Hideout

T H I R T E E N

A/N: Possibly the last update before my finals week(s) start. My classes are starting their "finals week" on different weeks. WTF, college?! Anyways, hope you enjoy! 

C H A P T E R 

T H I R T E E N

L E O

I flung the phone across the room, watching it shatter it to pieces in satisfaction. Brett watched with bored eyes, having seen it plenty of times before. With the amount of times I've broken my cell phone, he keeps a backup drawer full of them. We most likely keep the local phone store in business alone. "What is it this time, Leotard?"

"He wants her back," I hissed, too floored to notice he used that damned nickname. "The selfish prick is just like his father. He ignored her his whole life, and only wants her because I have her, because I want her. He isn't even going to reject his Chosen Mate if I were to send her back."

"Leo-"

"He would just lock her back up, because who would follow an Alpha that rejected his own mate, let her be ridiculed and hidden away her whole life? He's a coward!" I snapped, punching my desk as hard as I could, the wood splintering loudly.

Brett leaned back on the couch in my office, yawning. "Well, are you going to just let him take her from you?"

"Over my dead body," I growled. "She's mine."

This amused Brett, even caused him to adopt a wicked grin. "That's what I thought."

"She isn't even my mate and she drives me insane. I'm so... possessive of her, and I can't help it." I ran my fingers through my hair restlessly. "I have to have her. I have to save her and give her the life Julia didn't get."

Brett shrugged, yawning again. "I don't know, man. She's a lot like your mate. Maybe you're just afraid of losing that again. Plus, I can't imagine it's easy to be around someone as stubborn and moody as you."

"I'm not moody."

"Sure, yeah. Whatever, buddy."

I sighed deeply, rubbing my face, the beautiful and sad girl haunting me behind my closed lids. "I've met her before, you know," I told Brett, who sat forward, suddenly interested in the conversation. "Several years ago. It was a mating ceremony celebration thing, and an old friend of mine was celebrated his mating, so I went. It was the first one that they told her not to go to, the first time they locked her inside that bedroom to hide her from everyone. It was the beginning of the night, and I assume her alpha and parents had just told her that she couldn't go, because she ran right into me, with tears running down her face."

"Did you recognize her later? At the dinner?" Brett asked curiously.

"No. I didn't see her birthmarks that night. It wasn't until she explained to me what her pack did to her did I realize. She was such a tiny thing, back when I first saw her. Adelaide wasn't the hard shell she is now. They forced her to become hardened, or else she wouldn't have survived their treatment of her. How could she so easily trust me when her original Alpha and her own family treated her like the scum of the earth?"

"You have to change all that. Make her believe that you aren't like them and that you're good for her. You need to convince her of that."