She had made only a dozen steps when a cracked voice spoke up, freezing her in time. "Y-y-you owe me-e."

June growled deeply from her throat and Nora was forced to swallow it down. He could've easily gotten up and pinned her under himself, forcing his dominance on them but yet he didnt. He kept to the ground, coughing blood. "T-the day..when you trained-d with me. I-I...Y-you owe me."

"Want me to shove that cock of yours up your nose?" June snarled, churning Nora's eyes golden once more. Nora couldn't hold June back for longer. She only prayed Damon would shut up so she could suppress an explosive June to the back of her head but he stubbornly and obliviously kept talking.

"Nora," Damon winced, getting off the ground. The beating he sustained pained him to speak, his internal organs feeling like jello and broken ribs poking his rib cages. If he were human, he knew he'd be dead with a rib stakes through his heart within first strike.

"What?" Nora snapped, feeling her patience threading away by the second.

"N-Nora please if you can hear me, hear me out this once. I know I might not have a right to apologise or even repent for whatever pain I might have caused intentionally, or unintentionally but please. Im not only asking for you to return not so you have to deal with me but rather for your family and loved ones you have left back here. Your brothers, their Mates, your childhood friend Lia, Leila, everyone that loves and needs you in their life. You wouldn't leave them just so you could away from me, would you? Youd never be this selfish to care about yourself and leave the others to suffer for what is my mistake. I know I might have been more than a pain in your ass but there are others who deserve you here rather than me and they wouldn't ever be to live in peace knowing you left because of your awful Mate, who never treated you like one either. I can certainly try and that could be my promise to you. That Ill try. Im so sorry." He recited with some minor twitches, from the day when Nora's life was so close to threading away from existence when Damon admitted his infidelity to her and she went running out to meet a rouge wolf and nearly die.

"How very original of you," June scoffed, the least bit effected by his shared words.

His eyes held no golden indicating his wolf was not in control and what Damon said, he meant. It was to hard to miss the strain on his voice when he recalled the painful memory of being nothing more than a horrible Mate.

"Nora please. I swear to do anything to change, please just be patient. One toe out of line and you and June can beat me however you want. I want to change and that's what you owe me from the day when you were training with me and you lost that bet to show me you could be my equal. All I ask for is guidance, comfort and support. Nothing sexual but what I mean is, just be here and you won't ever need to prove to me or anyone you are my equal because everyone will know by then. Please."

Nora stood with weak knees, threatening to give under. Realization bitch slapped her so hard she could the sting down to the bones. Nora wasn't leaving a life behind but also a new start with those she loved; Leila, Hunter, Lia, Jordan. She hadn't lost everyone who once looked up to her, she had some left and leaving meant something to hard for her to decipher.

So what? June said to her. Either you sacrifice yourself in becoming his psychiatrist or kiss your sweet freedom's ass goodbye. Although, if you think about, either way your giving your right to freedom and liberty.

But June...

You might as well go physically suck his dick now since that is what you are implying figuratively.

Since when have we reversed roles? Nora grunted.

I beg your pardon? June said.

Shouldn't I be the one wanting to run and you the one to convince me to stay and give him another try otherwise, Nora huffed.

Oh, so I cant be a feminist now and wish for equality because that's all how female wolfs are stereotyped? June snapped, Dont you think it's more cliche that you're trying to save himself, from his own self?

Feeling defeated, Nora kept herself shut. Her mind was swarming at last, shuffling through the accounts of the past few months. When she had opened her speechless mouth, the light blacked out from her eyes. ...

Damon's POV;

"Where, why, how, when! And why in hell do you keep coughing? Are you driving high!" Ryan exclaimed at once through the phone.

"He's WHAT!" Xavier boomed somewhere in the back, and there was some shuffling and swears exchanged when Xavier screamed. "Oh for the love of Christ, I was simply exaggerating-""You are stopping that vehicle wherever in the hell you are and once I get my hands on you, and I swear I'll-"

"Does he have an off switch to that schoolgirl dramatics? It's really starting to hit a nerve," I replied, tightening the grip to my steering wheel when I exploded into another episode of coughs.

