Adea
“Well, well, well,” Duke murmurs. His eyes light up like a kid in a candy store. “It looks like I figured out why you said things were complicated. Do you have a little mate waiting at home for you?” I bit my tongue and clenched my teeth. I know what this looked like and maybe he was a little too close to home. Duke pulls me close and looks me in the eye. “Have you run away?”
“Are you or are you not going to let me pass?” I bite out. I don’t care that a bit of my anger shows.
“Oh yes, I’m going to let you pass, your majesty.” He didn’t know how close he was to the truth with that statement. “I’m going to escort you to Alpha Shane. We’ll see what he has to say about you. Will we have a play toy after meeting with him?”
For once since I woke up today, I smile. I hate Shane and everything that he’s done to me but these guys are nasty for no reason. I look forward to seeing what he does to them when he sees how they’ve treated me.
“I guess you’ll have to wait and see.”
I hold Duke’s gaze until he pushes me forward, his hand is still on my neck. I’m being led in the direction of the packhouse leaving the Jeep running behind me. It’s closer now but there’s still a way to go on foot. The sound of footsteps approaching alerts me of Pan. Good, I want him to come too.
“Keep an eye out, we’ll be back,” Pan calls to the guards at the border. “Wait up, Duke. I’m coming along too. In case she’s wrong like I think she is, I call first dips after she’s dismissed. I’m going to have so much fun with her. Shane doesn’t take a liking to any of the gifts presented to him. If he casts her out like the others, I’m going to take my sweet time with her.”
Pan has caught up with us by now and I can see him in the corner of my eye. His eyes are on me and I cringe as he licks his lips before facing forward. I don’t miss the way he adjusts himself. I’m disgusted but try not to show it. The two of them bicker back and forth about who gets me first as the packhouse grows closer and closer.
***
I wasn’t expecting to see the bodies of the previous leaders hanging outside the packhouse. They hadn’t been the greatest to me but in death, they weren’t treated with any respect. I’d heard he’d killed the leaders and their families. Had Shane left any of them living? Maybe it was a mercy.
The scene in front of me was horrific. I tried my best to look at their feet and not at their face and mangled body. If I had to see my family hanging like this, I would lose my mind with grief. Was Trent among the massacred family?
I know they were put there as a warning. A warning to those faithful to the previous leaders. Maybe a threat of what would happen to them if they weren’t loyal to Shane.
I don’t know if I should have but I felt relieved when I didn’t see Alpha Joshua or Luna Rose hanging out front. A part of me hoped it was a kind act from a brother for his sister. We’d been walking for thirty minutes and I didn’t see Mavy on the way.
I’d hoped to get a glimpse of her and was disappointed when I didn’t. Now that I stood in front of the packhouse doors, I had higher hopes of seeing her inside. The forests I once ran through early in the morning were close by and I wondered if they were still untouched.
The doors opened and pulled me from my thoughts. I wasn’t ready for the nostalgia that hit me like a ton of bricks. Shane hadn’t been Alpha for long but as I looked around I noted he hadn’t made any changes.
The packhouse was exactly the same as the day I left. There were no signs of struggle, it had already been cleaned up. It was clean and the walls were spotless. The maids have kept up the same routine that Alpha Joshua set out for us, no, for them. I was no longer a slave to Half Moon but being here again, it felt like I was.
Duke shoved me hard, his grip around my neck disappeared, and I stumbled forward. Thankfully, I caught myself before I could fall for the second time today. Pan was by my side, his eye danced from me to the room before us.
The last memory I have of being in this room was when Nikki dropped us off. Mavy and I walked through the door and jumped up and down on the sectional. Goddess, we were children. I smiled at the memory of Alpha Joshua greeting us and giving us chocolates. My mood turned sour as I remembered that was the day Shane had asked me to meet him in the gym.
“Where is he?” I asked as I fought the images that threatened to fill me with fear. Instead, I decided to focus on the two threats that stood in the room with me. There was no use focusing and freaking out about the past. I had too much on my plate now. I needed to worry about what I was going to do when I saw Shane.
I turned to look at Duke. His eyes clouded over as he mind-linked Shane. Pan and I stood in awkward silence as we waited for Duke to return. I couldn’t help but watch him and didn’t miss the way his lips turned down. When the link finally cut and his eyes returned to normal, he stared at me curiously.
“He’s in his office,” Duke answered quietly.