I pulled away from my Alpha.
"What is the matter" Dryden asked. His eyes still glued on my lips
"Dryden I think I need some air" I said, pushing past him into the hallway.
"Essie wait! What happened in there I need to know" he called after me.
I heard his heavy footsteps chasing me down the hall.
When I got to the courtyard doors I ran for as far as I could, my legs burning from lack of rest, but I ignored them as I pushed on.
Finally, I managed to get a breather, leaning against the stone wall taking deep breaths until I could control my rapid pulse.
"How dare you leave without permission!" a voice shouted behind me.
I spun around my fist flying toward the direction the noise had come from.
My knuckle collided with a solid chest; the man was tall and broad his muscular arms locked themselves firmly around my waist stopping the blow.
"Easy there girl!" he said his hands gentle around my waist keeping me from hurting anyone.
I turned, tears streaming down my cheeks as I struggled against his grip.
"Let me go you monster!" I screamed
"Monster" he let out a soft chuckle
"I'm the farthest thing from a monster you will find here"
He had a beautiful face all sharp angles and his eyes were like Crystal blue pools, hair was black cut short like a warrior 's, a strong nose with long pointed ears.
A wolf? A real wolf.
His body was lean with defined muscles in his tight tanned shirt, and jeans.
But what was most striking was the deep scar that ran down his face.
It started at his jaw line and ended just under his bottom lip making sure to curve down his neck and disappear beneath his collar.
"Get. Off me" I growled pushing at his chest, but he merely smiled and squeezed me tighter.
Suddenly he picked me up, my arms wrapped tightly around his neck as he carried me bridal style.
"I've been ordered to keep an eye on you, I heard you like to run" he spoke his voice deep and husky.
I began kicking and yelling even though my strength left me as I tried to fight.
"Hang on tight" he warned, I gripped onto his jacket with my fingernails as I buried my face into the fabric.
And to my surprise he had no scent, right no supernatural powers, no wolf, so of course he wouldn't have any scent.
"You smell delicious"
He chuckled softly as if knowing what was going through my head, then he set me down on top of a wall that surrounded the edge of the water fountain.
I jumped off the wall and moved to stand in front of him, my stance stiff my eyes filled with defiance as I stared up at him.
"You can't just go around man handling people buddy" I told him, crossing my arms across my chest "That's really dangerous"
"You must realize I could never hurt you. You are my mate" he said staring down at me with wide pleading eyes.
I raised an eyebrow at his statement, "I'm sorry run that by me again?" what the hell was this lunatic talking about.
"yeah I scented you the moment you walked into the castle, so the King put me in charge of you, you probably can't tell I'm your mate because of the collar, but I'm not allowed to take it off you" he chatted away.
"Do you realize how insane you sound dude" I argued, stepping back as he came towards me.
"my name isn't dude it's Archer" he said taking my hands in his.
I jerked them out of his hold "you are crazy, this makes no sense you can't be my mate. You. Are. Not. My. Mate"
Archer gave me such sad puppy dog look, my heart softened, just a bit.
"come on flower" he pleaded as he took another step towards me.
I backed away until my legs hit the wall of the fountain, I pressed myself further against the wall, trying to make myself as small as possible.
Just as suddenly as he had approached me, Archer stepped back completely turning his back on me.
"What is it" I asked, I know when a wolf is on alert.
Then I heard it, Melody yelling my name.
She was looking for me, she had seen me kiss Dryden and run. Oh Goddess.
"Go away Melody. Go away now" I cried out "Don't come any closer, please just leave me alone!"
I heard her boots on the stone steps coming up behind me and I pressed myself further against the wall willing myself to disappear.
"What happened Essie!?" she demanded when she finally spotted me.
"And who is this" she was just firing off questions, my face got more and more red.
"You can't hide from me, and you can't disappear Essie" she said, her hand on her hip, my bestie was about to rip into me.
"And we need to find you some damn clothes" and the embarrassment continued, I had just met my so called mate in no underwear and a oversized tee shirt.
"I'm so sorry Melody" I stammered out, but she interrupted me.
"I don't care for your sorry" she went on.
"I don't care what Dryden or whatever your problem is but I do care that something happened that made you feel uncomfortable enough to run from him, and trust me I have never once in my life felt anything but comfortable in his presence. Did you two hook up?"
Shit.
"I'll kill him!" Archer growled, stalking passed me heading towards the castle.
"Wait" I shouted reaching for him but I couldn't grab his sleeve. "Please stop he didn't mean it he doesn't know, I didn't know I had a mate I promise l"
Melody grabbed my hand pulling me along after him, her face set in determination.
Archer stopped suddenly at the entrance, he turned to stare at us.
"So that's supposed to make me not want to kill him!?" he bellowed "If anything that's worse!" honestly I had no idea how to calm him.
"Damnit Essie" Melody said " I wouldn't have said anything if I knew that guy was your mate" she laughed, I'm glad this was so funny too her.
"Come on" she said, tugging me towards the door. We entered through the doorway, and Archer was standing a few feet away watching us walk down the corridor.
The second my foot touched the bottom stair he turned and stalked down the opposite direction heading for the guest quarters.
I watched in amazement as he disappeared around the corner.
it felt as if he was taunting me with his threats of killing Dryden, yet the moment we caught up to him at the door , Hand was blocking the way , his hands held up defensively.
Archer stopped and glared at us for a moment before shaking his head, a hint of disappointment flickered in his blue eyes.
"what's going on here?" Hans asked, giving archer an odd look.
"That man inside touched my mate" he growled,
"Whoa there bud" Hans said pushing him back "You need to calm down, you promised not to do this" he argued.
when I looked around Melody could hardly contain her laughter, I guess you can call this payback for getting them into this mess.
"Archer we gave you watch over her because you said this wouldn't affect you" Hans stated, which seem to calm him a bit.
" Why are you up here Beta" Archer questioned " oh uh I came to have a word with Ms. Seawrite" Hans was blushing slightly.
"really" Melody chirped happily "I wasn't sure you wanted to see me" her face was gaining a red tint on her honey skin.
"Of course I wanted to see you" Hans answered "I've been waiting for you for so long"
the door opened slowly behind him, Milo popping his head out "What's going on?" he asked "nothing" I replied pushing passed the men, making my way to my room "I need clothes and sleep"
I muttered before slamming the door shut on Archers face.
once Milo showed me my room and the door closed behind me, everything from the day came crashing in around me, Dryden, the Kings punishment, being cut off from Nissa and finding my mate and Melody finding hers.
the weight of it all was threatening to crush me.
But I couldn't fall apart like this right now. I needed to keep calm. And I needed to get cleaned up.
I sighed heavily and trudged past my closet opening the bathroom and grabbing a fluffy towel wrapping it around my body tightly; I stepped into the shower and started scrubbing my dirty skin, letting the warm water run over my body.
Once out I noticed a small pile of clothes on the bed that were most definitely not there when I went into the bathroom, and surprisingly they were my favorite sweats and my school tee shirt.
Then I remembered Hans had packed us bags. He must have given them to Melody, and she left them for me.
With my own clothes on I felt a bit better, my mind was still a jumble of shit but I felt a bit better, and tomorrow I would continue to deal with the shit show I created.
After a full eight hours.