The next morning, the physical pain was gone. All that was left were a few still healing scars and faint bruises. Another day, and there would be zero evidence of what happened to me left on my body. I sigh. Swinging my feet over the side of the bed, I slowly push myself up off the bed, staggering a bit on my weak legs before finally steadying myself. Theo's warm scent envelops me as his t-shirt drapes down my body. It brings a small smile to my face, making me feel a little bit cared for.
Suddenly the door creaks open, causing me to tense in worry before I see my only friend step inside. He smiles warmly at me before quickly coming to my side with a look of worry.
"I'm fine, Theo. It's okay." I laugh.
"You are far from okay, Skylar." He scoffs, looking over my body slowly. "I'll help you to your room so you can shower and get changed."
"You mean Colton's room," I reply angrily.
He lets out a slow breath before nodding his head.
"I'm sorry, it's not your fault," I say to him, placing my hand on his cheek. I link my arm around his and lead him out of the room to my room. We pass other wolves who whisper to one another, probably gossiping about me and the state that I am in. I just glare back at them. I really don't give a fuck what they think anymore.
"How are you feeling today?" Theo asks.
"I'm fine. I don't feel any pain anymore. I am a little weak though." I answer him.
"That's to be expected. You should be back to normal tomorrow." He says as we reach Colton's room. "If you need anything, just mind-link me. I will be here in a heartbeat."
I smile at him before pulling him into a hug. "Thank you for everything, Theo," I whisper in his ear. He pulls away smiling, before heading off back to his office.
I take a deep breath in before opening the door. Luckily the room is empty. I grab some clothes and head into the bathroom to have a quick shower and make myself look half decent.
***
Twenty minutes later, I am cleaned up. I step out of the room, only to see Beta Larson sitting on Colton's bed. I freeze.
"What are you doing here?" I stammer out, even though I was trying to sound confident in myself.
He wipes his face with his hand before standing up and walking over to me. "Alpha sent me up to get you for breakfast. He would like you to eat with him today."
"Oh." I go to turn to the door when he gently grabs his arm and turns me towards him again.
"What he did, what they did - I'm sorry, Luna." He says with sincerity in his voice. Sorrow is evident in his eyes. "I wish my words could do more for you, I should have stopped them." He looks down.
"There is nothing you could have done, Beta. You don't need to be sorry." I respond emotionless.
"But I do, I think I gave him the idea. At the ceremony, I said-" He starts, stopping to let out a groan of frustration. "I said that he would share you with our men."
I step back. "Even so, I am sure he would have done it anyway."
He shakes his head and looks at me for a moment. He opens his mouth to say something before changing his mind and coughing instead.
"Is there is anything else you need, Beta?" I ask.
He turns and looks out the window before he whispers out his next sentence. "I want to help."
"What?" I say incredulously, not believing what he said.
He turns to me again and grips my shoulders, not painfully, but firmly. "I want to help. I want to teach you self-defence. Make you stronger."
"Fighting back will only make things worse," I state simply.
"We have to try. Before he-" He gulps before continuing, "before he kills you."
"He won't kill me until I give him an heir, which I will never do."
"How?"
"I have my ways."
"Oh."
We stand there silent for a few moments, taking in each other's words.
"What if I work with you and we make it seem like you are receiving punishment? I mean, you are bound to have a few bruises if you are training anyways." He asks, hope in his eyes.
"I don't know, Beta. I'll think about it." I say quietly. "I have to go before he gets angry again, thank you for the visit." Then I walk out of the room in search of my mate.
***
It didn't take me long to find Colton, he was sitting at his desk in his office. When I stepped inside, he looked up from his paperwork and offered me an odd smile as I sat down in the chair in front of him.
"Beta Larson said you asked for me?" I say quietly.
He straightens in his seat. "Yes, I wanted to have breakfast with you. I figure it is about time we get to know each other. I mean in less physical ways." He replies with a smirk. "I'll just link Ashley and ask her to bring in breakfast. I suspect that you are hungry."
