Chapter 58 – Kidnapped by My Mate Series II: His Lost Queen

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

I was afraid that if I opened my mouth, I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from shifting out of blind fury. So, instead of talking, I stiffly motioned for them to continue with their training.

I didn’t even notice when Kyle started to approach me, too consumed with anger.

“Hey, Alpha,” he said warily when he was within hearing distance, taking small steps toward me.

“How ya doing?” He obviously sensed my touchy mood.

I grunted in response.

Kyle nodded slowly and stood next to me. He knew not to push me.

We watched in silence as Casimir continued to direct the wolves. He began splitting them up into pairs, telling them to go attempt to fight in the ways that he had just shown them.

Kyle sneered as he looked at Casimir in disdain. “This is so not fair. The dude’s taking my job.”

Kyle was usually the one to lead the pack warriors, having been the head of our army for years now. He was good at it and would continue to be the head of my armies after this war.

I knew that Kyle understood that. He wasn’t actually worried that Casimir would be taking over his position. He was just trying to lift my spirits.

Only, he didn’t understand that I wasn’t in the mood for his jokes.

“He knows more about vampires than you do, Kyle. Let it go,” I snapped.

Kyle’s brows rose in surprise. “Ouch,” he said.

I didn’t respond. Guilt touched me for a moment but was quickly replaced with anger once again.

After a few more minutes of silence, during which I continued to glare at my pack members, Kyle spoke again. “Okay, seriously, what’s got your panties in a twist?”

He just didn’t know when to let go, did he? I growled and turned to him, baring my teeth threateningly. “I mean it, Kyle. Drop it.”

He raised his hands in surrender and took a step back, which was a smart thing to do. But the extent of his intelligence ended when he continued to push me, opening his mouth again to speak.

“Look, you might kill me for saying this, but I don’t care. I don’t know what’s going on with you, and that’s fine.

“You’re going through it. I get it. But whatever this is”—he gestured up and down to my heaving form—“needs to stop.

“It isn’t the time for it. Your pack members are scared. They’re being thrown into a war without any warning. They need their alpha, not this sulking, scary, red-eyed, giant thing you’ve got going on.”

I sighed. “You’re right,” I said in defeat. I was letting my emotions get the best of me.

“Really?” Kyle asked in shock. His disbelief didn’t last long. A large smile overtook his face. He looked very pleased with himself. “I mean… Of course, I am. I’m always right.”

I rolled my eyes. I turned my gaze back to the several pairs of wolves, assessing them and their skills.

Two wolves, in particular, were being especially violent with each other, snapping their teeth and trying to push the other one to the ground.

The larger of the two wolves, Micah, was one of my best pack warriors. I’d never seen anyone fight like him.

“You’re scowling again,” Kyle said. I looked at him, only noticing then that he had been studying me. “You look like you’re about to kill someone.”

I was scowling? I hadn’t even noticed.

“You want to tell me what’s going on or why you were looking at Micah like he just killed your puppy?” Kyle asked.

I sighed. I didn’t want to talk about it, but Kyle wasn’t really giving me a choice.

“Azazel,” I said after a moment. “He ordered all of the pack members to shun Belle.”

“What?” Kyle asked. “He didn’t order me to shun her.”

“Because you already knew her. Azazel knew you would try to fight it. Mortars can only control actions, not emotions.” I crossed my arms over my chest, trying to contain my anger so I wouldn’t shift.

It wasn’t getting harder with each passing moment that we spent talking about this.

“Pack members refused to talk to her and snapped at her whenever she tried to reach out.

“She was terrified of them. I felt it. She wouldn’t even leave that godforsaken room where she was freezing and alone because she was too scared to see anyone. She wouldn’t even leave to get food. She was starving herself.”

Kyle inhaled quickly. “Shit,” he muttered. “Fuck, that’s why I didn’t see her.”

“She was hiding,” I agreed.

Kyle ran a hand down his face. “Why didn’t she come to me? Shit, why didn’t she ask for help? Didn’t she know I would have done anything to help her?”

“Azazel threatened her. He told her not to talk to you or Elijah after you had tried to help her find food. Remember that? The day you brought her into my office?”

Kyle nodded.

“He hit her right after and told her to stay away from you and Elijah. She was absolutely terrified. She didn’t know what to do.”

I could feel her emotions now, even though she was so far away. She was in pain, scared, and devastated. She was also determined to keep me out of her mind, so I couldn’t figure out where she was.

Usually, I could sense her overall presence and use it to pinpoint her general location. Now, though, she was completely closed off to me.

