The Assassin’s Mate

"Damon, take him to the cells." I said before sprinting off into the battle zone. I needed something to release this anger on and I didn't want it to be him, not just yet!

I shifted mid air jumping over countless bodies as I slammed into a brown and tan wolf. He bounced on the ground and skidded across the grass slamming into another wolf before he got up shaking his fur and lunged at me. At the same time, I lunged at him causing us to collide in a fury of fur and muscle.

Flesh was ripped as I slashed my claws across his face. He snarled when blood dripped down his snout but I kept attacking and soon I had him pinned to the ground with my jaws around his neck biting down hard as he tried to push me off. He shifted his weight slightly giving me the leverage to rip his throat out leaving his lifeless body beneath me.

I looked around as the rest of the wolves retreated into the woods without their alpha. I glanced back at the pack house and quickly ran off towards the basement. He was being held down there and I needed to speak to him.

I shifted back and grabbed some clothes from the hamper outside the pack house. Once I was dressed I took the stairs down to the cells, never realizing how cold it was until I hit the bottom step. The dark, damp underground room reeked of stale death and torture but since I had been here no one had ever been kept down here, they were usually killed as soon as they committed their crime.

I grabbed the torch from the sconce and walked down the narrow hall letting the light illuminate my path. The walls were sweating from the coldness of the stone and the heat of the Earth behind it. Green, fuzzy moss had formed along the crevices giving it an almost enchanted look. I reached another set of steps and once I descended I was hit with the smell of metal. Silver!

I gulped down the lump in my throat and took a few more steps before I saw him chained to a chair with his chin to his chest. He had aged and you could tell he was way more rugged and hostile than he was before but there was still something soft about him.

"Why are you here?" I asked him.

He never lifted his head but whispered "I came back for you." He spoke with so much anguish that my heart fluttered. That feeling was foreign to me and I let it linger but only for a slight moment not wanting to seem nice in any way, because the truth was, I didn't give a fuck about anyone or anything.

"For me? Where were you 12 years ago, when I was lost in the forest as a scared little girl? You let my father exchange me like a piece of meat! And for what, for warriors? You lied to me and didn't even come looking for me!" I wrapped my hand around his neck and squeezed so tightly his face was turning blue. But he wasn't fighting back and that made me even more furious.

Just then Damon came running into the room with a look of pure surprise and said "Huh, for a moment there, I thought she was going to let you live, Alpha!" He grabbed my hand and ripped it from his throat, causing Crane to cough and suck in a deep breath. "But you can't do anything until Alpha Romero has sentenced him, after all he did attack our pack and there are certain ways we have to do this, Li."

He held me back from trying again knowing it would have only been a matter of seconds before he was dead and my body trembled at the fact that I was denied the chance. My eyes narrowed as I watched him sit there silently. He knew he had fucked up and there was nothing he could do or say to change it. He was the reason I was here and why I craved blood but I wasn't mad, in fact I should thank him. He brought out the inner savage in me.

I wriggled free from Damon's hold and turned back towards the way I came and without looking back I said "Release him!"

"We can't just let him go, Li. He attacked our pack. That alone is punishable by death."

I snarled at him daring him to question me again and turned to face them both. "Alpha Crane, if you ever think about coming on this packs land again, I won't be so kind. Now get out of here and never return." I turned on my heel and ran out that hellhole as fast as my human legs would take me. I didn't know if Damon would let him go but by the way he looked at me, I knew he though about it.

Once I made it outside, the night sky had covered the land in darkness. I hid behind a tree a ways beyond the entrance and waited for him to exit. A few minutes later he came bounding out the door and immediately shifted into his wolf taking off towards the woods. He stopped for a second to sniff the air, looking in my direction, before taking off again.

I would get hell from Romero for letting him go but he did give me a chance my father never would have so I owed him. But this was the only favor I would ever bestow anyone, so he better not take advantage of it.

I shook my head and took off in the opposite direction, heading for my special spot. Sprinting towards the river I let my wolf free, feeling the breeze flow through her fur as she ran as if her life depended on it. She slowed down when her favorite patch of luscious green grass came into view. She trotted up to it, falling onto her side and rubbed her snout along the long, soft blades causing it to tickle her face and elicit a sneeze. This was the only place I felt safe to be me. To pretend this life was just a joke and that one day my real life would start over.

Suddenly there was a growl behind me. I hopped up turning to the noise and laid on my belly with my neck bared. Romero! Great! He was fuming and I knew exactly why. He nudged me with his snout then took off back to the pack house. I jumped up and followed him trying to figure out what I would say to him. There was no way he would tolerate any excuse I gave him. I let someone who attacked us, go. I let him live and that was against everything he raised me to believe in.

We got to the house and he shifted grabbing some shorts then threw some clothes at me as he said "Shift."

I followed his command then walked behind him as he stormed off to his office.

"Why the fuck did you let him go?" He stood facing away from me looking out his window.

"Alpha, I don't have an excuse but he gave me a chance that my father never did. And if it weren't for him I never would have ended up here. I know it was wrong and I am ready for my punishment but I will not apologize for releasing him."

He turned and stared at me in shock then said "You're lucky none of my pack was hurt because I would have not hesitated to leash you for a month. Now get out of here while I decide your punishment."