Rejected Mate and Following Fate

Chapter 17: The Attack

"All wolves have been called to the great hall, immediately" He drops his hand from my jaw and jumps to his feet, all naked glory of him and I avert my eyes, suddenly aware of this fact and instantly shy. He has your typical alpha package going on and it's not exactly easy not to look at. Generally, the males have something to be proud of and Colton is no exception. My face reddens, heat rising up my cheeks, and I huddle myself up, still recovering from this shitstorm we just put ourselves through and now blushing to my core because I ogled him completely starkers and realized he's well endowed.

I wait for him to leave, hoping to pull myself together with a little headspace and try not to also check out his ass, but he pauses when he sees I make no effort to follow.

"That means you too…. my goal's to have you initiated into this pack, Lorey. No matter what it takes. My father can't keep denying us if you're accepted. We need to have a plan…. steps to being together. I don't want to keep going through the emptiness of the last weeks and denying this between us. What I said in the forest; I was wrong." He shrugs as if he's reciting some bland nothing of speeches and not literally altering everything I thought was happening in the last weeks of agonizing life.

My eyes dart to him, shocked, yet not. Deep down I guess I knew this was his motive and his feelings on where we should end up. I'm just not so sure anymore. The words I said in anger still ring true and my heart is telling me that a bond should be stronger than his father's command. Can't shift that disappointment in him, because I feel like he was too quick to give me up.

I'm a whirlwind of emotions and so much has happened in the last twelve hours that I need some time to let my brain catch up. I've been through trauma, changes, a whirlwind, and I need to process it all. I can't tell which way is up, and I'm no longer in control of a single tiny thing in my own life. Not even where I'll sleep tonight, let alone live tomorrow. 

"Come. Please. You can't say here in this mess, and we need to get you some clothes." He stretches his hand to me extending his palm outwards and I brush it away.

"Why can't you let me leave to figure this out of my own. This is the last place on earth I want to be." Tears begin to fall as self-pity hits hard and I guess it's because I'm physically and mentally exhausted too. This is not how I thought my life would go and from the day I turned, it's been hell and heartache all rolled into one.

He exhales heavily, frustrated with me, and yanks me to my feet with a forceful lunge at my arms instead. Pulling me up despite my refusal. Taking charge and not in the mood for arguments.

"Listen to me. I need you to comply for a little while and we'll figure this out, together. I don't want you to go. When this settles I'll go to the orphanage and pack up all your stuff, and we can talk out where we go from there; but right now, I need you to come with me and do as I say." He has that edge to his voice I usually hear when he's leading his pack around. It's the don't argue with me, commanding tone, of Prince. Santo.

What else can I do. I'm technically a prisoner here, with nowhere else to go. I'm on my feet, with a persistent pain in my ass bossing me around, in a house full of people who hate me. I literally only have him on my side to depend on, and only because the fates forced it. I have nowhere else, and if I'm being honest with myself, everything is too messy, my gifts too new, and my mental state a little too on the fragile side to be thinking about going anywhere alone. So, I nod reluctantly.

"Come on then. Stay close to me." Colton turns and leads the way, sensing I don't want or need him touching me and I do as he says. Staying right behind him, clutching my covering and wait while he grabs one, wrapping it on like a toga, and heads towards the door. If Carmen saw us now, naked with ripped bed sheets to cover our modesty, she would only assume the worst and I can't imagine that going down well at all. Shuddering at the possibility she might see us.