His wolf was probably in the verge of shifting by the sound of his growl. "And for your bloody information, Im not as dumb to drive high when I just got my Mate back."

"Nora's with you." More a statement than a question.

"Yes." Turning to get a glance of my unconscious Mate in the seat adjacent. Her head was drooping against the window, hands curled around herself, and my spare jacket over her exposing attire.

"Where was she?"

Another glance to Nora in her more sleeping state than unconscious. "In the forest nearby the Canadian border under Alpha Greysan's jurisdiction. By the time I got to her she had already sliced a blade through a patrol guard's heart and was fleeing on foot. She didnt make it far, I was in wolf form and got to her moments before she could cross Packs and fall unconscious."

Luckily the furious rider himself came to report the case, screaming and threatening outside to the Alpha's manor of how his beloved was taken by some deranged women. His description and the faint fragrance of the same WolfsBane I specialize in exporting rose suspicions but it wasnt until something in my guts told me to call the neighboring Packs to check whether or not there was some woman on a black highly customized motorcycle crossing Packs, when I knew her game plan of crossing national borders. Took a week's worth of cramming up on coffee, maps and calling every Pack in the nation to pin point her route.

I hitch the speed, when I hear Nora stir and snuggle the jacket closer. Judging on her appearance, she'd hadn't slept a wink since she ran 8 days ago.

"How is she?" His voice seem to softened with concern.

I sigh, taking the torn rag to hold to my bleeding nose. Wolf healing wasn't an option, Dylan made that firm when he denied assistance. "Better than expected gracefully, more tired than hurt."

"She's hurt? Where in the fuck were you!" Xavier said, stopping to growl to Ryan at something he said. I sigh again, bring the rag away to see the bleeding not anywhere near to lessening.

"She most likely has a fractured wrist from where she broke my nose and sprained ankle from where she cracked my ribs. Nothing serious." I didn't bother in mentioning anything about how slim her face had become in the day as if she were sick vomiting or how her face had this radiant glow I couldn't understand. She couldn't have gone to a spa for a face day when on the run from her Mate now would she?

Ryan to appeared to be laughing out loud in the back, clapping like a seal when another female voice tried to hush him.

"So I take it went pleasant enough." Even Xavier was find it amusing as suggested by his tone but unlike Ryan, kept the Alpha coolness overpowering. "Serves you right."

"Dont salt it."

"Try butter with some oregano," Ryan yelled again from somewhere in the back when there was a smack and the sound of Ryan whimpering following. I could sense Xavier's eye roll through the phone.

"The wolf Nora hurt and biker she stole from, I presume they were compensated."

"Why wouldnt you?" I did of course, for the patrol guard. The biker was another tale. After beating the biker to the verge of death and waiting for him to heal, I did it over again but unlike the first time, I didn't wait for any healing before returning him to his drunken pals in a suitable body bag.

A moment of silence passed. "Ill have Dr.O'Brien on standby for when you both arrive."

"No. We're heading over to our new farmhouse under the RedBlood Pack and closest to the borders."

"No you are not. You are coming here straight."

"Xavier dont argue on this matter with me. I know what's better for us, and right now that's if Nora and I were to talk without any distractions. Dont get me wrong, Im not depriving you of your sister but she's my Mate, there are some things that need to be cleared before distances grow, and I know very well how Nora reacts around you all. She acts more for others than herself," I said, reflecting back about how she willfully left her family behind to marry a horrid Mate such as myself. "I need her to act for herself and she can only if she's alone with me." ...

Nora's POV

Throat parched, I try not to allow the tears of pain wet my face. My head was murderous, and the heavy hollow sicken feeling in my chest told me exactly what I didn't want to know.

Damon was near.

No.

He was in the driver seat next.

June? Dylan whimpers riffled through our head.

Tell him to suck it up before I step out and ride Damon's luxurious car up the closet tree, June barked grumpily, not awaiting for a response before crawling back into her hid.

June, please, he pleads.

NORA!

Dylan, just leave us both the fuck alone okay! I snap, instantly getting a headache from the 3 voices swarming in one head known as mine.

