Chapter 4 - Elle
Elle could barely believe what was happening to her.
The bonding hall was right in front of the truck, and the moonlight shone on its ancient stone walls.
There was a time she believed she was a part of this pack. She had watched other couples get bonded and married in the same building, and she had fantasized that she would do the same someday.
But not like this. Never like this.
Silas opened her door, and Elle leaned even more against the passenger window.
“Don't,” she whispered. “Please don't do this.”
He didn't answer. He just picked her up out of the truck in a way that left her feeling powerless. Elle wanted to fight, to kick, to scream. But she had lost all her strength along the road.
She was back in the pack, which had marked her as undesired, as inferior, as garbage to be rid of.
And Silas was carrying her into the bonding hall to marry her against her will. The hall looked different: high ceilings, torches in iron sconces on the walls, and the old binding circle cut in the floor in the middle of the room.
There was an old wolf there waiting, Leo. He was a servant of the pack. His eyes widened in shock when he saw Elle.
“Alpha,” Leo said carefully. “Is this—”
“We are bonding and getting married tonight. And I shall hear no arguments.”
Leo glanced at Elle's tied hands and the way she seemed limp in Silas’ arms. “Does she consent?”
“As my mate, she does. Now, begin the ceremony.”
Elle found her voice. “I don't consent. I don't want this. Please, Leo, don't—”
“Leo,” Silas growled. “Now.”
Something like pity flashed in Leo's eyes as he moved to the binding circle. “As you command, Alpha.”
Elle's eyes pricked with tears. This couldn't be happening. This couldn't be real.
Silas placed her on her feet in the middle of the circle, but held onto one of her arms, as if he suspected she would run away the moment he released her.
The ceremony was brief. Leo quoted words in the ancient language. Words about bonds and mates. Elle barely heard them above the roaring in her ears.
“Do you accept this bond?”
“Yes, I do,” Silas responded.
Leo faced Elle. “And you?”
Elle opened her mouth. She could say no. She could refuse. But what good would it do? Silas was already determined. He had already hauled her in this direction, already initiated her into this.
“I have no choice.”
“That's not—”
“Just finish it,” Silas cut in.
Leo nodded tightly and finished the ceremony. Elle felt it when he uttered the last words—pain in her right shoulder blade as if somebody had stamped a brand on her flesh.
She gasped and saw Silas wince a bit, too. The tattoos on their bodies were a physical manifestation of a mate connection she never desired.
“It's done,” Leo said quietly. “May the moon be the witness of this marriage and bond.”
Elle's legs gave out, and Silas managed to catch her in his arms right before she fell. She didn't fight or protest. Her mind had drifted far away from this dreadful, hurtful place, which had already deprived her of everything. And now it took something greater from her—freedom.
Silas took her out of the bonding hall, and a gust of wind hit her face. But Elle hardly felt it. Her body was numb.
Silas Weston was her husband, and she was now bound to him for life. Marked as his mate.
The outcast was now the Alpha's mate. It would have been a funny irony, had it not been such a nightmare.
Silas took her to a big house that Elle was unfamiliar with.
It had to be his house. The Alpha's place of residence.
And as they approached it, two figures came out of the shadows.
Even though Elle had not seen them in eight years, she knew them the moment she saw them. They were his younger brothers.
Rael, with his light-blonde hair and his blue-green eyes. Javi with blonde hair so light it was almost white, and dark blue eyes that were full of anger.
“Elle?” Rael said in disbelief. “Elle Jones?”
Javi's eyes went wide. “What the hell is she doing here?”
“We need to talk,” Silas said, walking past them to the house, while guiding her along.
“Talk?” Javi followed behind him, raising his voice. “Silas, what did you do? The mission…you were supposed to spy, to collect intelligence, not—” He stopped and glanced at Elle. “Shit, did you buy her?”
They finally got to the house and went inside. Silas guided Elle to a couch in the living room and stood beside her, as if she were going to escape.
Elle didn't run. She sat down, stared at her hands, and tried to put everything that had occurred in the last few hours into perspective.
“Tell me that you did not ruin six months of hard work just for her,” Javi sneered.
“Watch your tone,” Silas warned him.
“Watch my tone? You were supposed to remain to the end, remember all the faces, trace all the purchasers. Instead, you—” Javi pointed towards Elle. “They will know that something is wrong. They'll suspect—”
“I don't care.”
“You don't care? It is our pack we are talking about here. Our reputation is on the fucking line! We had a plan, and you had one single assignment.”
“My mate was going to be sold like a cow!” Silas growled and roughly pushed his hair back. “The fuck did you expect me to do?”
The word 'mate' hung in the air.
Javi stared at his brother. “Your mate.”
“Yes.”
“You mean the adopted human girl. The one Dad banished eight years ago.” Javi scoffed. “Of course she is.”
Rael, who had remained silent, came forward. His voice was calm and measured. “Silas. Talk to us. What happened?”
Silas exhaled sharply. “Look, I was there, and I was watching as planned. And it was all fine until the final auction. Then she showed up on that stage and I…” He trailed off.
“You lost control,” Rael nodded.
“I couldn't leave her there. I couldn’t have her sold, and touched and abused by another.” Silas clenched his hands into fists. “My wolf wouldn't allow it.”
“Brilliant,” Javi clapped mockingly. “Absolutely brilliant.”
“What would you have done?” Silas demanded.
