Unloved Mate (Wolves Of Night Shade Pack)

10

Valor

I rolled over on the bed, and my eyes fell on the lamp on the nightstand. I let out a grunt and turned away, seeing that I was still in Kane’s arms. His grip around my waist was possessive. I chuckled low and slowly took his arms off my waist, sitting up on the bed. “Little wolf, you can't leave the bed just yet.”

He whined in his sleep.

“Leo wants to run,”

I told him and smiled. “I’ll be back before you know it.”

I replied and rose from the bed. He reached out to me and pulled me back to the bed, claiming my lips in a kiss.

“Bye. Don't stay out too long unless you want me to chase you again.”

He grumbled, and I rolled my eyes.

“I won't.”

Sighing, I regained my stance, walking to the wardrobe and taking out his shorts and shirt. I changed into them and walked out of the room, finding my way to the compound.

Something had changed in me. I thought to myself as I strode down the field, heading for the nearby forest where I would shift.

“You don't expect us to remain the same after having a night with our fated mate,”

Leo purred in my head. “After all these years.”

“You were right about last night, Leo. I'm sorry I doubted you,”

I apologized. “But what about Zeke?”

“Zeke isn't our mate, and he's a cunning bastard. We don't know what he's up to yet, but with Kane’s help. We are going to find out.”

Leo continued.

“We'll have to. He's my best friend and I don't want to hurt him.”

I replied to my wolf lazily, reaching the forest grounds. I pulled off my clothing and put them into a pile, hiding it under the root of a tree.

“I liked him at first when he returned, but I don't trust him now. I trust, and I want Creed.”

“Zeke and I have history, but there's so much we don't know about Kane.”

I informed.

“He’s our mate.”

“I’m not doubting our bond, Leo. I just want to know more about him.”

“Ask him when you get back to the house. If he doesn't answer, then we'll know he's hiding something.”

“Ok,”

I nodded. I was about to shift when I heard a movement in the brush. Carefully stalking toward the source, I kept my eyes and ears open and drew closer and closer. Something moved behind me and I turned, but I couldn't find anything. “If this is a fucking joke, Kane. Stop it!”

I was turning back in the first direction when I walked into someone's chest. Looking up, Zeke smirked wickedly at me and slammed my head into the nearby tree.

All I saw for the next two hours was darkness.

When I woke up, I was lying in the living room in the mansion where Zeke had brought me. I let out a scathed grunt and rubbed my temple, soiling my hands in my blood. Fuck, I was still bleeding. Ezekiel must have hit me so hard. I slowly rose to my sitting position, turning to the incoming footfalls. It was Zeke, and he had a tray of food in his hand. “Hey, you are awake. Knocking you out naked wasn't ideal, but I enjoyed watching you bare,”

he smirked at me and put down the tray in front of me. My face twisted in disgust at his words. “Eat.”

He coerced.

“I’m not eating anything from you. What did you do to me?”

“He's marked you. That would make it hard to implant memories into your head now,”

he said, trying to touch me, but I swatted his hands off my face. He was even admitting the fact that he had been manipulating my memories. Thankfully, he had clothed me. I rose to my feet and backed away with a growl. “And he's fucked some bravery into you. If you don't eat, you're going to starve,”

He added, his tone rich with amusement. “I don’t intend on letting you go anytime soon.”

“I’m not staying with you. What did you do to me? Why did you make me think you were Kane?”

“Because I was protecting you.”

“Protecting me from what? Him? The only person I need protection from is you.”

I pointed at him and a growl rumbled in my throat. If I had to fight my way out of here, then I would.

“You can leave now if you want to.”

He shrugged and carried the tray back to the kitchen. I sighed and sauntered toward the exit. I opened the door and tried to get past the threshold but I couldn't. I tried over and over, but it was pointless. It was like there was an invisible barrier stopping me from leaving. I turned to Zeke and saw him standing opposite me with a wicked smile on his face. He knew exactly what he was doing.

“Let me out.”

“No.”

“Why? What did I do to you to deserve this?”

“Everything! Your family ruined my life. They were the reason I left in the first place,”

his tone was rich with pain and torture. “I worked so hard for everything while you just had it handed over to you. I suffered while you lived in your luxurious home. I lost everything just to make you happy, and even when I loved you. You just didn't care and now you get to walk into the arms of another man and have your happy ever after.”

“Ezekiel, I didn’t know. You could have just told me. I would have…”

“Apologize? Or what? Fought for me?”

He cut me off.

“Yes, I would have fought for you!”

I asserted.

“I don't need your fucking apology. I want you fucking dead!”

he roared at me. “And I hate that because underneath everything I still love you, and I just want you to stay here with me.”

“But...”

“You have nothing with Kane. He's just deceiving you, luring you into his den of lies until you were foolish enough to let him trap you with the mating bond.”

He said in a very convincing tone, making me almost believe him. Kane didn't lie to me or manipulate my memories to lure me out of here. He didn't kidnap me and bring me back to his own home, and he sure as hell didn't implant memories of his past into my head. With him I had free will and he respected my choices, but Zeke had become someone entirely different. Like I hadn’t known him all my life. Maybe I didn’t.

“That’s not true. Our bond is real,”

I shook my head. “Ezekiel, you're hurt, and I understand that. We need to talk about this. You know I've never done wrong to you. Please don't do this. Don't ruin what we have.”

