Chapter 41 – Kidnapped by My Mate Novel (Belle & Grayson) Online Free by Annie Whipple

Filed To Story: Kidnapped by My Mate Novel (Belle & Grayson) Online Free by Annie Whipple

I felt a blush travel up my chest. I hoped Elijah didn’t see me as weak, like glass he needed to care for so that it wouldn’t break. I was very capable of walking. “You don’t have to carry me again,” I said. “I can walk.”

Elijah shook his head, not moving from his position. “Absolutely not. You’re swaying just standing there and shaking like a leaf. I’m going to carry you.”

I still hesitated. “Won’t it be too heavy to carry me and my luggage?” I asked.

Elijah laughed and directed his gaze over his shoulder to me. “No. It won’t be too heavy. I’m a werewolf with amazing strength and you’re…” his eyes traveled up and down my form, a frown forming on his lips. “Well, you’re skin and bones.

That’s the first thing I’m going to do when we get out of town. I’m making you a four-course meal and making sure you eat every bite.”

I stiffened a bit at his words. “You, you’re coming with me?” I asked in shock. I had thought that he was simply going to put me on a bus and be done with me. I had thought that I would never see him again after today.

Elijah finally turned and looked at me, a soft expression taking over his features.

“Of course I am. I’m not going to just let my luna go off on her own without any protection. Especially after what you just went through. I probably should have told you that, but with all of the commotion, it just slipped my mind. Kyle is coming too.

He’s going to meet us wherever we end up going and bring my things with him.

He’ll mind-link me the moment he can get away from the alpha without him noticing. He can’t stay with us forever, unfortunately, but he’s going to commute back and forth when he can. We’ve already discussed it through mind-link. So I’m sorry, sweetcheeks, but you’re stuck with us,” he smiled widely.

I didn’t smile back. Although I appreciated the fact that he wanted to care for me, I couldn’t let him do this. And Kyle too?

Nope.

No way.

They both had lives to live.

I wasn’t going to let them disrupt their lives just because they took pity on some girl who was rejected by their alpha.

“No,” I shook my head, leaving no room to argue in my tone. “I’m not letting you come. You need to stay here and be close to your mate. I’m not your luna anymore,”

I said bitterly. “In fact, I never was. Not officially at least. You don’t owe me anything. You barely even know me.”

Elijah winced slightly at the mention of Grayson’s betrayal and the wavering it caused in my voice. “You are my luna,” he said in a firm tone. “The alpha may have chosen somebody else to help him lead the pack, but my loyalty will always be with you, the true luna of my pack. Nothing will ever be able to convince me otherwise.”

A tiny bit of tenseness left my form. My gratefulness for Elijah only grew with his kind words. It felt good to know that at least one person still cared about me. Maybe even two, I thought as I pictured Kyle’s smiling face.

“And I can live without seeing Kyle every day. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but he can be a bit much sometimes,” Elijah laughed. I smiled a bit. “Our bond is strong.

We’ll be fine.”

I searched his expression for any sort of hesitation. But I couldn’t find any. He really did want to come with me. And who was I to deny his care? It would be nice not to be on my own for once.

“Fine,” I finally said. “But only under one condition.”

Elijah raised a brow in question.

“You can’t call me Luna anymore. My name is Belle.”

Elijah frowned, immediately shaking his head and opening his mouth to argue.

“Please,” I said before he could disagree. “It hurts too much to be called Luna. The title only comes with horrible memories. I just want to be Belle. Just Belle. Not Luna.”

Elijah hesitated for a moment. He didn’t look happy but eventually, he nodded his head. “My wolf and I don’t like it but… But I’ll try my best.”

I was pleased with his answer. That was all I could ask for.

“Shall we get going then?” he asked, motioning for me to get on his back again.

I nodded, ready to be as far away from Grayson as I could get. I climbed onto his back, locking my ankles together and squeezing my legs tightly around his waist so that he could grab my suitcase and hold it instead of gripping my legs to keep me in place.

Elijah started to move quickly.

I found myself suddenly very glad that he had insisted on carrying me.

Even just hanging onto his back in my weakened state was proving to be extremely difficult.

And all the movement was making my nausea come back with a sudden vengeance.

But I didn’t complain. Instead, I just tightened my arms around his neck and laid my head on his back. I imagined I was on a boat in the middle of a lake somewhere, fishing with my dad.

That had always been one of our favorite things to do together.

As we continued our trek further and further into the forest, I couldn’t stop myself from longingly looking back at the direction from which we came.

I wished more than anything that things were different.

I wished I could go back to those few weeks in Paris when Grayson still seemed to love me.

I wished that I could live in that memory forever.

But since I knew I couldn’t, since I knew that it was time for me to move on to the part of my life that no longer involved Grayson, I shut my eyes gently, leaning my head back onto Elijah’s back.

And I tried my very best to let my mind drift off to happier thoughts.

BELLE POV

Elijah carried me with ease, never showing a single sign of fatigue.

