Page 6 of Bound to Enemy (Wolf Billionaire #3)

CHAPTER 6

ALESSANDRA

I refused to cry, especially in the face of my enemies.

Yes. The engagement changed nothing between Daxton and me. He was still my enemy and I would always view him as a murderer. He had not answered the call to help his own, and he was as good as the rogues.

"Stop looking at him like that, Ale." My father came to stand in front of me.

I moved my gaze from my soon-to-be mate and focused on my father. The bags under his eyes were darker than they had been the night before.

"I hate him," I said.

My father sighed, looking like he had aged ten years. "Alessandra, please. You are making this more difficult than it needs to be. Please."

I shook my head. "I understand what role I have to play here, Dad. I know what this union will mean to the pack."

I was going to fulfill my duty, but that didn't mean that I had to like what I was doing.

"Give him a chance. The tensions between our packs run deep, but we have a common enemy here. We need to defeat the rogues and make sure that no more of our minds are perverted."

I nodded my head and looked away from my father. I looked around the area, realizing that these were going to be the last moments in this place. I would miss the mountain lands. I would miss the fresh, crisp morning air. But above all, I would miss my father. We were all we had, and now we were being separated.

I was a grown woman, but I was still a daddy's girl through and through.

"I'll miss you, Dad." I turned my head to face my father. "See you at the bonding ceremony?"

I didn't miss the way my father's eyes glazed over and he looked like his mind had taken him somewhere far away.

"You're all grown up," the emotion coated his words heavily.

He opened his arms to me and I walked into his embrace, feeling like that five-year-old girl who always found refuge under the protection of her father. I closed my eyes and breathed in his fresh scent of pine. It will always be a scent that I will associate with home, forever. From my childhood up until now, my father had been my protector, the one I looked to the most.

When we pulled away, I could feel the sting behind my eyes threatening to bring forward an overflow of tears. But I would keep it all in, not only for the sake of my father but for the simple fact that Daxton was within a few feet, and I refused to show him any sign of vulnerability. I would much rather chew on wolfsbane than allow that man to see me at a weak point.

"Ready?" My father smiled down at me with sad eyes.

"As I will ever be."

My father and I walked to the awaiting convoy of cars. My fiancé stood with his beta off to the distance, but I could feel his eyes on me every so often. I didn't dare to look his way, so I shifted my gaze to the awaiting squad that I had put together.

Leaving home was hard, but at least I would have Jason, Alexander, and Lily to keep me company as I tried to acclimate myself to a new pack.

"Jason," my father shook the hand of one of his most trusted and loyal warriors and a long-time friend of mine. "I trust you will keep my daughter safe?"

Jason grinned at my father and took his hand in his own. "Of course, Alpha. I swore an oath to you, and I will not let you down. I will lay my life down for her."

"I know you will," my father then turned his attention to the other two who would be accompanying me. "Lily and Alex, thank you for your service to this pack. Asking you to leave home is hard, but you honor us by taking the position of my daughter's guard."

The both of them puffed out their chests as my father showered them with praises. The Jameson twins, Lily and Alex, were a formidable duo I had trained with during my training days. They had sparred with me and helped shape me into the warrior I was today, and I was eternally grateful and forever in their debt.

"We will protect her with our lives, Alpha. We will not disgrace you or the pack." Alex stepped forward and shook my father's hand. His blue eyes danced with joy at the prospect of serving my father and his homeland. He was a true patriot through and through.

Lily then stepped forward and shook my father's hand. "I will protect her like my own blood."

Jason tapped me on the shoulder and moved us to the side where we could speak a little more freely. "How are you doing?"

I blew out a long-winded breath and rolled the tension out of my shoulders. "I mean, I'm doing as well as I can be at this point. Just trying to take it hour by hour."

Jason stared at me with those wide doe eyes. His caramel gaze softened as he looked over my face. "Come here."

He pulled me into his arms against my will and hugged me tightly like he was trying to keep all the brokenness together. Internally I was struggling, but externally I was as solid as a rock. My training had taught me to harden my heart and to not show weakness in the face of the public. But Jason knew me. He was the closest thing I had to a friend, and he had seen me at one of the lowest points in my life and watched me rebuild my foundations after the deaths of my brothers and my mother.

I heard a throat clear and when I looked over Jason's shoulder, I saw my fiancé glaring at me. I returned his heated stare with one of my own.

