Hannah POV
I spent the last two days pretty much all the time in my room. I wasn't in the mood to go anywhere or to do anything, plus my bruises hurt a lot.
I spared the twins the details of what happened to me. They only know that Andrew was trying to hurt me and that Mikkeli punished him for that. They insisted on staying with me, and that's what they did. We spent the whole day in one room, mostly talking about what we liked in here and what we didn't like, a little about parents, and a little about how great it would be to have them still around. I was happy that they were with me but also tired because it took me a lot of strength not to cry in front of them, and honestly, that was the only thing I was in the mood to do. Even though nothing happened, the real damage wasn't done; it was still awful.
I can still feel their hands on me, and it makes me sick.
Thank God I have Kyle.
In the evening, when the children were finally asleep, he let me cry on his shoulder as much as I needed to, and I think I was crying for at least an hour. He was holding me gently, saying that it wasn't my fault, that everything would be alright, that they were gone, and I was safe.
Kyle may be an omega, so according to Mikkeli standards, he's weak, but I disagree with it. Kyle is not weak, he is just gentle and kind, and it's good to have a friend like him. He also asked me how I felt about being Mikkeli's mate. And the problem is I couldn't give him the correct answer because ever since Mikkeli and I met, there have been only bitterness and harsh words between us, but for some reason, thinking of him rejecting me makes me feel... sad.
Kyle didn't seem surprised by my statement. According to him, humans can feel the bond too, not so strong as werewolves, but they recognize the pull towards their mate, and the bond will grow stronger with the passing of time. The only way to stop this is rejection, and apparently, only Mikkeli can do it. As a human, I don't feel the pull so strongly, but I also cannot break the bond, and that is what raises another question if Mikkeli doesn't want me, why won't he reject me? Why didn't he do it at the beginning?
Well, after two days, I lost the opportunity to keep pitting myself because everyone in the pack was involved in preparing for an annual gathering. As Rose explained to me, it is a very important meeting when pack allies will be visiting our territory, at least those with territories closest to ours. They will renegotiate the treaties between themselves if necessary and develop joint strategies to fight the enemies like hunters and rogues.
It's also an opportunity to present the strength of our pack, so Rose and everybody are extremely focused on making this event a perfection, which involves lots of cleaning, cooking, and decorating for at least three days.
During those days, I haven't seen Mikkeli at all; also, I haven't seen Byron. I keep avoiding going alone into the woods, so even if he wants to approach me, I make it impossible for him because he for sure is focused on keeping all this "being my mate thing" a secret from everybody.
The pack keeps gossiping about what happened to Andrew and his friend. Most asked how I was feeling and showed some sympathy. Some are avoiding the topic staring silently at my bruises, but from time to time, I can hear whispers, exactly like now.
I'm currently helping Kyle set the table for the dinner because all those important werewolves will be here in a couple of hours, and I can see two females gossiping and eyeing us from the other side of the room.
"Who would have thought that we could have another omega crisis like with Cara," they say, and I see Kyle visibly flinches hearing their words. I can see his lips trembling as he tries not to cry; soon, he runs to the kitchen, and I follow him. Everything is clean here now; the window is fixed, and some furniture and the door were replaced.
"Are you OK?" I'm asking, sitting next to him.
He looks at me with red eyes and slowly whispers:
"They were talking about my mom; the omega incident was about my mom" he shivers slightly, and I wrap my arms around him, trying to comfort him.
"Do you want to talk about it?" I ask hesitantly; I don't want to force him to say anything if he's not comfortable with that. For some time, there is only silence, and finally, he decides to tell me:
"I was almost five when it happened. My mom was an omega like me; actually, I was in the same situation as Maddie. Mateless, weak mother, unknown father, always at the mercy of a pack. Right now, every omega member of the Blackwood Pack is granted safety, but when Mikkeli's father was in charge, it wasn't like that. We were treated almost as slaves; we should fulfill our chores and be loyal, we shouldn't ask questions, we should bow to the higher-ranked members, and we should be grateful for the scraps they used to give us. When Hayden's mother was around and fulfilled her duties as Luna, it wasn't that bad but still not fair. I don't remember her well, but my mother told me that she had made sure that we were fed, there was a roof above our heads, and there was no harsh bullying. Her husband never cared about the lower members of his pack, so after she was gone, everything was possible. We all even shared the same room at night because it was safer that way; we were ridiculed, pushed around, and sometimes even abused, alpha didn't care, and his Beta didn't care. Most of the pack wasn't abusive, but they didn't see the problem, or they chose not to see the problem because it was safer for them. And one evening, my mom was with me at the back of the house. She was preparing some desserts for the next day's meeting when some warriors entered; I think they were drunk. They all demanded food, and my mom fed them, and after that, one of them... was trying to play with me, but I got scared and bit him, and he struck me. My mom jumped to protect me, and he was furious; he was screaming that he was only trying to show some compassion towards a disgrace like me, and he... he raped her, and after him, the others raped her too. She didn't scream. She didn't protect herself; I think she was afraid that if she had put up any fight, they would've killed both of us."
