Chapter 9

Zack drove away from Sophie's house and he couldn't help but feel as if he had betrayed his mate once more, but he didn't know how else to persuade her to come back to the pack. To use her emotions against her went against everything he believed in, and to use the threat from the wolf council to the children, he knew was low.

Even knowing all that, he didn't think he would have done anything differently. He wanted, no, he needed her to come home. Not just because of the council, but because he needed to try and fix what his parents, and inadvertently he, had caused.

He would never forget the day he had discovered the truth. The day he realised his parents and Sophie's uncle had hid his mate from him two years. The day Sophie had killed her uncle.

It was the screams that drew his attention. He had just returned from a trip to town for supplies and had parked his truck beside the pack house and was shooting the breeze with a few pack mates before unloading the dry goods into the storeroom when the first scream came.

He and the three others turned and started running. The next scream came seconds later. As they ran towards the houses at the far side of the pack village, one of the woman came round the bend almost falling in her haste to get away from whatever she had saw.

As Zack came closer he recognised her as Anne Dobson, one of his fathers enforcer's mate. "Anne, what is it, what's happened?" He asked quickly.

"It's Frank!" She sobbed, barely able to speak through her sobs. "It's Frank, he's....he's...dead!"

"Where is he Anne?" Zack asked urgently. "Was it a hunter?"

Anne shook in his arms and continued sobbing. "No!" She said gasping. "It was her!"

"What are you talking about Anne, who? Where is frank?" Anne turned and pointed towards Frank's run down cabin.

Zack gently pushed her into the arms of one of the men now gathered round and walked quickly to the cabin. As he got closer he could smell the blood clearly, the copper scent bitter to his sensitive nose.

The nearer he got to the porch, he realised he could scent the blood of not just Frank but also of someone else and his heart began to pound in his chest. His wolf began howling, scratching at his insides trying to burst free. Mate, his wolf howled. My mate. He wrestled to get his wolf under control only just managing to hold off his shift.

Zack couldn't believe it. His mate was in there and from the scent she was hurt. He ran up the steps and onto the porch stepping through the already open door. The site that greeted him as he walked into the main room of the cabin would haunt him till the day he died.

Frank Danes was lying on his back in the middle of the floor with a large kitchen knife sticking out of his chest, the pool of blood underneath him spreading out around him like a macabre ink blot. He know immediately that a Frank was dead. The scent of death already thickening the air.

But it was the small figure curled in on herself in the corner that drew his attention. She was covered in blood from head to toe and her back had been ripped to shreds, with muscle and bone showing in places, the wounds were so severe.

"Mate!" He whispered brokenly. He rushed across the room and bent down reaching a hand out to touch his mate. He knew she lived, he could hear her shallow breathing and slower than should be heartbeat.

As he gently brushed her blood matted hair back from her face and recognition flooded him. Sophie Danes! Frank's niece. But how could that be. He had met her just after her eighteenth birthday, when she had approached him and his father at the packhouse. She had said then they were mates but she hadn't scented as his mate then. How could this have happened.

He moved his hand down and cupped her cheek gently. Suddenly her eyes opened and she looked at Zack crouching over her and began screaming.

"No! No!" She screamed. "No more, please, I won't try and leave again I promise. Don't whip me anymore. Please!" She pleaded desperately.

"Sophie, calm down, please." Zack pleaded. "It's Zack! No one is gonna hurt you anymore. You're safe now. Who did this to you? Who hurt you and your Uncle?" He asked urgently, wanting nothing more than to rip the person apart who had hurt his mate.

Sophie turned and the bleakness in her eyes froze him right to his core. She looked over at the body lying in the middle of the room.

"I did!" She whispered, her voice rough from screaming, tears seeping slowly down her blood smeared face. "Is he dead?" She asked. "Did I kill him?"

Zack looked from Sophie to Frank, his brain trying to put together what had happened. His mind rejecting the possibility that Sophie could have been defending herself from Frank.

But he knew that was exactly what had happened.

"Yes mate, he is dead! He will never hurt you again."

Sophie turned her head and looked at him, no emotion in them, only flat lifelessness.

"I'm not your mate!" She said in a broken whisper. "You denied me, remember? When I came to you, to tell you you were my mate, you denied me. You sent me back to him, allowed him to do this to me. You are NOT my mate! You are nothing to me!"

