Page 35 of Alpha's Runaway Mate

“You’re in Red Rock,” he replied, his voice smooth and chilling. “The home of the Blackwood pack.”

My body froze. The Blackwood pack. I had heard the rumors—their ruthlessness, wickedness, and complete disregard for anyone who stood in their way. They were said to be the most powerful pack, yet they were plagued by something they were desperate to escape. No one truly understood what haunted them, only that it was a desperate flight from a fate they didn’t want to embrace. Which brought me to my next thought.What did the Blackwoods want with me?

“My name is Thane Blackwood, the Alpha of this pack,” he said, his tone dripping with a sinister confidence. “And the rumors you’ve heard are true. But not for long…now that you’re here.”

That was the first conversation I had with Thane Blackwood, and it barely hinted at the kind of monster he was, not even a tiny bit. It wasn’t until the first day of what I came to call “The Test” that I discovered why they needed me and what they intended to do with me.

Day 7 of 242

I hadn’t seen the light of day in an entire week, nor had I breathed in fresh air. I was locked up in this room, this hell hole, trapped and spiraling into madness. They always slid my food through a small opening in the door, and it hadn’t been open until that night. The door flew open, and two fierce guards stormed in. I braced myself for a fight, and managed to land two solid punches on one of them before they injected me with something that sent me to unconsciousness.

When I woke up later, I found myself chained to a cold stone tomb. For a fleeting moment, I inhaled the fresh air, but not a moment longer as my eyes darted around to see the six girls standing over me with Thane looming behind them. Instinctively, I tried to break free of the chains, but they held tight. My next plan was to shift. I reclined in the tomb, feeling my bones begin to crack as my wolf fought to emerge, but then the needle pierced my skin. My eyes flew open, and I saw the woman’s face—the same woman who had touched my belly the day I was captured. “Don’t bother trying, little wolf,” she said.

Whatever she injected me hit me like a primal force a moment later, and I screamed into the darkness as the effects overwhelmed me. It felt as if my bones were breaking from the inside out, my body desperately trying to shift but unable to comply. It was as if whatever they dosed me with was severingthe connection between me and my wolf, like trying to tear apart the body and soul.

“It’s wolfsbane,” she said. “I spelled it. It’s not going to kill you, but it will hurt your wolf enough to keep her at bay while we do what we must.”

Chants followed afterward. The six girls standing over me joined their hands together and began speaking in a language I couldn’t understand. The woman then slashed both sides of my arm, my blood spilling onto the tomb. Almost immediately, it felt like my entire body was on fire, as if I was suffering from an aneurysm. I screamed and wailed in agony, but they didn’t stop. The woman before me joined the chant, and the pain intensified.

“Please, please, stop…” I begged, but my voice was drowned out by their chanting, growing louder with each sentence, and the energy pulsing in the area.

The agony continued for what felt like forever, until finally, they ceased their incantations. My body shrank, as I heard my wolf whimpering. I was weak in the knees but I managed to see the reaction of Thane— he was furious.

The first of many tests had failed.

Day 221 of 242

I stared at my reflection in the mirror of the adjoining bathroom of my prison for the last six months. The sight was grim. My hair was a tangled mess that looked like it hadn’t been brushed in months— because it actually hadn’t. I’d once used the cutlery they provided with my meals to cut it short. But I’d also stuckthat cutlery in one of the guard’s necks in a desperate attempt to escape.

Since then, they stopped giving me silverware altogether, meaning that I ate my food with my fingers, and couldn’t cut my hair anymore despite the fact that it grew longer by the day. The dark circles underneath my eyes had become a permanent feature of my face. They were not just from all my sleepless nights but also from the bleeding that accompanied each of their tests.

It felt like Thane Blackwood and his witch, Hecate, were trying to bake a certain kind of cookie, but didn’t have the recipe. All they had were the ingredients as they repeatedly tried and failed to achieve their goal. They soon realized that the missing ingredient needed to break their curse was the blood of my unborn child.

My hands went to my protruding belly, and my heart ached for what my baby had to go through even before entering the world. Just because they lacked the blood they needed to complete their ritual didn’t mean they spared me from torment. Whatever they were doing to me every week—the aneurysm, the bleeding, the wolfsbane, the magic—was all to slow the curse’s grip on Thane, who was growing weaker by the day. He was particularly vulnerable during every full moon. These “tests” provided him with just enough strength to pull through the week, but the rest of his pack was withering away as they waited for me to give birth. Once that happened, Thane would rid them of their curse and would no doubt eliminate me, since I’d then be of no use to him.

With trembling hands, I lifted the chalk and drew a line on the wall, marking day two hundred and twenty-one in this hell hole.The chalk slipped from my fingers and fell to the floor, while I collapsed, sobbing.

My daily routine of crying in the bathroom was interrupted when the door swung open. I returned to the room where I saw a young girl. She wasn’t the person who brought my meals every day, but I recognized her from every nightmare. The six girls—she was one of them.

As soon as the door clicked shut, I charged at her, gripping her neck with my feeble hands. But my strength was too depleted to cause any real harm. Without uttering a word, I felt a surge of heat in my head, an intensity that threatened to overwhelm me. I released my grip from her neck, and she stopped whatever she was doing as the pain subsided.

“My name is Meredith,” she said softly, helping me to the bed just before I collapsed onto the floor.

“Okay, Meredith,” I said wearily. “Listen to me carefully: I’m going to kill you and every one of those girls when I get out of here.”

She ignored my threat. “There is something happening. The plans have changed. Thane is growing impatient. He can’t wait another three months for you to give birth before breaking the curse.”

“Well, he doesn’t have a choice, does he?”

She was silent, her eyes revealing that he did indeed have a choice.

“What the hell is going on?” I snapped, a wave of terror washing over me.

“He has us working on a spell to deliver your child prematurely. He only needs the blood of the child, so he doesn’t care if it lives or dies.”

My eyes grew wide with horror. Thane was a different kind of monster, I had come to realize. But if he could show no mercy to an innocent child, then I had severely underestimated the depths of his monstrosity.

Meredith continued, “There’s going to be a party in twenty-one days—the day before Thane plans to force your child’s birth and break the curse. It’ll be a celebration of their last night being cursed. Everyone will either be distracted or drunk. I can help you escape then.”

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