Bound to My Mate Ch. 11

It felt like the wolf was pacing in my mind, I wanted the girl's blood. I remembered I had just saved her. A large part of me wondered why Emily had chosen to tell me this. If she had not said anything it would not have been discovered. Joel had already told me he couldn't figure out who put the bottle in his rooms.

"Why would you do that?" I asked her.

"It doesn't matter, Madam. My life is forfeit. I do not deserve to live."

"That is my decision to make," I stated with finality, "not yours. Why would you put something you thought was harmful in your Alpha's rooms?" I wasn't sure where my self assurance that I deserved to make that decision came from, it just was.

"Tabor told me to do it," she repeated keeping her eyes closed and her bloody throat bared.

"That is not an answer I will accept. Why would you do something like that? I want to know everything right now."

"Tabor said he loved me, he said he would protect me. No one else was interested in me. At first, it was nice. He treated me good and then he changed..." she trailed off fresh tears running down her face.

"Everyone said he was bad news, so I never told anyone about us. He said if we kept our relationship a secret it would be better. I did everything he asked. He told me we would be mates, he just couldn't commit like that yet. He shared me with his friends, although I didn't want to. He beat me. I have been so ashamed."

"What kind of thing am I that my mate would do that to me? I have no value, Madam Alpha. Be kind and end my life now, before I have to face my family. They didn't know anything about this, let it end with me."

I was shocked and paced back in forth in front of Emily. I knew about battered human women, I'd seen it before. Now I was confronted with a battered werewolf. She had committed an egregious crime, one that probably would result in her death and the death of her family.

'Only if you allow it,' the thought came into my mind from my alter ego. That part of me was angry and frustrated. My mixed human opinion on the subject of Emily's guilt seemed to be confusing my wolf.

The part of me that was wild and wolven wanted to kill the female in front of me. The threat had to be destroyed as a warning to others. There were no second chances. The girl's life was the fine for challenging the Alpha.

I wasn't all wolf, though. My human side had seen abused women do things to appease their abuser. Emily had made a mistake and tried to atone for it. Forgiveness was still an option.

The wolf did not understand forgiveness. I felt her melt into my mind trying to wrap her brain around the idea. It was human logic, based on the complicated inner workings of a human society. The wolf sifted through my understanding of the werewolf pack. Forgiveness would not be an obtuse concept to them, it may be acceptable.

Emily was weak, allowances could be made for her frailty. The wild side of me relented. This girl was no threat and killing her would not be satisfying.

I rubbed my hands on my face. Now I just had to convince Joel. Emily made a stupid choice, but she tried to pay for it. That should carry some weight.

"Get up, we're going back to the den."

I motioned for her to get up and walk.

"Madam Alpha, my punishment ..."

"I forgive you. I will talk with Alpha Latro on your behalf."

Talk about making promises you can't deliver on. Tears filled Emily's brown eyes and she started to cry again.

"How much more did you do to help them?" I asked.

"As little as I could," she sobbed. "Tabor called me almost every day. They wanted to know what the Alpha was doing to protect you. I never told them about the training. That's what made them so angry. They didn't know you had gotten stronger."

I ran through the whole thing in my head again from the beginning. She had walked through the entire suite with a bottle of poison and nothing had stopped her. Nate had told me the witches put protective wards on the Alpha's suites. I wondered if those were as worthless as the rest of their spells seemed to be.

"Are all the witch's spells useless?" I fumed out loud. "How were you even able to put the poison in our rooms? Are all the witches in on it?"

"I don't think so, ma'm," she sniffled. "Tabor told me afterwards that the reason they had me place it was because I didn't have any ill feelings toward the Alpha. He said that the wards picked up on intentions of wolves wishing to do harm to the rooms' occupants."

She continued to speak, but sat heavily on a boulder beside us. "That's when he told me I had to keep helping them. Tabor said if I turned them in he would tell the Alpha I was the one that tried to poison you. He, he said..." she started to cry again, "that the Alpha would kill my whole family. They would all die because of me."

I stood and watched her quietly. The gouges I had left on her neck were healing some, but she looked miserable. She seemed broken to me. The only other wolf I had seen with such a demeanor was Lucas. I would have to talk to him.

