What We Left Unsaid

“Chase wanted to see you, pup,” a middle-aged man said, his tone rather rude as he kicked out at the chair leg where a young woman rested, quietly eating a small bowl of soup. When the chair jolted, she somehow managed to avoid spilling the whole thing, instead stiffly finishing a spoonful before turning to glare in the man’s direction. She could take him, easily, but she knew it wouldn’t be a fair fight. That wasn’t the way things worked around here, she knew, and instead of it being one on one, it would be one on seven or so. The man arched his eyebrow in challenge, but the woman forced her gaze to sweep across the room, noting each and every other person in the room that would attack her if she so much as knocked the man’s hair out of line.

Snarling, she sent the man another dark glare before getting to her feet and heading towards the elevator. But, as she waited for the elevator to reach their floor, she spun on her heels, sending a wicked grin in the direction of the still-watching asshole. “If you ever do man up enough to think you can fight me one on one.... well, you know where to find me,” she said boldly, her tone sickly sweet as she leaned forward and blew a kiss in his direction, stepping backwards quickly as the elevator doors opened. Though she loved the rush of excitement she felt at the look on his face when the doors closed safely around her, she knew there’d be hell to pay the next time she ran into him.

But she wasn’t going to worry about that, because the whole pack was headed out to the mountains for one of those stupid trips the alphas always planned. Well, the whole pack but the three who were left to watch the territory, and her, because she was headed in the opposite direction to go and visit her friends. So, by the time the elevator doors opened up, any look of discontent had vanished from her features and had been replaced by a soft smirk. Just a few more hours, and she would be free.

“I heard from Matthias that you aren’t planning on joining us on our trip this month,” a cold voice called out from across the studio, just as the doors opened.

The woman sighed, wondering how on earth the egotistical asshole had even figured that out in the first place. She hadn’t told anyone, not even her friends she would be staying with. Casually, she slipped her hands into her pockets and walked deeper into the room, her gaze sweeping across the fashionable little office the alpha pair kept for ‘official business’, before returning her attention to the powerful male before her. “You would have heard from me, had Matthias not stepped into business that wasn’t his.”

The large male gave a ‘hmmf’ of consideration, leaning against the desk he stood behind and gesturing to the seat across from him. He waited until the woman was seated before dropping into his own seat and continuing. “It leaves me curious, Ava. Just what exactly makes you think you’ve the right to refuse to come? You know the rules, everyone gets one vacation skip every two years, and you’ve used two just in this past year. You expect a third?”

Ava bristled, her fists clenching quickly as she glared at the man before her. “You must be joking!” she snapped. “I missed one trip because I was recovering from two silver bullet wounds, that I got by saving your son’s life. I couldn’t even stand up, for fuck’s sake!”

“Watch your language, pup! And remember your place! Do not act as if anyone should be grateful for your actions; you only did what was absolutely necessary for any pack member to do in that situation. And besides, I was gracious enough to allow you to miss that trip, all things considered, even though you had just missed a different trip four months beforehand so that you could go to a party.”

“A party?! It was a funeral! For one of my best friends, that I knew my whole life! They needed me there!” she countered, a look of pure fury mixed with complete shock on her face as she eyed the man before her. She had expected some resistance, of course, for no conversation with Chase was ever a piece of cake, but she hadn’t been expecting him to pull stunts like this. It was downright ridiculous.

“Evidently, you need to learn how to pick better friends, Ava,” the older man calmly responded, choosing to ignore her little outburst for the time being. His brown eyes stared straight at her for a moment, daring her to raise her voice at him just one more time. “A group of misfits that broke away from the pack when they were still pups is not the kind of crowd you should be hanging around in. I don’t wish anyone dead, Ava, but it’s no shocker your little friend couldn’t manage to survive on his own.” He waited a few moments, watching with extreme pleasure as he saw the blonde’s fists tighten, a quick smirk flashing when the tangy scent of blood reached his nose. “You really should be careful, my dear, your nails appear to be rather sharp.”

Ava took a deep breath, focusing on the sting in her hands and refusing to loosen her grip. She looked up at the man before her with a carefully controlled glare, absolutely despising the smug look on his features. “Did you call me here to lecture me on my choice of friends, or did you just want to let me know you don’t approve of me staying behind on this trip? Either way, I’ll have you know your opinions don’t affect my decisions.”

“Actually, my dear, I called you here to let you know that I’m allowing you to stay behind for this trip, as a... mating gift of sorts.”

Ava nearly choked. “Excuse me?” she asked, sure she had misheard him somehow. He obviously meant to say he was not allowing her to stay behind, and her mind had obviously completely made up the last part of that statement.

