"WHAT THE FUCK!?" Dante roars in my head.

"How could they do that to her? No one deserves to be beaten and tortured, especially her! She's fucking deaf for crying out loud! Jesus! She was also only a little girl when they took her?!"

I growl and quickly stand up, causing the chair to fall backwards from the force.

I can feel myself losing control, Dante shifting the colour of our eyes to show his presence. I look down at my mate and see she is bawling her eyes out at this point.

She's scared of me.

Fuck!

I growl again and storm out of the room. I run past Teresa and I see her rush into Acacia's room to comfort her.

Dammit. That should be me comforting her, not the doctor. I'm such a bad mate. I shouldn't be losing control like this.

I make it outside and head straight for the forest, letting Dante take full control.

I shift, my clothes ripping off in the process and I sprint away. The wind through my fur feels amazing.

Dante lets out an almighty howl, causing several flocks of birds to fly away screeching. He lets out a wolfy laugh and I chuckle at him.

We continue to run for what seems like a couple of hours, every so often stopping to kill a rogue sniffing on the edge of our territory. It's terrible of us, but Dante can't help it. He's too pissed off. Anything to keep our mate safe.

Eventually, we head back to my house and put on some clothes, conveniently stashed in the trees closest to the clearing of the village. I guess I should actually try to get some work done.

I walk through the door and to my surprise, I find my family sitting in the living room, waiting for me.

Slowly, I walk into the room, sending them a confused look.

"What's wrong?" I ask nervously.

"Nothing, son. We just heard your howl and we're wondering whether you were okay?" my dad says, standing up and ushering me to sit down.

"Thanks. But why did all of you have to come over though? Surely you could have just mind-linked me? I have stuff I need to be doing right now" I replied, mildly annoyed. I choose to stay standing in an effort to imply that I didn't want them to stay.

"Grayson Maxwell Hays!" my mother starts, looking pissed off.

Oh no. She full-named me. Now I've done it.

"Yes, mother?"

"You will sit your ass down and spend time with your family, who might I add, haven't seen you in days and have made an effort to come and see you!"

"I didn't ask for you to come over..."

"Grayson" she hisses, eyes narrowing into a glare.

"Fine" I groan, running my hands over my face.

I watch my mother's expression turn into a soft smile as I walk over and sit down next to the twins.

I notice the twins staring at me out of the corner of my eye.

I turn to face them and they grin back at me like Cheshire cats.

Bella and Beckett have always been a slightly odd pair. My mother had them when I was six and ever since they were born, they've been inseparable.

They say it's a twin thing but it's strange considering they are both seventeen now. My mother thought the novelty of it might've worn as they got older, but clearly not. Sometimes I think they do it on purpose just to mess with people. The fact that they are carbon copies of each other, just different genders probably helps.

Cheeky little shits.

Don't get me wrong, I love them to death. But still doesn't change the fact that sometimes they can be a bit creepy, especially when they play into the twin thing.

"Yes?" I question, raising an eyebrow at them.

"How old is she?" Beckett asks, smirking at me.

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me, how old is she?"

"Who?"

"The girl"

What the hell? How do they know about Acacia?! I haven't told anyone else apart from Teresa, Levi, Bentley, and Noah who already knew. Unless one of them let slip to the twins...

Whoever it was is in some serious shit.

"There's a girl?" my mother chimes in, confused.

"It's his mate" Bella adds, her crystal blue eyes sparkling back at me with joy.

Oh no.

"GRAYSON!! YOU FOUND YOUR MATE AND DIDN'T TELL US?!" my mother roars, shock and annoyance painted on her face.

"I was waiting," I reply, guiltily.

"WHY?"

"Because she hasn't accepted me yet"

I watch as the smiles quickly disappear from the twins' faces. Serves them right.

"Satisfied?" I say, looking at the twins, now annoyed.

"Sorry Grayson, we didn't know that part," Bella says quietly.

"Hense why I haven't told anyone yet. Who told you anyways?"

"We may or may not have done the creepy twin thing on Levi until he told us."

Jesus. I should have assumed it was Levi.

He may be my best friend and a fantastic Beta wolf but he's always been creeped out by the twins and chooses to avoid them if he can. So I'm not surprised they managed to get the information out of him.

"Of course it bloody was," I reply, rolling my eyes.

"He told us that you were planning to kill her until you found out she was your mate. He also said she's really pretty but looks like walking death at the moment"

"Is that true son?" my father asks calmly.

I simply nod and slouch back into the couch, suddenly feeling very drained.

Everyone is silent for a moment but I can tell they are all burning with questions.

"You never answered my question bro" Beckett pipes up after a while.

"She's eighteen" I reply curtly as I close my eyes and drape my arm over my face.

Silence.

"Grayson?" my mum starts, her tone soft.

"Yes, mother?"

"Why were you going to kill her?"

"Because at the time, I didn't know she was my mate. All I knew was that she was a rogue and had trespassed onto my land which is punishable by death, you know this"

"Why did she trespass in the first place?" my father questions.

"She didn't know she had crossed onto my land. She was just trying to get away"

"Away from what?"

"Away from the people that kidnapped her" I sigh.

"Oh my god. Poor thing" my mother gasps.

The room falls silent once more as they process the new information.

I suck in a sharp breath before sitting up and looking at them all.

Right, let's get on with this.

"Ask away then." I sigh, bracing myself.

I watch as they look at one another before letting the questions spill out.

"What's her name?" my mother starts

"Acacia"

"Who kidnapped her?" my father asks next.

"Not sure. And even if I did know, I wouldn't be telling you. It's not my place."

"How old was she when she was kidnapped?" Bella chimes in.

"Eight. She was held captive for ten years. Only managed to escape the other day."

