The Shadow Alpha
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

~Flashback~

“Kage?” Panic was evident in her tone, but the fear I expected to hear never made an appearance.She was staring wide eyed at the figure behind me, but as I was about to turn around, the horror inher eyes stopped me dead in my tracks. She gripped onto my arm anxiously, her nails digging intomy skin, but I paid no heed to it as my anger rose.

I pulled her close to me when I turned around with a murderous look directed at the man whocouldn't seem to tear his leering gaze from my mate.

The house was in shambles; broken glass littered the floors, the furniture was either damaged orthrown around haphazardly and amidst the chaos laid an array of dead bodies. We were woken up awhile ago by the trip alarm set around the house going off, the hour following that was filled withfists flying and teeth ripping through flesh, once we took out all of Kage's rogues we wound upfacing the man himself which is where we were right now.

Kage was flanked by four other rogues, whom by the looks of it were his personal minions. His tacticdisgusted me more than anything, he sent the group ahead of him knowing full well that we wouldkill them. Only then did he show up later expecting that we would welcome him with open arms andhad over whatever he demanded.

“Hello darling, miss me?” he smirked at Sherice who was peeking at him from behind my back, myhand involuntarily tightened around her arm. My wolf was growing increasingly angry; so much sothat I was having a hard time controlling him while fighting my own anger.

The only thing that kept me from pouncing and ripping his head off his shoulders was Oliver's eyeson me reminding me that any rash behaviour could mean our own demise and while my mate wasin question, I still had a responsibility towards the group.

Noticing my action Kage's smirk grew and his cronies chuckled at his ability to get a rise out of me,but I couldn't care less.

"What is your business here Kage?” Oliver's strong voice broke through the tense silence.

Kage tilted his head towards Oliver in a mocking way, “You have something of mine and I came totake it back.” I bristled at the hungry gaze he sent towards Sherice.

"Over my dead body!” I burst, stepping forward, unable to hold back my anger.

“That can be arranged.” The Rogue smirked with a sick look in his eyes.

"NO!" Sherice’s cry interrupted our intense stare down, before I could grasp onto her she sprangforward and into the arms of the man who could not tear his eyes from her, the man I despised.

My anger morphed into shock and fear, “What the hell are you doing Sherice? Come back here rightnow!” I rushed out, alarm ringing in my tone.

Kage cackled, mirth dancing in his eyes, “You really think she would leave me for you?” His smugvoice put me slightly on edge, but I paid no attention to him as I stepped forward to grasp her arm,but just as I did he pulled her body flush against his.

His action did not surprise me, what caught me off guard was her lack of protest.

"Just leave me, Chris... Let me go.” She expressed in a sorrow filled whisper.

“No! Ill never let you go without a fight.” I asserted, unable to see her give up on me this easily.With that said I leapt forward, shifting mid-air into my Ash brown coloured wolf. My bloodlusturged me to clamp my jaws around his neck and sink my canine into the tender flesh that lay abovehis Aorta, but before I could get to him, a searing pain erupted in my chest; it was so painful that Ifell to the ground in a heap unable to withstand the agony, I let out a loud how! that would surelybe heard for miles.

Through hazy eyes I watched as the room fell silent, a few of my group members took a defensivestance as they prepared for the attack, but their eyes were trained on me.

My unfocussed eyes moved from them to my mate who stood flush against Kage with a hazy lookin her eyes as the Rogue's teeth sunk into her neck, the sight was accompanied by a jolt of sorrow.My undoing came in the form of the moan that omitted from her lips; she was enjoying it despite allshe said about her hate for him.

With a newfound anger and resentment I forced myself to stand up and looked her directly in theeye, “What is wrong with you?” no matter how much I tried to hide the anguish, my traitorous voicebetrayed me.

“I'm sorry Christopher, but it's better this way. I, Sherice Lane, reject you Christopher Butler as mymate.” Before any of us could even recover from our shock they disappeared into the dark of thenight, leaving behind the destruction they caused in the house and my heart.

