Neither of them said anything and the silence in the small room could be cut with a knife. If it was not so serious, Seren would have laughed at the situation. The biggest alpha she had ever seen, acting all macho, stealing her from the other pack, growling and angry, now mated to not just a submissive and weak female, but a rogue, the thing he despised most!
The thought of rejecting him crossed her mind, but before she could begin to weigh her options, she saw him crouch again out of the corner of her eye and tensed up. She glanced at him, seeing his elbows resting on his knees, his long fingers curling into loose fists and out again, his shoulders hunched forward as he tried to decide what to do. Seren saw the tattoo that covered most of his left arm and pec like black fire, making him seem even more daunting. One hand went to the waistband of his jeans and pulled out a knife, flicking the blade open with a click.
Seren's eyes went wide and she tried to scoot away, thrashing and crying. Fear filled the air. He was gong to kill her! He didn't want anyone to find out about their bond and had to get rid of her. Her panicked eyes met his again in terror and disbelief and she saw the grimace of sadness he wore. She did not know it, but the fact that she thought he was going to hurt her was agonizing to him. He couldn't believe how he had treated her. If he had only known...
"Shh shh shh," he whispered, extending his large hand.
She flinched away, trying to keep her foreleg out of reach, yelping when he took it. Fire raced up her arm, into her chest and made her pulse even quicker if that was possible. Liam's already gentle grip softened, afraid he was hurting her, but in a swift movement he had already cut the zip-tie away and then the one from her back legs. She did not move whatsoever.
"I...I'll be right back," he murmered, his voice now calm and somewhat strained. Seren craved his touch upon her again and was ashamed of it. She listened to him stand and waited for the door to shut before she leapt to her feet and shifted. Without hesitating, she grabbed the metal shelving rack and pulled herself up to the top, ignoring her bleeding shoulder. She had to get out before her traitorous body made her do something stupid, like accept him as her mate.
To her great surprise, there was a latch at the bottom of the window, rusted, but it moved when she desperately slammed the heel of her hand against it. She needed to get out, now, before he came back in and saw her naked and precariously attached to a shelf. It was an old fashioned window that only pushed open so far, just to let a draft in. Seren held her breath and put an arm out into the grass, digging her fingers down into the dirt so she could painfully drag herself forward. She felt the frame of the window scrape mercilously over her shoulders, but the adrenaline numbed it somewhat and she forced her hips through, clawing her way into the yard like a zombie coming out of a hole.
She prayed that no one could see and shifted back to her wolf with a gasp, pulling her hind legs through. With her good foreleg, she pressed the window shut, but with blood covering it and the wall around it, she was sure it would be no secret what had happened. Seren slunk along the side of the house, seeing nobody, heading toward the back where Derrick had carried her in, where there had been fewer people. Staying low to the ground, she crawled behind a hedge and worked her way to the parking lot, the woods on the other side.
Her ears swiveled back as she heard a roar coming from the basement. Shouting took up and Seren knew they had realized she was gone. She looked to the treeline. If she tried to run, they would easily be able to chase her down within seconds and this was their land, they knew it far better than she did.
A familiar scent caught her attention. Max? She didn't see him, but then realized that she was right next to his truck, parked sideways by the back steps as though he planned to come back out any second. Swallowing nervously, she leapt into the bed and forced herself under a pile of tarp, curling into the corner next to a gas can. If she couldn't get away on her own two...four...feet, she could do the next best thing, let someone unknowingly drive her to the town.
The door flung open and a flood of footsteps cascaded out into the grass and parking lot. There was a moment of muffled conversations as they went around the side of the house to inspect the window. Liam crouched and surveyed the grass, bowed down where she had lain and where each of her paws had gone. He touched his finger to the dark stain on the ground, frowning as his hand shook as he brought it to his face. He sniffed it, his body reacting to the alluring scent of her blood as it had been since he had first smelled it. Without her real scent, he had not had any clue that she could have been his mate. Now that he knew, he wanted her more than he had ever wanted something before and he wanted her safe in his arms. Now. Alpha Liam was not one to be refused. The thought of her afraid of him, wounded and wanted by the Gray Paws compounded into one huge problem that made him tremble with the urge to shift at that moment and chase her down and bring her back to where she really belonged. With him.
He had never felt anything like he did then, as though a piece of him was missing and he was desperate to get it back. A foreign sense of panic filled him as he thought of what would happen if he could not find her. How grave had her wounds been? Would the Gray Paws get her? Anger grew in his chest like an avalanche crashing down a mountain, doubling in size as it did. He would never let anything happen to her. But he had to find her first. Why hadn't he marked her when he had the chance!? Liam had been too shocked and overcome with emotion that he had gone to get the pack medic to tend to her, wanting only for her to be in pain no longer. He should have taken her with him!
Liam clenched his jaw, rounding the house to the driveway where her tracks headed and to where most of his pack waited for his order. Feeling his skin crawling and muscles churning over his stretching bones, he resisted shifting just long enough to bite out commands.
Seren's stomach clenched when she heard Alpha Liam's booming voice cut through the air, making her shake. "Spread out. I want our territory covered, every inch. Hunters head for McGreggor's line, fast! We are looking for the rogue..she is...she is my mate."
