me. 

“You have quite a temper, don’t you?” he finally said. I spun round ready to give him a piece of my temper, only to find him gone. I looked around the kitchen, confused, then walked further in so I could look round into the hallway. I was just about to give up when I saw a sudden movement seconds before I was slammed face-first into the wall. Pain ran through my head as my arm was yanked up behind my back and I yelped. I struggled to get free but a menacing growl sounded in my ear, stopping me instantly. 

“Do you know what happens to an unmated female rogue?” he hissed into my ear. I didn’t respond so he pulled my arm higher, sending a fresh wave of pain through my body. “Answer me Omega,” he commanded in his beta voice. I whimpered at the powerful voice and nodded my head. I knew full well, I had heard the stories of females being taken to be sold to the highest bidder. A werewolf can stand a lot of damage, way more than a human and there were sick f***s out there who got off on that s**t. The unmated females were considered not just valuable for selling but for being used by the rogues. 

I remembered one instance where my dad, Alpha James and Thomas had heard of a werewolf being held captive and abused by a group of rogues not far from here. They had called in reinforcements from a local pack to save the girl. She had been brought to the Alpha’s home when they saved her, and I could still see the broken look in her eyes after what had happened. There was a law that any rogue found on pack territory could be killed instantly after there had been a few cases of unmated females being targeted from the packs. 

The beta released my arm and stepped back, still watching me. I turned to face him, shaken up and trying to hold back the tears that threatened to fall. “Then why would you do something as stupid as try to leave?” he asked softly. I just stood there and looked at him, really taking him in for the first time. He was certainly attractive, for an older guy, his blond hair was cut short to his head and he was broad shouldered. I didn’t need to see under the black t-shirt he was wearing to know that there was a six or eight pack hiding under there. There were tattoos that looked Nordic snaking down his muscular arms. His bright blue eyes watched me intently as I studied him. 

After a few silent moments I dropped my head and whispered, “I don’t want to go.” He sighed, making me look up at him again. 

He went to sit at the table and pulled a chair out as he sat in another one, which I assumed meant that I was meant to follow. I went and sat down in the chair while he watched me, and again we sat there in silence for a bit before he finally broke it.

“You have strength, and raw talent, and with that temper too,” he chuckled. “I’d bet you’d be a good fighter with the proper training.” 

I knew my eyes lit up at this, I trained with my dad but I knew that he held back. “Really?” I asked. 

He chuckled again and I smiled at the warmth in his eyes. “You see there are benefits to pack life,” he winked. My smile dropped slightly and he picked up on it straight away. “What’s so bad about us?” he asked. “If anything you will be safer there.” 

I shrugged my shoulders. “Will I?” I muttered, tears forming again. “I wasn’t the last time.” 

He looked down at his hands and then back to me, a fierce look crossed his face. “What happened to your pack back then was devastating.” He shook his head. “I remember when we got there and what I saw still haunts me.”

“What?” I stared at him in shock. “You were there?”

He nodded. “We were alerted to the attack, but we were too late.” He looked back down at his hands again, “By the time we got there, it was all over.” 

He stood up and walked to the window and looked out onto the forest behind the house. 

“Seeing all the c*****e was bad enough, but the one thing that sticks out was seeing that tiny little girl clinging to her mother with the look of terror in her eyes.” Tears were now streaming down my face, I knew it was me he was talking about but I didn’t remember what he was describing. He turned and looked at me, determination clear on his face. “I swear to you Cassie,” he said, kneeling in front of me. “That I will do everything in my power to ensure that I never see that look on your face ever again.” He took my hand. “And I vow as your Beta that I will find the vermin responsible and personally rip out their throats.” 

I held my breath stunned at his declaration, a vow such as this was never taken lightly and was normally reserved for a loved one or an Alpha. “I- I don’t...” I stuttered. “I mean, why do you care so much about an Omega?” 

He sighed and stood up. “I don’t know, kid,” he said, running his hand over his head. “Maybe because of what I saw, or maybe because I have this strong urge to protect you.” He sighed again. “I feel like there is a connection, such a strength waiting under the surface, you know.” 

I didn’t know what to say to that other than, “I’m not a kid.” I said it defiantly and he stared at me for a second before bursting into a joyful laugh that seemed to ease the tension of what had just happened. 

I glared at him until he stopped. “I love your fiery spirit,” he said as he turned to walk away, chuckling to himself.

“Beta Declan?” 

He stopped without turning around. 

“Why were you here tonight?” 

This time he turned his head. “I never left. Alpha’s orders, love, he told me to keep watch on you.”

“Me!” I exclaimed. “What? Why?”

“I don’t question the orders, just follow them.” Then he grinned. “Maybe he thought you’d be a flight risk. I don’t know where he would get a crazy idea like that from, eh?” He winked and started walking out the door. See you tomorrow”, he said, the humour in his voice clear. “Kid.”

I rolled my eyes. “d**k,” I muttered to myself and I heard him laugh again, and the infectiousness of it left me smiling.

Maybe, just maybe, life in the new pack wouldn’t be so bad.