The Lost Female Alpha

Diana's mother staggered into the room clutching her throat, bruises in the shape of fingers were already starting to form around her neck. I wondered how many times Arthur had given her bruises like that over the years he had kept her as a prisoner. She didn't seem too fazed by it, so my guess was that it was a frequent occurrence.

"Don't worry about me. His bark is much worse than his bite." She might have been able to fool me if she wasn't so unsteady on her feet and her voice didn't sound so weak.

She looked at me for a moment, probably reading my thoughts. I tried to block her from my mind even though I knew it was pointless. Her dishevelled appearance had me flustered, I had to do something to stop Arthur before he could hurt Diana like he had hurt her mom.

"You alpha's always think you can control everything. Why don't you focus on shielding your mind and leave the escape plans to your mate." She suggested, rolling her eyes at me. Being held prisoner for years clearly hasn't dampened her spirit, there weren't many people who would dare to roll their eyes at an alpha.

"That's because I am an alpha too." She replied in a tone that told me she thought I was an idiot.

"Will you stop that, it feels so odd when you reply to things I haven't even said out loud."

She glared at me for a moment and I knew I was in trouble. She had only been trying to teach me to hide my thoughts for a short time but I could already read her feelings from her facial expressions. When she glared at me like this I knew she was frustrated with me.

"Too damn right I am annoyed with you. You might be able to read my emotions but that is nothing compared to how much I can read from the surface of your mind." She told me.

It was probably true but I was getting sick of her looking down her nose at me because I didn't have her gift. She had been putting a lot of time into helping me but I was tired and frustrated. My wolf wasn't regaining any of his strength even though I had limited my food and drink intake. I was worried Arthur had done something else to us, something more permanent.

"What does it matter? Diana didn't tell me anything about her plan so I can't exactly give anything away." I turned away from her so that she wouldn't see any of the emotions that were churning around inside of me.

"That's because my daughter is smart but it doesn't mean you are safe. If Arthur was here now he would lose his temper. He thinks your mate belongs to him and if he saw flashes of what you just did together it wouldn't end well. I am not sure I would be able to stop him this time."

My eyes snapped to her. Now the bruises around her neck made sense. He had been thinking about hurting Diana, I knew he was mad but it never occurred to me that he would try to hurt her. He claimed to want her as his mate, it made no sense for him to treat her badly.

"Elijah you are sweet but....."

She cut herself off suddenly in the middle of her sentence, her face falling. At first I thought she was testing me in some way but when I noticed the fear in her eyes I knew there was more to it than that.

She mumbled a string of swear words under her breath before turning to leave. I managed to grab hold of her wrist to stop her before she made it all the way to the door.

"What is it? Is Diana ok?" My voice came out as a horse whisper.

"I don't know, I think so. But something isn't right."

She pulled her arm out of my grasp and ran out of the room before I could question her further. Leaving me alone, worrying about my mates safety for what felt like the one millionth time this morning. Diana's POV

Arthur walked swiftly down the hallway, his jaw was clenched tight and I could see one of the blood vessels at his temple throbbing. But at least he was no longer holding my mom in a deathgrip. If she hadn't come in when she did it would have probably been me that he tried to choke, that was a very sobering thought.

I had been too relaxed when I spoke to him earlier. It didn't matter if I could beat him in a fair fight because he would never fight fair. He would use my loved ones against me, maybe even kill them if I tried to go against his wishes. He was a monster after all, and there was no telling what he was capable of.

"I'm sorry about her intrusion, I can't believe I ever thought she was good enough to be my mate."

I hated the way he spoke about my mom with such disdain but I held my tongue. It didn't seem to take much to make him lose his temper so I had to watch my words very carefully. If I was going to be staying here then I wouldn't be able to keep to that rule for long, but this was only temporary. I just had to keep reminding myself of that every time he got on my nerves.

There was one thing that was bothering me however. My mom was already mated to my father when Arthur came to take her away from me. She must have known about the spell that would seal the mate bond in place because she told me where to look for it. That would mean that she could never have been his mate, he couldn't even have shared her like he planned to share me with Elijah. Perhaps that meant he wouldn't know if I performed the spell.

"I was so disappointed when the spell I cast on her didn't work but the moon goddess did me a favour. That woman can't even follow simple instructions and she wouldn't tell me where you were hiding no matter what I did."

He turned abruptly and pushed me against the wall. My heart started racing. My mind was reeling from what he just said and the sudden change in his mood. I was worried that he was going to try to strangle me like he had with my mom, but that seemed to be the last thing on his mind. His eyes roamed hungrily over my body and his erection was pressing against my core, making me feel sick and angry at the same time.

"If she had then maybe I wouldn't have to share you with another man." He purred, his eyes lingering over my lips.

There wasn't a chance that I was going to let him kiss me, that was where I was drawing the line. If his face got any closer to mine then I would gouge his eyes out and feed them to him. That should be enough to help us escape, I would like to see him try to chase after me without any eyes.

"What do you think?"

Shit, I was too busy thinking about how best to maim him to listen to his words. Now he was right in my face asking me questions. This day was going downhill rapidly. I opened my mouth and attempted to come up with some sort of reply.

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"I, erm, think."

Arthur held out his hand to stop me. His eyes were glazed over as though he was mindlinking someone. He stood like that for a few minutes.

Even though his mind was elsewhere his body was still pressed up against mine and every time I tried to move he would grip me tighter. The pressure of his arms around me was starting to become painful by the time his eyes started to focus on me again.

"We will have to continue this later, I have a slight emergency to attend to."

As he was speaking two large men came up behind him. Having a couple of body guards who weren't even alpha's was insulting but it could be worse.

"What is going on, am I in danger?"

"No, it is fine. It is just a couple of vampires straying too close to our territory."

That must have been some of Mark's friends, they were here as the first part of our plan. I was so relieved by their timing, I was going to hug them all when I saw them again.

"Oh," I replied in an attempt to cover my relief.

"It will be fine. I will have this sorted in no time so we can get back to our date. Until then these men will escort you to your room."

He ran his lips over my neck slowly. As he did so he mumbled the word soon under his breath before letting go of me and walking away down the corridor. Now it was time to put part one of my plan into action.