"Nora?"

I dont say anything, my eyes purposely nonreactive to give facade of being fast sleep despite the rush of my heart pounding under my chest. "Nora, I know youre awake and listening."

I swallow the lump rising to my mouth, praying it wouldnt explode out of my mouth anytime soon. There couldn't have anything else Id be dreading more than this. Even the Moon Goddess could vouch for my urge to throttle Damon where he sat.

"I know I havent been the best of Mates to you or your wolf," He had the audacity to pacify. I remained unresponsive, my eyes wide as an owl staring out the window without processing the scenery. His jacket that had been draped over me now laid crumpled on the car floor.

"But Ive promised to change and I intend to keep my promise at all costs," Damon wiped his nostrils with a blood soaked rag, the blood from his nose slowly trickling down to his bare chest.

"I want to make it up to you, I meant it when I said it back here. Ive even looked into and bought us a new farmhouse by your old Pack's border, so you visit anytime you like without the 4 hour drive back and forth. Ryan even said you loved the forest when you were younger and wanted to live in amongst one too. It'll be hard to manage without living in the capital among the other heads, but Ill make it work... for us." He said after another lengthy moment of quiet.

"Cazzo. Im sorry Nora. How many more times do you want me to repeat that?" He demanded, flexing his grip on the wheel when I returned every attempt to converse in a conversation with a loud silent.

Tears pinned my tear ducts but I had a good grasp, for now, but how much longer even I couldn't estimate. The gates were swung open seconds before we could charge in and we drove around the swerved road to the front of the gleaming white mansion where a yellow stained chandelier lit the widely opened front entrance.

"Nora," Damon called out when he unbuckled as I reached out to the door, and raced out and up the flight of stairs.

If it weren't for the circumstances, Id be doing a 360 admiration of the grand roman styled architect under the dimmed luminescence. "Nora, please dont."

"Everything you do is meant to hurt me! You always hurt me with everything you do!" I burst, when a hand caught my wrist. Damon grimaced when I broke myself from his reach, stopping himself from taking another step closer.

"And Im sorry."

"You really think the things you've done are worthy of my apology, because if you really think standing before me and saying you're sorry is going to help your case the slightest, you're more fucked than you think," I wheeze, those fickle tears coming out all at the wrong time.

"Nora, I realized my mistake now. Torn between the history of my parents, I forgot to give the most importance to my future with you. I know it was wrong but I can't fly back in time and miraculous reverse the hands of time to make things between us happier. Not everything I did was with the intention of accomplishing something else."

"With an apologize like that you aren't getting in my pants anytime soon," I snap, resulting with a deepened growl from the lowest part of his throat. His eyes were darkening with lust from the thought, and I couldn't have been more disgusted of my Mate for thinking longingly about the space between my legs at a time like this.

"Why must you even be like this? I know you were burden with the largest Pack of North America at a very young age without the proper guidance, a neglected father, and I understand how painful it may have been for you to lead 90,000 Pack-"

"14,590 at the time," Damon butted in with a shrug. "It was mostly the original RedBlood Pack until I began seizing those of whose lost in the war with me."

" -90, 000," I seethe, "Pack members when your mother had just killed your father and herself. You should've been in grieving, not leading a Pack of delinquents into war. But nothing in your past can suggest to why you'd put such sexist rules about females being owned as trophies or property of the testosterone society!"

"BECAUSE OF THE LOST LUNA!" He exclaimed, the chandelier's dangling rhinestone above rattling with the impact of his voice.

"What?" I asked indignantly, hands cupping my waist.

"Look what happened to that Alpha! He went mad, got himself definitely killed by jumping off that cliff and abandoned his Pack as good as dead and why? All because of a Mate. A female who got herself killed. They're weak, all of them and not only a liability to society and to men. They burden themselves on the shoulders of men and claim to be equal when reality is they cant even fend for themselves until told so! And that Alpha, I can't distinguish whether he was more of a fool, or simply weak."

"Oh for the love of Christ, hell no-."

"Nora."

