Chapter 25

[Owen POV]
Darkness was around me, the air felt damp and smelt of mold. A scent I recognized, one that sent panic through my body. The dungeons! I opened my eyes slowly to see a dim lit room with stone wall around me and only sunlight from a far window to illuminate it. I tried to move but the sound of clanging metal tells me that I am locked up. The weakness I feel means they are silver chains. My father had locked me away! He had taken away my freedom and had put me in hell. At least this felt like hell, but this was nothing compared to what I would see next.
A soft whimper and groan came from further in the room.
“Who’s there?” I say, my voice hoarse.
“Owen?...Owen is that you?” I hear the one voice I craved, but that meant she was here, in the dungeons with me.
“Oh my god, Amelia! What happened?” I yell to her with pain tugging at my chest and a knot forming in my throat.
“She is our special guest!” I heard a deep voice come from the other side of the bars.
The sound of the metal door opening rang through the stone room, and my father steps into view.
“You see, I needed something to motivate you to cooperate with my plans. I knew you would not pick a mate, like I had hoped when I paraded several easy women in front of you over the years. You wanted your true mate, but don’t you know that a true mate is a weakness? A weakness and enemy can use against you! That slut is your weakness Owen, and I will use it to my benefit now. You see, Alpha Cole has a large pack. One with many warriors, and I want said warriors under my control. I know he as an alpha will not give them to me willingly. Now if you mate with his daughter he will let his guard down, and I can take his pack when he welcomes us as family.” My father says running his fingers along the blade of a silver knife.
“I am to be alpha. You will have no power.” I spit out.
“You become alpha when I say!” My father yells with his alpha voice.
The sound makes Amelia whimper, and di can hear her soft cries.
“Shut her up!” My dad yells, and his beta walks in and heads toward my mate..
“DON’T TOUCH HER!” I yell.
“Don’t worry, once you agree to my plans her suffering will be over.” My father says with a smirk.
He nods and I hear a loud smack and a pained cry come from my mate.
“STOPP!!” I yell on deaf ears.
Another hit and another. That man was beating my mate and I was too weak to help her. Her cries fill the room and all I want to do is hold her.
“What will it be Owen? Should I kill your mate right her in front of you? Or will you comply?” My father asks.
I look up at him, sweat dripping down my face and rage in my eyes. He walks over to the chair where Amelia sat and dragged it along the uneven floor until she was sitting directly in front of me. My heart stopped when I saw her. Her face was red rom where she had been beaten, and her clothes were torn. Seeing her like this knowing some one had put their hands on my mate made the anger boiling inside me become uncontrollable and I let out a growl louder than I ever had before. I could feel Samuel clawing to get out, but the effects of the silver chains were dampening him preventing him.
The silver chains were strong enough to keep me from shifting and ripping out the throat of my father and every other wolf loyal to him. I need to get out of these, NOW!
“Well, look who is using his big boy growl. Impressive! But no amount of struggling will free you from those chains’ sons, don’t waste your energy. So, what do you say? Reject your mate and gain your freedom, or watch me rip her apart right in front of you? Or maybe I should let my beta have some fun with her first, hm?” My father said with a laugh.
I looked to my father’s beta and I could see the lust in his eyes, and he was looking at my mate. Hell No! He was not going to put one single hand on her!
“GET AWAY FROM HER OR I WILL KILL YOU!!!” I yell, only gaining laughter in response.
I pulled harder at the chains struggling trying to break free, but with no progress.
“Make a choice Owen! Time is running out!” He says annoyed.
“I will never reject my mate!” I say without hesitation.
He lets out a sigh and brings the silver knife down to Amelia’s throat. “Are you sure about that?”
Then he dropped his head close to her and smelled her causing her to flinch.
“She sure does smell sweet! I see why you like her.” My father bushed the knife harder against Amelia’s throat watching for my reaction.
Then Amelia looks up at me, and I see something in her eyes I had never seen before.

[Amelia POV]
Pain was all I felt sitting in this chair. I feel helpless, and I wish they had just killed me when they found me. I don’t want to feel this any longer!
I hear something, someone….Owen?
“Owen?” I manage to get out.
Owen is here, and when my eyes finally adjust to the dim lighting I see him across the room tied to the wall with metal chains.
My heart breaks at the sight of him struggling against the hold they have on him, and when he knows I am there I can feel his determination to escape. I knew he would try to save me if he could, and when the alpha begins threatening him I hear nothing. I am focusing all of my thoughts on Owen, trying to reach him through our link and tell him to let me go. To live and protect the pack! I can’t seem to reach him, there must be something blocking me from reaching him.
When the Beta begins hitting me, something inside me is fighting. Even though cries and whimpers are leaving my mouth I feel a surge pulling me in all directions. Something is happening to me, but I don’t know what it is. It’s like I am watching everything from far away, the pain doesn’t feel completely real. The alpha pulls my chair and now I am sitting in front of Owen, the love of my life, my mate. I knew in this moment for sure that I loved him, that I would kill for him, that I would die for him. He had to live, he is a true Alpha, one with a pure heart and true kindness! His pack needed him, and I needed him too. I need to do something, and I need to do it now.
‘Anaya? Can you hear me?’ I say trying to reach my wolf.
I had locked her out, because I was scared of her. I felt like she was a curse, something to remind me how weak I was because she is strong. She is stronger than I could ever be, she was better than I could ever be. I felt like she was better than me in every way, and I hated her for being everything I couldn’t be. She had seen I was weak, and she had taken over mee many times without my knowledge, and I hated her for that. She treated me like a puppet, but she had been there. She had protected me when I had no one. She had fought for me when I was too weak. We had not learned how to be a team, or how to work together. We had fought against each other for dominance instead of finding balance. We were wrong, I was wrong.
‘Anaya? Please hear me. I need you! Our mate needs you!’ I yell into the depths of my mind opening the connection completely without any hesitation.
The beta had tied me with rope, not with chains. He must have sensed I was not strong enough to break through it. That was a big mistake. I keep reaching out to my wolf begging her to help me, but she does not speak. I feel her hesitating but reemerging cautiously. I can feel my body grow stronger, and my anger becomes intense. It’s not just my anger I feel now, it is her’s too. She is seeing our mate chained, she is feeling the Alpha’s breath on my skin, she feels the cool silver knife pressed against our neck.
‘I am here.’ I hear her say, and instantly I feel her move forward in my mind.
This time I let her, I let her take control off me. There is something different about her now, something stronger and intense. When she looks up at our mate, his face looks stunned. Something inside me feel like fire but before I can think Anaya lets out a howl like nothing I had ever heard and rips the ropes apart.
Still in human form, she turns to the stunned Alpha and he stumbles back in fear.
‘I am An Mac Tire Ban! The white wolf, and you will face judgement!’ Anaya growls.




{An Mac Tire Ban is gaelic or 'the white wolf'}