She was just as beautiful as she was when I first met her. She was only a few inches taller than me with curly brown hair. Her brown eyes lit up as she took in me actually being her.
She was Walker’s mate, so when I first met Axton, she had immediately glued a friendship with me. She was always making me laugh and we both loved to play pranks on the boys when they annoyed us. She had been my first friend when I had come to this pack.
“I thought you were dead,” she broke as silent tears started to fall onto her face.
“We all did,” Walker said as he walked in the room and took Sawyer into his arms to comfort her.
I watched how they acted together. It reminded me of how Axton used to never want to let go of me. He had wanted to always keep me in his arms.
Key word: had.
“Yeah well I’m harder to kill than you thought, right Axton?” I turn towards him.
“Ellie, I have no clue what you are talking about.”
“Of course you don’t,” I snap, “You can’t have your pack know that you wanted your own mate dead.”
He froze for a second, “What?”
“You want to continue this ‘I didn’t reject you’ thing all you want Axton,” I tell him, my anger over the last seven years bubbling to the surface, “I don’t know if you are faking it or you actually forgot destroying everything we had, but I will not let you do this to me again.”
“Ellie, I never-”
“I don’t want to hear again how you didn’t do anything. We were both standing right about here as you looked me in the eye and broke our mate bond. You forced me to leave,” I try to keep my face neutral, but the memory of what happened that night and over the next couple months just kept replaying in my mind, “Well this time, you don’t have to reject me to make me leave. I’ll do it on my own.”
Chapter 12
Axton POV
I stood there perplexed as Ellie walked past me and bolted up the stairs. I didn’t understand what she was talking about. She said she left because of me, because I rejected the mate bond but I know that I didn’t.
My thoughts were interrupted by the sudden pain in my right cheek as a hand slapped me.
“How could you do that Axton?!” Sawyer screeched as Walker pulled her behind him in order to protect her, knowing I would be pissed for her touching me, “You rejected her?”
Even though I was pissed at Sawyer for the slap, my confusion over why my mate left was still swirling around in my mind, “I have no clue what she is talking about,” I say to her, “I would never do that.”
Sawyer’s eyes soften as she takes in the lost look I probably am displaying.
“Then why does she believe that you did?” Walker steps in.
“Because he did,” we both turned toward the new voice as my gamma entered the room, “You broke her, Axton.”
I growled at Reid as he came closer to us. I was stilled pissed about his interference from earlier. His left eye was still swollen as I smirked at the pain he has for stepping between what is mine. All my wolf wanted was to hurt him again, but I needed answers about Ellie and he seemed to know, “What are you talking about?”
“Because of you, she had to flee this pack. She was forced on the run. If I hadn’t found her when I did, she would have died. The rogues after her were relentless, plus she was running from you. All she wanted was to be able to raise her daughter and you threatened that. She fled to escape you.”
I was going to ask him why she fled in the first place, what I could have done to make her want to leave, but something he said made me pause, “When you found her?” I growled out through gritted teeth.
He paled for a second when he realized what he said. He knew he slipped up, and tried to cover it but he started to shake slightly in fear as his wolf tensed from the anger radiating off of me.
“You’ve known where she was this entire time?” Sawyer spoke up.
“You’ve known where my mate was,” I growl, “For seven years. I could have had her back by my side. For the last seven years, and you kept me from her.”
He gulped loudly as my body shook, my wolf completely at the surface, “It is my job to protect the Luna. The only way to protect her was to keep her as far from you as possible.”
The second he said it, I lost all control over my wolf. Our rage fueled us as we tossed Reid across the room. He hit the wall in the foyer before bending over. At least four of his ribs were broken, but I planned on breaking a lot more.
He lifted his head, coughing as he looked at me to continue explaining but my wolf didn’t care. He kept me from my mate and neither my wolf nor I would forgive that.
“You rejected her then threatened to slaughter both her and Zea if she ever came back, Axton!” he growled at me.
I was shocked at his words that I faltered in my steps for a second, trying to push down my wolf in order to focus on why he would say that, “No I didn’t.”
