“No, no, no.”
My mind was screaming at me, fear burned at the back of my throat, terror clawing at me from inside. In the years following everything that had happened, slowly my childhood memories had begun to fade, ebbing away with the passing of time leaving behind only the barest of things to be remembered.
I could remember my father pointing me out to go with young Alexander but the memory before that had been blanked into nothingness. The memories of a certain blonde-haired boy I had considered a pest, the men who had attacked us, and the constant questioning that had followed when I had woken up barely recalling anything.
I hadn't been randomly picked by my father, it had been because of my association with what had happened with Everett, Alexander’s older brother and the Alpha in line.
“I had nothing to do with that,” I said.
I hated how vulnerable my voice sounded. I knew for certain I had nothing to do with what had happened with Everett and I had repeatedly told the story of the men who had attacked us but there’d been doubts concerning my words because I couldn't describe them and I couldn’t recollect the memories of what had happened afterward or how I had woken up to Everett’s bloodied cloth with myself being unharmed.
“Aaahh,” my uncle, Silviu said, nodding, his eyes on me in a way that caused a feeling of discomfort to roll over my skin. “But you had been with him on that day and you remain till this day the only one who can tell us what had happened.”
Callan spoke up, “Silviu, you can't possibly believe the hogwash that an eight-year-old Sophia had something to do with the death of a boy I believe older than her. Not only is that impossible but I find it even wilder that you all decided to punish her in the way you had.” He took a step closer to Silviu, his expression hardened, anger burning in his gaze. “Do you have any idea of the life you sent her to live with Alexander? Do you lots from the Mystic Hollow Pack, choose to be blinded all these years to the monster Alexander is?”
There was intense rage detected in his tone and something twisted in my stomach seeing him stand up to my uncle like this but I knew I’d had enough of it, he should too. How much longer was I going to allow Callan speak for me?
I reached out a hand to hold him just as my uncle spoke with barely any emotions depicted in his voice as he talked of me.
“Sacrifices are to be made to uphold peace and Sophia has a duty to her pack. The treaty was explicit in her being mated to Alexander if at the time of her twenty-third birthday she is yet to be mated by her Goddess-bestowed mate,” A smirk lifted the corner of his lips. “And if I remember correctly Sophia turns twenty-three in a few days and here she still is, unmated.”
I felt a rapid shock of panic infiltrate my senses at my uncle's words.
I couldn't return to him.
The memories of Alexander’s brutality were forever etched in my brain and on some nights, my brain conjured up his form in my nightmares. It was vivid, the lustful way his eyes ran me over, the battered calendar he had marked every day for the last fourteen years.
He was obsessed, and deranged, and he was going to make me live an even more harrowing life than what I’d experienced, the only difference was that this was going to be for eternity.
“I am not obliged to do as the treaty says anymore.” It was a surprise to even me that my voice came out steady. “I won't go back to him and you won't—”
Silviu cut me off, “You owe us your loyalty, Sophia! Your opinions on this didn't matter before and it still very much doesn't now.”
I was momentarily stunned by the harshness of his words, they were like poison-filled arrows, flung at me and hitting their mark, stinging every piece of my skin. How little do I matter to my very own family?
“We will be mated before then,” Callan said. “And I would very much like you to stay for the mating ceremony so that you would be a witness to run off and tell Alexander in his manor where he's cowering and sending you to do his deeds.”
Silvia's face was a mask of the same panic that had plagued me and it bothered me. Why was he so insistent on me and Alexander’s mating? Why was my father insistent on it too? We had fulfilled our own end of the bargain so it couldn't be the fear of war, I doubted that was the case.
Silviu regained momentum almost immediately. “Do not seek to fool me, Alpha Callan. Alpha Elton, Sophia’s father, is very much aware of the Black Tide’s agreement with Amelia Thurlow of the former Shadow Pack before the pack merger.”
“You would have to wait to find out for yourself, isn't that so?” And Callan’s eyes raked over my uncle with a distastefulness that mirrored his. “You are welcome to remain here until the official mating ceremony.”
And Silviu looked like he was going to be sick.
Callan turned to me. “If you would please excuse me.”
****
He walked out of the room with one thing in his mind; Silviu Alden was hiding something and he was going to dedicate his time to uncover what exactly that was. What he didn't expect after stepping out of the drawing room was a teary-eyed Amelia at the other side of the door. She had obviously been listening in on the conversation.
Good.
He made to walk away but she reached out and hugged him from the back.
“Callan, please don't do this,” she cried, tightening her arms around him. He had never known Amelia to be this vulnerable but now he could tell she was crying and he hated that he could still see the child behind the woman she’d become. He had to force himself to look past the girl he had cared about and see the woman who she had now become.
Slowly, he pulled her arms that wrapped around his midsection away before turning to look at her.
Her face was a mirror of completely shattered, grief darkened her eyes and she was visibly trembling from fright— the fear of losing the coveted position she had lived for.
“We are meant to be together, Callan. Our families know that, everyone knows that and that is just what is best for us.”
He squeezed her hand where his held her. “But not the Goddess, Amelia. If it was for the best, we would be mates. It is over, Amelia and I do not want to speak of this any further.”
He let his grip on her hand slacken before turning to walk away.
“If you go ahead with the mating ceremony, I will kill myself!” she swore, her words causing him to pause mid-stride, and just as he made to turn and ask if she had completely lost it, a warrior appeared at the end of the hallway, dashing towards him.
“Alpha,” he said and bowed.
“What is it?”
The warrior rose, his forehead matted with sweat. “The Beta was attacked,” he announced in a breathless voice. “He is badly injured and is currently unconscious.”
Radley!