She had built up walls in her consciousness, and no matter how hard I tried to break them down, she didn’t give in.

Kyle looked pale. “So that’s why you’re glaring at your pack members? Because they mistreated the luna?”

“Yeah,” I grunted. “I guess so.”

Kyle didn’t say anything for quite some time as he processed what I had just told him.

After a few minutes of silence, he finally said, “You can’t blame your pack members for what happened to the luna. They didn’t know what they were doing. Just like how you had no control over what you were doing.”

I looked at Kyle. The idiot somehow always managed to be the voice of reason.

Kyle gazed at the horizon, squinting at the sun. “If you’re going to be angry with someone for hurting your mate, be angry with Azazel.

“He’s the one who’s responsible—and he’s on his way here right now. And you get to decide how he dies.”

GRAYSON

I stood stoically at the edge of the training grounds as I watched my pack members train.

After my conversation with Kyle, I needed time to process things, so he left me alone and went to train with the others.

Something small suddenly wrapped itself around my leg. My first instinct was to kick the thing off me, but then I looked down. It was Zoe.

Zoe was only five years old, and one of my pack’s more rambunctious young wolves.

I wasn’t surprised to see that she had somehow managed to sneak away from the pack house where all of the younger pups were supposed to be. Zoe was always finding ways to get into trouble.

She didn’t say anything as she hugged onto my leg like some sort of monkey. She simply watched the werewolves in front of us with wide eyes filled with interest.

I always liked Zoe, and she seemed to like me. She was one of the reasons that I wanted to have kids.

We formed a bond a while back as soon as she could talk and ended up spending a lot of time together.

She would often sneak into my office and ask me what I was doing, constantly interested in pack affairs.

I had a sneaking suspicion that she would become a higher-ranking member of a pack someday, maybe even an alpha.

She showed all the signs of being a great leader—except for her disobedience and inability to follow orders.

I sighed. “Zoe, what are you doing here? You’re supposed to be at the pack house,” I said, bending down to pick her up.

Zoe pried her gaze away from the warriors. Her brown eyes widened when she saw me. “Your eyes are red,” she told me matter-of-factly. Her voice dropped into a whisper. “You look like a demon.”

I couldn’t help but crack a smile. I didn’t even realize that my vampire was at the surface of my consciousness, making my eyes red. It was probably due to all of the anger that I was feeling.

I was surprised that, rather than being frightened, Zoe seemed interested in my red eyes. “That’s because I have a vampire inside of me now, just like how you have a wolf. I have both species.”

Zoe nodded. “Yeah, I know,” she said, shrugging nonchalantly as if it were the most normal thing in the world. “My mom told me.

“She says you are really strong because you have a vampire and that it’s good to have you as an alpha. That’s also why you turned into a giant!” She spread her arms out wide, trying to express how large I’d gotten.

I chuckled. “Yeah, I have gotten pretty big, huh?”

Zoe gripped my shoulders, inspecting them. “Yeah, you’re basically the biggest person I know.”

I laughed, but before I had a chance to respond to her statement, Zoe placed her palms on either side of my face. “Your beard is scratchy,” she said. “Like my dad’s.”

I nodded, amused by how quickly her thoughts jumped around. “Well—”

“Hey, your mate is pretty. I saw her,” she interrupted.

I immediately tensed at the mention of Belle. Zoe must have seen her sometime before she left. My wolf whimpered in my chest. “Thank you,” I replied. “I think so too.”

Zoe frowned, wiping her messy brown hair out of her eyes. “She was sad. That’s why your wolf is sad and why you look so angry.”

It was hard to believe, but this five-year-old was calling me out on my shit right now, but here we were. “I guess you’re right.”

“I know. But it’ll be okay because we don’t have to be mean to her anymore!” she said excitedly, smiling at me widely. “So now you can be happy, right?”

I nodded. “Right.” Once I had Belle back in my arms and explained everything to her, I would be very, very happy again.

Content with my answer, Zoe looked back out at the people training. “What are they doing?”

I followed her gaze, watching the several groups of wolves fighting each other.

“They’re training. There’s a war coming.”

“Yeah, my mom told me. But you’re gonna tell them to go away, right? You can do that, right? Because your eyes turn red and stuff?”

I paused, thinking about it. Was she right? Could I use my new powers to stop the war and defeat Azazel?

“If only it were that simple,” a voice behind us said. I turned to face Zagan.

“There’s a special kind of stone that someone can put into their ear that blocks out any kind of command that comes from a Mortar. It works like an earplug.

“I have no doubt that Azazel has made sure that all of his warriors have them.”

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