"It's time to go," he quipped. "We need to make it there before sundown."

"I'm not in the same car as you."

He scowled, "What do you mean? There are only two cars, and the other fits all four of you comfortably with the guards."

"Then remove your guard. I want to be with my aids, all of them." I didn't miss the way his eyes cut to Jason and then back to me. Hmm, that was interesting.

He opened his mouth to say something, but his beta came up behind him and placed his hands on his alpha's shoulders. "No problem at all. We will remove our men so your aids can all fit in one car."

Daxton looked annoyed, but he didn't try to rebut his beta.

Jason swung his arm over my shoulder. "Shall we be off then?"

Daxton stared hard at Jason's hand and then scowled in my direction.

Was he... was he jealous? Oh, I could have some fun with this weird alpha dignity.

I looked up at Jason and placed my hand on his stomach. "We shall."

We sauntered toward the car arm in arm like we were far closer than we were. If this was one thing I could use to get under his skin, then I would milk it for all it's worth.

I looked over my shoulder at where Elliot and Daxton stood, and I basked in the fact that he looked like he was ready to shoot me where I stood.

We came to the car, and just before I got in, I gave my father one long-lasting look of sadness. I would miss this place, but most of all, I would miss him. I had never spent more than a few days away from my father, and I had never strayed from the borderlines for more than a week at most.

Everything was changing, and I was hoping that it was all for the better.

We had been traveling for five hours when we finally decided to make a stop for some food. We still had a good three or four hours' worth of driving to do. We were far beyond the pack border by now, which meant we were in a bit of no man's land.

There were a lot of unmarked territories that were often left for the humans to live in. These areas were usually no-go areas for us wolves, but the rogues had come to plague these lands, which meant that we needed to be careful.

I stretched my arms out and

"Your fiancé looks like he wants to kill me," Jason whispered in my ear. When he pulled away, he had a cheeky smirk on his lips. "I think he knows I want his girl."

I rolled my eyes and smacked him on the chest. "Stop it. You and I both know that ship sailed for the two of us."

Yes, Jason and I had tried to date when we were 16, but that relationship had crashed and burned before it even had a chance to get off the ground. We realized that we were far better off as friends. There was no bad blood, and it was fairly easy for us to flip back into that friendship.

I looked in the direction of my mate and caught his heated gaze. If looks could kill, then Jason would have been six feet under right there and then.

"How are you feeling, Ale?" The tenderness in Jason's voice spiked the emotion that I had been trying to bury these last few hours.

I forced a small smile onto my lips. "I'm okay. A little sad, but I'm okay."

And that was about as honest as I was going to get. Even though I was closest to Jason, I still didn't want to pour my heart out in that way.

Now that we were far behind the comforting lines of home, I needed to keep my hard exterior intact.

"I'm so fucking hungry," Alex rounded the car and stretched his arms out. "Damn, even the air here smells less clean than back home."

"Alexander," Ali came to stand with us, tying her blonde hair into a tight bun. "Don't say that out loud. We have ears."

We all turned our heads to the left and looked at the guard who had been in the large Land Cruiser with us. He had not uttered a single word apart from his grunts and groans when we asked yes or no questions.

Do you have access to the sea in your pack lands? Grunt.

Do you have a healing course? Groan.

Do you like your life to be taken from the back? Seething glare.

The last one had been from Jason, of course.

"Ah yes, our resident mute." Jason flipped our driver the bird and then turned his attention back to me. "You all know why he isn't speaking to us, right?"

We all did; it had to do with the feud between our packs. The way we had a deep-seated resentment for them was the same for them toward us. We would never see eye to eye. But where we viewed them as traitors to our ways and the goddess, they saw us as lesser than them.

The smell of freshly baked goods wafted into my nose from the small convenience store we had found. My stomach growled loudly, and I blushed.

Alex and Jason cackled under their breath like little school kids, and Ali pushed me toward the store entrance.

"Sustenance it is," she shoved me forward.

Jason and Alex followed closely behind Lilly, also feeling just as famished as we were.

I dared to look over my shoulder at Daxton, who was staring at the four of us intently. I couldn't get a good read on what he was thinking, but I was sure it had something to do with my demise.

The battle lines had been drawn the moment I put my blade against his neck. Now we just needed to see who won out in the end. All I knew was that it needed to be me in the end.