Sophie turned her head away leaving Zack reeling.

As Zack sat frozen beside his mate, he heard footsteps coming up behind him. "Zack!" His father barked. "What the hell happened here?"

Zack tore his eyes from his mate and turned to his father and Alpha. "I think he was whipping her Dad and she defended herself. She killed him!" He looked back at Sophie sitting so still, naked and bleeding. "She is my mate Dad!" He whispered, shock evident in his shaky tone.

"How is this possible? How did he hide her from me for two years? Why? Why would he do that?" He said, confusion muddling his thoughts.

"Son, get up and come away from her now. She needs to be taken away for questioning." His father ordered.

Zack looked at his father standing over them and frowned at the look of anger on his face.

"What are you talking about Dad? She needs the healer not questioned."

"Do as I told you Son, get away from her now." He growled.

"No! I'm not leaving my mate, and no one will be questioning her till the healer has saw her. Why are you being like this? She is the victim here and you are treating her like a criminal. What the hell is going on?" Zack demanded.

"She is not your mate Zack! She will never be your mate! She is damaged and not good enough to be the alpha female heir. Now do as I say and go outside. I will deal with her!" Contempt ozzed from him in waves.

Zack looked from Sophie sitting so still to his father towering over them and he knew. His father had known she was his mate. Had known all along and had kept her from him.

"What did you do Dad?" He growled. "What did you DO?" He whispered harshly. He surged up onto his feet and grabbed the front of his fathers shirt, pulling him to the other side of the room.

"I did what I had to do to protect you!" His father ground out, being sure his voice did not carry. "And remember Son, I don't answer to you, I am Alpha and my word is law."

Zack pushed his father away in disgust. "Our most sacred pack law states that no one may interfere with a mating. Not even an alpha has that right!" As he turned and looked down at his mate shivering naked on the floor he said in a voice dripping with loathing for the man who was his father. "She is my one true mate, and you deliberately hid her existence from me for two years. Did you know what he was doing to her? Did you know he was beating her? Huh Dad? Did you know?"

"None of that matters now Son, Frank is dead!"

"Doesn't matter? How the hell can you say it doesn't matter."

A noise from the doorway drew his attention and he turned to see several pack members crowded in the doorway, shock and horror evident on every face.

"How many of you knew what was going on here? Did any of you know she was being abused and that she was my mate?" Zack asked them.

"Zack!" His father shouted, looking nervous. "Shut up!"

"She's your mate?" One of the men whispered, shocked.

"Yes, she is my mate." Zack confirmed. "Someone get the healer, she needs attention right away, and inform the rest of the pack there will be a pack meeting later on tonight."

"You can't call a pack meeting Zack." His father said angrily. "Only the alpha can, and I say there will be no meeting!"

"You are right Dad, only the alpha can call a pack meeting. And I just did! You are not fit to be alpha anymore. And I intend to go before the pack tonight and have you removed from the role. If you don't agree to step down I will challenge you. And I will win!"

"You would challenge your own father?" His dad scoffed. "You wouldn't do that, it would break your mothers heart. This whole situation has been hard enough......"

"Mother knew as well? She knew Sophie was my mate?" Zack could not fathom what he was hearing. They had all conspired to keep him from his mate.

He shook his head in disgust and turned back to his injured mate, who had lapsed into unconsciousness. He crouched down beside her and said softly to her, hoping some part of her would hear him and be comforted. "Sophie I'm going to pick you up and take you to the healer. Ok? I'm sorry, it's going to hurt, but she is taking too long and we need to get you out of here and get you some help."

Sophie remained oblivious as he lifted her as gently as he could, and crossed the room quickly. As he got to the door people moved swiftly out of his way. He stopped in the doorway and looked over his shoulder at his father. "As soon as I have seen to my mate we will settle this Dad, but know this, I will never forgive you or mother for your betrayal of my mate and myself. If you were anyone else but my father I would kill you where you stand. Be at the meeting tonight and be prepared to answer for your actions." Zack turned and walked out with his mate in his arms.

Perhaps if he had know that would be the last time he would see her for two years he would have done or said something differently. But as he marched towards the healers home, silent tears running down his face and sorrow tearing him apart he wasn't capable of speech he simply held her and hoped he was strong enough to endure what was to come.