*Doe's Perspective*
He couldn't even look at me. I know he could hear my heart pounding. Embarrassed and stunned by our interaction and my own lack of control, I hurried to get dressed. I quickly shed the now too-warm pastel pink strawberry pajamas and yanked on a pair of black leggings (in which I fell over in the process), a form-fitting black thermal shirt, and a cream sherpa pullover for the crisp autumn air. I jammed my feet into those mud-caked, supposed-to-be-white converse, and ran out of my little basement room and out onto the porch.
His eyes panned over my bottom half, but I ignored it as I frantically looked around. "Where did they go?"
He cleared his throat and looked forward. "To the pack house." I nodded and started walking briskly. He quickly jerked into motion next to me, easily keeping up with my pace. We walked in silence the entire seven minutes it took to reach his home. I practically threw myself into the grand foyer and looked back at him annoyed it was taking this long. He got the memo, but not without shooting me a look that said "don't look at me like that". He led us down a hallway and opened the door for me to what looked like a study or office. My parents' worried faces snapped to me and immediately turned to relief then worry again. I ran to them, ignoring the guards standing across the room.
"I'm sorry," I started but my voice quivered too much to continue.
My mom's eyes welled up in a mirror of my own, "oh, Honey, it's okay. This isn't your fault."
Tears fell down as I looked at the dark rug and bit my lip hard to try to stop them.
All of a sudden, I was very aware of him. He stood tense behind me and I could practically feel the heat between us. Anger? Lust? Both?
"Well," he cleared his throat, "I was unable to find any more violations on your property. However, obviously, I did find her." I turned and glared at him for putting up such an act. He glared back. "Since she is not documented in our pack records, she was found illegally on your property. So, I'm going to have to confiscate her." My parents and I gasped. "She will live in the pack house until we decide what to do with a human," he practically spits out. The guards nodded.
"No, please," my mom begged, "it was a mistake to not tell the pack. We were just worried we weren't going to be able to keep her." My dad held her as she almost collapsed to the ground.
"Well, unfortunately, your actions have consequences." I looked at him with so much rage and disgust that I know that he felt it, even though he purposely would not look at me. "She will be safe, and you are not restricted from contact, but she will be staying here under our observance to ensure she doesn't conveniently disappear," he hissed out as if he truly expected them to take me away. My parents looked relieved that we would still be able to see each other and talk and that I had the alpha's son's word on my safety, but I wasn't so convinced.
"How long do you think this process will take?" my father asked.
"Hard to say. My dad's out for business for the next week. That's when it will start." My parents solemnly nodded. "I will let you say your goodbyes for today. When you are done Blake will escort you out." He turned on his heel and walked out, followed by Blake, who is apparently one of the guards.
When the door closed, our little family hugged. It was such a relief to be with them when I was so scared. My mom pulled back.
"We will come by every couple of days to see you, okay? You'll be okay. Plus we can always text and call. Let us know if you need anything; our sound will always be on." My dad nodded along with my mom's words.
I nodded and weakly replied, "okay." We had one more big hug before they slowly walked out. I saw Blake smile a bit at them and then lead them back down the hallway. The other guard was gone. At least Blake was nice... kind of. I stood in the office unsure of what to do.
Axle watched them walk down the hallway for a few seconds before turning to me. My face immediately morphed into disgust and anger looking at him. He growled at me. "Don't give me that look. What I said was true."
"Oh really? What part?" I spat out.
"The fact that I need to watch over you so they don't decide to run off, now that I know you exist," he spat out with a fire equal to my own. I huffed and rolled my eyes. He spanned the room in four steps, cornering me. "Do not have an attitude with me. This is for the best."
"Maybe for you." He growled, but I cut him off, "where am I staying?"
He glared at me for a second before taking a step back. "This way." He turned and walked out of the room, and I followed. He took me up the stairs to the second floor and down the east wing. As we walked down the hallway, it started to seem a little familiar.
"Where is your room?" He looked back at me with a smirk on his face. I glared at him to let him know I definitely wasn't curious for that reason. He rolled his eyes and pointed to the nearest door on the left. "This is your room," he said pointing to the room directly across from his.
I couldn't help the humorless laugh that left me. "Is there no other guest room?"
He narrowed his eyes at me. "There is. But this is yours." He opened the door for me and gave me a little push inside. I almost tripped, and consequentially turned back to shoot daggers at him. He chuckled then turned and walked off.
That's it?! What am I supposed to do? Just sit around for a week?
I huffed and looked around at the nice room. It felt like a hotel; designed to be tasteful to the masses, but had no hint of it being apart of a home. Not very interested in staying in my temporary room, I walked out into the hallway. Axle was gone, so I decided to wander.