Within seconds we're in the hall, moving along the wide passage in semi darkness, due to all the boarded up windows and lack of lighting and he leads onwards, following some turns and a flight of stairs until we get to the floor below. I was put on the top floor in the far end of the house, away from everyone, and now we seem to be on the third floor, in a brighter corridor with doors all bearing names, and keypads on each.

us, completely unaware of our presence. He makes us wait a second before leading the way again, halfway down the hall to the

are we hiding if you're taking me downstairs anyway?" I ask blatantly, composing myself since leaving that room and he slides an arm around me and shuffles me into the darkened space, pulling me in and closing the door behind us with a last outwards check of the hall. He walks off across the bedroom, towards a set of wooden doors in front of me, sliding them open to reveal wardrobes, and starts pulling out clothes in multiples of

neatness, with very few items cluttering it up. Neutral tones, light woods, plants and

and she'll go nuclear. It's best if I appear downstairs with you, where she's contained, because frankly, my ears, and my head, can't handle her gifts right now. She still thinks we have a future, and I need to talk to her about that." He carries on focusing on clothes, his tone level

quietens me and that distant heartache and pang of jealousy finds its way back home to my stomach. In all this mess I was starting to wonder if our bond has been dented and if I was starting to feel differently about him. I guess I'm not that lucky,

to his heel, leaving his room, we make our way down another two flights of sweeping staircase and two other levels before we end up back where I caused such a scene hours ago. That sweeping final stair to the main entrance

cleaner and tidier now the debris is gone, and the front door closed, with the addition of several new heavy-duty locking mechanisms in place. The boarded

a small corridor that runs away from the bathroom he put me in earlier. I don't reject his touch, needing it now I'm on a comedown of what happened upstairs. Once again vulnerable and out of my depth and clinging to him to take charge while in his domain.

almost claustrophobic space, with voices, noises, lots of movement cascading our way, and follow two Santos we catch up with inside the most crowded room I've ever seen. It's hard to tell how big it would be empty, for it's packed solid with adult Santo wolves, mostly male, from all over, even the ones who don't reside in the pack house. Easily over a hundred or so, and they're all squeezed in, fighting for breathing space as we join

us all. Men I have never seen before in my life, standing behind them, and I guess these are the older generation of retired elders, coming out in our time of need. Mostly men in here as is the way when dealing with important matters, or femmes who have no children and are better suited to battle, as all of those who are not are home minding their little ones. Juan Santo is right in the center and he seems to be waiting for everyone to quiet before he starts. The overwhelming

behind as they hang by my sides in the darkest of our shadows. He rests his chin against the back of my head, bringing his body to fit snugly into mine, so we are completely joined without it being obvious to those around

hushes the uneasy mumbling and scraping in the room and everyone stops talking, the atmosphere somehow heavier with the forced hush. Juan steps forward, although I can barely see him over the people in front of me and have to stand on my tip toes to get a proper view between heads. There's a moment of pause

close by. I can't see her thankfully, which means she probably can't see us, and try to sink down further to better conceal myself behind the Santo in front of me. Colton squeezes my

gently, caressing my mind with a tender tone and

now, maybe. While they're all distracted with Vampire attacks and end of world foreboding, but my gut says it's temporary. I can feel the hatred lingering in the air from Juan's vicious frown and it unsettles

catch sight of him again. "We were attacked by a long-forgotten enemy, and quite frankly, we didn't see it coming and were not prepared. Despite the rumbling of recent months, we didn't honestly expect them to rise and attack in this way and we failed our people. We lost fifty-three of our kind, on the dark side of the mountain, tonight. Forty-seven lost in the

in this room, I'm probably the only one who not only knew their names, but what every single one of them looked like, who they were as people,

more, and I can't stop myself. My heart filling up and straining to contain it as my mind is swamped with images I don't want to relive, and I shudder as I

trembling as I cry, squeezing my eyes shut to gain control. His touch is what I need more than anything and I stay here in the darkness of my own doing, listening and silently weeping while held tight in his

open at his words, shoving my despair aside as I squirm, wriggling out of Colton's hug

antenna sticking up at the top but a complete lack of buttons and dials of any sort, that looks harmless. Small and compact, no more than a tissue box in size, with another wire sticking out from the rear about a foot long and doesn't seem to attach to anything to power it. It doesn't look real, more

chance should it fail. It didn't…. we've only one survivor left

and uneasiness as people glance around at one another in scared question, and I catch the whisper of my name on the hushes wave of sound. The mix of both relief that my survival ensured their own Santo alpha, but also the bitter ones, calling me a reject and querying how I was the one who managed