"Allow me spell it for you! H-E-L-L NO. Hell no we women don't need the bulky shoulders of you men to walk the world, because we women already own this world whether you like it or not. We can give birth to life, we can comfort strangers like our own, we can be open with emotions and express ourself however while all you men do is drool and dream of owning a world that's already been claimed.

"And hell no, that Alpha wasn't mad or weak or both, he was in love you insufferable piece of shit. Poor guy was so broken by grief, just as your mother was!"

"Just don't. Don't you dare thread that line with me," He seethed, stepping forward angrily. His eyes were upholding the darkness of Damon but it wasn't difficult to spot Dylan's undertone of gold threatening to make an appearance.

"Oh I most certainly will now," I proclaim, stepping up against his hot heaving chest. "You know just as well as me your mother was broken by the rejection of your father although he never gathered the balls to say it to her face. She was depressed and in serious grief. Her family was killed, her Pack lost to her delusional Mate -who lost his crackers shortly after, and then the abuse, both physically and psychologically. Aria was only 17, raising you all by herself without her Mate even if he was in the picture, but not her memories with you. Im only surprised she stood by that Alpha for that long, I would've had him killed and out of the picture a lot sooner-"

Damon had me ridden up against the wall, his body pinning me from all sides with no escape. His darkened eyes of anger seeped mine with an electrifying spark, a thumb of his rubbed to my lip. "Do you any idea how much it pained me to have found Hunter's scent on you on the day of our wedding," His voice cracked, choked and reeking with high levels of jealousy.

"I couldn't bare you harbouring another unmated male's scent, I just lost it. Even with Leila when she broke that vase in the hallway of the night of the Common Wealth Games when you tended to my wounds. I couldn't have given two shits about the vase itself, I hated it anyway. I had to punish her in order to punish you because I cant bring myself to harm you."

I give a maddened laugh. "Ouch. And yet you marked me forcefully like a mutt on our wedding night, and I found you receiving a personalized lap dance by no one other than that ex bimbo of yours, Stephanie."

"Stephanie is my only mistake and regret I solemnly swear amore mio. The mark on that regard, however you wish to interpret it was meant as a shield or crown of honor so the Pack would show the damned respect you deserved." Damon tugged on the band of my jeans to bring me closer into his enclosing embrace.

Another dry laugh. "You think that worked Einstein, huh? Go see for yourself at the Pack house, Im the latest trend sweeping PornHub. My head's cropped to a body of some porn star sucking Stephanie's dick."

"Would you prefer to watch their heads roll in the dirt or watch them hang by their ears, amore mio," He asked, indifferent of either option of his I chose. Brushing my hair behind, his warm breathe was steaming my face, creating sweat to appear from place I didn't know sweat could be produced from. Thank god for my dark jeans.

"When you marked me," I said finally after breaking our hypnotic eye lock, "That empty feeling, the empathy when you marked me, why was that?"

Damon paused all his actions, swallowing a gulp. "My mother always recited that my Mate would have to be treated as my Queen, for she'd be the only one willing to follow me into hell or any place I went. I knew what I was doing was beyond disrespectful of her beliefs but it didn't make sense to me then to follow her word. That was my wolf, Dylan. He wanted me to feel empathetic of how our mother would've been with you. I didn't want to hurt you. I mean it when I say Im truly sorry. Allow me to make it up once."

"I still have my obligations. You might as well keep answering if you want to hold me like this for longer." I admonish, holding a finger up when his face leaned further down to kiss the area where his mark laid feverishly. The threat seemed to catch his eyes.

"Why'd you agree to make me the Luna without mating with me?" I asked.

"I dont know." He offered plainly.

"Y-you even presented me as the Luna without spending a night with me," I realize with shock, the rage dissolved with curiosity but still skimming the surface.

"You know the Alpha as good as anyone else and we all know for a fact, he would never take girl by his side and claim her as his significant other without spending at least one night with her." Leila had said on day when I first met her after spiking my drink.

I had cringed at the way she used 'significant other' and how she, like many others believed I held the ability to change the Alpha.