I went further down into the hallway, peeking into the rooms (even though it's rude). They were all guest rooms, except for a couple of bathrooms. Eventually, I got to the last room on the left, and it was, unfortunately, occupied by Axle's brother, Cade.
"What the hell?!" He shouted at the door opening. "Who are you?" he asked, taking off one of the ears of his headset with the hand not holding his game controller. His tone switched so fast I almost got whiplash.
"Uh... no one. Sorry!" I quickly closed the door despite the "wait!" coming from the other side. I dashed down the hall at a record-breaking speed and tried to hurry down the stairs. I knew his hearing could easily track where I was, so he just probably didn't think it was worth while to chase after me.
I was huffing and puffing and full of adrenaline when a very familiar voice came out of nowhere. "What the hell are you doing?" I spun around to see Axle lifting himself off of the dark leather couch with darkened eyes. I took a step back, panic-ridden.
"I-uh... Well, I..." I gulped. He grabbed me by the arm and walked us upstairs at a hurried pace. I struggled to keep up, so he just yanked me along. We went to that first door on the left and he threw the door open and then threw me in after it, slamming it behind us.
"What the hell is wrong with you?! You can't be wandering around the house. No one knows you exist!" he lectured. I kept my gaze on the floor of his bedroom. "Did anyone see you?"
"Uh..." I looked around the room as if everything was so interesting.
"Uh?!" He mocked me.
"Your brother."
"Oh my God. Why are you messing everything up?!" He turned away from me, running his hands through his hair, slightly tugging.
I burned holes into the back of his head with a narrowed gaze. "You didn't say anything! You just left me there! After you took me away from my family!"
He spun around with a gaze that matched my own. "I didn't take you away from them. You're only staying here until we get this settled," he spoke menacingly.
"Get what settled?!" I threw my arms up in exasperation.
"You being my-" he answered with a raised voice, before his eyes widened a bit and he stalked closer quickly. He began again with a hushed tone, "you being my mate." He looked disgusted even saying the word.
Hurt panged deep in my chest, but I just pretended it was indigestion and pushed it down. "There's nothing to figure out! Reject me or whatever if it's such a big deal!" I didn't respect him enough to match his quieted voice.
I think I saw hurt flash in his eyes before he whisper-yelled, "I'm not going to reject you!"
"Then why am I a secret?!"
"I don't know! Look I-I don't know, okay?!" He turned around and tugged on his hair again, huffing. He turned to face me again, arms waving defensively. "I don't know what to do in this situation! I'm supposed to have a strong alpha female as a mate! That's how it works. This is not right."
"Oh, but you're not going to reject me?" I asked sarcastically, rolling my eyes. "Here's an idea: leave me alone and I'll disappear and you can find whatever girl you want. Problem solved." I stormed off past him. Well, tried to. I barely checked shoulders with him before I was walked backwards quickly by a tight grip around my neck. My eyes were wide while I clawed at his hand and shuffled on my tippy toes, making eye contact with his shadowed glare. He threw me onto the bed with a scowl on display.
"First of all, what did I say about talking to me like that?" His voice was low and slow, but his eyes held fury. "Second of all, you're not leaving. Whether I like it or not, you are my mate. We're just going to have to figure it out." I was taken aback slightly by his usage of 'we'; like we were a team. I didn't have much time to ponder on the word though. He grabbed my legs and quickly flipped me over. I tried to get up, but was immediately pinned down by my head being pushed into the sheets. I felt his body lean down over me, pressing his front onto me. He whispered, lips so close to my ears I could feel the air brush my skin, "but back to issue number one. You're going to learn your place."
Before I could ask what that even meant, a strong slap made contact with my bottom end, and a sharp gasp left me. I felt heat rush to my cheeks (on my face) and as soon as I opened my mouth to scold him, another slap resonated in the air. It was strong enough to be a sharp pain, but light enough that it died after a few seconds. My mouth seemed as though it was going to permanently remain agape as he grabbed my legs and flipped me back to me beginning position. He grabbed my arm to bring me up to sitting and continued until I was standing and walking out the door. He then gently threw me back into my room across the hall.
"This time, stay here. I'll come get you if you're needed." His eyes were hooded with lust and his voice was deep and husky. I couldn't find anything within me to overcome my shock and say something, so he walked out and locked the door from the inside. Half out the doorway, he turned back to me. "This stays locked unless it's me. Understood?" I simply nodded. Satisfied, he closed the door, and I could hear his footsteps echo back down the hallway.