The war between werewolves and Lycans was brewing up. There were some werewolves who were constantly attacking the Lycans and wanted to get in the Veil or when the Lycans visited outside the Veil, they were attacked. In his previous trips to the human world he had seldom had such encounters. He was trying his best to get to the root of the problem, but he wasn’t able to find who was the leader of this attack.
With River in his life he had calmed down a lot, but now she was his utmost priority If anyone came to know that she was his mate, he was sure that they would try to harm her as much as possible, not because they would want to harm her, but because they would want to get to him.
“Tell me!” he insisted.
Embarrassed, River quickly covered her skin as a pale blush dusted her cheeks. “It’s nothing,” she murmured.
But Hunter wasn’t a ***. He narrowed his eyes on her and asked her again in his commanding Alpha, “How did you get that, River?
She winced. “It’s nothing much, Alpha Hunter,” she hid it from him. How could she say that Hector was her mate and that he was cheating on her? But her lips trembled when she hid it.
Not convinced, Hunter took a step closer to her, his wolf raging on the inside. “Did you fall down somewhere? Did anyone hit you, push you or-”
“No!” she shook her head and lowered her head. “It’s nothing. Please don’t worry so much!” She picked up her nightgown and slipped it on her body in a way that her bruises were hidden at all times.
A muscle feathered on his jaw as he clenched it. “Don’t hide it from me, River. Remember you are in the castle under my protection. So tell me how did that happen and I am going to make sure that whosoever did this is punished!”
River lifted her head up, her eyes moist. “It is not a good story, Alpha Hunter. I don’t want to bother you with it.”
“Not a good story?” Hunter spat. He came to sit in front of her and took her hands in his. “You can tell me every bad. story of yours. I am there for you to listen to them.”
Feeling a thousand shades miserable, she said, “Alpha Maxim’s son, Hector is my mate, but the day I came to know that he is my mate, I saw him marking another girl of our school, Victoria.”
Hunter’s world came crashing down. It was as if someone had punched him with a boulder. Dread blasted inside his chest and his stomach plummeted to the floor. He thought his entire world had shattered and then some more. River had a mate? And he separated her from him? Wait. “What?” Hunter asked, not believing her. “He sank his fangs in another girl knowing that you are his mate?”
“Yes,” River said in a low voice. “And that is why my wolf is sleeping. She was… traumatized.”
***just good bad. Hunter got up, his knees shaky, his mind in a turmoil. Could his life go any worse? He was so flustered that he didn’t know what to do. He covered his ***with his hands as blood drained from his face.
Hunter took heavy steps towards the fire hearth and sank on the rug. His eyes watched the flames in the fireplace that rippled softly, and the longer he stared at them, the more his mind became tumultuous. River had a mate… but did he reject her? She had so many bruises when he had first met her, but he was sure that it was what her father and mother had done to her.
But these black and blue marks were something else, and he didn’t want to believe it. A surge of restless energy poured back through him and in its rush, it drummed his fear and panic. He stabbed his fingers in his hair. And if he was feeling like this, what was going on with River. He wanted to get up and comfort her, but he was not comfortable with himself. So, he got up and walked out of the room, his legs shaky, his body numb, his mind- well that was different.
For the next two days, he didn’t come out of his room. Every time he would get up, he would pick up something and throw it against the walls to vent his anger. He had drained half the bottles of whiskey in these two days. His wolf wanted him to go to his mate, but he was denying him. He looked like a wraith by the end of the second day. It was impossible for him to attend any meeting or give attention to his Alpha jobs, but how could he?
When he didn’t come out of his room for two days and refused to eat, Elijah and Asher went to meet him.
“What is wrong with you, Hunter?” Elijah said as he took the glass from Hunter’s hand that was tilted and was half-filled with whiskey. Hunter’s hair was disheveled, he wasn’t wearing a shirt, there were bruises on his knuckles and feet and every inch of the floor was filled with shattered pieces of glass or metal. There were dents in the walls and plaster scattered over the ground
Hunter ***in a shallow breath. “She has a mate…” he said in a slurry voice as a fresh pang of jealousy filled him with rage all over again. He just didn’t know how to deal with that situation No wonder she was not having feelings for him and was suffering so much, when he was so fully invested in her
Elijah stared at him, shocked He looked from him to Asher who was just as surprised “Who?” he asked Both his beta and gamma knew that River was his mate but they never revealed it to anyone
“Hector..”
“That dimwit?” Elijah barked instantly, making Hunter chuckle. “But I know that he has another female”
“Yes, I saw him around with Victoria,” Asher added as he stepped over a broken glass and came nearer “In fact, both of them were pretty close.”
“That ***!” Elijah barked.
Hunter closed his eyes and rested his head on the wall he was sitting against.
“But it is not River’s fault,” Elijah said, his eyes full of sadness for his Alpha who was also his best friend.
“I know…” he rubbed his hand over his forehead. “He marked another female.”
Elijah scowled. “What a ****! She must be suffering a lot. Has he rejected her?”
“No…”
Elijah jerked his head back, unable to fathom his Alpha’s despair. He was silent for a few moments when he said, “Why don’t you take her to her pack and ask her to reject him?”
Hunter’s brows furrowed. “I have thought of that, but it would be too risky for her. Alpha Maxim doesn’t want her anywhere near the pack after he washed his hands off her.”
“Then why don’t you get Hector here?” Asher suggested.
Hunter looked at his gamma and said, “I haven’t brought male werewolves in the Veil, Asher. It would be a huge problem if I bring him here.”
“We can be discreet about them,” Elijah said. “But this problem has to have a solution. Get Hector over here and then he can reject her.”
“But would that scumbag agree? And if we bring him here, he is sure going to act important!” Hunter growled.
“We can force him to reject her,” Elijah said with a twinkle in his eyes and wiggling his eyebrows.
And for the first time Hunter laughed in two days. “But on what basis are you going to bring him here?”
“Leave that to me,” Elijah said with a mysterious smile.
For two days, River was feeling miserable. Hunter was in his room and ever since he had heard about her mate, he was acting bizarre. She would hear glasses shattering in his room. Sometimes, the walls would shake as if someone had punched them heavily. She heard him muttering curses one after the other. And not even once did he eat food. River didn’t know why, but she was beginning to get gloomy.
She had asked Faria as to what was wrong with him, but Faria had no answers. “Alpha tantrums,” she would say, rolling her eyes.
Not having seen him for two was really terrible. She missed him more than she could admit. She wished that she had rejected Hector before coming here to make her life better. She regretted every moment of knowing Hector. He was a heartless boy not worthy of being an Alpha or being anyone’s mate.
River had tried so many times to reach Hunter, but was too scared that he wouldn’t let her in his room or his heart. She had spent such a wonderful time with him and this was how it was going to end?
He had got her here as his breeder and then she told him that she had a mate.
Her troubles only doubled from what they were earlier.
Often, she would be scared that Hunter would throw her in dungeons and get another breeder. Nightmares haunted her.
By the third day, she had lost all hope to talk to Hunter and knew that it was time for her to run away, else she would be in dungeons like Ella. That morning she went to meet Ella.
