A force slammed her back into her seat, her veins thrumming with rushing blood as heat began to rise up her neck.

"What the hell do you think you are DOING!?" The sexy guy hissed at her, his eyes reddish and wild.

"I..." She opened her mouth to talk but bit back a scream as the body of the man before her suddenly flew backwards in the air and slammed into a crooked tree.

She watched him hit the floor with a low groan before lying painfully still.

She didn't want to think he was dead.

She didn't need to care if he was alive either, these men are the same people who murdered her people but the guilt was eating deep into her.

Swallowing, her eyes slowly moved around and her bladder almost gave way as the wolves she saw a few minutes ago were no more, humans now in their stead.

With heart thundering in her ears, she felt all her blood climb up into her head the moment she caught his now glowing mismatched eyes.

"Sweet Lord!" She cried out shakily and hoarsely.

What in the name of voodoo was this??

In a blink, he was right in front of the car's opened door and she let out a strangled sob.

"Why?" He boomed, his veins popping out in every possible place on his face and neck.

"I am sorry, I am sorry." She let out a frightened whisper, unaware of what else to do or say in this situation.

"You shouldn't have." He hissed, baring his teeth at her.

"Yes...yes, yes I should have never thought of..." Her words died in her throat the moment he wrapped his large hand around her neck, his mismatched eyes a blazing flame.

The tingles spreading through her body were no longer sweet and soothing, they felt like tiny ants scattering all through her body.

"Aaahhh!" She let out a shriek of agony, feeling the thick taste of blood at the back of her throat.

"Do you feel it?" He asked through his teeth as he squeezed on her throat.

She tried to swallow, tears prickling the back of her eyes at the unbearable pain.

"That's a minute amount of what I feel right now."

"Just... ju...let me go." She pleaded again, already tired of everything happening.

Her eyes squeezed shut and hot tears spilled from them, she wanted to be rid of the weird pain and of the memory of today...

He ripped his hand from her throat so fast that her eyes snapped open only to see a heart wrenching frown marring his face just for three minutes.

"You can't do that..." He started slowly as if talking to himself, before looking right into her eyes.

"You can't say that!" He barked this time around, his fists shaking by his side.

"That's an indirect rejection. You...number 3...you are my mate." He said slowly, carefully laying his hand on her shoulder and grimacing when she flinched away from his touch.

"I am nobo..."

"The future Luna of this pack!"

This was the final evidence she needed to confirm that this terrorist was crazed.

"You need to...to get your head checked." She spat weakly at him and watched him nod with a humourless smile before sliding his hand back to his side.

"Bring him here." He ordered, holding her stare.

She looked ahead of him to see them dragging the guy she had just kissed.

She had no strength left to panic but she tried to plead. "Let him go, ple..."

"Cuff her." He ordered again and turned his back to her.

This time a new face appeared in her line of sight, blocking her from seeing his back.

With a hateful sneer, the lady cuffed her hands in a flash, making it tighter than she could ever imagine.

It was impossible to move her arm.

"What are you doing to me?" She whispered in a hoarse voice.

"Shut the fuck up bitch!" The lady spat at her before swiping her thumb across her neck.

She was in a special unit and shouldn't be scared but for some reason, she could not bear to think of the gruesome ways these crazed occultic members would deal with her.

Would they eat her raw?

Burn her alive?

Dismember her till she was no more?

A shocking shiver ran through her spine.

She opened her mouth to talk.

"Gag her." He ordered again and her eyes widened.

No! He wouldn't dare...

Out of thin air, a rod got stuck in-between her teeth.

With a clap and a smirk from the lady, she felt her teeth forcefully get jammed on the rod.

A sickening punch from behind the lady resounded in her ears, pushing her heart down to her stomach and the hatred in the lady's eyes intensified.

"If anything should happen to our beta, you would regret ever having the unlucky fate of being mated to our Alpha." The lady threatened before stepping away.

The sight before her was so brutal that she couldn't stomach it anymore.

The terrorist was repeatedly hitting the kneeling guy straight to the bridge of the nose till blood began sprouting out and teeth were falling off one after the other.

She wanted to scream for him to stop, for someone to help but the moment her eyes started to dart around, she felt herself shrink back into her seat.

More than half of the people standing around had their heated gaze on her. The intense hatred in them almost burned her up as she continued to shrink back, not knowing how to speak or scream.

"Do. Not. Ever. Lay. Your. Hands. On. Her. Again!" He hissed punctuating every word with a bloody punch.