"I did, didnt I?" Damon asked mockingly with a face splitting grin. "It felt like the right to do, even if I wouldn't have told you otherwise. Just as the night of Christmas party before the appearance."

Spotting my quirked eyebrow, he elaborated. "You had walked with Kaden smelling as if you were a margarita blender when I brought you forward for a kiss. Forgot?"

I couldn't resist the eye roll. "Stephanie was gawking from the top floor, watching impatiently for you to cower and run any second. Imagine to her shock when I brought you in for a taste of my lips."

"You were one ass of a charmer, using your charms to seduce such snakes. By the way, those lips of yours that night tasted like the most foulest concoction even Neville LongBottom wouldnt dare brew."

Now it was his turn to give one of his dreamy eye roll.

"Also," I started.

"Cant you shut up and allow me to do the speaking?"

"Can you fucking quit trying to interrupt when Im speaking to you Monsieur Alpha, or by all means, you may go get one of those snake of yours to warm your dick with." That seems to have done the trick, Damon was gone utterly silenced once more.

"Why did you say you'd mate and mark me in front of both Packs?"

Damon have a boyish smirk, leaning down further to snuggle under my hair by my ear. My back was arching from the feeling of his warm breathe so close to the skin of my neck, and his teeth nibbling my ear. "When I had said that, I was thinking out of my ass and ego. It was intended to scare... but wait, it was actually more so to guide you down the right path to me.

"Now. Imagine to my dismay when I heard from Kaden you attempted to leave me before you could ever become mine to cherish. I was speechless to think you'd pull such a stunt. You nearly cost me a bride."

"A bride. Not Mate," I suggest sadly, releasing my hold on his shoulder when I saw his eyes perk up with a radiant glow.

"Yes, a bride. Someone of my equilibrium and someone who I want to share my life with, not someone the Moon Goddess wanted. Nora I couldn't have asked for a kinder, sexier, quirkier and overall better Mate than you. Yes I treated you as asswipe in the last few months but I want to make it up, for real this time. No screws up, no distractions and especially no more Stephanie between us," Damon plead with his face brought extremely forward with mine. "Give me a real shot. I won't screw up. I'll obey, and be forever in your debt. Now its my turn to fulfill my end of the obligations to this marriage."

June didn't even try to act as if she were uninterested or interested, she was ambivalent, lingering behind and watching with a keen eye of his every word and advances on us.

June?

No response. Listen to me, please. One last try?

Still nothing. I sigh of relief when Damon brought his hands from the walls to roam over my body.

Yes he hasn't been truthful in the past, but I couldn't exactly blame him for his insane upbringing. Who crowns a 14 year old to be the Alpha of the largest Pack in North America and expect them to survive 6 years alone?

Then there was matter of Stephanie. Whether or not I could move on, that moment of seeing them together will always pause the handles of time nevertheless. No Mate should, regardless of gender, see their spouse enjoying them self at the nakedness of another.

It is again my call to decide whether I'll leave it to shape my future for the better or not, but I won't be forgetting it anytime soon. It could remain buried in the back of my head in an unmarked grave for it concerned me.

Don't be a hypocrite Nora. How many men have you kissed or ogled when you knew of your Mate?

Plenty. I even dared to get a number of a few, although, truth be told I never did call back because somewhere, thin and narrow in the corner of my heart I knew times would come to this when I'd regret all it.

"Why must you torture me with your brutal love?" I gasp when I feel his hand go to squeeze my rear.

"Because," he licked my earlobe, my feet stumbling when he hugged me to his chiseled chest and between his hardened legs, "I can mio amore. Pleasing the heartless Alpha aint no child's work." ...

Hey Owlettes,

Sorry for the scare guys, I actually thought my book was deleted and suffered a good 1hourish having a panick attack in the morning. 😓

Also, heads up. Probably another smut chapter next😉

👏🏼And yay, no more summer school! 👏🏼

Picture of their new place



Comment and Vote this chapter up!💫

Let's try to get 35 Votes within the next 24hrs, and I'll have an update ready by next Wednesday or probably sooner. Not blackmail, just motivation for myself😊

The Author; xbookgirlx15