The tears are flowing down his eyes; he keeps shaking in my arms as I'm holding him.
"When the last of them was almost done, Mikkeli entered. He was 14 that day or something around that age. He saw us, and he lost it; he killed them all, ripped them into shreds, and he barely started his training as a warrior of the pack then. He ended, of course, wounded, but he managed to kill them all. That's why our Alpha is so feared now because everybody knows that he killed fully trained warriors at the age of 14, and that was the display of power you rarely see. And that was the reason he wasn't punished for that. His father was so proud of him, of his strength. But after that, a lot changed for us. We still were pretty much at the bottom of the pack, but strong violence against us was stopped because our abusers were afraid of Mikkeli. When he became the Alpha, he banished from the pack those who were guilty of abusing other pack members or punished them in another way, and now the ground rule here is never to touch your fellow pack members.
"Where is your mother now?"
"She died when I was ten; she got sick. After that, Rose took me in and took care of me. Her daughter was gone, my mother was gone, we stuck together" he gives me a tiny smile, but I can see that he's hurt, that that still hurts him.
"What's wrong?" Mikkeli enters the kitchen and looks at us strangely.
"Nothing, we've just talked," I answer, and Kyle starts wiping tears from his face. Honestly, I expect some sharp response or cynical comment about our behavior, but to my surprise, Mikkeli smiles and gently pats Kyle's head as if he was trying to cheer him up.
"After we finish eating, I would like you to serve us all drinks in the living room," he says, looking at me. "Hayden wants you to look around the people we invited; we would like to check if you perhaps may recognize someone else. Maybe one of them was trying to approach your family before and later sent Steve to memorize Jason and James' scent."
"You do not trust your alliances?" I ask and try not to be sarcastic
"Some of them I trust with everything I have, but some of them I trust only as much as our common ground start and finish. Werewolf's politics is always about territory and fighting common enemies; it's about survival and prosperity of the pack, not about liking each other."
And that is why a couple of hours later, I'm standing in the living room and trying not to check everybody gathered in the room too obliviously. Because every Alpha brought at least four high members of their pack, it's a bit crowded, or I would say very crowded, but at least everybody is extremely polite and well-behaved. Although I can see the surprised look on their faces when I serve them, they realize I'm a human. I can see Jake and Becca, and also Hayden moving around a lot. Only Tony seems to be staying all the time in one place, which is exactly next to me.
"Are you so bored, or are you supposed to keep an eye on me?" I finally asked him
"Both," he says and smiles, which also makes me smirk. Tony is always so positive it's difficult to keep a long face around him. "Hayden and Mikkeli wanted to be sure that you are safe."
"Are you hiding from Connie?' Becca comes close to us and asks for another drink.
"Who is Connie?" I ask, and they both point with their eyes in the direction of a quite beautiful black-haired girl standing in the middle of the room and openly flirting with Mikkeli and some other alphas.
"She's the daughter of Full Moon Pack's Alpha and is extremely irritating. She's the only child, but her wolf is too weak to be an alpha, so whoever mates with her will be her pack's new ruler. It's everybody's secret that her father wants her to catch an Alpha of one of the nearest packs, preferably ours. You know merging is always a good idea. That's why he always brings her to every annual gathering, wherever it's hosted," Becca replies to my question, and Tony rolls his eyes.
"Of course, she has to wait with an engagement another two years until she will be 24," he says and seeing my questionable look continuously. "It's kind of tradition in the werewolf world if you don't find your mate until you're 24 or reject them, you can choose whoever you want as long as they want you and also are matless above 24 or already lost mate."
"That's how it was with our Luna, the previous Alpha's wife. She was a very strong warrior but didn't find her mate, and Mikkeli's and Hayden's father offered her Luna's position and marriage if she gave him an heir, and she did when she gave birth to Hayden," says Becca sipping her drink
"How did she die?" I ask curiously, and I can see Tony and Becca exchanging looks.
"She didn't die; she left. She finally had enough of her husband and left; Hayden was 16. The previous Alpha was furious but not because she left, but because she left with another guy, not even her real mate," Becca continues, and Tony keeps avoiding my eyes. He looks sad, as if he has just remembered something bad.
"And the previous Alpha never found his mate?" I decided to change the topic
"Apparently, yes, but I wouldn't be surprised if he did something to her if she had turned out weak or inappropriate according to his standard. He was a truly heartless man," Becca says ."It's good that he's gone, he died in a hunter ambush seven years ago, and Mikkeli became an Alpha as it was expected, end of the story."