"Famished," I respond sarcastically, but he ignores my tone. His eyes glaze over for a moment before he looks at me again.
"So, how are you doing?" He asks me.
"Um, as well as I could be considering."
He nods his head and pauses for a moment, clearly thinking about what to say next.
This is awkward.
You're telling me. Says Ailith.
What is the point in this?
Not a fucken clue. She scoffs before heading back to her cage.
Thanks.
Suddenly, there is a knock on the door.
"Come in," Colton yells.
Ashley walks in with a large tray full of food. She stumbles a little with the door but catches herself without losing anything. She brings the tray to Colton's desk. Before she dashes out, she nods her head at the two of us, leaving us to continue or awkward conversation.
"Feel free to help yourself to the food, Skylar." He offers. I quickly grab a plate and start adding fruit, hash browns and breakfast sausages to my plate.
"Thank you, Colton."
He nods his head before taking his own plate and filling it to the rim. "So, tell me about yourself?"
Like how I hate you? "What would you like to know?"
"Tell me about your family and your old pack, start there." He says softly, but his body language indicates that he won't let me leave without telling him the information.
"Well, I am from the South Niagara Pack. I have lived there my entire life, well until we met anyways. My Alpha's name is Gerald Kennedy. My father is his third in command. His name is Norman. My mother is Shianne. They have been mated for 25 years next January. They met when my mother started working with my father on a project for the Alpha. My father should be retiring as soon as the Alpha's son, Lucas, takes over this summer. My brother, Austin, will be taking over for my father as third in command."
"Interesting. Did you train?" He asks as he butters his toast.
"Yes, but not as hard as my brother. I have always been more interested in other things. Fighting has never been a huge part of my life." I answer truthfully. "I never allowed myself to become weak, but I didn't make training my life either."
He smiles. "I see that."
"Yeah," I say weakly.
He takes a deep breath in before saying, "You obviously know what I am. I am Alpha of the Dark Moon pack. I have been Alpha since I took over for my father at eighteen years. I am now twenty-seven. My father recently passed. The drinking caught up with him, I suppose. My mother-" He pauses, thinking for a moment. "My mother, she passed when I was twelve. She was troubled, killing herself."
"I am sorry to hear that. No child should live without a mother. It must have been hard."
"Thank you, Skylar. I am fine with it. I put those demons to rest years ago."
We pause for a few minutes, eating out food in silence - both of us mulling over each other's words.
"How old are you?" He finally breaks the silence.
"Twenty-three. My birthday is June twenty-seventh."
"Not too far away. Mine is July ninth." Not like I care. "So you say you are not a fighter. What are you then?"
I think for a second, unsure of how to answer his question. Eventually, after a minute of silence, he looks at me telling me to answer. "I may not be a fighter, but that doesn't mean I am weak." He snickers at my words making me glare at him. "I am typically one with words, if necessary. I pride myself on my kindness towards others, my compassion and my love. Things I am sure a man like you would never understand or appreciate." That catches his attention.
Good.
"Fascinating." He says sarcastically.
"Yes. I think if the circumstances were different with you, I would make a wonderful Luna. Unfortunately, things will never be that way. Will they?"
"You are Luna. You can be any kind of Luna you want."
"But will you let me? No, you won't. You just want me to be your quiet, submissive little mate who gives you plenty of offspring so your lineage continues. Don't even argue it, you already told me this fact." I pause, waiting to see if he will say anything. He just looks at me with amusement, pissing me off in the process. "What even is the point of this conversation, Colton? It's not like you care to know anything about me. I sure as fuck don't care to learn about you."
This makes him grin, making my skin crawl. "Tell me how you really feel Skylar."
