Page 53 of The Alpha's Reclaimed Mate

Dax caught up and walked beside me, lowering his voice so my packmates couldn’t overhear.“Ever since Aria left the Grey Creek Pack, Alpha Moore has been acting... questionable.”

“He’s been acting questionably since he rejected Aria. What’s different now?”

“Well, then, I suppose his behavior has only gotten worse. He’s become wild-eyed and aggressive. His temper turns on a dime. My Alpha and I met with him earlier today on business regarding their territory expansion, and all he talked about was Aria. He’s obsessed with getting her back. Killing her. Lucas, I think she might be in very real danger from him.”

The subject of Oswald left a sour taste in my mouth. He was proving more and more to be unfit for the role of Alpha. It wasn’t always like this; up until a few months ago, Oswald had been a steadfast, reliable leader. Ever since Mara Torres entered the picture, his rationality and level head were gone in place of senseless insanity. He was becoming more unpredictable by the day. I shuddered to think of how far his insanity would take him, but I had a creeping feeling I already knew.

Which meant Aria was in even more severe danger than I thought. She might be able to outrun Rogues, but if Oswald had his entire pack behind him? Aria’s fate would be decided, and Oswald would ensure her fate wouldn’t be with me.

I had to save her.

Chapter 25: Aria

All too quickly, the forest ambience was saturated with pounding feet and growls beneath hard breaths. I wasn’t alone.

Part of me always expected that I would run into trouble on my way to Hale Stone, so, I managed to stay calm long enough to gather my bearings and figure out how far I was relative to safety. The Silent Shadows Pack territory was closer. If I kept running, maybe I could arc around and outrun my pursuers. So, I veered to the east, watching the trees in my periphery.

The bodies running alongside me had no problem keeping up. No matter the contingency plan, it seemed I was always destined to confront my fate.

As soon as I saw the flash of their eyes reflecting moonlight, my calm wilted, and the gravity of my mistake hit me. There were so many of them, and I began to recognize their scents. If they were rogues, I would be dead without any chance to escape. But somehow, this was worse. Before I could even open my mouth to reason with them, six bodies simultaneously swarmed me, closing in and herding me toward a clearing in the forest. Their teeth razed my shoulders and legs, pulling me in every direction as they ran. I snarled, snapping back at them, but the soldiers of the Grey Creek Pack were trained to be fearless.

A hard bite on the back of my neck coaxed me to the ground. With a yelp, I was thrown to the grass, landing hard on my side. My paws scrambled underneath me as I regained composure, mustering ferocity in peeled lips, anger roaring in my eyes. The bristling reds of my fur looked like an inferno igniting the moonlit forest. I circled around, lashing at anyone who got too close. My former packmates regarded me as one would a feral cornered animal, some of them wary, some taunting, but all of them knowing how capable I was of causing damage if they should get too close.

The churning crowd of wolves parted to reveal a larger body skulking toward me. I tensed, recognizing him by his mere shape before the scent smacked me, and then the colour of his pelt, the shape of his face, the gleam in his frigid eyes. All aspects of a man I only knew from memories materializing into the stranger I never wanted to see again. Oswald dragged his paws forward, only to stop a few feet away and stare down his nose at me, the girl he rejected, with emotion that couldn’t be read. I wasn’t sure if he could even recognize emotion himself anymore.

“Now, what are you doing so far from home, Aria?”he drawled in wolf tongue, slivers of his threatening teeth visible between words.

I raised my head high.“My duties for the Silent Shadows Pack are none of your concern.”Although I had a feeling he was already aware of what happened with the Crescent Moon Pack.

“I’m not talking about the Silent Shadows Pack.”

My mind stuttered in disbelief. He didn’t actually think the Grey Creek Pack was still my home, did he?

“We miss you, Aria.”Oswald stepped closer.

My heart leaped into my throat. I took a step back, desperate to maintain the distance between us.“It’s too late. I thought I made that clear.”

In an instant, Oswald’s eyes ignited with madness, his dark fur standing on end and making him look twice as big as himself.“You betrayed me!”

“How?!”I willed myself to look larger, too, raising my head and tail in defiance.“You rejected me for Mara! You took everything from me when all I wanted was to serve you! I didn’t betray you, Oswald! You betrayed me!”

“There you go, spilling filth and lies again!”Oswald’s voice gurgled into an unrecognizable thunder. The soldiers around him bayed in agreement like they were all twisted into psychotic caricatures of themselves. The Grey Creek Alpha shook his head, the whites of his eyes flashing.“Aria, you have always belonged to me! Your desertion of your family is an insult! An embarrassment! You disgraced the very name of the Grey Creek Pack by stepping away from us. If you cannot handle hardship, as I exposed you to with the consequences of your actions, then you cannot call your bonds to anyone loyalty!”

Each punch of his criticism brought me back to the terrible days when I was part of his pack, enduring abuse from him and my family. Even in the short time, I’d been with Lucas and the Silent Shadows Pack I’d come to learn what it felt like to be loved and appreciated. To be treated like a person, not an object. The tone of Oswald’s voice struck me with such visceral memory that it froze me to the spot, and for a moment, I was too wrapped up in despair and misery to respond.

But the empty space beside Oswald, where Mara usually stood, judging me, reminded me that I was no longer outnumbered. Maybe here and now, I was, but where it mattered—back at home, with Lucas—I had an entire pack behind me.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about. You’re grasping at straws, Oswald, and I don’t have time for it,”I told him firmly.“I have business to tend to.”

As my heel turned, Oswald erupted in fury.“Don’t you dare turn your back on me, Aria! I’ll make you mine again, even if I have to drag you back home by the neck!”

Oswald launched at me, gaping jaws aimed to snap a hold of my hip. I heard him coming fast enough to strafe to the side, but he still managed to grab my ankle, sinking his teeth into the tendon with painful force. A yelp left my lips as I scrambled to counter him. Oswald and I quickly descended into a flurry of teeth to the chorus of the Grey Creek soldiers howling around us. They cheered for their brutal Alpha to take me down and reclaim me as if none of them had any shred of empathy or understanding for my situation. I couldn’t fathom how they all thought the same way. Without reason, without even thought, almost like they were as mindless as the Rogues.

Oswald didn’t hold back from hurting me. He clamped down, ripping my flesh and tearing out tufts of fur, trying to incapacitate me. I kicked him in the jaw, but he was unaffected. Although the fight felt like it lasted an eternity, in reality, Oswald and I only clashed for thirty seconds before I was pinned to the ground, his teeth squeezing my throat. I gasped, but I could barely breathe in with how tightly he held me. My eyes widened in fear—Oswald had me right where he wanted me, and if he wanted to just kill me, there was nothing stopping him now.

He knew that. I saw that recognition in his eyes. He growled, his body heaving quick, deep breaths through the nose, gradually squeezing tighter. He was at war with himself over whether or not to taste my blood.

“Oswald,”I rasped. Part of me wanted to beg for my life. Part of me wanted to appeal to Oswald, reaching out to the last vestige of sanity I prayed existed in him. And part of me couldn’t stomach reducing myself to begging. The last part of me was what won out in the end. I clenched my teeth and swallowed.

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