When we arrive at my aunt and uncles I have this very bad feeling. Something bad is about to happen. Something worse than what has already happened. He takes my hand and leads me to the front door. It swings open as soon as we hit the porch. Sasha, my cousin, stands at the door. She has tears trailing down her cheeks. “You picked her over me. You rejected me for her.” She is a really pretty girl, just a bitch. Her red hair makes her stand out.
Oh, shit, this is the mate that he was talking about. Yeah, my life is fucked up.
He reaches out and grabs her throat. “What did I say about you telling anyone about that?”
She whimpers. “Not to tell anyone.”
“Then what the fuck are you doing?” He growls at her.
“You are my mate. I don’t like her with you.”
He growls back. “She is my mate. You are nothing but a slut who just walked out of a room with another wolf when I found you.” Ok, I can kind of see why he is pissed. I would be pissed if my mate cheated on me the day we were supposed to be together.
She growls back. “It’s not like you waited for me either.”
“It was only before my birthday and after I rejected you. You slept around every fucking day. Believe me I asked around.” He pushed her away from him. “Breathe a word of this again and I will kill you.” He growled down at her. Grabbing my hand he starts to lead us into the house.
Instead of responding to him she linked me. “You better watch your back bitch.”
A shiver ran through my body, but Darius must have felt it because he turned back to Sasha. “Don’t you dare link her again. You touch her or talk to her again then you are going to have to answer to me.” He exudes his power towards her. She shrunk back in fear. “Do I make myself clear?” His threat is evident in his tone. She just nods and keeps her gaze fixed on the ground.
He enters the house as if he belongs there with me in tow. He starts to lead me upstairs only to be stopped by my cousin Connor. He laughs and puts his hand on Darius’s shoulder. “Wow, so it’s true you got stuck with repulsive Sophia.” He is tall with red hair too. Plenty of she-wolves find him attractive. I just see him as an ass.
Before Connor can say another word Darius grabs his arm and twists it behind his back. “Watch what you say about my mate.” He growls in his ear.
Connor whimpers. “Sorry, dude, won’t happen again.”
Darius throws him down. “Make sure it doesn’t.” He turns back to me. “Alright little mate. Let’s get your shit and get the fuck out of here.” I nod and turn back towards the kitchen. He stops me. “Where are you going?”
I look at him with wide eyes. “To my room.” Like didn’t we cover this already?
He points up the stairs. “Isn’t your room upstairs with everyone else’s?”
I laugh, “Really after he called me repulsive Sophia you thought they would sleep on the same floor as me?” I shake my head and lead the way to the kitchen again. In the kitchen is a door that leads down to the basement. I open the door and head down the stairs. I can hear Darius growl behind me.
“You slept down here?” He’s looking at the door like it is the most disgusting thing on the planet.
I roll my eyes. “You actually sound shocked.” I pull the string at the bottom of the stairs that lights up a small portion of the basement. Down here isn’t too crowded. You have the boiler, the washer and dryer. Then some totes for storage. Then in a dark corner is my bed and dresser. The dresser is old and falling apart. The bed is an old twin, sags a little in the middle. I am pretty sure it is one of Sasha’s old beds. They gave me all the stuff that Sasha didn’t want anymore. That way they didn’t have to buy me anything. On top of the dresser is my old bear from when I was a kid and a picture of my parents and me before the accident.
I literally do not have any other personal items. I find an old cloth bag next to the washing machine and take it to put in some of my clothes and the two items that I want to take. I look over at Darius. “Well, that’s it.” I see his jaw tick. He isn’t happy about something.
“I knew they were mean to you, but I didn’t know it was this bad.” He grumbles.
I laugh. “You really seem surprised. You bullied me just as much as anyone else. Maybe even more. You honestly thought I might have it better at home when it all started here.” I can’t help but roll my eyes. I managed to stifle a sniffle. “Hell, you are still bullying me.”
Faster than I can think he pulls me into his arms. “That is all behind us. You are my mate. Did you not see me defend you up there?” He has a strong arm around my waist and he brushes my hair behind my ear with his other hand.
I look up at him. I don’t know where any of this courage is coming from. “You only made things worse. Do you honestly think that Sasha is going to let it go that I am mated to her mate? She is going to make my life even worse than it already is. She may act all meek in front of you but that isn’t how things are really going to be.” I sigh looking around at the meager surroundings that I had the last fifteen years. “Can we just go now?”
He gets an evil smile on his face. “I have one more thing to do before we leave.”
I do not like where this is going. He drags me up the stairs after taking my bag. He takes me right to the living room. He stands there in the middle of the room for a moment and then I see both my cousins and my aunt and uncle enter the room. That evil smirk is back on Darius’s face. “I want each and everyone to understand something. This is my mate. You are no longer welcome at the packhouse for any function. You disrespected my mate and that makes you no longer a part of the rest of the pack as your punishment.”
My Aunt actually scoffs. “Yeah, right. She isn’t worth any effort on our part. She isn’t even worthy of you. I don’t know why you didn’t reject her.”
Darius glares at her and raises one finger to her. “For continued disrespect you are confined to your house for one month. If you continue you and your family will leave the pack. Do you have anything else to say?”
My Uncle answers next. “You can’t kick us out of the pack. Only your father can do that.”
Darius isn’t done yet. “You know my father has a lovely saying. Be nice to all wolves because you never know who they will be to you in the future. I think he would agree with me readily. He already asked Sophia to call him dad. What do you think he is going to say about your words?” His smirk is down right evil. “About the conditions you raised his new little girl in. Think again.”
My uncle backtracks. “We never hurt her. We did what was necessary in raising her.” He seems to be shaking a little. This is an interesting sight. One I never thought I would see. This is the man that would backhand me if I so much as looked at him. He liked to pretend that I didn’t exist. It made it easier to pretend that his little girl was a perfect angel if there was no one to compare her to.
Darius growls. “I know that is a lie. This is your last warning.” He starts towing me out of the house. Then he stops and looks back at my aunt. “One month, remember.”
Once we are nestled in the truck Darius spins the wheels getting out of there. I still don’t see how he can be so shocked about all of this. He bullied me too. The way he is gripping the steering wheel leads me to believe that he is truly mad. His knuckles are white. His jaw is ticking. He is speeding down the road. “Can you… um… slow down.”
Yeah, the courage is gone now. He is scaring me a little. When he pulls off the main road into town and heads down a dirt road I start to panic. Am I getting in trouble? I didn’t do anything.
He throws the truck in park and shuts off the engine. I watch him carefully. He doesn’t appear to be pissed at me but he is pissed. He pushes his seat all the way back then looks over to me. “Get over here.” I have no idea what he is talking about. Get over where, I am right next to him. I scoot a little closer. “No, come here.” He has a little smirk on his face. “I need you to calm me down. Come sit right here.” He rubs his hands up and down his thighs.