She got sick to her stomach and just when she felt the urge to throw up, he straightened from his hunched position and snapped his head towards her direction.

"Bundle her up this instant." He bellowed.

Her eyes widened.

What were the cannibals about to do to her in the middle of a strange city!?

"Gladly." The lady from earlier responded with a bow.

He glared down at his council members from his throne as they babbled on before looking away, finding her in the midst of the small crowd.

He made eye contact with Iris, a brow raised in question as he studied her hard face not missing the low hiss from her clenched teeth even as she gave a single nod.

His mate was fine and carefully locked up in her room. Serves her right for daring to disrespect him in front of the entirety of his pack members but his heart couldn't keep still, thundering against his ribcage.

"Alpha Damon." One of his council members stressed his name, snapping his attention back to them.

"You have to see reasons with us!" The man hissed at him with blazing eyes full of disgust.

"Reasons?" He asked cooly, fully relaxing against his throne.

What gave them the right to think they could challenge him in his pack?

Snickering, he began slowly tapping his index finger against his lap. "What reasons?"

"You are Alpha Damon Archer, the most feared man in the world of the wolves and humans and..."

Abruptly jumping to his feet, he glared right at the man below him. "Get straight to the point, Gerald."

"You can't get mated to a human!" Gerald forced out, an intense hatred in his eyes.

His eyes flashed and the humming court went quiet in an instance already sensing the change of mood in their Alpha except for Gerald.

"What. did. you. just. say?" He asked slowly, punctuating every word with his descent down the many steps from his high throne.

Gerald, not wanting to back down, straightened his spine and looked right into the Alpha's eyes, resisting the urge to bend his knees and bow in an instant.

"Making her your mate will weaken you and get our pack destroyed!" He continued to talk, putting more vigor into his words as the Alpha continued his slow walk towards him.

"I speak for the entire council members!" He began to splutter, his hands moving wildly as the Alpha's aura got thick in the air, already bending people to their knees and making their skin prickle.

Standing right in front of Gerald, his face twisted into a grimace and a frown all at once, he asked in a low deep voice. "You speak for the entire council?"

"Ye...yessss." Suffocated by the Alpha's intense aura, Gerald's face began to redden but his legs wouldn't bend in submission no matter how hard he tried.

"I see." He drawled out before gently placing a hand on Gerald's shoulder, his eyes glinting with a murderous glare.

"We...we came to the conclusion that...that..."

"That?" He asked between his teeth, watching his council members closely as the man suddenly didn't want to talk, his eyes darting around for help.

"Most...most Alpha reject their mates and still get married to a befitting Luna." The man started in a strangled but still confident voice.

His hand on Gerald's shoulder began to tighten.

"And?" He forced out, his eyes beginning to glow.

"And we thought to give you Iris, the daughter of the late Zain and the sister to your gamma as a wife, a befitting Luna for the pack."

His eyes went out of focus as this council member grew bolder in his utterance.

Slowly letting go of his shoulder, he took two steps backwards releasing his suffocating aura on them.

"Iris." He called with a blank expression on his face and noted the glee in the faces of his council members.

Resisting the urge to scoff, he caught Iris rising to her feet, a slight blush on her cheeks as she bowed.

"Do you think you are fit to be my Luna?" He asked with a tone of disinterest even as he watched her blush deepen and her deadly aura melt into a coy one.

"Alpha, I..."

"Do you think you are better than my mate?" This time, he asked with a tinge of annoyance, cutting off her irritating coquettishness.

At his question, her eyes widened slightly and she forced a swallow down her throat.

"I..."

Fully sneering this time, he glared directly at her. "Do you think you are better than the mate handpicked by the moon goddess herself just because she is human!?"

His voice dropped and all color got drained from Iris' face as her eyes began to dart around.

"Alpha, you go too far!" Gerald butted in.

"We are your council members because it is our duty to lead you into the right part and correct your wrongs!"

This man was clearly pushing the line and recklessly biting more than he could chew.

"Is my mate the wrong part then?" He asked, turning his full attention to the man, his chest getting stuffy at the rejection from his council.

"She is a human and a weak one at that!" Gerald fired back, getting his courage from the sly devil beneath his feet.

The Alpha's eyes began to glow as he turned to face Gerald fully.

"What did you just say?" He asked slowly in a hiss.

"She is below the smallest member of our pack and isn't fit to be a pack member not to talk more of being Luna and leading us alongside you!"

A blanket of silence fell on the entire court room as the Alpha's eyes glowed even brighter but Gerald continued talking, his face twisted and his lips up in a sneer.

