Amber's POV
"Amber Rose!"
I stopped in my tracks. I didn't want to see my father again; I had no idea what to say to him. No explanation could make the fact that he abandoned me right in any sense of the word.
He came into my view and I just stared at him. He looked exactly the same as when I last saw him, except maybe a little bit older. He looked like me, just manly and tall. When he started taking steps towards me, I took a step back. Meeting his eyes I gritted out, "Do NOT come any closer to me!"
He listened and stopped in his tracks. Putting his head down in shame, he stood in front of me. "Amber, please. It is not what you think."
"Not what I think? How do you even know what I think? You wouldn't know. You don't know anything about me! You left me! You left me to fend for myself and you never once cared to check in on me!" I screamed at him as the tears streamed down my face. I felt like I was going to explode, all these emotions pouring out of me.
"Amber, please let me explain! Let me make things right!" he pleaded with me. Tears threatened to spill from his eyes as he was taking deep breaths to try to calm himself down.
Before I could respond to him I heard Damien call my name.
"Over here Damien!" I yelled out for him and in a flash he was standing in front of me, holding me in his arms.
"Please don't ever do that again! Princess I was so worried about you, something bad could have happened. I need you, I need you with me." He pleaded with me as he kept hugging me tight against his body.
I took his face in my hands and brought my lips to his. I pulled back and looked into his beautiful green orbs, "Damien I am sorry. I don't know what came over me but all these overwhelming feelings came over me and I just needed to run and get far away. I won't do it again." I whispered to him.
"Lets take you home love." He took my hand in his.
I heard my father clear his throat and both Damien and I turned to him. "You both have traveled a long way, you can stay here at the castle for the night if you would like. Then we can regroup in the morning and discuss what you came here for."
I shook my head no. "I will not stay at your castle. I want nothing to do with you."
Damien turned to me again and hugged me to him. He started rubbing circles on my back to try and calm me. "Princess, my love. I know that you don't want to be near your father right now, but we need answers. I think we should stay, even if it is only for tonight. You can decide tomorrow if we stay or if we go."
I closed my eyes and took in a couple deep breaths. I really didn't want to stay in the same place as my father, at least not until I calmed down a bit, but we really had no choice. He was the one person that was going to be able to give us the answers that we needed.
I turned to my father, "Fine. Damien and I will stay for the night, but we will be gone tomorrow after we get answers."
"Amber can I please just-" my father started to speak but Damien quickly stopped him.
"Don't you dare fucking speak to her! Don't think that I have forgotten what you did to her and that you are the reason we have been searching for her for hours. You can speak to her when she is ready for it, otherwise you will address me and only me." Damien demanded.
My heart was full of so much love for this man. I couldn't be happier that he was my mate, always protecting me from everything.
Damien suggested that we head back to the castle in our wolf form. He had already mind-linked one of his men back at the castle to have clothes ready for us outside. Apparently I had ran for a few hours, but luckily I had also run in circles a couple times. We were about an hour run from the castle.
By the time we made it back to the castle, it was completely dark outside and I was famished. We all shifted back and changed into our clothes. My father led the way into the castle as he started telling the servants to get dinner ready for all of us.
"Is there something that you and Amber would prefer to eat for dinner?" he asked Damien. Damien sat there with his jaw clenched and just stared at my father. After a minute he responded, "I'm pretty sure we are fine with eating anything at this point. Although we would appreciate it being brought to our room rather than sitting at a table with you."
My father's face became red; it was obvious to see that he was starting to get very aggravated with the way Damien and I were speaking to him. "Fine. I will have food sent up to your room. One of the servants will bring it up. Just know that I will not stand for this disrespect tomorrow. I am letting this slide because of my daughter, anyone else would have already been sent to the dungeons!"
"Is that supposed to make me happy?" I questioned him. "I don't care who you are here, how much power you hold. The only thing I see when I look at you is a deadbeat dad that left me with an abusive mother and her piece of shit boyfriend. A man who was fine letting his daughter worry about his safety every day for over ten years, crying herself to sleep most nights because she thought you were dead. You have no right to tell me or my mate how to treat you." I paused. "And if you don't have a damn good explanation tomorrow as to why you left me and never came back, you can consider yourself dead to me."
I then turned on my heels and grabbed Damien's hand. Todd who was standing off to the side, trying not to intrude met my eyes. "Todd, please take us to our room." I asked.
"Sure thing Miss Amber, Alpha Damien follow me."