I remarked and closed in on him, taking his hands and giving him a soft caress. Tears sprung from his eyes and I pulled him into an embrace, holding him as he shuddered in my arms.

“You’re wrong. I have nothing left. Kane has you. He took you away from me.”

He whispered as tears trickled down his cheeks and pushed me off himself. He gritted his teeth and took back my hands, trying to drag me back, but I tussled out of his grip.

“Don’t.”

I replied, shaking my head.

“Valor, you need to come with me,”

he commanded with a deadly serious expression, and I shook my head. I wouldn't go anywhere with him. He seized my arms and pulled me closer. “You fickle Omega. I'll always be stronger than you,”

He disparaged but I backed away. Leaving him with one option—an attack. He moved toward me at an unnatural speed and thrusted me into the wall, and I grunted out, overpowering his weight on me and exchanging our position. He struggled until he pushed me over, the impact of his strength sending me toppling into the living room. I forced myself up, but before I regained my stance; he had cleared the distance between us and seized my throat, strangling me and knocking the breath out of my lungs. My throat burned at the tightness of his grip and I struggled to breathe, my eyes rolling at the back of my head. I thrashed and struggled, choking out a plea, but he didn't listen. He lifted me from the floor, his hands still around my throat, my feet hanging inches away from the floorboards as he hurled me to the wall. I slammed against the wall then it was darkness.

***

Kane

My original intention was to just use Valor as a pawn in my scheme of revenge against Ezekiel. But when I met him for the first time, he basically took my breath away. My beast became obsessed with him. I just couldn't stop thinking about him. For the first time in my life, everything felt just the way it was supposed to feel when I was with him. Goddess, the first kiss we shared in his pack. That was one of the best kisses of my life. I chose not to take revenge, but to ensure that I stole Valor from the monster’s ensnare. Zeke didn't deserve a person like him. He was impulsive, jealous and driven by his egotistical emotions. I didn't want him being with such a man.

I couldn't believe he was all mine now.

My mate.

“Ours.”

Creed, my beast, hummed in response to my thoughts.

I went back to sleep after Valor had told me he was going for a run. When I woke up, the sun had colored the skies, and I freshened up and headed downstairs to join the rest of the family for breakfast. To my surprise, Valor hadn't returned to the house. I wondered what was keeping him from coming back and after I had asked my family about his whereabouts, and they couldn't give me an answer. I commanded the pack warriors to search for him through the entire pack.

About an hour later, they came back, stating that they couldn't find any trace of him except the pile of my clothes which he had left with for the run. The only explanation was that someone had kidnapped him. The first person who came to mind was Ezekiel. That bastard. He must have found his way into my pack. Fuck. Fuck. I wasn't supposed to let my mate out of my sight. Who knows what he would do to him when he saw the fucking mating mark?

Dismissing the pack warriors, I took my car keys and headed out of the house. Entering the vehicle, I turned on the engine. I pressed on the gas as I navigated my way out of the pack, my thoughts burdened by the unrest of losing him. I couldn't lose him. He was the man who completed me. His wolf and my beast were one. I was approaching the pack’s border, the trees that lined the path blurring as I zoomed past them. As I tried to drive past the territory, the car slammed against a barrier that sent the vehicle tumbling backward. I grunted as the vehicle slammed against the ground, the windshield shattering and the shards falling on the forest floor. A line of blood dripped from my head at the collision, and I wiped it off, kicking the door open and crawling out. I regained my stance and stormed toward the border. I tried crossing over, but I couldn't.

“No!”

I roared, kicking and struggling at the barrier. I mind-linked the pack’s witch, explained to her that I couldn't leave the pack and asked her to meet me at the pack’s border with a new car. Pacing the floor, I waited for her to come as quickly as she could. The more time I spent without Valor was driving me crazy. I needed to save him from the claws of that monster and tell him everything he needed to know before he implanted twisted lies into my mate's head.

Not too long, Leda drove through the path, parking the new car next to the crashed one. She stepped down with Beta Rohan, their eyes widening at what had transpired. “What happened? Are you ok?”

Leda asked while Rohan lifted the wrecked vehicle back on four feet.

“Yeah. I'm fine. I tried crossing over, but some sort of barrier stopped me.”

“Mm,”

she answered and approached the border, waving her hand over. A blue veil appeared before her, the barrier now visible for everyone to see. “It’s a force field.”

“Can you take it down?”

“Yes, of course.”

She revealed and pressed her hand into the field of magical energy, muttering some sort of enchantment. When she finished, I tried to crossover again, but the barrier stopped me.

“Why isn't it fucking working?”

I roared, overwhelmed by anger and frustration.

“I think it's a magical object.”

“How long would it take to bring it down?”

“I don't know. I'll have to find the object and destroy it.”

“Valor is out there, and I can't even get out of here to save him.”

I asserted.

“I have an idea,”

she remarked and placed her hand on the barrier, shutting her eyes and speaking in an unknown language. She pulled away from it and put her hands out, still chanting. “I'm using the object's magic signature to find it.”

Some sort of object appeared on her hands and before I could get a good look at it, it caught up in flames. The veil disappeared, and I took the keys from Rohan, got into the car, and drove off.

“I’ll be back.”

I told my Beta through the mind-link. Valor comes first. Always and forever.