“Oh, right! I hadn’t told you yet,” he said with a chuckle, as if it was an honest mistake and he was amused by his slip-up. “When we get back from the trip, right after the full moon, you’ll be mated. A twenty-four-year-old unmated female werewolf? It’s unheard of. We’ve had offers on you for years, of course, but Devan and I were hoping you’d settle down on your own terms. You’ve simply taken too long.”

“No,” the startled female responded simply. “No. I’m not doing it.”

The older man only allowed his lips to twist into satisfied smirk, appearing amused by her resistance, much in the way a parent would be by a child, half asleep, proclaiming they would not be going to bed anytime soon. “My dear, you haven’t even heard whom it is that you’ll be mated to!”

The blonde scoffed, finally releasing the tension in her hands as she stretched out in the chair, appearing much at ease. “It doesn’t matter who it is you’ve picked out for me, Chase, because I will not be mating with them, or anyone else, until I decide to.”

“Oh, but you will, or else you’ll be considered a traitor and an intruder, and we’ll have you chased from the territory, if you can run fast enough to avoid getting killed, that is.” His tone was cold as steel, his eyes blazing as he let the threat hang in the air for a minute.

Ava was taken aback, not having expected to hear that the ultimatum was mate or death; the dominant male might have officially said exile would be the punishment, but she knew that if she was suddenly against the entire pack, there was no way in hell she’d live to see beyond the territory’s border.

Her silence seemed to please Chase, for he only grinned like a cheshire cat, taking her shocked silence as acceptance. “Good girl,” he chastised, as if she was a dog perching for a treat. She growled lowly at the insinuation, but he chose to ignore it, continuing on as if she was hanging on to his every word, as excited as he was. “Now, then, I’m sure you’re interested in hearing just who you were lucky enough to get paired with, yes? Alaric has agreed to take you, and you’re rather lucky, my dear; it was quite lucky for us to find anyone willing to take you as their mate.”

The blonde flinched at the implication, but didn’t appear hurt, simply angry. Blue eyes glaring daggers at the man seated before her, she allowed her mind to quickly run through her options. The way she saw it, she had three: she could stay and become mated to Alaric, she could beg Devan and Chase to reconsider, or she could run away. The first two were out of the question and would only end poorly for her, but the third was plausible, albeit extremely dangerous. Eyes narrowing, she fixed the man before her with a scalding glare, but nodded her head curtly, getting up to her feet and stalking out of the room before she was forced to listen to him gloat any further.

“What do you know? The pup’s already partially housebroken.”

As the elevator’s doors closed before her, saving her from any more mocking comments the male could make, Ava let out a murderous growl, practically assaulting the elevator as she reached forward and slammed her fingers into the button for her floor. She stormed into her room and set to work packing a bag, her movements stiff as she shoved various items into the duffel.

Truly, she shouldn’t have been surprised. For years the alpha pair had been trying to mate her off, only they used to be more subtle about it, and more willing to accept her opinion on the matter. Actually, it hadn’t been her opinion they were willing to accept, it had been her brother’s, but, now that he wasn’t here, they didn’t have to consider it. The last few years, they hadn’t been trying nearly as hard, and Ava had hoped that they had given up on the notion, but perhaps they had just been waiting for the best opportunity, the one that would profit them the most.

Born female werewolves were rare, as most pups born tended to be male, having something to do with the testosterone level in male werewolves or something. To many modern werewolves, the lack of available females wasn’t a real problem, as humans could always be turned by males and taken as a mate. The more noble werewolves, though, would never think of such a thing, too focused on keeping their bloodline ‘pure’ to even consider not mating with another pure-blooded werewolf. And that was why Ava had never thought her alphas would threaten her life, because she was so valuable, as such a rare specimen. But, she should have considered the fact that she was only valuable to them if she was willing to mate with who they picked out. Otherwise, she was just an irritation, a burden.

So this Alaric deal was to be her last chance. Hell, perhaps the reason Devan and Chase had left her alone for the past few years was because they were waiting for Alaric to be in the market again. He was, as an alpha of a neighboring pack, known to have a thing for young, pure-blooded females. At thirty-seven, he had already had three mates, all of which were full-blooded and younger than him, bore him several litters almost immediately, and died rather suspiciously. Or, the first two had, at least; Ava hadn’t heard of the passing of his third mate, which meant it must have been rather recent.

She was once again reminded of exactly how little the alpha pair cared for her safety, else they wouldn’t have agreed to sell her off to Alaric of all wolves. But, she was also reminded of how gullible they were, for Chase actually expected Ava to come back after she left on her trip. But Ava had spotted a fourth, secret option: take the vacation and use the time to think of other options. Or, if there truly weren’t any other options, she’d just have to run away, because she sure as hell wasn’t going to choose from either of Chase’s options.

She wouldn’t be dying any time soon.