Page 9 of Rejected Forced Mate
Noah looked at me briefly before fixing his eyes back on the road. "It isn't like that anymore now that I'm the Alpha. You have nothing to fear, and I swear on my life that you are safe with me. And even if some of my wolves have a problem with you, it won't matter, because you will outrank them."
Cold gripped my chest. "What do you mean?"
Noah flexed his hands on the steering wheel, but didn't bother to look at me again as he dropped the bombshell, "I mean, you will be my Luna. My wife."
His mate. His Luna. His wife. It was all unthinkable.
If Noah had meant to silence me with that declaration, it worked, because my words died on my tongue, and I was quickly drowned by a fresh wave of tears.
Chapter 5 - Noah
It wasn't like I wanted to see Sage cry, but her being upset was just a necessary evil to make everything work. I knew I was on a time crunch to get her back to Silvervine territory and marry her, so there was no chance of her going back to the Brokenclaw pack, and if Joe or anyone
else in that pack discovered I'd taken her before I managed to lock her to me, there could be trouble.
She'd finally drifted off, tears still clinging to her long eyelashes, and I couldn't stop glancing over at her. Even with her face red from crying, she was the most beautiful thing in the world. Just looking at her helped calm the wolf inside of me, and after so many long days of my wolf demanding I claim my mate, I was finally on my way to making that a reality.
I'd lost my mind. I was well aware of that fact. Kidnapping a pack's healer, even if she was my mate, was worthy of a fight, but I'd had to risk it. It was unfortunate, but my actions had definitely soured my frail, new alliance with Joe and the other Crystal Creek packs, and in any other circumstance, a powerful alliance like that would be an inexcusable loss. They'd been good, useful allies, but Sage was on the line. I'd have burned the world down to have her if that was what it took. Destroying some potential pack friendships was an acceptable casualty, as long as I had my mate.
Allies could be replaced. Sage couldn't.
Recklessness wasn't usually one of my personality traits. My father was reckless, and it had gotten him crippled, which was why the pack had been handed over to me earlier than expected. Reckless Alphas tended to be cruel and dangerous, and I tried my damndest to be different. A new Alpha for amodern era, like the Crystal Creek packs were striving to be, but the second Sage reentered my life, and that all had gone out the door.
After almost dying in foreign territory and losing so much of my memory, my outlook had shifted. It was like I could feel death hovering around me at all times, and it made me feel the need to seize what I wanted before I no longer could.
And what I wanted was Sage. There was no time left to waste, not when life was way more fucking fragile than I ever realized.
Sitting beside me, she was asleep, and the stress was temporarily washed off her face. She looked peaceful, and I couldn't help but think about the life we'd had before, and the future we were going to have. I knew how pissed off she was, but facing my mortality also made me realize I had no intentions of leaving this earth without her bound to me. She was mine, and I wasn't a complete man without her next to me.
So what if she hated me at the moment? Sage was a smart woman. She'd come around and see how different things were with the pack now. She'd see that I could care for her the way she deserved to be cared for. Her anger would fade, and our future would be bright.
She might have thought of me as a monster, but I wasn't the weak man that I'd been when I rejected her five years ago. I was the Alpha, and I was stronger, more powerful than she could imagine. Sage might kick, scream, fight, or cry, but none of it will change the fact that she's the mate of an Alpha, and that her place is by my side.
Sage is more than just my mate. Soon, she will be my wife and a symbol of how I want our pack to be in the future.
If she continues to fight after we're wed, then so be it. I'll wait, ride out any storm that she throws at me, and make her see that this is the right way. That I can make her happy. She might not understand or try to deny that fate has brought us together for this very reason, but one way or another, I will make her a believer.
***
By the time we made it back to pack territory, Sage was awake and pissed off once more. The only difference was the fear that she was clearly feeling coming back to the pack that had caused her so much pain in the past.
The Silvervine pack is located near White National Forest in New Hampshire, about a four-hour drive from Crystal Creek. It took me longer since I took the backroads, just in case Joe had noticed Sage gone already and sent teams out to try and find us.
If Sage had come with me willingly, I would have done things differently. It wasn't that I wanted to rush her, but she gave me no choice. I would have loved to have shown her my home that I had built independently of the house I had shared with my father before Sage left the pack, the house she and I would raise a family in if I were truly lucky.
I would have wanted to introduce her to my inner circle—my Beta, Cal, who was a year younger than I was and surprisingly progressive for a wolf. He was the youngest of three kids, and his two older siblings were girls. They, along with his mother, had raised him to be respectful towards she-wolves in a way that was rare among the older members of the pack who still preferred the way my father had led.
Then I would have introduced her to my cousin, Summer. We'd grown close after my father was injured so grievously. I'dbeen overwhelmed with being thrown into the Alpha position and settling down the feuds with other packs that my father had started, but when extended family from a pack farther south, the pack my mother had come from, heard what I was going through, Summer came to help. Summer, a nurse with a painfully optimistic, sunny outlook on life, took over caring for my father, moving into the house with him so he could have 24/7 care while I handled the chaos that was the Silvervine pack at the time.
She was an enormous blessing, and I'd been glad when she told me she was more than happy to stay in the pack and continue to help my father. He wasn't fond of how bubbly she could be,
but her constant happiness was like a suit of armor, and he was never able to penetrate it. My plan was to use Summer to help ease Sage back into the pack.
But there was no time for introductions. Not when Sage was ready to bolt and run the entire way back to the Brokenclaw pack if I gave her the chance. No. I had to bind her to me and my pack before anything else could happen. She was just too clever and unpredictable.
Somehow, news of my arrival in the territory got around, and by the time I pulled up to the Council house, there was a small crowd outside. When I looked over at Sage, she was pale and quiet.
"I feel sick," she said finally. "Please don't make me do this."