Up ahead I heard the crunching of leaves as paws tore through the forest. It sounded like Joel had sent an army. As predicted my wolf didn't want to be caught with defenses down, especially with a weak injured female beside me. Despite the energy it took, I was suddenly the large white wolf growling out a warning to the approaching throng. The wolf and I were finally agreed, no one else was hurting Emily.

A large grey wolf wove out of the trees first, his head dipped low. He approached us submissively and I was a little irritated. Everyone thought I was so out of control. Like I would really attack Nate.

I stared at Nate and the frustration inside me grew. I had no idea how to talk to him like this. Suddenly, I shifted clumsily back to a human form. The wolf wasn't far, I could feel her lingering just under the skin. Nate shifted to a human kneeling before me and I watched the trees as the pack's warriors slowly emerged and took a knee.

I approached Nate, still watching my crying charge warily. "Please get up, you know I have no idea what the protocol is."

"Of course, Madam, we're glad to see you are unharmed. We had heard Emily was..unwell," Nate said critically eyeing the young girl who just cried harder.

"She was hurt badly and should be taken to the healer as soon as we reach the den. There are two dead werewolves back the way we came from. That needs to be taken care of, but I'm not sure what to do about it."

"Yes, Madam Alpha I understand," he smiled at me. "We know what to do. We should get you back home now. It will be faster if we all shift and run as a pack."

I turned to look at Emily. She stood cowering where I had left her. Instinct told me she should run at the back of all of us, away from me. It didn't sit well with me at all.

"I don't want to be separated from her, Nate," I told him honestly

"She will run between you and I if you are still worried about her, Madam. It is not normal, but I understand you feel protective of her," Nate told me.

I nodded my agreement to that plan, but I had another problem. "Nate, I can't control the shifting thing, it just happens when I'm scared, irritated, or angry. I'm so tired right now. How do I do it?"

"Imagine the wolf running through the woods or fighting in the woods, whatever you've done as her. Let it take you over and you will shift," he said gently. "Perhaps you could contact Alpha Latro he could walk you though it."

I huffed, "He's not really pleased with me right now. I'm trying to leave him alone."

Nate laughed out loud at that, "Madam, when has he ever been entirely pleased with you? He will help you if you need it and I'm sure he'd like to hear from you."

I took a step back and breathed deep. I remembered how it had felt fighting the second wolf; my paws digging into the earth and then into his mangy hide. Looking down I had large white paws on the ground. I looked at Nate and my tongue fell out of my mouth in what I intended to be a smile.

Nate called Emily forward and instructed her to follow me. "We will follow you back to the den," Nate encouraged as Emily shifted into a small silver wolf.

My paws took on a life of their own and I started back for home. Emily was a lot slower than me and I had to adjust my speed significantly to avoid outpacing her too far. Even with that I felt freer than I had since I started this crazy run this morning.

I could smell the scent trail the warriors had left and I followed it. Not that I needed the direction. I knew exactly where home was and with exhaustion right on my heels I was headed to the den.

I decided to take Nate's advice and contact Joel.

'They found me,' I called to Joel in my head, 'I'm going back to the den.'

'I already knew that, love, Nate told me as soon as they saw you.'

'Nate has a cell phone?' I asked him pondering where he had kept it. The man had been naked and I didn't see anything he could have used to call Joel.

Joel laughed in my head a little and I was glad to hear him do it. Maybe he wasn't too mad at me.

'Remember I already told you, you can communicate with the pack similar to the way you communicate with me. It will take practice, but in the wolf form you can talk to other wolves in their wolf form. Don't worry about figuring it out now.'

'I love you Joel. I'm sorry.'

'Don't you ever get tired of having to say that, love?' he asked sounding angry.

'Don't you ever get tired of bossing me around?' I shot back at him before I could stop myself.

'We will talk when I get back,' he answered curtly ending the conversation.

I opted to stop concentrating on him and enjoy my leisurely run. I sensed the pack running behind me, but I felt like the forest was mine. The stars and moon shone above me and the woods were alive around me. It felt wonderful. Too soon I could see the looming structure of the den come into view.

Concentrating hard, I fell gracelessly back into a human form when I saw all my friends standing outside the den. I wanted to tell them I was all right and apologize for ditching them.