Hushed voices spoke excitedly to one another, but his growl silenced them. "Her wolf is whitish yellow and small and she is wounded. Do not,under any circumstances harm her," his voice dropped dangerously low. "She is to be your Luna. Stop her and call for me."
Seren swallowed. A Luna? Of a pack? I could never do that. Alpha Liam is out of his mind because of the bond. It is making him protective and irrational. He really can't stand losing can he? She shivered at the thought of being surrounded by fifteen or twenty wolves, all staring at her and waiting for Him to come. She imagined if he did. He would break the circle with his giant form and come right up to her, looming over her and glaring at her with his icy gaze. Would he mark her? Her skin prickled and her stomach tightened at the thought of being against his bare and muscular chest, being his. Stop it! She chastized herself.
"What does she look like if she shifted?"
Alpha Liam snarled. "I don't know, damn it! What are you waiting for!? GO!"
The air shivered as many wolves shifted and the sound of their paws thudding off into the forest. Seren had been right. There was no way she could have gotten away from that many wolves. All the fur on her back raised when he howled, his human cry of frustration, anger and anguish, turning into his wolf's call for her to return as he changed. Seren's body itched to go to him, but with all her willpower, she was able to keep herself controlled. She didn't know how he felt about her and was afraid of him. His wolf was fully twice the size of hers and he was furious. If he did want her as his mate, he would force her to stay in the pack house, with all of the wolves, so many people crowding her and forcing her to do what they wanted, leering at her from afar, saying how we she was. Seren shook her head to dispel her fears. No, she couldn't go in there.
When he left, she felt like there was a string connecting them and it tugged at her chest that he was gone. She pushed the feeling deep down and ignored it, waiting in silence as the minutes ticked by. She was sure it was near dinner time and wondered if Liam would order everyone to skip it to find her. Her limbs were getting stiff and she waited, praying that Max would come along soon to help her. She almost jumped as her wish came true and the rustle of two wolves shifting and putting on clothes reached her ears.
"Hi," Max said after a pause. "I need to order, um...fifteen pizzas. Does that sound right? Let's do five plain cheese, five pepperoni and five with the works. Yes, on Alpha's card. What? I know it's not Friday, Alpha found his mate, the rogue, but she ran off and everyone's out looking for her so no one has time to make dinner. Chris and I will be there in twenty. See ya."
She felt the driver door open and the truck shift as first he and then his brown-eyed friend, Chris, got in. The truck roared to life and lurched off down the driveway, but she could still hear their conversation faintly in the cabin.
"Alpha Liam is pretty upset," Chris muttered.
"Well, you would be, too, if your mate was afraid of you and ran away."
"What do you think he is going to do when he finds her? I mean, she was a rogue and still might want to kill someone in the pack or something. She would have stayed unless she had something to hide. He can't just let her run around in the house when he brings her back, but what will he do?"
Max laughed. "You know how newly mated couples are. They can't keep their hands off each other, something I am particularly looking forward to with my mate. When he does find her, yeah, he will probably keep her in a room, his room. And he will mark her. Alpha Liam is too serious to let there be any room for error and that will only make the bond stronger so that if she tries to run, he can find her right away."
"How far could she have gotten? She was pretty torn up from what Alex showed me, could barely walk," Chris said.
"I don't know, but she did get away from Derrick that first time and he is one of our best trackers and she did squeeze out that tiny little window. Maybe she is hiding in an itty bitty hole in the ground or something crazy. Also, I think someone said she is masking her scent. We were trying to go off her blood, but that wasn't anywhere. It's almost like someone came out of the sky and grabbed her," Max chuckled.
"Her wolf is white. Maybe she was a ghost."
"Maybe! But that's not going to stop Alpha. He is determined and half-mad at the moment. This whole mate bond thing has got him in a frenzy. We have to keep a look out for any girls with light blonde hair and find out their names even! It doesn't matter if they smell human, he says, because his mate didn't have a scent. There are like a hundred blondes in this town, not to mention hundreds across the state," he sighed. "But, I want my alpha to have a luna and I guess we will just have to do it."
They had reached the little town and finally got off their pothole covered road onto Main street, cruising down along the storefronts and busy sidewalks sprinkled with people completely unaware to the chaos happening in the forest. How they would scatter if Seren jumped out of the truck right then!
They pulled up behind the Pizza shop and Seren waited impatiently until the engine had been cut and both of them had gone inside and shut the door behind them before she slipped out from under the tarp. She didn't see anyone else in the parking lot and carefully hopped down from the bed, limping over to a thin alley. She was so relieved that she was only a few blocks from McGreggor's and that he would probably still be there.
Sure enough, he was climbing into his rusty red truck when she made it to the back of his store, her claws clicking irregularly on the pavement. He gasped when he saw her.
"Seren! What are you...how did you get here? What happened? Come on!" He shuffled quickly back to the door and unlocked it, letting her inside. She trotted to the storage closet, pawing at it until he opened it and handed her the sundress, before hurrying to the bathroom.
Her muscles protested loudly to shifting back after so long and she groaned as her wounded shoulder changed shape, the fracture grinding along itself. With a gasp, she gripped the sink and willed the pain to subside enough to dress herself one-handed, the other arm hanging limply at her side and pounding. She stumbled back out to McGreggor and hugged him with her free arm.
"Seren, you are hurt again," he sighed sadly.
"That is the least of our problems," she whispered.