“Yes you did, Axton,” he pushed himself up the wall, holding his ribs tightly as he watched my every move, “You rejected her and your wolf broke the bond between hers. You destroyed the bond.”
I could hear my wolf whimper and growl at the insinuation that he would ever do that to his mate, I didn’t do that Axton. She is mine. I would never give her up.
I know that but why does he think that? I ask Knox.
“We never did that,” I tell him.
He shook his head at my refusal to admit to something I know I didn’t do to Ellie. I loved her. I never would hurt her. She knew that. She knew I wouldn’t leave her and I certainly would not reject her.
“Whether you will admit it or not, it destroyed her. You destroyed her, Axton,” he said just barely above a whisper.
Walker comes up next to me as I just stare at Reid, “Did you really know where she has been this entire time?”
Reid grunted from his broken ribs before answering him, “Of course not. I found her on the last hunt I went on to track her down. She had been hurt pretty bad. A group of rogues were chasing her and you were chasing her,” he nudged his head towards me as he continued, “She knew she couldn’t go back to her old pack, so she went to Blue Moon. Her brother had been friends with Alpha Madden and she knew Layla, so she figured she could hide out there for a while. I didn’t know she had stayed there.”
“Why didn’t you bring her back?” Sawyer asked.
“I did,” my eyes immediately snap to his to see if he was lying but all I saw was genuine truth behind his words, “I didn’t believe what she said to be true. I had seen the amount of pain you had been in when she disappeared. I told her that it what you were like, that maybe something about that night wasn’t what it had seemed. So I talked her into coming back.”
“She had been here? When?” Walker asked. I seemed to be frozen from saying anything to him as Reid talked about Ellie. She had come back. She was here, so why didn’t she stay?
“About six months after she left. We made it back to the border when we saw Axton.”
“What?” I asked, shocked.
“You were in the woods with some rogue. You were telling him that he needed to find Ellie because you couldn’t mate with someone else until your true mate was dead. We heard the entire conversation, Axton. I couldn’t believe my ears when I heard you hiring rogues to murder your own mate.”
I just stared at him, “I didn’t do that. I thought rogues had taken her. All I have wanted was to get her back.”
“Well you should have an interesting way of showing it,” he sneered.
I growled as I stepped closer to him, ready to beat him into a pulp but Walker gripped my shoulder, “He isn’t worth this.”
“Yes it is,” I told him as I continued to glare daggers at Reid.
“No, he isn’t,” he pulled me back and I allowed him to as he attempted to talk sense into me, “I don’t know what really happened, but he thought he was doing what he was born to do. He is the gamma; it is his job to protect Ellie and that is exactly wh
at he did.”
I could feel my wolf growling at me to still kill Reid but I knew Walker’s words were right. He was doing his job as gamma. He didn’t deserve to die.
“Get him out of here,” I motion to Walker and he picks Reid up and takes him to the infirmary with Sawyer behind him.
I stare at the wall as I take in the information Reid had shared. It explains why he came back from that last mission and did a complete one-eighty. He didn’t want to look for Ellie and he had always been pissed at me. He thought I wanted her dead.
Reid was figured out, but what I couldn’t understand was the events that took place. I never rejected Ellie, but she thought I did. I never threatened Zea, but she thought I did. I never hired rogues to kill her, yet she and Reid both saw me do it.
I don’t understand what happened, Knox said to me.
I don’t either but we need to figure it out, I told him.
Agreed, but how?
I don’t know, but we do know one thing, I say.
What’s that? He asks me.
I know I didn’t do those things, that means someone else did, I pause before continuing, Which means someone wants our mate dead.
Chapter 13
Axton POV
I push myself harder as I go deeper into the forest that covered my territory. After checking to make sure both Ellie and Zea were still in the house, my wolf pushed me to go for a run and I agreed immediately with him.
I needed to clear my head and think over the information that had been presented to me. I kept running that day seven years ago in my head, trying to come up with just one name. Any enemies I had back then that would go after my mate in this way, but I kept coming up empty.
I had just started to take over the Alpha title from my father at the time. My father had made many enemies as all alphas do, but I had not made any as of yet. I could not think of any rogues or packs that hated mine that would go after Ellie’s and my bond this way. Most enemies would attack head on, not fight in the shadows.