"Tell you how I really feel? As if you don't already know, but I will humour you anyways. I fucking hate you, Colton Myers. You are an evil, heartless man who doesn't care about anyone whatsoever. All you care about it how much land you own and how many people you have power over. You kill countless people for no reason. You raped me, beat me and constantly fuck with my mind over and over again. You left me to three men to do as they pleased! If you do that to me, your Goddess forsaken mate, I can just imagine what you do to other she-wolves! People are terrified of you. They don't respect you like other Alphas. You are just a fucken monster. That's all you are, and all you'll ever be." I whisper the final sentence, tears start stinging my eyes but I hold them back.
I look at him, waiting for him to say something. And you know what the idiot does? He fucken smiles at me.
"Oh sweetheart, although you are right about some things, you are so wrong about others. So let me set you straight. You are right, I am a heartless monster. It's what allowed me to have what I have today. I am the Alpha of the largest pack in all of North America. I am expanding my territory constantly, improving the lives of so many every single day. You should really take a walk around my land sometime and see for yourself. I care about my pack like none other. I work every day to improve their lives - whether it be updating their houses, making sure they have the finances to live a comfortable life or ensuring they have proper health care. Look around, my members are happy and healthy with me as their Alpha. They may be scared of me, but they would be nowhere without me." He pauses to take a drink.
"You should see some of these wolves before I came along. Some were homeless or lived in tiny apartments. Some struggled to feed their kids. Many died young with their lack of health care. I brought them hope, security and safety. Me. I would do anything for this pack."
"I find that hard to believe. They are terrified of you! Look at Ashley for Goddess' sake. She won't even look at you and barely speaks!"
"You are right. I never said that my people weren't scared of me. They are punished if they disobey and the punishments are harsh. You have learned that for yourself, love." He taunts.
"I don't get you!" I stand up from my seat, flinging my arms around like a maniac. "If you care about them so much, why do you treat me this way? I am your mate! Your destined 'match made in heaven'! The one who is supposed to love you thick and thin and you are supposed to do the same! Yet you treat me so terribly and you have no issues in doing so!"
"Let me ask you something, Skylar. When we first met, did you instantly try to reject me before even taking a chance to get to know me?"
"Yes, but you-"
"And then did you try to leave me?" He interrupts.
"Yes but-"
"And were you disrespectful towards me on our drive here?"
"Maybe but-"
"Exactly! And did you try to deny my your body?"
"Of course!"
"And then you ran away from me, making me chase you with thirty of my men. When we found you, you again disrespected me. In front of my men too! Am I right?
"Ugh, yes. Let me-"
"And then you denied me again, didn't you?"
I simply nod instead of wasting my breath, flopping back onto the chair I was previously sitting on.
"So you agree that you have been nothing but disrespectful and disobedient since we met, is that correct?" He says nonchalantly.
"You know it's more complicated than that, Colton."
"Answer the question."
"Yes."
"So explain to me this. How do you deserve anything but punishment?"
"You know it is more complicated than that! You know that you are not right in this, you are just twisting everything to make me look like the bad one here. Maybe I shouldn't have tried to reject you right away, but forcibly marking me wasn't the answer! Drugging me and kidnapping me shouldn't have been the solution! And you could never excuse you taking me the way you did. I did not want to mate with you then. I clearly told you no, Colton. Typically people build a relationship and get to know each other before they mate."
He laughs. "We are not living in a fairy tale, Skylar."
"No, we aren't. I know that now, Colton." With that, I stand up. "Thank you for breakfast, Alpha. It was kind of you. Now if you excuse me." And I walked out, leaving him sitting in his chair alone glaring at me.
As I walked down the hall to the stairs, I felt tears run down my face. As much as I didn't want to let them go, I couldn't hold them back any longer. I was beyond frustrated and was completely done with this situation. If only it could all be over.
As I turned the corner, I walked straight into someone's back. Looking up at the person as they turned, I realize I walked into Beta Larson.
"I'm sorry Beta Larson, I wasn't paying attention to where I was walking."
"That's fine, Luna. Are you alright?" He asks, concern lacing his words.
"No. I would like to take you up on your offer." I state, before running up the stairs away from him.
I'm not going to be a weakling anymore.