Chapter 9: Caught

-Nova-

I had been so damn close! My rope might have been too short, but that didn’t matter. I just needed to get a little closer to the ground, so I wouldn’t break my legs falling, but then Rhys had come back much sooner than I had expected, and he had started to pull me back in. I had made a quick decision and let go, falling to the ground and landing badly. My ankle was throbbing and getting worse as I ran from him and into the woods, hoping to escape him there. When we were hurt, it was harder to change, often impossible if the wounds were very bad, so I needed a moment to calm down before I could turn into my other form, but he had caught me so fast.

“No!”

I kicked my legs in the air and moved my arms around, hoping to hit him or something, but he was much stronger than me, and soon he had me pressed up against a tree, my back to his front, while he kept me there.

“You run fast, I have to admit,” he said.

I tried elbowing him, but he kept my arms down and close to my body, while my cheek was pressed against the tree. I was breathing heavily, and so was he, his warm breath fanning my neck and doing strange things to me. I shouldn’t like it. I shouldn’t want to press myself harder into him, rubbing my ass all over him, but I wanted to do exactly that. I wanted him to kiss me again, and this time I didn’t want to pull away, but I told myself it was not going to happen. He was the beta of Rogan … It was bad he was already a beta, but a beta to the alpha of all alphas … It was not going to end well for me.

“Just let me go!”

“No,” he said.

“Come on!”

“I told you, I won’t hurt you, Nova,” he said.

“You’re hurting me now!”

He loosened his grip a little on me but did not allow me to go anywhere.

“Let us just talk,” he said.

“Talk?!”

“Why does that sound so unbelievable to you?” he asked me.

“Because why would you?” I asked.

“Why wouldn’t I?”

“You’re stronger than me and I am just a rogue … You can take what you want,” I whispered.

Rhys turned quiet, and I couldn’t really see him because I was still being pressed into the tree, so it only made it hard for me to figure out what was going on. What was he thinking? What was he going to do to me? Did I just give him a new idea? Maybe he had not even thought about it … I was shaking now.

“Easy, little rogue,” he whispered in my ear.

I couldn’t stop it. The fear in me wasn’t helping me stay strong anymore. I could feel the adrenaline leaving my body, and I was so cold now.

“I am not going to hurt you,” he said.

“Yes … Yes, you are.”

He slowly let go of me and turned me around, but kept me pressed against the tree, his hands tightly wrapped around my upper arms.

“No, I am not.”

“You’re a pack member.”

“You say that as a bad thing,” he said.

“It is to me.”

He sighed.

“And you are a guy,” I said.

“And that means I am cruel?” he asked.

“I am just a rogue … I don’t matter.”

“You matter to me,” he said.

“You don’t know me.”

“You’re right,” he said. “I don’t, but I would like to.”

“Why?!”

“Because we are mates. Why wouldn’t I?”

I shook my head.

“We can’t be,” I said.

“Doesn’t change the fact we are.”

“You need to reject me.”

“I can’t do that, Nova,” he said.

“Why not?!”

“I have waited for too long!” he said.

“Too long?”

“I’m thirty, little rogue,” he said. “It makes you lose hope when you haven’t already found your mate by then.”

“Your alpha found his later,” I said.

He nodded.

“And I am happy for him, but I was losing hope.”

“Why?”

He smiled a little.

“I guess … I guess I felt I was not deserving of one.”

“And now you got me,” I said with a little bit of attitude.

“I’m aware.”

“This is not done … rogues and pack members … No!” I said.

He chuckled a little.

“It seems like it is,” he said and moved a little closer to me.

His warm body was gently pressed up against mine, and I had no idea where to look, because if I looked at him, it felt like the rest of the world disappeared, and I could barely even remember my own name.

“I am aware of what you are,” he said. “It doesn’t change that you are my mate, and you are my mate for a reason.”

“What reason?”

He shrugged.

“Don’t know yet, maybe you are going to help me,” he said.

“Help you?”

“You rogues have been making a lot of trouble lately,” he said.

“Yes …”

“Maybe you could tell me a little more.”

“More?!” I asked.

“About your plans.”

“Are you asking me to betray my people?!” I asked.

“Easy now, let’s not get worked up.”

“Worked up?!”

I pushed against him, placing my hands on his chest, but he didn’t move at all. He was too big. Too strong. He was not going to be moved by me.

“How dare you?!”

“I am just saying—”

“NO!” I shouted. “It’s a no!”

“Nova …”

“No, don’t call me my name!” I said. “You shouldn’t even know it.”

“Calm down!”

“Let me go!” I shouted.

“Nova!”

I turned my head and bit down on his arm, making him hiss loudly, as I bit through the skin and his blood slowly filled my mouth, yet the taste of his blood was unbelievable. I had never tried anything like it. There was no denying we were mates, was there?