"You have to reject her and get married to Ir..."

A backhand from the Alpha across his cheeks threw him to his back.

"HOW DARE YOU!" The Alpha growled before hunching his back, his bones cracking and clothes tearing as he quickly morphed into his gigantic golden wolf.

With one powerful leap, he descended on the sprawled Gerald, clamped his teeth on his neck and tore it off in one sweeping movement, detaching his head from his body before tossing the head to the side.

Gerald's eyes were still wide with raw fear, his mouth frozen in a scream that never emerged as his detached head got drained of all colour.

Turning to look at his trembling council members all on their knees with head bent in submission, he mind linked them all.

[Let this be a warning!]

[My mate is equal to me and holds the same command as I do! You all will acknowledge her as your Luna even now!] He boomed in their heads, his black eyes flickering at the chattering of teeth around the court room.

[Anyone who dares to rebel against her will meet a worse fate.]

And with that, he disappears from sight only to appear right in front of her locked door.

Morphing back into his human form, he snapped his fingers and a maid morphed out of thin air with a clean cloth ready for him.

With a bow of her head, she dissolved back into the shadows.

He raised his hand to knock but paused on remembering the order he gave.

Suddenly, an intense bitterness crept up his chest. How could he be so heartless and demeaning towards his mate.

Pushing the door open with a stuffiness he couldn't describe, he burst into the room but stopped dead in his tracks.

His eyes wide and his heart beating really fast as he took in the scene before him.

Was this how it felt to be anxious? Heartbroken?

She laid painfully still, barely breathing with her hands cuffed to her back.

"Mate?" He called out but his voice came out shaky and breathy, startling the shit out of him.

He blinked but didn't waste time pondering on why he suddenly sounded so weak as he strode towards her.

Dropping to his knees, he touched the cuffs and unlocked it, breathing a sigh of relief as the metal thing fell to the floor with a clang.

"Number 3...shit! Mate?" He called gently, easing her hands back to her sides, rolling her to face him.

He shut his mouth against the growl rumbling in his chest at the metal gag he had commanded Iris to put on her.

How could he do this to her?

His hands hovered over her swollen face, his eyes going in and out of focus as he resisted the urge to touch her face when all he wanted to do right now is hold her in his arms.

Guilt. He felt it eat right into his heart.

How could he do this to his better half?

"Mate?" He called again and this time more firmly but her eyes remained shut.

Immediately touching her now bluish upper lip, the iron rod loosened slowly till it rolled off mouth, a drool of saliva going with it.

Without hesitation, he lined his slender fingers over her still parted lips before snapping his fingers in the air with enough energy that his wrist almost snapped.

"What is this?" He thundered the moment a maid materialized from the shadows.

"I do not understand what you ask of, Alpha."

"Shut the fuck up!" He growled, turning his neck to glare at the maid who stood a little behind him.

"Why wasn't she served?" He asked initially wanting it to be a yell but his voice broke as he looked back down at the weakened human in his hold.

"I am sorry Alpha but you asked her to be gagged and nobody can go against..."

"Fuck off and get me some water this instant!" He bellowed and the maid eased back into the shadows.

Carrying her gently from the cold floor, he placed her in the middle of the queen sized bed in the room before snapping his fingers in the air again.

"Get me a healer."

There was a knock on the door almost instantly.

"The healer is here, Alpha." The chubby woman with a permanently bent back hurried to his side but he just nodded at the lady on the bed.

"What are you still standing for?" He boomed.

"I can't heal humans." She bowed even lower.

Resisting the urge to kick something, he ordered in a forced low voice. "Then do something!"

"She just needs water, food and enough rest."

Snapping, he bent over and wrapped his hand around the healer's throat, his hiss of words following.

"What do you think you are doing?" He asked, glaring at her face.

"Telling you the truth." The healer replied calmly in a voice already used to the Alpha's explosive behaviour.

"How the fuck does she need water, food and rest if she is unconscious." He hissed right into her face forcing her to straighten her back to meet his now mismatched eyes.

Only then did the healer show a bit of fear, sweat trickling down her face.

"She is...not..." As if thinking better of it, the healer clamped her mouth shut.

"She is not what!? Speak!" His eyes blazed, squeezing even tighter as it darted back to the still body on the bed.

Opening her round eyes really wide as if it would stop her from choking to her death, the healer finally consented.

"SHE IS NOT UNCONSCIOUS." She blurted out loudly and hurriedly.

"What!?"