~End of Flashback~

“No matter how many times they told me to accept the rejection, I couldn’t. My head screamed atme to accept it and move on, but my heart wouldn't admit to her deceit.” He revealed. To say that Iwas shocked would be an understatement, I had not till this day been able to put a name to any ofthe rogues apart from the ones that I had either killed or Tatiana had mentioned to us, but I had astrange feeling that this Kage character was closer to the top than we would be comfortable with.“It wasn't until recently that I made an effort to replace out what her intentions were. I found out thatshe was in fact a part of their entire scheme; her conspiracy was to get into our house and replace outinformation regarding who we are and what we were planning against the rogues. My best guess isthat she was to pose as a victim and have us rescue her, she never banked on being my mate andKage knew that the longer she stayed, the easier it would be to turn her against them.” It madeperfect sense, but I still had some questions.

“How come you only thought to replace out her intentions now?” I asked the first of a hoard ofquestions that plagued my mind.

He let out a humourless chuckle, “The incident that took place that night in the gym. It was theworst I've ever felt. Every time they sleep together I feel it, it's almost become second nature to livewith the constant pain, but sometimes it gets really bad. An elder once told me that it was becauseof the advancement in their relationship. Something really big happened this time and I because ofthat I almost lost my sanity. If it weren't for you, I would have either died or became a feral wolf.When I woke up after that night, I realised just how bad it has gotten and hearing about what youdid and what happened to you, I knew that I couldn’t continue.” He explained with a meaningfullook in my direction.

“How did you even replace out all of this?” fired my next question, not even bothering to reply to hislook.

A heavy sigh escaped his chest, “I have a friend that's a private investigator, he is quiteinconspicuous and can replace information about just anything, it also helps that he’s in good with therogues.” I was a tad bit suspicious of anyone who was in the good books of the rogues, but surelyChristopher covered his tracks well, “Oh and before you ask, he doesn't know who I am, nor does heknow where I am or why I asked.” I snickered at his reassurance and offered him a smirk.

“I thought so. Now tell me, did she manage to get any information?” without missing a beat heshook his head in denial.

“No, we never spoke in front of her, nor did we leave any information lying around. A part of me isglad that Kage showed up when he did, because if he hadn't I would have told her about my trueidentity that very night.” He divulged in a relieved tone. I couldn't help but sigh inwardly myself.“Thank the Goddess for small miracles.” We both chuckled at the sheer luck of the situation.

"Yeah, so I thought that you should know that before I asked the next thing.” His eyes becameguarded causing me to frown.

We were still walking in the forest; I couldn“t sense anyone else in the forest apart from the both ofus and the border control who were closing in on us as we spoke. I grasped his arm and steered himin the direction of the pack house away from any prying ears.

"What is it?" I enquired, unable to figure out in what direction the conversation was heading.

“I want to break the bond. I want to accept the rejection.” He asserted and my brows shot up insurprise.

“I thought you'd already done that?” realisation dawned upon him as he realised why I was shocked.“It's been four years, a lot longer than any wolf has held on for. I don't know what to expect, exceptfor the fact that it will be very painful, I don’t know what will happen beyond that.” His thoughtsmaterialised and as they did I suddenly remembered something I had read about rejected matesback when I was still trying to learn about the mate bond of the Shadow Wolf.

“I can't.” I stated frankly, a hurt look appeared in his eyes, but before he could speak I continued,“When a mate bond is broken at such a stage where the bond of one mate is completely severed,the only way to mend the bond of the accepting mate is to recreate a bond with another, otherwiseall you're left with is a loose thread. That alone will make a wolf go feral.” I disclosed; a mask of painsettled in his eyes as reality dawned upon him.

“So that's it then, there's no way out?” he clarified brokenly. I wanted so badly to help him, but Icouldn't and never had I felt so terrible in my entire life.

“I'm sorry Christopher, I really am.” I uttered feeling worse than I had before the conversationbegan.

“It's okay Alpha... It's my fault I guess, so many people told me to just accept it, but I was toostubborn to listen, I guess this is the price I have to pay,” my frown deepened at his words.

“No Chris, there's nothing wrong with having hope. You gave your mate the benefit of the doubt,just because she was too stupid to realise what she lost doesn't make you the bad person here.Maybe a little naive, but you don't deserve this either way.” I reassured him, hoping that I could lifthis spirit, even just a little.

He sent me an appreciative smile which I was glad for and just like that we walked back to the packhouse silently, both lost in our own thoughts.