Mate Hater

Chapter Eleven

I felt a hand on my shoulder, I removed my gaze from my mate's face and looked up to meet the soft gaze of Rosemarie. "Child," she greeted me. I rose from my position and stood tall in front of her, then hugged her in response of my overwhelmed emotions. "Don't worry, we're going to figure this out."

My arms moved to my side, I looked at Rosemarie's expression. "You know how to fix this?" I answered hopefully.

"The other elders and I have been discussing the situation." She answered.

"And?"

Rosemarie started exiting the room. "Come with me, child. We have much to discuss." I followed her retreating form down the long white hallway. Instead of heading into the waiting room like I had thought we would. Instead we ended up in what looked to be a conference room. Around the large circular table sat 8 elders. They looked up once Rosemarie and I stepped into the room.

One of the women with long silver hair spoke. "Is this him?" Her voice held authority, something I wasn't expecting. These women didn't have the same tense stance the ones in the waiting room did. They knew the difference between myself and the ones that wronged them, and they didn't hold that against me. This revelation made me feel more welcomed in their presence.

"It is," Rosemarie confirmed. We made our way to the last two seats and sat down at the table.

Once we were seated, the room fell quiet. Not even the sounds of their breathing disturbed the air. My eyes were fixated on the table in front of me, I tilted my head up to see what was going on. The silent room made me feel uncomfortable. I wanted to talk about what we were going to do about Nina. This silence only wound up my nerves more.

When I finally lifted my head, I was met by 9 pairs of eyes. All of them deep bore into my soul. I froze, I didn't know how to react in this situation. I wanted to shrink into my seat, but I was an Alpha, and I didn't show weakness. I wasn't about to start now. Instead of cowering back, I sat up straighter, and lifted one of my eyebrows in a questioning manner. "Aren't we going to discuss how we're going to reunite Nina with her wolf?"

After my words cut through the air, another moment of silence fell into the room.

"We will, child." Rosemarie said from her spot next to me.

I let out a frustrated sigh. "Rose, we don't have time for silence. We need to start talking about what we're going to do." I each word carefully, the rage that was building up inside me, was not detected by the women around the table. In this pack I knew I was outnumbered, and I didn't want to cause any trouble.

She put her wrinkled hand over my own hand that was rested on the top of the table. "We need you to keep an open mind about what we are about to say."

"Done. Now what is it?" I told them meeting each of their eyes.

The one who spoke to Rosemarie when we had first entered the room spoke. "We have a few theories on how to reunite Alpha with her wolf. But most of them take time, which we do not have." I nodded, signaling her to continue. "The best way to encourage Lyra back to Nina would be to show her that Nina has accepted you as her mate since she initially left after Nina was persistent on not having one."

"How am I supposed to get her to accept me as her mate when she is laying in a bed unconscious?"

"Therein lies the problem." The woman answered back.

"I'm not sure what you're trying to get at right now. So far all you've told me was the only way to get her wolf back was for her to accept me as her mate. Nina is lying 30 feet away, unconscious in a bed. How can she possibly accept me as her mate?"