"Did I fucking stutter, pup?" The man asked rhetorically, his voice dripping in annoyance. "Yes, my mate. As in, if you don't take your hands off of my mate, I will rip your arms off of your body." The man's time was casual, and his face almost looked bored, if not slightly irritated that he had to deal with the minor inconvenience.

Greyson grated his teeth. "She's not going anywhere with you, fucker." Nevertheless, Grey released my wrist, but stood in front of me protectively, sinking into a fighting stance. His eyes were dark, and I had only seen him this angry a few other times while facing off against other rogues.

The man raised an eyebrow, seeming almost amused. "You dare to challenge an Alpha,
pup?"

Greyson snarled at being called a pup. It must have been a derogatory term to wolves, because I could see that it only fueled his fury.

My stomach turned at the man's words. An Alpha. Just like the Alpha that had kicked me out of the pack 14 years ago.

The man turned his gaze on to me, suddenly piercing his eyes into my soul with concern. "You're distressing my mate, pup. If the next step you take isn't away from her, it will be the last step you ever take." The Alpha promised, never removing his gaze from mine. His attitude was so blasé, it almost scared me more than if he were livid and seething.

"I'm not scared of you," Grey spoke calmly, and his body shook as he resisted the urge to shift into his wolf.

The Alpha smiled emotionlessly. "You should be." With that, the apathetic Alpha began walking towards Greyson and I. I stood, too frozen to move or react.

Greyson however, was more than ready for the Alpha's advancements towards us. He snarled, and shifted into his wolf. Greyson was huge for an unranked wolf, at least from what I had seen from when we came across other rogues.

The Alpha grinned evilly, seemingly pleased that he successfully baited Greyson into shifting. He continued walking towards the wolf, as his men hung back. I suspected he gave them the order to not interfere.

The Alpha still was wearing his black slacks and navy blue button up, and he even rolled the sleeves up so that they were just underneath his elbow. Why wasn't he shifting?

"Stop!" I cried out as they nearly collided, finally finding my voice. They both hesitated before turning towards me. "Please don't hurt each other," I begged, not wanting to witness any bloodshed.

The Alpha spoke up first. "He challenged me, little one. I will kill him quickly out of respect for you."

My mouth dropped open. He wouldn't actually kill Greyson, would he? How violent do these Alphas actually get?

"Please don't," I whimpered, my voice cracking. As strong as Grey is, he was no match for an Alpha.

For the first time, I thought I saw an emotion in the Alpha's eyes. Pity.

"Oh, little one. There's so much you have to learn about packs," His tone wasn't condescending or patronizing, simply speaking his words as fact.

Greyson snarled, making me break eye contact with the Alpha. "You see, love? He wants to die for you, and I'm happy to oblige. I'm nothing if not reasonable," The Alpha drily said, and a few of his men's mouths quirked up into a smile. They appreciated their Alpha's demented sense of humor.

"Nobody is dying today," I harshly responded, my voice strengthening with resolve.

His perfect eyebrow raised, as did a corner of his mouth as he gave me a crooked smile. "Feisty, I like it. Unfortunately, I'm still going to enjoy killing your little boyfriend."

At his words, I lifted my arms from my sides, extracting energy from all of the surrounding grass. Knowing I would need way more of an energy bank for what I had planned, I also took the life force of a few nearby trees. Even though they can't really feel emotions like humans, I always feel guilty for killing them for my own selfish purposes.

The influx of energy was so great, my body was levitating as black energy coursed through my veins, begging me to expel it.

I hovered about 6 feet off of the ground, my arms still raised at my sides so that I looked like Jesus Christ on the cross, and felt the energy cackling all around me.

The Alpha's men looked at me in shock, their mouths agape, while the Alpha looked... pleased?

Not letting myself dissect the nuances behind the Alpha's visage, I released all of the energy in the form of a thick black fog, obscuring the vision of all of the parties involved.

I made a dash in the opposite direction into the woods, hoping that Greyson would act quickly and follow. He knew these parts better than the Alpha and his men, I was sure of it.

As I sprinted into the woods, I looked backwards occasionally to see if Greyson was close behind. Suddenly, I was yanked behind a tree. I yelped, but exhaled when suddenly Greyson appeared.

"Shit, Greyson. You scared me. I didn't know if you followed," I struggled to catch my breath, partially from the running and partially because he scared the hell out of me.

"Onyx, you can't go back with that Alpha. He's bad news. His cousin is the Blood Alpha," Greyson insisted, panic lacing his tone.

My mouth dropped open as I gasped. The Blood Alpha was known for dismembering rogues and posting their body parts around their territory as a warning. All rogues knew to stay away from Blood Lake territory, and away from the unclaimed territory around Red Crescent, where the Reaper was known to be active, even know he hadn't been seen for almost a year, many rogues were terrified that the cloaked figure would reappear and start killing off rogues at alarming rates again.

"Just because his cousin is bad doesn't mean that he's like that," I frowned at Greyson.

"Yes, it does, and if you weren't so naive, you would see that," Greyson snapped at me.

I blinked back tears as I stepped back, ripping my hand away from Greyson.

His face instantly softened. "Hey, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it. I just don't want you to get hurt, Nyx. You haven't been in a pack in almost 15 years. You don't know what kind of fucked up shit happens in them."

I glared back at him. We almost never fought, but when we did, the fights were brutal. "I'm not a kid, Greyson. You don't get to choose what I do or who I do it with."

"Onyx, I'm trying to protect you. You have no idea what kind of sick, demented things packs do! And Alphas are the worst of them all! The Blood Alpha whipped his mate so badly she went into a coma!" By the end of his tirade, he was shouting.

I winced at his words. "He is not his cousin. He could be better."

Greyson shook his head in disgust. "Thane and Cain are cursed. Death follows them everywhere."

Tears pooled in my eyes. "Like me?" I choked out.

His eyes widened in realization at what he said. "Fuck, Nyx, that's not what I meant. I was ju-"

"Stop," I whispered. "I need to be alone. Don't follow me." I retreated away from him, sprinting deeper into the forest. I wasn't worried about the Alpha and his men finding Greyson. He could always just turn invisible and escape. I wondered why he didn't do that when they first came, and why he felt the need to challenge the Alpha.

The forest was completely silent, and I was thankful to be alone with my thoughts.

Grams had always insisted that I would be so full of joy once I found my mate, but all I felt was anxiety over what was to come. My mate seemed so mysterious and like he had no emotions, and that scared me. I'm an emotional person and I don't know what I'm supposed to do with a mate that has as many emotions as a slice of bread.

Not only that, but I cringed when thinking of how he was related to the Blood Alpha. Despite defending him to Greyson, I was concerned that he may have been right. How could someone related to such a monster be good? Would he hurt me, just as Greyson claimed the Blood Alpha hurt his mate?

"Come here often?" a recognizable bored tone suddenly filled my ears.

I cringed as I turned to face my mate, the Alpha.