A/n - This chapter might be triggering.
Mention of- Pedophilia
Michael's POV
"What did you guys do?!"
"We went to a witch," my mother smirked. "We gave the witch a lot of things to help keep the mark on your neck, the mark of your mated alpha! The mark that will throw that stinky bitch out of our pack once and for all. She and her son have been ruling over our pack ever since the head alpha died. Everyone hates them!" Her eyes became teary as if she was about to cry. "She and her son made our life a living hell, son. Please, come back. You are the luna of the pack and not her! It's time to take our responsibility."
"I am not the luna of The Red Woods pack, but the future luna of The Earthy Forest Pack! That pack is nothing to me, this pack is my home and my responsibility. I have been the beta of this pack for too long, and the moon goddess finally decided to give me a nice alpha. An alpha who is my mate. An alpha who won't mark me forcefully!" I could hear gasps from the members of my pack as they heard me.
No one knew, how I came here or what had happened in my past but now, everything is out in the open. My wounds, my scars, my traumas, everything I have worked so hard to hide behind a smile and gentle personality is out in the open and I don't like it. I don't like it, one bit. I just want to run somewhere no one knows me.
"He had gone too long without his mate, Michael. You were a child when he found out you were his mate. He wanted to wait for you till you were twenty, till you knew that he was your mate, but he couldn't wait anymore. He tried his best, and he even confessed to us about you being his mate a few days after his birthday. We gave him a pass when you were sixteen because he had been mateless for a little longer-"
"You fucking handed away your sixteen years old boy to a fucking thirty years old man?! What the fuck is wrong with you people?!" Alex stood in front of me in a protective stance.
"I assume you are also young, and he is old enough to be your uncle," my father said to Alex and me, said if I were his age... I wasn't that old... I was just thirty. It was only a ten-year old gap but most of all neither of us are under the age for consent.... Like I was....
"He might be a little old, but I am not a child! I am a grown-ass adult. You gave your child! That is fucking pedophilic!" Alex grunted. His stance was so protective towards me that if it weren't for my height, I wouldn't have been able to see anything.
"I can talk to them, Alex." I kept a hand on his shoulder, in an attempt to calm him down, but he just ignored me and growled at my parents.
"Alex! Move," I said again, but this time in an authoritative tone. The tone that I use when I order someone as the beta of the pack.
The tone had worked because he moved. He was still protective, but he moved and let me come face to face with them. He didn't let me go in front of him, but at least he let me come face to face with them without standing in between.
"So, you are telling me I am the widow beta?! I am a fucking widow at the age of thirty with the mark of an alpha who is twice my age. The alpha whom I killed and also the alpha who claimed to be my fucking mate?!" I scoffed out loud. This is absolute bullshit "I am not going back to that hideous pack of yours, go back and thank the luna and her son for making all of your life a living fucking hell like you did with mine" I walked closer to them. I ignored it, but I know that Alex is right behind me, at my heels, walking closer to them with me, ready to pounce on them if they dared to lay even their nails on me.
"Leave my fucking pack, now!" I used the same authoritative tone again. I wanted out of here before I broke down at everything I heard.
"We will not! You still wear the mark of our alpha!" as soon as those words left my mother's mouth, we heard a vicious growl. I just know that growl came from Alex because that man is possessive - I am seeing him since I came here keeping an eye on him just in case he falls into trouble which he always did no matter what I or anyone did - and I know he didn't like my parents telling that his mate belonged to another alpha.
"Then how about I replace that shithead's mark with mine" he wrapped his arm around me. Every one of us turned to me with a shocked face - including me - he wants to mark me? He still wants me?....