“Well, I would not have compromised the mission! This has been six months in the works, Silas. Six months of monitoring, strategizing, and evidence collection. And you threw it all away.”
“Enough.” Rael cut through the argument. “What's done is done, and yelling will not help in any way.” He looked at Elle, his face softening. “How are you holding up?”
Elle couldn't answer. She couldn't form words. She was thinking of one word: “mission.”
Silas was telling her the truth. They were on the trail of the trafficking ring. Silas had not been there to purchase women.
But all of that was irrelevant because he had taken her here. To this place. And forced her to marry him.
“She's in shock,” Rael observed.
“She is fine,” Silas said.
“Fine?” Javi's voice dripped with sarcasm. “You bought her, brought her back to the pack that sent her away, and forcefully bonded with her—which I can see, thanks to the marks glowing on your shoulders underneath your clothes. I'm sure she's just peachy.”
“I did what I needed to do to preserve her life.”
“Or what your wolf demanded,” Javi replied. “Quite a distinction, and you are aware of it.”
Silas's eyes flashed amber. “Careful, brother.”
Just as Javi was about to reply, a knock on the door resounded through the house.
“Come in,” Silas spoke up.
More wolves came in. Pack members. Elle recognized some of their faces. When she left, they had been teenagers. Now they were adults.
And they paused in dismay at her sight.
“Is that—”
“The human girl?”
“What is she doing here?”
The whispers began all at once, running through the small crowd like a pestilence. Then more wolves came, attracted by the noise. Word spread fast. The Alpha had come back with a human mate.
Elle felt multiple eyes on her. Their confusion, anger, and condemnation radiated off them like waves. She wanted to disappear. She would have been glad to be elsewhere, instead of the pack that banished her without a second thought.
“Calm down, everybody, please,” Silas' Alpha tone cut through the noise.
“Calm down?” One of the older wolves, whom Elle didn't recognize, came forward. “You brought a human into our land. You know the rules, Alpha. No connections with foreigners. No humans.”
“She's my mate.”
Gasps rippled through the crowd.
“It cannot happen,” somebody said.
“Humans can't be mates.”
“This violates pack law.”
“My father made those laws. I'm Alpha now. So I make the laws.”
“But the traditions—”
“Are outdated,” Silas said firmly. “Elle is my mate. She's under my protection. Those who have a problem with it may take it up with me.”
Of course, no one stepped forward. No one dared challenge an Alpha.
But Elle saw the looks on their faces. The disapproval. The disgust. She remembered the way they made fun of her because she never shifted. They didn't want her here. They would never accept her.
And Silas brought her back here, without thinking about how it would affect her.
“This is lunacy.”
“The Alpha's lost his mind.”
“And now he’s forsaken tradition, now he brings back the human we cast out?”
Elle heard every word. She felt each of them.
She'd rebuilt herself. She had grown tough and self-reliant. But here, in this room full of wolves who despised her, she was back to that frightened seventeen-year-old girl. Small. Powerless. Wrong.
“Get out,” Silas ordered. “Now.”
The pack members bowed slightly and stepped out of the house as they continued to whisper, glancing at Elle as if she were a virus.
Javi shook his head when the last one left. “You've created a mess, brother. I hope you know what you are doing.”
“I know exactly what I'm doing.”
“Do you? Because from what I can see, you have not only sabotaged our mission, but brought home a human whom our pack abhors, and tied yourself to a mate who would have been better off in any other position.” Javi's gaze flicked to Elle. “No offense.”
“Give her time,” Rael murmured. “This is a lot to process.”
“The pack will never accept me,” Elle finally said, her voice hollow. “Time will not change the fact that I am out of place. That I never belonged here.”
“You are part of us now,” Silas' brows creased. “As my mate. As Luna.”
Elle laughed bitterly. “The human who couldn't shift is now supposed to be Luna.” She looked up at Silas, and all the numbness faded away, replaced by fury. “I hate you. I hate you for doing this to me.”
“I know.”
“You pulled me back into my nightmare. You forced me to marry you. You—” Her voice broke. “You took away my choice. My freedom. Everything I built for myself. “
“I'm sorry.”
“No, you're not.” Elle stood on shaky legs. “If you were sorry, you would release me. You would take me back to the human world and leave me alone. But you won't, will you?”
Silas's jaw tightened. “I can't.”
“You mean you won't.”
“Same thing.”
Elle wanted to kick him in the nuts. She wanted to hurt him and make him feel just a quarter of what she was feeling. But she was so tired. So absolutely, totally exhausted.
“I will never forgive you for this. Never.” Then she turned around, left them in the living room, and climbed up the stairs. She saw.
She was back in the pack that didn't want her, and this time, she was bonded to the same man who had made her life miserable.
Elle groaned, shutting her eyes and feeling the mark on her shoulder-blade burning, a constant reminder of what happened.
She had endured the banishment. She had lived through homelessness and poverty and all the hardships she faced in the human world. But she did not know whether she would be able to survive this.
***
Elle laid in the dark, on the bed in the guestroom, and tried to understand what she knew.
She was in pack territory again. She was bonded to Silas Weston. She was angry, tired, and heartbroken, which was understandable.
What she could not understand was the pull that tugged in her chest. The one Silas had threatened her about. It was a strange, low warmth that settled when she was near him and tugged when she wasn't.
She had anticipated that the bond and marriage would seem like prison, but it wasn't. It felt like something she had no word for yet, and that frightened her more than the rest of it.
She turned over, shut her eyes, and told herself it meant nothing.