Well, we need to think of someone, Knox growled, We need somewhere to start and I need someone to kill for this.
I’m trying, but I don’t know who would want Ellie dead.
My conversation with my wolf quieted as we heard rustling in the bush near us. I let out a growl as I lowered myself, preparing to attack.
Relax Alpha. It is just me; a copper brown wolf exited the trees and entered the clearing with me.
Walker, what are you doing out here? I asked him.
He puts his snout up, What do you think? Ellie is back and thinks you rejected her. I figured you could use a friend.
How did you know where I was? I asked him.
I’ve known you for years, Axton. This is always where you come to clear your head, I shook my head as I smirk crosses his face. He knew me too well, So, is she yours?
I look at him for a second before answering, I don’t know.
Well did you ask her? Walker said in a matter of fact tone.
Of course I asked her, I scoffed, She said I didn’t believe her before, why would I now.
That’s not exactly an answer, he said.
No kidding.
That’s actually not the question that needs answering though, he says.
Which one? I ask him. I didn’t know which question needed an answer. There had been so many swarming in my head since Ellie arrived that I couldn’t even list all the questions I needed answers to at this moment.
If Zea is your daughter, what are you going to do about it? He questions.
What?
You have been thrown in a loop of first losing your mate and then her reappearing only to have a perfect little girl calling her mom with her. You’ve always wanted kids, Axton, and now you all of a sudden have a six year old daughter. So, what are you going to do about it? He asks again.
I hadn’t really thought about it to be honest.
What is there to think about? Knox questions in my head, She is our pup!
Ellie and Zea are everything I have ever wanted. The family I always wanted. I have to find a way to make them stay,
Now that’s the answer I wanted, he said, causing both of us to give wolfish laughs.
Has word gotten out that Ellie is back? I asked him after I caught my breath.
The entire pack has already heard, he says as he lets out a wolfy laugh, I know Reid told us some of the things that happened but has she told you what happened? Have you talked to her yet?
No, you guys saw. All she did was yell at me to stay away from her, I whisper, She left because she believed I had rejected her, I tell him, And I don’t know how to prove to her that it wasn’t me.
It doesn’t make sense. You loved her. You would never have done that; she should have known that. She is way too smart to have believed that you didn’t want her or that you would threaten to kill her, he pushes.
I growl slightly at his instigation.
He pulls his ears back and lowers his head slightly in submission, I’m just saying. Something had to have happened for her to think that way.
Something did, I tell him, She saw me but it wasn’t me.
How could that have happened? Even if someone was pretending to be you, the mate bond would have still been intact.
What are you saying? The mate bond is still there, I asked him, completely confused on where he was going with this.
In order for Ellie to actually believe that it was you, the mate bond would have had to been broken, or at least felt like it had broken, he tells me.
I think this revelation over and come to only one conclusion, A witch or warlock. There were warlocks that helped in the attack on Blue Moon.
He nods his head, It makes sense. For her to see you, it had to be a spell.
But for it to work for such a long time, it had to have been a large spell. I only know of a few witches and none of them have the ability to break a mate bond. It is one of the strongest magical bonds in the world, I argued.
Maybe it was just one that hid the mate bond so she couldn’t feel it. It would hold for long enough that the mate bond would start to fade as you guys stayed away from each other. If Ellie couldn’t feel your guys bond, she wouldn’t know the truth, Walker reasoned.
I have to talk to her, I tell him as I start to race off in the direction of the pack house.
Good luck. It seems like you are going to need it, he calls out to me as I leave him in the clearing.
* * *
I crept up the stairs as quiet as I could. I tiptoed towards the bedroom door sitting across from mine. I could smell both my mate’s and Zea’s scent sitting right on the other side of this door.
I stared at the white wood, trying to get the courage to open it. I needed to see them, but I also know that Ellie does not trust me right now. I needed to find a way to convince her that it wasn’t me.
I raised my fist up and made a move to knock, but a small voice stopped my movements.
THE ALPHA's MATE: A Romantic Thriller Page 7