About an hour later, everybody starts slowly saying their goodbyes and heads in the direction of their rooms. I'm pretty sure I checked everyone, but I didn't recognize anyone of them. There is a lot of cleaning, so I stay and help Rose, Kyle, and other omegas with chores. Our guests may be the high-ranking members of their respective packs, but they are also extremely sloppy.
I see Hayden going upstairs, and since I still have to take dirty dishes to the kitchen, I ask him to check twins and Rosie. They should be sleeping now, but with the kids, you never know for sure. He smiles at me and nods his head. I turn in the direction of the kitchen and slowly walk in, and here they are. Mikkeli sits on one of the chairs, and Connie leans very close to him, her arms wrapped around his neck; she's sitting on his lap.
My first instinct is just to step back, to turn around and pretend I didn't see anything, and as stupid as it may sound, I feel sad; I know I shouldn't because there is nothing between us, but for some reason, I feel hurt. Mikkeli notices me, and for a short moment, I can see guilt in his eyes, but after that, he turns his eyes away from me towards Connie. Well, I guess there's no point in pretending I'm not here anymore. I slowly walk in, give him the bow of respect, and start taking care of the dishes.
"I think you should go" I hear Mikkeli standing up and sending Connie towards the doors; she smiles at him and says: "Maybe we should continue this tomorrow."
I can hear her steps and the sound of a closing door, but I don't hear Mikkeli leaving. He's standing in the same place, and I'm too scared to check if he's looking at me.
I feel sad, I shouldn't, but I do, and I have no energy to argue with him today.
"Are you jealous, feisty one?"
I hear him standing so close behind me. He was so quick I didn't even notice his movement. I turn around, and his face is inches from mine. He smirks, but his eyes are deadly serious. I have no time for any reaction as he suddenly lifts me and sets me on the kitchen counter; he's between my legs, leaning so close to me I can feel his chest pressed to my breasts. His nose is in the crook of my neck, and I don't know why; instead of pushing him away instantly after a moment, I wrap my arms around his neck. Of course, he takes it as a sign of encouragement and starts gently sucking my neck, moving his lips slowly up toward my ear, and it feels so pleasurable my mind goes clouded, and I pull him closer to me.
It feels so good I don't want him to stop. I can feel his hands caressing my thighs and moving toward my back. He lifts his head, and I can see his face; I was expecting his wolf's dark eyes, but instead, his natural green ones look at me. I raise my hand and start caressing his face with my fingertips. His eyes soften, and he seems relaxed; his arms are wrapped around my waist.
"And here I was wondering why do you have a human at your house, Alpha" I can hear a voice coming from the direction of the door.
Both Mikkeli and I stop and turn our gaze toward him. I can see a muscular and tall man with sharp eyes and significant scars across his face. I think he's the Beta of the Full Moon Pack. Mikkeli slowly steps away from me, and I notice him baring his teeth.
"I remember you always reminding visitors that touching your omegas is off-limits. Is she exclusive to you, or is there a prospect of sharing?" he licks his lips, and Mikkeli steps in front of me, successfully blocking his gaze from me.
"This is my pack; I share nothing here," he growls lowly. "Hannah, go to your room at once."
I quickly follow his command, the Beta keeps looking at me, but Mikkeli's stance convinces him not to try anything. I pass Rose and Kyle in the corridor, saying goodnight quickly, and try locking myself in the room, but I will not be granted peace and quiet because, in a matter of seconds, Rose enters my room.
"What did you do with Mikkeli? I can smell him on you. Hannah, what happened?"
"We had a moment of intimacy in the kitchen" I bite my lips and try to avoid her judgmental look.
"Hannah, you can't get yourself involved too much. Mikkeli may be a fair and good Alpha, but there is still too much of his father in him. Unless he openly accepts you, you can't do this; you'll only end hurt, just like Maddie."
"I just, I don't know... I don't know why I did it. I don't even like him," I sigh, and honestly, I have no idea what else to say. "I just don't know what to do. My parents are dead, probably murdered, I have to raise three kids, and someone is out there trying to hurt us. All this werewolf reality is not necessarily what I was expecting to happen to me. My parents should be at my home, my siblings should be safe, and I should be at college and this mate thing. It's like I... it's like I'm lost, and I don't know what to do, and I don't know what I should do." I can feel tears in my eyes, and Rose quickly comes closer and holds me.
I can hear the knock on the door, and Hayden enters the room with Rosie in his arms.
"Sorry, but she's woken up, and she wants you. I tried everything, and I didn't want her to wake up Jason and James," he says, looking a little bit guilty. "You're alright?"
I take Rosie into my arms, and she quickly latches herself towards me, and I smile.
"I am now."
"For the next couple of days, Mikkeli, Tony, and I will be at the training ground or in the office with our guests all day. Would you like to go camping in the woods after it is over? The boys mentioned how much they used to enjoy that. I can show you a more secluded part of Blackwood territory".
"I'd love this idea," I say, smiling.