"Elizabeth," Katrina cried approaching me. She looked a wreck. Shawna was right behind her and didn't look much better. As I threw my arms around them, I realized they were both sobbing in my arms.

"What's wrong? Did something happen?" I asked confused.

"We are just so glad you are okay. Alpha Latro will still punish us, but you are fine, yes?" Shawna asked. Now I felt like a jerk. I'd been running around playing most of the day while they panicked.

"He won't punish you, any of you," I said looking pointedly at my Beta friends that had cared for me for the last several days. "I promise you I will take any punishment the Alpha decrees, you all did a fine job." Wow, I was in way over my head.

Emily was walking by the group about that time and burst into tears seeing me. Katrina moved to hold her and Emily tried to wiggle out of the embrace. Katrina was persistent as usual.

"Katrina, she must see the healer and you are not to leave her side. Please stay with her for me and I want to talk to her when the healer is done. Can you do that for me?" I asked hoping she wasn't too tired for one more task.

"Of course, I will take good care of her," she answered brightly, holding Emily close.

I trudged up the stairs to our suites and just wanted this day to end, but I had to get the hard part over with. The hard part of keeping my promise to all those wolves about my mate's fiery temper. Trying to be calm I stood in front of the balcony door and sucked in a deep breath.

'Joel, I know you are mad at me, but I need to talk to you,' I sent the message out wondering if he would respond to me.

'Then talk,' growled back into my mind.

'I don't want you to punish my Betas. I ran away. I deserve whatever you dish out, but just me,' I stated.

'What if I don't honor your request, mate? Perhaps I feel your Betas owed you better care than what they showed you.'

I shuddered a little at his tone, but held my ground. 'It wouldn't be your decision to make,' I said praying this was the right tact, 'they are MY Betas. I made the mistake and I will pay for it. I chose who gets blamed.'

Warm arms wrapped around my midsection and I almost shifted, luckily for him I was tired. The wolf recognized his scent and relaxed back inside of me, pulling in her teeth and claws, which had made an appearance.

"You still move like a ghost," I whispered.

"You were concentrating, I won't always be able to sneak up on you," he said into my hair.

Being near him was like breathing after being under water too long. Turning I wrapped my arms around him and moaned as his scent saturated my new senses. He was intoxicating. His shirt was the only thing keeping my face from his skin and I ripped it down the middle rubbing my face against his chest.

"I'm glad to see you too, my love. Do you plan to rip off all of my clothes? I had become rather fond of this outfit, but I suppose it's a small price to pay," he chuckled as his hands ran over my neck and back.

"Be mad at me," I demanded trying to concentrate on the earlier conversation. It was really hard to remember what had been so important. "Say you will blame me for running. I knew it was wrong. I should have turned around the minute I regained control, but I was having fun. My Betas had nothing to do with it. They watched me as best they could."

My human hands had wrapped tightly around his upper arms as I looked up into his eyes. He looked irritated and tired.

"No blame for running today, love, it was natural," he sighed, "I just wish I could have gone with you on your first outing. I also wish it hadn't been so stressful and violent for you. You were very brave, albeit foolish to take on the rogues alone. What you did saved Emily, I'm sure of that. She'll be cared for now, we always take care of our own."

I purposefully ignored the comment about my foolishness. That was another conversation entirely. "You have to forgive Emily then," I said trying to think of something brilliant that would save her.

"Forgive her for what?" he asked pulling back to look in my eyes.

"I can't tell you that until you promise me you will forgive her," I tried to bargain with him.

His eyes turned steely and his countenance changed, the Alpha was back. "Tell me what she did," he commanded.

His smell was intoxicating me, I couldn't argue with him so close, so I backed away. "No."

"I get the feeling this little game is more than I would assume it to be," he said calmly stalking toward me.

"It is, I promised I would protect her."

"From me?" he asked continuing toward me as I backed farther away.

"Yes," I was almost up against the wall beside the balcony.

Moving away wasn't working, I still felt surrounded by him. Besides that my animal instinct was howling her protest at retreating. I stood my ground and tried to think of a way to tell him.