"Why did Levi say she looks like walking death?" Becket questions.

"Because she was beaten and tortured while she was held captive and she's not healing like a normal wolf should. She also wasn't given food regularly so she's deathly skinny."

They all stop and think for a moment, taking in all the information.

"Grayson?"

"Yes, Beckett?"

"Levi also said that it seemed like she couldn't hear any of you when you were trying to talk to her. Is she deaf?"

"Yes, she is" I reply quietly, my thoughts of her consuming me for a moment.

"So why hasn't she accepted you, son?" my father asks, pulling me out of my thoughts.

"Why do you think she hasn't accepted me?" I ask, annoyed at the question.

My father raises an eyebrow and I roll my eyes.

"Because she's scared of me. Probably thinks I'm going to be just like the rogues. Which is understandable given how long she was trapped there. Doesn't help that she knows the reputation of our pack too. Doctor Teresa says she has severe PTSD which I have now seen for myself. I accidentally lost control today out of anger and scared her yet again" I reply with a frown.

"Shit bro, I'm sorry," Beckett says quietly.

"It's okay"

"Will you try to get her to warm up to you? Cause we really need her to accept you so that she can be our Luna"

"You don't think that's what I'm trying to do, egghead?! God, can you all just chill?! Stop being so nosy! This poor woman has been through hell and back and all you lot care about is getting your luna. Frankly, that is the least of my worries right now" I spit, defensively.

He holds his hands up in surrender as my mother glares at me.

"Grayson, that wasn't very nice. We can see you're stressed, doesn't mean you need to take it out on your brother" my mother says sharply.

I groan and run my hands over my face. This is exactly why I didn't want them to stay.

Guilty, I shoot Beckett an apologetic look and he smiles at me.

"Of course, I will keep trying" I start, wearily.

"Now that I have her, I'm not letting her go. I don't care how long it takes."

"That's the spirit son," my dad says grinning. I nod and smile back and we all sit in silence again until suddenly Levi bursts through the door.

"Alpha," he says, slightly out of breath.

"Yes, Levi?" I question, turning and raising an eyebrow at him.

"Rogues at the northern border. They said they have a message for you" he replies quickly.

Oh god, what now?

I nod, stand up and follow him out the door, yelling a goodbye to my family as we go.

We shift and run into the forest.

We reach the rogues in about twenty minutes. We shift back, put some shorts on and I stride up to the rogues, growling.

"What do you want?" Dante asks, still in control.

"We have a message from our leader," one of them says smirking.

"What is it?"

"That his prisoner has recently escaped and he thinks she headed this way so if you see her, kill her. We've been sent to warn all the packs around here as she is a weakling and deserves to die if she hasn't already. However, if you choose to keep her alive, we will find out and there will be war because she is ours" another rogue says, smiling wickedly.

Something clicks in my mind.

Fuck.

They're talking about Acacia.

God dammit, I want to kill them.

"Okay. We will be on the lookout" Dante replies back coldly. They smirk and the three rogues run back off into the forest.

"What the fuck was that?!" I yell at Dante. "We should have killed them, they don't deserve to live!"

"Yes Grayson, I know. I wanted to kill them too but if we had reacted to them in any way other than what I did, they would have alerted their leader before we would have even had the chance to fuck them up and that would put Acacia in danger. Plus, it's not like they actually trespassed so you know full well that we can't touch them."

Shit. He's right.

He gives me back control and I run my hand through my hair as I turn to face Levi, Bentley and Noah who are behind me.

"What's wrong Alpha?" Levi asks.

"They were talking about my mate, Acacia" I say grunting as Dante puts me back in control.

"Oh, shit" he whispers.

"I want the security doubled from now on" I growl, looking at Noah.

"Yes Alpha" he replies, nodding. I grunt and stalk back off into the forest.

Goddammit!

"Our poor mate" Dante whines.

"I know. She doesn't deserve this. We have to keep her safe" I reply weakly.

Dante growls in agreement as we head back to the house.

The rest of the day flies by with training and Alpha duties and I soon find myself in bed.

Man, I miss Acacia.

Dante whines and images of us cuddling her pop into my mind.

Ugh, why'd I have to lose my temper? Why do I have to be known as the scariest Alpha ever? I mean yeah, I'm known for killing a lot of rogues that get in my way but if it means that Acacia is scared of me then I can change.

I roll over and suddenly my bed feels really empty. I hope Acacia can come home soon. I need my mate, my Luna. I need her to accept me.

It hurts not knowing if she accepts me or not. I slowly feel sleep wash over me and within minutes I'm out.

I wake up to a sharp pain in my chest. I pant, trying to breathe but I feel like I'm choking. I run to the bathroom and proceed to throw up my dinner.

Damn, it must be the mate pull. Something must be wrong with Acacia. Dante whines and halfheartedly tries to convince me that we should go to her but we both know we shouldn't. At least not now, in the middle of the night.

Groaning, I wash my mouth out and head back to bed.

"Come on man, she's hurting and we should be there for her, even if it's just from the other side of her room," he says, trying again. 

"I know but she's scared of us, Dante. We have to do what's best for her and right now that means not seeing her. The nights were probably just as hard for her and I don't want to make it worse by being an uncomfortable presence in the room while she is trying to get some rest" I reply sadly.

He whines again before disappearing off to sulk. I sigh and envelope myself in my blankets.

This is going to be really hard. 

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Hey Guys,

So I hope you enjoyed that chapter! Please vote and comment letting me know what you think! The next chapter that will be coming out should be for 'My Demons Come From Heaven' so be on the lookout for that!

I hope you are all doing well and I'll see you soon!

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Thanks,

- Allamy xx