FATED TO ALPHA HUNTER BY VENNEH LISAH

𝐃𝐖𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓'𝐒 𝐏𝐎𝐕:

I told her, breaking the silence, "Rina, you were willing to be mine earlier."

"That was before I discovered my mate, and you're a vae-wolf. It would never work," she spat.

"I would change you, and it would work, but you need to reject Kelly and come home with me," I chimed in.

"I can't. He... he... he loves me," she chirped.

"But do you love him? Think about it, Rina. If he wasn't your mate and you were locked up here, would you stay or come back with me?" I breathed out.

"That's not fair," she said.

"Answer me," I bellowed.

"That would be different," she looked around the place.

"You live in a castle. Who would choose this place over that?" she finally said.

"Fine, then if he wasn't your mate, who would you choose, him or me?" I asked again.

"But he is my mate!" she squealed.

"Exactly. The mate bond tells you to love him, to stay with him. It is not a darn choice, but if you had one," I trailed off. She bit her lip.

"I don't know! I... please, you have to leave. You're confusing me. Stop. It all needs to stop," Rina whined.

"Come back with me, even for a little while. Just come back, come see Ania. You wanted to see Ania, right?" I begged.

"It's unsafe. I have to stay here. Kelly will take me to see her. He promised he would," she told me.

"I'm a f*****g vae-wolf. What safer place is there to be than by my side?" I cursed, shaking my head and pinching the bridge of my nose in frustration.

"He's my mate," she shouted, though she looked confused about what she really wanted. That stupid marking on her neck made me wish I could remove it so she could think more clearly.

As I moved towards her, she backed up until her backside hit the kitchen sink. "Come back with me," I hissed.

"I can't, Dwight," she hissed back.

"But you want to, don't you?" I asked, and she looked away.

"I can't leave my mate. It would hurt him if I did," she whispered.

"What about the pain he causes you?" I asked.

"Ah, not this again. He wouldn't do that. I'm his mate," she said, trying to push past me.

"He has multiple wives, Rina. Why do you think he keeps you out here?" I queried.

"You're lying. I already asked him, and he said you're just jealous," she spat.

"Of course, I'm jealous, but I wouldn't f*****g lie to you," I told her.

"You need to leave," she said, but I grabbed her and pushed myself against her, gripping her neck. My lips crashed against her plump ones, and she tried to shove me away when my tongue forced its way between her lips.

Rina moaned as my tongue invaded her mouth, her attempts to shove me off stopped before her hands ran up my chest, and she kissed me back hungrily. I gripped her thighs, placing her on the edge of the sink, and pressed myself between her legs when she gasped, pulling away from me.

"Why did you do that?" she growled.

"Do you still believe that a mate cannot cheat on another mate?" I asked her. She shook her head.

"No, it's because you're a vae-wolf that you did something like that," she replied.

"I didn't make you kiss me back, Rina," I told her.

"She-wolves are naturally attracted to dominant men. It's in our DNA. You need to leave," she said, pushing me away weakly. She was too weak to move me.

"Rina, he is not good for you," I said.

"He is my mate; he is who I am destined to be with," she sobbed before pointing at me.

"You made me; I wouldn't have if you...," she shook her head.

"It's okay to love someone else, Rina," I said.

"I don't; I love my mate. I..." She looked around frantically, and her body trembled.

"Really? Because back home, you seemed to like me too," I reminded her.

"Yes, before I found my mate," she said.

"You still do!" I told her.

"Of course, I do, Dwight; you're a vae-wolf. My blood makes me seek you out, but that doesn't mean I love you," she stated.

Seek us out, yes, but I can't make her love me,I thought to myself. It was in their DNA that she-wolves sought out dominant males for safety, but that didn't mean they loved them. I knew she loved me too, or she wouldn't have always sought me out or let me follow her around like a lost puppy. Gary even offered to tell me to back off, but she refused, saying she liked me being around her.

"You need to leave; I want you to leave, please," she insisted.

"Come back with me," I pleaded.

"No! Just go. You can't force me. It's against the law. I may be misguided, but I know that much," she said, looking away.

"You are not misguided, just confused, Rina. Don't say that you're stupid," I told her.

"Leave; I have asked you to, so please, Dwight, don't make this harder than it has to be," she said, and I sighed. I pulled my phone from my pocket and glanced at the time. I was only granted an hour here, and I was already 15 minutes over.

"When you change your mind, call me; I don't care what time it is; I will come for you. Do you still remember my number?" she nodded.

"My number, Rina," I said, and she rattled it off, knowing it by heart. I kissed her forehead before nodding. "Answer my calls," she nodded.

"I will, okay? Just leave," she said. I chewed on my lip before turning and walking out the door. When I got in the car, I started the engine and looked up to find her standing on the porch watching me. She waved before looking away, and I turned the car around before leaving. When I drove over the boundary, Gary called.

"What?" I barked.

"Are you on your way back with her?" Gary asked.

"She wouldn't come. There is no food in that place. It's a sh*t hole," I barked again.

"She has to come willingly. You can't take her," Gary advised.

"It's f*****g bullsh*t; I should command her," I told him.