He considered me for a moment, tapping his finger to his lips, and spoke. "Emily's name was on the list of those that helped prepare my rooms for my new mate," he stated simply.

I waited for the death sentence to come, but it didn't. "By the standards of pack law she should be a rotting pile in the forest by now. Did she offer you her neck?" he asked instead.

"Yes," I answered hesitantly.

"I take it you refused," he said holding my gaze.

"She is with the healer now. She has paid a heavy price and is sorry for what she did."

"She is sorry she tried to kill you is what you mean," he said shrugging out of his ruined shirt and kicking out of his shoes.

"There were extenuating circumstances," I said watching him warily, "I forgave her."

"Was it your place to offer that?" he asked crossing his arms across his broad chest. I lost my train of thought watching him.

"Well?" he asked.

"Yes," I answered confidently, "I am the female Alpha. It was my place to offer her forgiveness."

He slowly came at me and wrapped me in his arms. There was no protest I could offer that would sound sincere, I needed him. Shaking my head I tried to clear it, this conversation wasn't over yet.

"It was my place to decide her fate. Do you agree or not?" I asked him trying to sound firm.

He nuzzled into my hair and ran his hands down my back to kneed my buttocks. "Maybe," he answered, "convince me."

"How do you want to be convinced?" I asked running my hands over his skin. He was steel covered in silk. I growled my appreciation at the texture of him.

"You, my little love, will submit to my mastery until I say otherwise," he gruffly whispered in my ear. "When I am done with you, I should be adequately convinced."

Kneeling at his feet, I stripped him of his socks and started to work on his belt. If all the man needed was a little sex, I would give him that willingly, Emily or no.

A knock at the main door made us both groan. I remembered I'd told Katrina I wanted to see Emily once the healer was done.

"It may be Katrina with Emily," I told him hesitantly.

He still hadn't really said if I was able to decide her fate or not. He also hadn't made any promise about leaving my poor Beta friends alone. I cursed myself for promising people things I didn't know I could deliver on.

"How interesting, perhaps we should see what our little rule breakers have to say then," he said starting for the door way.

I scrambled to my feet and followed him. He had sort of said I could make the decisions I had made. He had also said he wasn't convinced yet. I tried to keep the worry off my face.

"By the way, love," he said just before we reached the main door, "I'm impressed with your acceptance of nudity. It's very refreshing from you and I don't mind the view at all."

I flushed scarlet at his statement, I'd forgotten I'd been naked all day. Now I couldn't leave to go put on clothes, I had to see what he would do.

Outside our door was a mass of people. I had expected just Katrina and Emily, but it looked like a small armada was accompanying them. Joel must have known what to expect because he threw open both doors.

"Madam Alpha, thank you," cried a woman that looked strikingly like Katrina, she fell to the ground and started to kiss my feet. I would have moved away, but a strong hand on my back stopped me. I looked up to see Joel looking passively down at me.

'What's going on?' I asked him through our bond.

'You spared her only daughter. What kind of reaction would you expect?' he thought back to me continuing to look at the throng with a reserved expression.

The woman at my feet was talking and crying at the same time. I had trouble catching it all. It sounded like she was saying, "We didn't know until she just told us. She will never make this type of mistake again. She will learn from her misdeeds. I promise you she will always be a loyal pack member."

The scene repeated with her father, uncles, aunts, cousins and friends. It was a little overwhelming. Once they were all done they looked at me expectantly. I was at a loss.

"Emily Maryann Swift," Joel said to the throng, "is the last survivor of this latest scandal. We have judged her to be a victim of it and not a perpetrator. The Madam Alpha wishes her to have time to heal. The damage inflicted by the renegades was not just flesh."

The crowd murmured and I nodded my agreement to his statement. I didn't remember sending all of that thought to him, though.

He continued, "Should she need a break from her duties that is acceptable. She will also be meeting with my mate twice weekly to help in her healing process, Monday and Friday at ten in the morning. Please make sure she gets to these appointments in a timely manner."

That was confusing, but I tried to keep my face like his, blank and open.

Emily stepped forward with Katrina still glued to her side. Tears were dried on Emily's face and her eyes were still red. Her mother pushed her toward me a little. Emily seemed hesitant, she obviously still felt guilty.