"Dammit I told you it was a bad idea to ambush her like that!" Zack gritted out as they drove away from Sophie's home. Fury pounding through his veins in a relentless beat. "After everything we put her through, you still thought we had the right to expect her to come back to the place where she was tortured for years. Where everyone who was supposed to protect her turned their backs and allowed it to happen."

"It wasn't like that Zack!" His mother said disdainfully. "We had no choice, Frank was prepared to go to the wolf council with the proof that the pack had been breaking council law by allowing the human family to stay with us. You know this! Humans were not aware of our existence then, the council would have killed the humans, we would have been executed and the pack punished. We did what we had too, to save......"

"That's just what you tell yourself to help you sleep at night!" Zack shouted, pounding his fist on the steering wheel. "And what about me huh?" He asked angrily. "When you found out she was my fated mate, it was you who gave Frank the drug to hide her scent from me, what is your excuses for that, are you going to try and tell me you were protecting me also?" He snarled.

"Yes son that is exactly what we were doing." His father said gruffly. "Frank was threatening to kill you both if we didn't give him the drugs, we thought we were doing the right thing protecting you and the pack." He sighed angrily. "I did what I had to do. And I refuse to keep justifying my actions!"

Zack looked at his father, hoping to see some form of remorse on his face, something to tell him that he knew what they had did was wrong. But the only expression Zack could see blazing in his eyes was frustration. His father frowned and stated firmly. "She needs to put the past behind her and move on. We need her back, and you are going to have to convince her it's for the best Son."

Zack sighed, frustrated himself, at his fathers arrogance. "I asked you to leave it to me. I told you I was planning on going to see her soon. You never should have forced my hand and made me bring you here. It was the wrong way to do this. All you did today was make it harder for me to get her back. After everything she went through, going in there heavy handed was never going to work. Especially with both of you there."

Zack gripped the steering wheel till his knuckles turned white. The steering wheel creaking under the pressure, his rage almost a living thing in its ferocity. "How could you have got it so wrong?" He ground out. "I could have taken her away from him and protected her, I was strong enough!" He roared. "He would never have been in a position to hurt her again if you had not given him the drug to mask her scent from me, I was the stronger wolf even then, than that piece of filth. Instead she thought I didn't want her. You let her think I didn't want her!"

Zack slammed on the brakes and yanked the steering wheel to the side bringing the car to a screeching halt at the edge of the road, threw the door open and climbed out. He stood with his head down and his shoulders hunched for a few seconds before throwing his head back and howling his rage and pain to the sky, his wolf tearing at his inside, not understanding why they had walked away and left their mate.

Even after two years his anger had not diminished. It felt like just yesterday he had found her in that filthy shack laughingly called a cabin, covered in blood and Goddess only knew what else. He felt like he had aged fifty years since that day.

He had been trying to find Sophie for two long years. After the healer had helped her leave pack lands he had tried everything to get her to tell him where she was, but until a few weeks ago, she had stood firm in her resolve and had kept her word to Sophie not to reveal her location to anyone.

But all that had changed with the involvement of the wolf council, and their investigation into the pack and his parents. Their actions had drawn too much attention, and the council were fervent to get to the bottom of what had happened to Sophie, her uncle, and anyone else involved. But they need Sophie to come home, so their question could be answered.

A selfish small part of him had hoped that Sophie would still be the timid, submissive girl she had seemed to be four years ago. But after seeing her today he couldn't help but feel proud at how she had stood up to them. She was all alpha female, and she had shown it today. Even if it did mean it would make things more difficult for him in getting her to return to the pack and help them.

When he had saw her today for the first time in two years, he was amazed at the change in her. Gone was the skeletal thin girl with sunken eyes and lank hair. In her place was a stunningly beautiful female. Her midnight black hair was long and lustrous, curling halfway down her back. She had put on much needed weight and had curves that made his wolf sit up and beg. Her skin had lost the sallow gaunt look and now glowed with health and vitality.

But it was her eyes that drawn and held him almost captivated. They were the palest shade of grey he had ever saw. Stunning, mesmerising, bewitching, eyes he wanted to drown in.

He sighed loudly, as his father pulled him from his inner thoughts and said gruffly.

"I am not going to apologize to you again for the decisions we made Zack," he said. "We need to move on and find a way to get Sophie to come back to Hollow Ridge and complete the mating with you." His tone hardened. "She needs to put it all behind her and......."

"Are you fucking kidding me!" Zack choked out, cutting his father off. "You always were hard but even for you, this...." Lost for words, his voice trailed off. "Get back in the car!" he bit out. "I cant talk to you about this any more because I am gonna say something I might regret."

As he watched his parents climb into the car he knew that no matter what anyone said or did, the chances of Sophie ever forgiving them for their part in the nightmare that had been her life was never likely to happen. And rightly so.

But he couldn't help but hope that somewhere deep inside of her, there was still a small piece of her that was drawn to a pack, his pack, because wolves were, at their very souls, pack animals. That need to be part of something strong and nurturing. If not. Then they would all most likely be dead very soon.