"You do, and she will always question whether or not she made the right choice," Gary tried to reason. I growled, and eventually, he hung up when I arrived at the town I stopped in. I nearly drove through before cursing and pulling into the grocery store. I filled a cart with different foods before driving back, unable to get the thought of her eating bird eggs and whatever she could find in the forest out of my head.

Pulling up, I quickly unloaded them. I could see her asleep on the fold-out bed through the murky tiny window that had a crack in it. I placed the groceries on the porch before knocking and walking away, unable to trust myself not to drag her out kicking and screaming. I turned the car around, tearing out of the driveway, but caught a glimpse of her. She glanced down, staring at the groceries before looking back at my retreating vehicle.

I would be in so much trouble for going back and being late, but I couldn't leave her without food, and Arman would lose his mind. Stuck in my thoughts, I knew King Arman wouldn't break a law that would put the Vae-Wolf Kingdom at more risk of war, but maybe he would for Ania? If she knew, I had no doubt she would go off about Rina living like that if she knew what Kelly was doing behind Rina's back. I would find a way to tell her; I would accept the backlash from the king when she does.

𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐀'𝐒 𝐏𝐎𝐕

As I unpacked the groceries that Dwight had brought and dropped off on my doorstep, my mind was still reeling with the fact that he had driven all the way here. I couldn't help but feel a sense of longing for him, but I knew it was wrong to have feelings for another when you had a mate - it would be a betrayal of the worst sort to the moon goddess who had bestowed the gift of mates upon us.

To be honest, I had never thought myself worthy of a mate - someone to love me unconditionally - until I met Kelly. It was odd because I thought Dwight was my mate. I missed Kelly and wondered if it hurt him as much as it hurt me when we were apart.

However, as I chewed on one of the strawberry clouds that Dwight had remembered were my favorite, I couldn't wipe the goofy smile off my face. He was always giving me candy at the castle, and the fact that he remembered my favorites had me feeling happy and grateful.

But guilt quickly set in as I scolded myself for my reckless thoughts about Dwight. I knew I shouldn't be thinking of him in that way, and I needed to stay loyal to my mate and the moon goddess.

It felt strange to see the cupboards filled with food. Kelly brought a couple of bags every few days, but nothing like this. I was always rationing everything, and even then, it still wasn't enough to last until he returned. It had been days since I last saw him, and he never stayed long, only a few minutes before saying he had to get back to work. This place was quiet, sometimes too quiet for my troubled mind, and it made me miss Ania and Zara even more.

As I finished packing the last of the groceries away, I decided to go bring in the laundry. I only had these pants and shirt, plus the clothes I came here wearing, which were currently on the clothesline. Having to hand wash them every day in the sink was becoming a real mission.

But I didn't want my clothes to be dirty if Kelly returned, yet the heat and sun wore me out quickly. Being confined out here, I found that I spent most of my time sleeping. The hunger always eased when I wasn't awake to endure it, and the same was true for the bond. Its longing and yearning for my mate made my heart hurt less if I was asleep.

As I stepped outside, I shielded my eyes from the sun slowly going down behind the trees. I split some sticks to make pegs as none were provided, and only half of the clothesline still had wires. I couldn't wait to go to the pack house, which Kelly had told me all about and said was beautiful. I just needed to be patient, and soon I would be free to be with my mate without being under threat from the pack war he was currently stuck in.

As I checked the clothes, the hems were still wet, so I flipped them on the clothesline and hung them up the other way. In another half an hour, they would surely be dry, and I could iron them for tomorrow. Walking back inside, I stopped when I heard the sound of tires on gravel, and my heart leapt with excitement, hoping it was Kelly. When I turned around, however, I saw the mysterious black Mustang parked at the end of the driveway again. I stared at it, wondering why they came here every day but never introduced themselves or got out.

Today, though, things were different. The car door swung open, and a woman got out. She was gorgeous, with long curly hair half pulled up, wearing sunglasses that covered her eyes, and everything about her screamed high class and money. She walked around to the front of the car, her knee-high black boots crunching on the gravel as she leaned on the hood. She wore a white cami and blue jeans, and her lips were stained red from her lipstick.

She was sitting on the hood of a car, and I waved to her, wondering if she was a pack member and whether I should say hello. However, Kelly had instructed me not to talk to anyone outside, so I remained where I was. She didn't wave back and only glared at me.

With one last glance over my shoulder, I rushed inside, closed the door, and locked it. Not that it would do much good - the door's hinges were loose, and the bottom of the door was waterlogged, making it difficult to shut and leaving a gap that mosquitoes loved to exploit at night.

I peered out the window at her, staying far enough back, hoping she couldn't see me. She sat there for a while before eventually leaving, leaving me wondering why she stopped here every day. Once she was gone, I let out a sigh of relief. My afternoon was sort of like clockwork.

I took a nap before bringing in the clothes, then hung them up along the window curtain on a coat hanger. I made my bed before grabbing the book that Dwight had brought me.

Feeling peckish, I wandered into the kitchen. The sun had set now, and day had turned to night. The nights were the longest, so cold and empty that the most pain usually came then. That horrible, heart-wrenching pain that constricted my chest. My anxiety always peaked around this time, waiting for it to arrive. Next time I spoke with Kelly, I would ask him to take me to the pack doctor. Something had to be wrong, or it wouldn't be so frequent.