I just hoped it didn’t cost me my mate.

Chapter Eight

Jillian

“Again, Jared?” Dean growled as we arrived for work the next day to find the beta blocking our way. That morning, as we used the waterfall again as a shower, he’d whispered all the reassuring things I needed to hear.

I was his only mate.

There was no one else and never would be.

He loved me.

“That’s not really an attitude you should have about the alpha asking you to meet with him. You best learn your place, newcomer. Now move your asses, the both of you.”

Dean grabbed my hand and I groaned inside. I had more meetings with the alpha in the last month s than I had in my whole life.

Truth be told, I preferred it the other way.

“Come in,” the alpha called out as we knocked on the door. My stomach twisted itself into knots as we walked in. Always happened when I was around him. The alpha didn’t call you in to ask about the weather. He meant business and as far, as I was concerned, Jillian and business added up to nothing good.

“You asked to see us, alpha?”

He harrumphed and leaned back in his chair. “I actually asked for Jillian, but it’s fine. You’re her mate now so this concerns you as well. I’ve been thinking about our visitor and I’ve come to a conclusion. Please, sit down.”

We sat in the chairs across from his desk. The alpha scrubbed his hand over his face and blew out a loaded breath.

“With the appearance of this person who is clearly deluded about Jillian and the other strangers who have popped up lately, I want you and Jillian to move into quarters closer to the pack. Having you in the woods, isolated as you are is now dangerous. If something were to happen out there, we would not be able to get to you in time.”

I stood so fast, the chair I’d once been sitting in fell over backward and hit the floor. Panic spindled down my spine and infiltrated my veins.

He was the one who put me there. He was the one who basically banished me out there by myself when I was only a child. I had to learn how to take care of myself with only Magda to guide me the best she could.

He made me feel like I was unwanted, unneeded. I was vapor to this pack before and now he wanted me to move closer for my safety?

I called bullshit. Not even caring for protocol or manners, I reached across the desk and snatched up the first piece of paper I saw along with a pencil. I scribbled down my anger and jutted it toward the man who was on the line of being my enemy.

He read it and then balled the paper up only to discard it like it meant nothing. “I’m not sure you understand, Jillian. This is an order.”

Another piece of paper.

You banished me to my cabin. It’s my home now. You’ve never cared about my safety before. If I need to be protected, I will do it myself just like I’ve done everything for myself since I was small. If you don’t agree, I will simply leave the pack.

It might’ve been the longest thing I’d ever written in my life.

As he read the note, his eyebrows dipped down, and a grimace formed on his face. Dean leaned forward to read it as well and cringed, taking my hand in his. I could feel his wolf trying to push calm and love into our bond, but I was too shielded to accept it.

No way the alpha was going to do this to me. That cabin, now that Dean was in it, finally felt like home.

“Are you sure about this?” the alpha asked. All of the sudden he wanted my opinion.

I nodded and crossed my arms over my chest. I wouldn’t budge, not a fucking inch.

“Dean, you will be on watch then, I suppose. As her mate, you have to keep her protected. She’s...it’s vital that you do. Do you understand?”

I felt like I was being manhandled. Not that I was the victim of abuse but that the men were handling the situation for the sweet little scared female.

Clearly they didn’t know who they were dealing with. Dean should know better.