FACE OFF

Emerson sat on his favourite chair in his study, his mind going haywire with thoughts about his mate. He didn't know what to do of her, while one part of him wanted to keep her locked away forever, the other part wanted to let her be happy and give in to her wishes that conflicted with his.

He had been raised as a selfish man. With both his parent dying by the hands of a traitor, he knew the price of building an army of enemies against him. But his hands were bound by his animalistic feelings. His wolf was stronger than he was, emotional and holding on to the past had reduced him to nothing more than a shell of the man his father was, that was probably the problem.

He compared his life to someone who was dead and gone. His father had died because he loved his wife too much, and his mother was killed because she was too kind, too beautiful inside and out, just like Daria Kanos.

He drank from the glass of water that was kept om his table and as soon as he took the first sip someone knocked on the door. His nose caught the scent of Roman Wilde, the man he suddenly loathed with every fibre in his being. Had it not been for Daria, Roman would have been subjected with the same punishment that was given to her, but he got saved by her sweet, husky voice.

'Come in.' Emerson spat out angrily.

Roman pushed the door open and stood with his head low.

'Alpha.'

'What business do you come here for?' Emerson asked him.

'I want to meet Daria Kanos, Alpha.' Faster than the speed of lightning Emerson had rounded the table with his hand once again at Roman's neck.

'How dare you remove her name from your filthy mouth!'

'She's my friend Alpha.' Roman was fidgety.

'Yours? The person who threw her under the bus?' If Emerson wasn't as angry as he was, the range of expressions on Roman's face would have amused him.

'Alpha I just want to meet her once, I want to expl-'

'How about this, I'll ask her if she wants to meet you, if she says no, then you have your answer ad if by some miracle she says yes, then I'll take you to her.' Emerson offered, confident that she wouldn't want to see the face of the traitor.

'Thank you Alpha, thank you so-' Roman felt relieved.

'Leave.' He ordered, letting his Alpha command slip into his tone.

~•~

'Daria.' Emerson opened the door and called her, her head rose from the pillow. The curve of her back was exposed as the t-shirt she had put on has risen and the scars were visible. He flinched.

'What?'

'Roman wants to meet you.'

'Send him in.' She said.

'I didn't complete my sentence.' He frowned, wondering what was going on in her mind. It took he lesser than a second to take a decision and that for some reason scared him.

'You said Roman wants to meet me, I said send him in. There's nothing more to it.' Emerson wanted to argue but he gave her the choice, so he was not going to backtrack on his words.

'Very well then, I'll come with him in an hour.'

'I'm pretty sure that he wants to meet me alone, not with you hovering in the background.'

'I'm not leaving you with him.'

'You're more hazardous to my life than he is, if you're worried about me escaping then just stand outside the door.' She said with a blank face.

'Five minutes, that's all I'm giving him.' Emerson turned on his heel and walked out. Exactly an hour later he reappeared with an iron grip on Roman's arm. He slightly shoved him inside the room and giving one warning glance he left.

There was a minute of awkward silence between them, with her refusing to look at Roman and he was ashamed. A sharp knock from outside accompanied with a call of 'Four minutes more!' from outside started the conversation.

'He is being protective?'

'I would use the word irritating.' Daria smirked coldly, fully aware that he could hear her.

'How are you?' He asked hesitantly.

'Oh! You really don't know?' She asked sarcastically, turned around and tugged her t-shirt upto her shoulders, showing her bare, hurt back to Roman. 'This is the result of your betrayal, artistic isn't it?'

He hung his head in shame, but even then he didn't completely regret what he had done. If anything had happened to his mate he would have drowned in sorrow, but that didn't mean that he didn't feel the guilt eating him up. After his Alpha had punished him when he found Daria and him together, Kara had come knocking on his door. She wanted to see if he was alright, and whether he had any feelings for the girl locked away in the pack house.

He could have lied, but he knew that he was an open book, guessing what he was thinking wasn't very tough. He agreed that he liked her, that he had seen a possible future with her. Kara had turned into a typical jealous mate and finally agreed to give Roman a chance.

Saving Daria was the right thing to do, but he was selfish. There were only five scents mingled in the surrounding, out of which one was his, and one was his mates.

'There is this person I know, she means a lot to me, but it think I hurt h-'

'If you're talking about me, then please stop.' Daria interrupted him.

Emerson came in the minute the clock struck quarter to four and took Roman away with him, leaving Daria alone once again.

~•~

'Your fear made you treat her so badly that now she doesn't want anything to do with you!' Daria heard people shouting from outside her door. She knew that it was late, the darkness from outside made that clear. She hadn't realised when she had fallen asleep, but she did know that it had been happening a lot in the last few days. Her body was fatigued so much that it couldn't function properly anymore.

'But she's my mate. Even though I haven't accepted her I know what place she's supposed to have and unlike you I didn't pretend to be her friend, with me she knew what she was dealing with. This is my pack and my rules are to be followed here.' A muffled voice demanded.

'Not if you're a bad Alpha.' She heard a crashing sound.

'Do not question my leadership.' Emerson roared.

'A pack needs a Luna and you're not giving them that pleasure.' Roman bit back angrily, removing his frustration on his Alpha even though he knew it couldn't have a good outcome.

'I don't want her, and you all don't need her. Your duty ended at making sure she didn't run away and not putting the blame on her to save your good for nothing mate from questioning.' Daria scrambled up, leaning next to the door.

'But I-'

'You deserve her forgiveness as much as I do, it means you don't.' The next few moments soundless, the people arguing outside had probably heard Daria sleepily crawl and switched to mindlinking. She rolled her eyes at the door and went back to sleep, not wanting to waste a minute more on trying to eavesdrop on their conversation.

________|||________

This chapter showed us more about what goes on in the head of Emerson and Roman :o I hope it wasn't too confusing for you :)

A big thank you to those who nominated Alpha Male for TheLiteraryAwards, I was pretty surprised!

Chapter dedication to @flames_hearted! <3