The tranquility of the forest surrounding us in addition to the comfortable silence between Elijah and me, made for a soothing environment. All that could be heard was the faint chirping of some birds nearby and Elijah’s rough steps in the snow.

“So where would you like to go?” Elijah asked me about a mile into our hike.

I set my chin down on his shoulder and sighed deeply. I didn’t want to make any decisions. I wanted to go to sleep. And then never wake up.

It was like my head was filled with murky water, not letting a single clear thought through.

I was drowning in the water, gasping for air, violently swimming upwards.

Swimming, swimming, with no end in sight. My chest constricted painfully as if I was really in the water and my breath caught in my throat. I tightened my legs around Elijah’s waist, trying to calm my shaking, exhausted body.

I shrugged weakly. “I don’t care,” I barely got out. “Wherever you want.”

Elijah chuckled softly. “I’ve only ever been off pack lands a handful of times. I wouldn’t even know which direction to head in if you asked me to decide.”

I paused.

Do I even know what direction to head in? I didn’t know much about the world either.

I had been to Paris and that was about it. The rest of my life had been spent in hospitals and at home taking care of my dad.

“Come on,” he urged in a soothing voice. “There’s got to be somewhere you want to go.”

Only one place came to mind. “I guess we could go to Minneapolis,” I said.

Minneapolis was the city where I grew up and only a few hours away by car.

Although it didn’t contain many good memories, mostly just memories of my dad dying, it was the only home I had ever known. A thought popped into my head.

I might even be able to stop by my old apartment and get some of my stuff.

That is, if my old landlord, Mr. Hummer, hadn’t sold all of it yet.

He was a mean old man with beady eyes, yellow teeth, and breath that only ever smelled like either cigarettes or salami, nothing else. The number of eviction notices that I had received from him for forgetting to pay rent not even twenty-four hours after it was due was ridiculous.

I had no doubt that Mr. Hummer would not react kindly to seeing me, especially after I went missing for months, leaving him without a rent check and with the responsibility of dealing with all of my things. But it was worth a shot, right?

“Minneapolis could work,” Elijah said in approval. “I’ll go anywhere you want but Minneapolis is close enough for Kyle to commute back and forth but far enough away from the alpha for you to heal.”

I cringed slightly at the mention of Grayson. My heart constricted in my chest.

Elijah winced.

“Sorry,” he said quickly. “I’ll stop talking about him.”

I shook my head. “No, it’s okay. I’ll get over it. I’m…” I hesitated, but only for a moment. Then lifted my chin in determination. “I can handle it. I’m strong.”

Elijah didn’t waste a second in replying, “Hell yeah, you are! You don’t need him.

Especially since you’ve got me. I’m pretty great in case you haven’t noticed.”

I laughed. And it felt good. It gave me hope.

At that moment, I became determined to get back on my feet as soon as possible so that Elijah could get back to his life. While I appreciated him to the moon and back and knew that I wouldn’t have been able to get through this day without him, he had better things to do than to take care of me.

I had been on my own basically my entire life.

I was good at it.

I could do it again.

I stretched my neck and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. “Thank you, Elijah. I know you’re giving up a lot to be with me. It really means a lot.”

Elijah smiled. “It’s an honor. No need to thank me.”

We walked for a few more minutes before my arms and legs began to get tired. My body was running out of adrenaline, quickly making me exhausted beyond belief.

Not to mention the aching pain that was still throbbing throughout my body.

It felt like I had the worst flu ever.

“How much further until we get to town?” I asked. All I wanted to do was get on a bus, curl into a little ball in one of the seats, and sleep until we reached the cities.

“About ten more minutes,” Elijah said. “Do you need to take a break? We can stop for a few minutes.”

I shook my head quickly. “No. No, that’s okay. I don’t want to stop. I just didn’t realize how far away the nearest town was from the packhouse.”

Elijah looked down at me over his shoulder with a worried expression. “Are you sure? You’re not looking so good, Luna.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. He had promised to call me by my real name.

“Sorry,” he said quickly. “I’m still getting used to not calling you that. It might take some time. It goes against all of my instincts to call you by your real name.”

I chose not to mention the fact that he hadn’t even tried calling me Belle yet. How did he know he couldn’t do it if he didn’t even try?

I sighed. “It’s fine.” I tightened my arms around him, trying not to fall off his back and straight onto my butt in the snow. My forehead came in contact with his shoulder, trying to find some sort of stability. “I think I should walk for a while. I’m starting to feel motion sickness.”

I didn’t have to look at Elijah to know he was frowning. He slowed his steps, thinking about it. Then, thankfully, he stopped. He set my suitcase down in the snow and gently grabbed my legs so he could help me off his back.

I couldn’t stop myself from leaning against a nearby tree the second my feet touched the ground. I shut my eyes tightly, trying to breathe. When I opened them a few seconds later, Elijah was looking at me with a distressed expression.

“I’m fine,” I said before he could ask how I was doing. I straightened, pushing off the tree and tugging my shoulders back. “Let’s keep going.”

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