I next awoke to a loud thud. My heart jumped and I sat straight upright.

The thud had come from Gale landed on the floor beside me. His eyes were closed and his limbs in awkward positions as if he had just been thrown there.

"Gale?" I questioned shaking him. "Gale!"

His eyes remained shut and it was as I touched him that I noticed the blood oozing out of his shoulder. 

"Relax," a voice slurred. "He's not dead."

My head snapped up to see a tall, loathsome man stood only a couple of metres away. Thawn Hazlewood a.k.a the devil.

"What did you do?!" I growled clutching Gale closer to me and shuffling away from him.

"Only a wolfsbane arrow in the shoulder," he replied gesturing to the bow in his hand. "He'll wake up in a few hours."

"Wolfsbane?" I questioned.

Every wolf had heard of it but only a few had ever come across is and even less had used it. It was notoriously hard to get hold of.

"The Elder has good connections, sweetheart," he said stepping closer. "Including the scout of a nearby pack that happened to spot a pair of lone wolves passing not too far from their border."

"Please, just leave us alone. Why are you tormenting us?!" I questioned.

By this point, he wasn't even half a metre away and had crouched down in front of me. He reached forward and seized my face in one of his hands.

"It's been my favourite pass time since childhood, Robyn," he said with a shrug. "Remember when I stole your first kiss?"

My heart lurched at the memory of that day in my childhood but Thawn seemed to be very much enjoying the reminiscence. 

"I seem to remember you squirming and wriggling but the sweet taste of your mouth is something I'll never forget."

"Gale gave you what you deserved," I spat. "You had a black eye for weeks."

"Hmmm," he hummed with narrowed eyes before they lit up and a smile swept across his lips. His eyes flickered down to Gale who was still lying unconscious on the floor. "Gale's not here now though, is he?"

My heart began to beat even faster as he cocked his head to the side and glared at me intensely. He had these cold pale blue eyes surrounded by jet black eyelashes that when he stared, made me shudder all over. I clutched Gale in my arms and refused to breath eye contact with all the hope that I'd be able to implicate the slightest bit of vigour.

After a few moments of him slowly leaning closer to me, his thin lips curled back into a malicious grin. 

"You're terrified of me," he stated in a satisfied tone as he stood up. "But don't worry, Blossom. I'll save the kissing for when Gale is awake so that I can derive pleasure from watching you both suffer."

"You're a sick sadist, Thawn," I spat as I removed Gale's jacket from my body and laid it over his freezing body.

"I can live with that," he replied. "Now...are you hungry?"

"What?" I asked ripping the edge off the sleeve of my shirt off.

He then reached a strap on his back and threw three dead rabbits on the floor.  I paused from fastening the ripped rag around Gale's wound to cast eyes to the animals.

He looked me dead in the eye before repeating the question, "I asked if you are hungry?"

"I hope that you can excuse my confusion. You have rendered my companion unconscious, tormented me and now you are offering me food?"

"Your boyfriend went to all the trouble of getting this hunt and you want it to go to waste? Besides, this could be your last meal..."

My heart began beating faster again. My last meal?

"Raven and Blaise are a few hours behind. When they arrive, we will all go back to the Elder and you two will get what you deserve."

"You are alone?" I asked a terrible idea popping into my head. 

He let out a short, amused laugh before saying "You can't take me, little wolf. You're four years my junior, an omega, a girl...I would like to see you try."

I stayed completely still as I watched Thawn begin to prepare the rabbits. When I was sure that he was distracted, I incredibly slowly reached into Gale's pocket in search of the knife that I knew he always carried. 

"I have a question for you, Robyn," Thawn stated thankfully not casting his eyes away from the rabbit. "Do you think I'm stupid?"

"No," I whispered suddenly freezing.

"So why do you think for a second that I wouldn't have checked his pocket for anything he or his little girlfriend could use against me?" he asked finally turning to me and observing my hand that was still in Gale's pocket.

He then stood up, strode over and dragged Gale across the floor.

"What are you doing?" I asked clinging tightly to him.

"Precautions that I didn't think I'd need to take but you leave me little choice," he replied getting a rope out of his rucksack.

I watched helplessly as Thaw prized Gale from my grip and bound him to a tree before he dragged me over to the still warm fire and about twenty minutes later, thrust some roasted rabbit my way.

I took it, without a word of thanks, and hungrily ate it. Guilt coursed through me as I enjoyed the rabbit with Gale still unconscious but what could I do?

An hour from when Thawn first appeared and a lot of silence later, Gale began to stir. His head, which was previously lolled down began to rise and a low groan emanated from his throat.

I leapt to my feet to go to him but Thawn tightly grasped my hand and shoved me back onto the floor.

The first word to come out of his mouth was my name and as his strength returned I was the first thing he set his eyes upon.

Thawn watched with the utmost horror before asking "How are you awake so soon?"

"You are forgetting that I am an Alpha," he replied weakly. "You don't stand a chance."

"It will be hours before you get your full strength back and can even begin to start breaking free from those ropes and by that point, Blaise and Raven will be here too with more wolfsbane."

"Robyn, run," Gale said to me.

I shook my head.

"She's not going to leave you. She's far too stupid for that," Thawn scoffed before hauling me off the floor and holding me in front of him with his hands on my shoulders. "Young love, isn't it beautiful?"

"Robyn is mine Thawn. Don't you dare touch her," Gale warned with venom in his voice.

"You see this, Alpha?" Thawn asked devilishly whilst brushing the hair off my neck. "No mark. And do you know what that means?"

"That she is only 15?" Gale asked his muscles tensing as Thawn came in contact with me.

"It means she is free to be claimed," he corrected. "And I've had the plan to do just that for a while now."

"She will never agree. Why would anyone choose to spend their life with you?" Gale asked.

"I don't need her consent," Thawn scorned. "It would be her word against mine and whose side do you think the Elder will take?"

"Members of the Elder pack have to choose their mates at the choosing ceremony. Taking me here and now would only go against pack regulations," I pointed out.

"True, but I'm sure the Elder would allow this considering the 'special circumstances'," Thawn replied crouching down beside me and running the back of his index finger down my cheek.

"What do you get from this?" I asked turning my face away from him.

"The Elder's gratitude," Thawn stated forcefully pulling me back to him.

"So you would take someone you don't love as your mate just to please some old man?!" Gale spat fighting at the ropes harder than ever.

"She has beauty that I'm sure I could easily learn to love," Thawn slurred whilst trailing kisses down the side of my face and down towards my neck. 

"Thawn please," I begged. "Don't do this."

"The second my fangs pierce your delicate little skin you will belong to me forever," he whispered in my ear knowing that Gale could hear. "And your boyfriend here can watch the whole ordeal. But really, Gale. You should be glad. Becoming my mate could just save her life."

"Get away from her," Gale ordered his eyes turning the colour of the night and the tremendous sound of his growl rumbling through the forest. Those four words left me a little shaky and his glare wasn't even directed towards me. 

Thawn only placed a degenerate, twisted smirk on his lips and leant back into my neck. A slight whimper escaped my throat as I felt the cool saliva of his fangs hit my skin.

"You will die for this Thawn," Gale promised and Thawn paused.

"But not before I destroy your every last hope for happiness," he retorted. I screwed up my eyes and instinctually tensed every last muscle in my body.

This is it. I'm going to be Thawn's mate.