Chapter 4

Damien POV

I was woken up by the most mouthwatering scents, warm honeysuckle, and cotton, along with the smell of bacon, eggs, sausage, and toast. I knew the honeysuckle and cotton were the scents of my mate. It’s three in the morning, what is she doing awake at this time? I can faintly smell the scent of fear. That immediately pissed my wolf off. I decided to get up and get dressed and go for my morning run. By the time I was done with my run it was 4:30 in the morning.

I put on a pair of sweatpants and a black muscle shirt as I want to continue to do my ten-mile run while I was away from home to not break my workout routine. I need to be in the best shape I can be as an alpha. Once I was finished I went back to my room to shower. Once I was washed and dried off and dressed I made my way out of my room and my wolf started to stir with excitement and anger. I didn’t understand the anger part until I inhaled deeply and the scent of fear and worry started to bleed into me. That was when I picked up on my mate's scent so the emotions had to be coming from her. When Ace gets angry it is hard to control him.

I quietly walked down the hallway and followed my mate's scent until I was standing outside of a door that swings both ways. I knew it was the kitchen because the smell of breakfast food was very strong and so was my mate, she must be making breakfast. The only reason I can think breakfast would be started right now is that this pack wakes up early to train. But seeing how the other packs functioned the morning of the gala, I feel like that is not the case.

I quietly walked through the door and leaned against the doorway, I was in awe and filled with murderous rage at the same time. In the kitchen was a woman that looked to be around my age with blonde wavy hair that looked matted from not being taken care of and a dress, if you can even call it that, that looks like it was made out of a sack. I could smell the fear radiating off of her in waves and see that she was trembling. It was a deep fear that sent a chill down my spine. The scent of nervousness and her fear increased since I walked into the room. She has to know she’s my mate, so why is she acting like this?

When she turned around to go to a cupboard I was able to see her face and I was met with pure beauty it looked like she has been neglected and abused for years. This must be part of the secret Maximus was hiding. It will take me months if not a lifetime to get her to tell me everything that had happened while she was under his care. That is all going to change when I take her away from her and back to my pack where she will never have to go through this again.

She avoided holding any conversation with me and let me know that she had been abused and was afraid to speak to anyone. I notice the beautiful features of her face, her nose is slightly slim with a point at the end, and the most mesmerizing silver and blue eyes I have ever seen in my 22 years of existence. The biggest thing I noticed was how small she is for a she-wolf like she doesn't eat.

By the way, she is sweating and how flushed she is, I know she feels the mate bond but what I don’t understand is why she isn’t running to me like normal mates did when they first meet each other. What have they done to this woman?

As she walked out of the kitchen, I made a silent promise to her that I would take her away from this place and she will never go through this type of abuse again even when I don’t know the extent of it. I could not help myself but follow her out of the kitchen to find out why she wasn’t acting as a normal mate does. Something is not right about anything that goes on here in this pack. I heard her let out a deep breath as she rounded the corner from the kitchen.

I watched her walk to a shoe cupboard, maybe that is where the cleaning supplies are. Just as she was about to open the door, I quickly grabbed her by her arm and spun her around. I was taken back by the way she instantly covered her head and coward down to me. It hurt me inside to see her like this. My vision turned red with anger with her actions. Not because I found it disrespectful, but because she was afraid of me even though I am her mate.

“Is there something wrong with breakfast sir? I can make you something else if you would like?” Her angelic voice sang a song in my ear, but fear was evident in her voice.

“No, it was fantastic! I wanted to thank you and talk to you. I know you feel the mate bond, and I..” Before I could even finish what I was going to say to her she ducked under my arm and locked herself in the shoe cupboard.

Was she thinking I was going to reject her? I would never reject my mate. She is my other half and my soulmate. Why is she so scared? I decided I would find out for myself what was going on in this pack. As I was walking back up to my room to talk to Jackson, I ran into a she-wolf, the scent of her arousal in the air. It was so strong, it made my stomach roll with bile.

“Hi, I was hoping you could answer a few questions for me?” I asked her in my most charming voice even though she disgusted me.

“Anything for you hot stuff.” She grinned while twirling parts of her hair.

“Why is that she-wolf making breakfast? And why has she locked herself in the cupboard under the staircase?” I put on my fakest smile to try to sway her into telling me the truth.

“Oh that’s Rose. Ten years ago she helped rogues kill her parents so alpha Maximus said we are to beat her and use her and treat her like a slave, she’s not even to be given any food and when she is it’s normally days or a week since the last few bites of bread or something that was really old. I’m honestly surprised she’s not dead yet.” This she- wolf is so desperate for my attention she didn’t care to keep a secret. The way she so casually talked about the treatment of any other pack member had my blood boiling.

“That’s all I needed, thank you.” I coldly spoke as I started to walk away when she grabbed me by my arm.

“Wait! That’s it? You’re just going to ask me questions about a no good for nothing killer and then walk away from me? “ She started to run her hand up my arm and I jerked it away.

“Yes I am. I have a mate and you should really learn to keep your hands off of people that don't belong to you.” I left my alpha aura slip out.

“But baby, I can do things that your mate only wished of doing. Besides, she's not even here.” She said in a whimper with lust in her voice. I grabbed her by the throat and pinned her to the wall letting Ace’s anger flow through me.

“Do not ever speak of Rose that way again!! The next time you lay hands on her I will cut them off! Do I make myself clear?” The power from my alpha aura made her cower as she tried to escape my grasp.

“Yes alpha, I apologize.” She whispered and I released my grip on her and watched as she fell to the floor. She quickly made her leave. The way she stormed off told me there was only going to be more problems to follow and I needed to get Jackson before matters got out of control.

I walked into my room and Jackson was still passed out. I got a cold bottle of water from the mini fridge and dumped it all over him.

“What the fuck man!?” Jackson yelled as he shot up from the couch.

“Dude I need your help get your ass up! I think I just found out what Max is hiding.” I told him as I threw a shirt and sweatpants at him.

“Oh shit, I can tell just by the tone of your voice this is going to be good. What’s up?” He asked as he rushed to get dressed.

“My mate has been kept as a slave and abused and starved for 10 years and she’s the one that was accused of helping rogues kill the alpha and luna, they happened to be her parents. We need to get her out of here and find out what exactly happened.” With that he jumped up out of bed and ran out the door behind me when we heard screaming coming from down the hall.