Page 36

Chapter

Thirty-Six

Athena couldn’t help the relief she felt when the connection between her and Draco actually worked. When they said they were going to be executing her for her betrayal of Rob, she lost all composure.

She’d started out in tearful prayer for Draco to find her quickly and nearly crumbled in relief when he responded to her. She’d completely forgotten in all of the chaos they could reach out with each other telepathically.

She relayed everything she knew to help him find her. Now all she could do was wait and pray to every deity in the Universe that they got to her in time.

She’d just fallen asleep when rough hands gripped her hair, jerking her wide awake while they unshackled her hands from the wall. She was dragged from the room she had been held in, through the building and through the vast yard.

She was shoved outside toward a circle and into a chair, to which they zip tied her hands to the chair. When she looked at her surroundings, she saw her captors along with most of the Maplewood Pack surrounding them, glaring at her.

Standing next to Claude Maplewood was a man who appeared to be in his late thirties or early forty’s, sneering at her as if she was a pebble in his shoe. She stared at him for several seconds before she rolled her eyes at him.

The man obviously thought he was better than everyone currently present. She guessed him being part of the Council made him so.

The man was tall, lanky in build with his dark hair slicked back with a lot of hair product. The wind was blowing slightly outside and not a single hair on his head moved with the wind like hers did.

The man’s eyes were another story all together. She didn’t even bother to look at them to see the color because all she could see was the crazy in them.

The man was obviously cray cray in the head. She reached out to Draco in a panic when the strange man sneered an evil smirk her way.

“Please hurry. I really fear this man is going to enjoy torturing me before he kills me.”

“Be calm, my mate. They will not harm you. We are almost there.”

“I thought wolves could smell each other. How do they not know you are close by?”

“I’ll explain when we get you free and home.”

“Please be safe. The baby and I need you. I love you, Draco.”

“I love you too, Athena. Never forget that.”

Athena returned her focus back to her surroundings. Her mate was nearby and would be rescuing her soon.

“Members of the Maplewood Pack, welcome to our Pack tribunal. Today we will put this human on trial for her crime of betrayal to our pack. Her mother signed a contract with me for her to mate your future Alpha, my son, Robert. Not only did she betray him by refusing their mating, but she also denied they were fated mates. Instead, she mated the future Alpha of the Blackwood Pack, Draco Blackwood.”

“Lord help the de lulu in this speech!” Athena mumbled, rolling her eyes in the process.

Her statement was met with a hard, painful punch across her right cheek. Fuck, that shit hurt like a motherfucker.

“Mind your tongue, whore!”

Athena looked at the man who punched her in the face and smiled at him. She was going to enjoy watching his life drain from his eyes.

“Patience, my heart. He will pay for putting his paws on you. We are nearly there. Just a few more minutes then you will be free.”

“How, Draco? They have a high-ranking member of the Council here. He claims his word in law.”

“We will have fun with him the most, next to the Maplewoods. Please forgive me when your mother and brother die when we attack.”

“She, nor he, mean nothing to me. If they die in your rescue mission of me, then that is on them. They chose their side of this war. I have chosen mine. I choose you. Always and for eternity.”

“Athena Chapman, you have been brought before the Council to be tried for your crimes against the Maplewood Pack. How do you plead?”

Athena looked at the Council member who spoke and had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing. Hearing Draco talking to her and telling her what to say, told her he was nearby and could hear what was being said to her.

“First, it’s Athena Blackwood. Secondly, I never agreed to the mating of myself or Rob Maplewood.

Since I was over the age of eighteen at the time the farce of an arrangement was made, nor was I living in my incubators’ home, their contract is null and void.

Rob Maplewood is not my mate nor is he my fated mate.

Draco Blackwood is my true fated mate. Yet, you stole me from my territory to bring me here for a sham of a trial that should have more than just one Council member present to prove or disprove the allegations being leveled against me. ”

Athena couldn’t hide the smirk when the Council member, Claude, and Rob glared at her when the members of the pack started murmuring under their breaths at her statement. She prayed that was enough to cause discord within the pack.

“Silence!” Claude roared, making his pack members whimper and lower their heads at his order.

“You, human, are not a shifter, therefore you do not benefit from that rule.”

“Even as a human since you like to point that out, I am an Alpha shifter’s true fated mate.

Therefore, I am allotted the same rights as a shifter, unless he rejects our mating.

In matters such as this, a Shifter High Lord is supposed to be here to verify the authenticity of a true mating, yet from what I can see, he is not here.

You are only a Council member by your own statement. ”

Athena never saw the punch to her face coming. She was hit so hard that the chair she was tied to fell over, causing everything in her body to flare with pain.

“Who do you think you are to try and tell me shifter law? I am the Shifter High Lord!”

As her world went dark, she heard a loud roar. She welcomed the darkness with a smile on her face knowing her mate was here to make everyone pay.