TROY
I couldn't believe they had done that to Ruby. I should have been there at the house.
After I was forced to reject her, I had to leave the party to handle some rogues. I had just lost my mate at the time and was informed that rogues had been spotted along pack borders after not being seen around us in years.
So of course I had to go check it out.
But that was one of the biggest mistakes I made that day, letting myself think that she would stick around after being rejected.
And even after I had returned home, I didn't give her the attention I should have. I chose to take Alana to the hospital.
But knowing what was done when I was gone just gutted me. No wonder she resented me. No wonder her eyes were hollow and judging every time I stared into them.
That girl from back then was gone and it was by my own doing.
"Do not let her go, Troy. She's our mate..." My wolf growled, his tone heavy with warning. But is she? We rejected her, she wasn't ours anymore. "She's my mate! And she's unclaimed."
My eyes snapped to where her mark should have been. She didn't have any, and that meant that that sleazy bastard hadn't had his chance with her yet. It meant I still had a shot at this.
I just needed to play my cards right.
And it wasn't the way my father or the council were trying to go about this.
"All warriors stand down. They will be allowed to leave..." My voice echoed through the pack link, making sure anyone my father had set up before now knew their Alpha had just given an order.
My father's face twisted in anger. He made a sharp turn to face me the look almost accusing. But I had gotten used to getting that look. He'd never looked at me different all my life. I didn't expect anything different.
"I'm not going to force her to marry me, father. If she wants to leave, she can and no one will stop her."
I felt her eyes on me. And just this one since she and I met again, the stare didn't feel harsh, or like it was peeling my skin against my body.
She let out a breath of relief, said a quick thank you before she took Austin's hand. I finally turned, and saw their fingers intertwined. A pang of jealousy hit my chest like a blade. But it was okay. This pain was only for a moment.
I'll make it right, Ruby. I promise you.
I was prepared to see them off to the borders myself when the large doors closed shut with a loud bang.
We all froze for a second. I knew what was happening. Didn't realize who my father had sunk his fingers in but someone was working for him despite the orders I had sent out.
I turned to Chris, "I'm on it, boss." He started to walk to the door before I could even get a word out.
Ruby stood closer to her friends and Austin, her hands lighting up. I could never get past seeing her like that. Goddess, she's beautiful when she glows.
"You foolish boy, I'm doing this for you!" My father's voice bellowed in my ears and I winced from how loud it was. "If you have her, you have the company, do you not understand that?"
He asked angrily but I could care less. My father had a mindset. Even if something wasn't yours, you could claim it by force and it would become yours. He wanted me to do that to her. But how could I bring myself to hurt her again?
"I will have her, but not this way. I refuse to be with a mate who hates me father." I was done with the niceties. I had listened to them for years. Him specifically. If I continued to adhere to his ridiculousness, I would lose her forever.
I lost her once already.
"You will thank me later. Stop them, arrest her and take her to the dungeon..." My father ordered the warriors in the room, his stubbornness not backing down.
That was all it took for hell to break lose.
Some of them shifted, Ruby took a fighting stance with Austin by her side, claws out, fangs protruded. My wolf screamed at me to take her away. But all my head could think at the time was to keep her safe. Powers or no, she was my responsibility.
I should have known my father would do such despicable things.
"I am your Alpha! Stand the fuck down!" I yelled, running to her side, shielding her as if she needed it. Ruby could probably take my life with one swipe of her hand on my neck. I didn't care. I wasn't thinking straight.
The men stopped moving, they stood confused. To obey me or my father, the had to choose.
From the corner of my eyes I spotted movement, t was none other than Ruby's father, my father's personal lap dog. He could probably kill his own family just to please my father.
Fucking coward.
"I'd like to see who dares to touch my daughter..." A voice roared from outside the same time the doors started to swing open.
Several armed men poured into the room. They stormed in at once, the room instantly darkened.
In their midst was a man, older, with a striking resemblance to Austin. It didn't take a lot for me to know this was his father. And from the way the man carried himself, he was an Alpha as well.
How the fuck did he get here? I asked myself. There was no report from the pack that anyone invaded.
"Dad..." Ruby called out, brushing past me to his side. "You made it..."
The man hugged her, his eyes never leaving me as he pinned me with a hard glare. If I didn't have alpha blood, I would have shrunk into submission.
My wolf felt his challenging gaze and puffed his chest in defiance.
"He's touching mate...mine!" His growl, warning but low slipped from my throat.
"Of course kiddo. Are you hurt? Austin?"
I felt my father insert himself in my mind, barging in like he always did.
"Don't you fucking let them take her away or we will lose everything." He scolded like he would a child.
"Who are you? And how did you get past security..."
Ruby stepped forward from behind him. "This is my father, Alpha Mercer. I'm sure you have heard of him." I have. We all have. Fuck!
He was the most deadly of Alphas in the continent. But father?
My face contorted in confusion. "He adopted me the night your father had me banished, gave me a home and Austin." She finished with a smile directed at both men.
My stomach twisted in jealousy. She used to look at me like this. Like I was the only thing that mattered to her.
I quickly realised how he was able to get here at this time. Austin must have mind linked him last night. They had been waiting.
Fuck.
"Alpha Mercer, I don't care how resourceful you are but leave this pack at once and leave the girl behind. She's a member of Ironclaw..." I swear my father's arrogance was going to be the death of us all one day.
He had a long rivalry with old Mercer, couldn't beat him, it was evident.
"Funny, because the night I found her she had papers with her where she had been disowned. And not only that she was banished. She hasn't been a member of Ironclaw in five years. I'm taking my kids and their friends home and no one will do a thing about it." He answered in one breath. Then he turned his eyes to meet mine. "You can be a better Alpha than he was, kid. You don't want your pack to die the day the barrier was built."
It wasn't a warning. It was a promise.
A promise that for her he could tear us all apart. Silence hung in the air heavy as a ton. Its weight pressing down on my chest.
A part of me didn't want her to leave. But the greater part knew it was for the best. Now wasn't the time to be like my father.
"You're right, Alpha Mercer. It wasn't my intention to keep them." I sighed, I let my eyes fall on her one last time before she was gone.
Ruby didn't spare me a glance. She left.
A few days had passed since the chaos, but the tension remained. My father cursed at me, called me a failure for not doing things his way, Ruby's parents dared to raise their voices at me as well.
My wolf had had enough, so he put them in their place. And since then, my father hasn't said a word to me. He barely even breathed in the same space I was. I didn't mind it. In fact, for the first time in years, I had something that felt like peace. It wasn't her. It could never, because she was gone with Austin but it was something close. For the first time in years he wasn't breathing down my neck, making demands and demands.
I had just finished a round of patrol with Chris and our men, the loyals, around the border to make sure the barrier was working fine and there were no rogues lurking around and had returned home exhausted.
I pushed the door to my room but didn't bother with the lights. I stopped missteps, senses sharpening as something shifted in the darkness.
Someone was here.
From the scent, I couldn't quite place a finger on who it was. The air had a mixture of my father, of mud, smoke and a little of Ruby. I know that smell from anywhere.
My senses heightened and I retraced my steps back to the light switch and turned it on. Someone was indeed here. Two of them actually. One, a man, stood at the frame of my bed staring down at other sprawled on my bed.
"Father?" I whispered in confusion finally recognising him. Why the fuck did he smell like that?
My eyes darted back to the figure on the bed, it was a woman. My heart skipped a beat for a second when recognition settled. Ruby?
She was dressed in white, a wedding gown. Was she...
I looked up to my father to find a grin plastered across his face. "I did it son. I brought her back for you to marry before that bastard could have her..."
What the fuck?
"What have you done...?"