Part Two of Seven
The pack doctor had spent two hours cleaning and stitching her wounds.
"She's going to need vitamins and a special diet for a while after she wakes up." he explained. "She's malnourished. I would guess that she has been a rogue for a very long time."
"But you think she'll make a full recovery doctor?" Alpha Clay asked worriedly as he stared at the beautiful blonde sleeping in his bed.
The doctor nodded and smiled. His Alpha had been transformed in a matter of hours. This, he knew from personal experience, was the power of finding one's mate. "Yes, Alpha. She's going to be fine. Do you know our new Luna's name yet, Sir?"
"Not yet. I just know she's stubborn. She tried to reject me."
"Oh Alpha. She sounds like a strong, wonderful match for you then. The strongest Alpha's need the strongest Lunas. I'll be back to check on her tomorrow. But feel free to call me if anything changes. I'd expect her to wake up soon, but don't be worried if she sleeps straight through the night. She's been through a lot. And we both know that your men can be hard on rogues." The older man smiled warmly and chuckled before showing himself out of the room.
She had also been hooked up to an IV that had provided fluids and electrolytes because she was so dehydrated, and another which had given her antibiotics because the wounds had been so dirty when the doctor had had to clean them out. But now Alpha Clay was on his own and he lay on the other side of the bed, on top of the sheets and watched his beautiful mate, wondering how long it would take for her to wake.
She was so perfect, she reminded him of the Barbie dolls that his niece used to play with. She had long golden blonde hair that reached all the way to her elbows, although she kept it up in a ponytail with a long braid, and her eyes were the color of the ocean. Since she'd spent her entire life outdoors she was tan and her body was lithe and muscular. Alpha Clay just couldn't help but keep picturing all the things he could do with her. She was just too perfect.
"Alpha?" he heard his Beta's voice through his mind link.
"Yes Devon. What is it?"
"The men and I just returned and heard you found the girl and brought her back. I was surprised to learn she was in your bedroom. Does this mean your claiming her as your own?" Clay felt a growl rise up in his throat and he pushed it down. He didn't want to accidentally wake up his mate when it was so obvious that she needed her sleep.
"She is mine, Beta."
"The men are just hoping that once you're bored with her-"
"Stop right there." He forced himself to take a deep breath. "Never speak like that again. I can't talk to you right now."
Shutting off the mind link he turned his attention back to his mate. Finding her had been nothing like he had expected. He'd always thought that when he felt the mate bond and found his mate that she would throw herself into his arms and swoon because the Goddess had given her an Alpha. Instead this little spitfire had tried to run off and then when he stopped her she'd tried to reject him. She hadn't even asked his name until she realized she needed it for the purpose of rejecting him. And then she'd made a face at him like he stunk- his eyes widened in understanding.
She must have been able to smell the female he'd been with earlier in the day. He took a slow breath and ran a hand through his hair. How would he have reacted if she had smelled like sex and another male? Now his wolf did let out a growl deep in his chest. His wolf would have demanded they hunt down the other male and rip him limb from limb. No wonder she was so angry.
Slipping from the bed he went to shower, fairly confident that she wouldn't wake while he was gone. At least he had never brought other females here, into his den. She was the first. And now she could make it entirely her own, at least until she had finished decorating the house that they would move into together.
When she woke up he was asleep beside her, smelling like soap and toothpaste. Her eyes ran over his face and body. He was undeniably handsome and she knew that it wasn't only because he was her mate. He had blue eyes and dark blonde hair, with a beard and the sort of face that women just couldn't help but stop and stare at. Like all male werewolves in their prime he was muscular, with a ripped body, and like all alphas he was stronger than most, his shoulders broader, his chest bigger, everything about him more intimidating. He had to be at least 6'5" and Nova now knew why he had seemed surprised that she hadn't fallen all over herself to thank the Goddess for giving him to her as her mate.
Silently she slipped out of the bed and surveyed the room. It was enormous. The hardwood floors were waxed and polished until they shone, and while Nova wasn't quite sure what she would have expected from this particular Alpha's den, she knew that this wasn't it. The ceiling was far above her head, but there were floor to ceiling bookshelves on many of the walls and all of them were filled with books. Walking forward she ran her finger tips over some of the many leather covered spines before looking back at the man asleep in the bed. He didn't look like the type who would spend much time reading.
The bed was the centerpiece of the section of the room that she was in, but she walked on silent feet deeper into the magnificent space where there was an enormous desk, with a couch and several comfortable looking seats facing it. Between the desk and the bed, dividing the room, there was a gigantic fish tank, taller than Nova could reach with her arms held above her head, and wider than she could touch with both arms extended from side to side. Inside it were fish like she'd never seen before.
A bright yellow fish roamed around the front of the tank, and a black fish with a yellow circle around his mouth and white dots on his stomach darted back and forth, seeming very much like the boss of all the fish he came across. A fish covered in spikes with eyes round eyes and a friendly looking face bobbed towards the glass and seemed to be watching her, while a graceful fish with black and white and blue stripes swam calmly in the background.
Enough. She told herself firmly. I need to get out of here. Tearing her gaze from the beautiful fish, who had no chance of escaping their lovely prison, she saw a door on the far side of the room and hurried to it, careful not to make a sound. With cautious hands she turned the knob, or at least tried to, but it didn't budge.
Peering out the window beside the door she could see that there were two hulking brutes guarding the exit anyways. Not that she didn't think she could take them on. What was two when she'd already taken on a dozen of his men? He was already underestimating her.
Nova let out a silent sigh before turning and moving back across the room. The other exit was the door that she guessed would lead out into the rest of the house. It was probably more dangerous but what choice did she have. She turned the handle and as she expected, this didn't move either.
Her eyes moved to the other door leading out of the room. It had been left open so she knew it led to another interior room. Moving quickly she hurried to it. It was a bathroom. Her eyes swept across the luxurious space. She had heard about these from her brother who was old enough to remember when they'd lived in a house and actually had one, but she couldn't remember a time when she had seen one. She was able to keep clean enough bathing in lakes and rivers regularly, but being able to turn a knob and have water in a moment seemed luxurious beyond belief. And the bath? Her eyes were drawn to it. To be able to soak in hot or cold water for as long as she wished was incredibly tempting. She took a step towards it before her eyes were drawn to a reasonably sized window.
It was perfect. She could easily shimmy through it and shift in a matter of moments. And this time she was stitched up, thanks to the pompous asshole sleeping in the bed who kept referring to himself as her mate. Her wolf whimpered in her chest and she felt a tug back in the opposite direction, but she reminded herself firmly of how she'd been treated by his Beta and his warriors. When she still felt herself hesitating she reminded herself again of the way they'd spoken about the woman who'd warmed his bed that very morning..
Was that what she wanted in a mate? She'd never even kissed a man. She wasn't about to give herself to some Alpha that fucked a different woman every night of the week no matter how good he looked with his shirt off.
Pushing down her wolf's objections she pulled herself up through the window and jumped down, landing lightly on the other side. She shifted, doing something she had never done before and taking control of her wolf's form as she tore through the forest, in a direction that she prayed was towards a border and unclaimed land, since she was no longer as certain which direction she had come from when he'd brought her back.
She had only run for a few moments when she heard a howl and knew that someone had sent up an alarm that she was on the run. That was the downside of trying to escape from a heavily guarded area. She knew if she tried to slink out of there she was just as likely to run face to face into one of the guards he'd set all along the perimeter so she had decided to just make a dash for it and hope that her extreme speed was enough to carry her beyond his reach. One thing was certain, this time when she reached the border, she wasn't going to stop running.
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