LANA'S POV
My migraine intensified. Fear, anger, and curiosity coursed through my veins in all their raw, hot, glory at the sight of the note. My jaw unhinged as I finally parted my lips to respond.
"Where did you get this?" I asked seeing that he was partially awake. My skin crawled at the idea that I was suddenly going to have to worry about the fact they were somehow both connected.
When I looked up, the shadow of his disapproval had morphed into something darker, more dangerous. Then I blinked, and the darkness was gone, replaced by his usual cold impassiveness. Somehow that unsettled me even more.
"You're going through my stuff?" Alpha Ken for some damn reason had a talent for turning every question into, well, not a question.
"I wasn't going through your stuff, I just---" an uncharacteristic burst of mischief bloomed inside me, watching him raise an eyebrow. Making it seem like I was trying to cover up the fact that he'd caught me.
He stared down at me; his jaw so tensed I could practically hear his teeth grind. His brows were drawn tight over worried eye, but a tentative smile played on his mouth
"I don't believe that!" He snapped. Judging by his expression, my question sounded as nice as being thrown into a VAT of bubbling acid. My silence faded, replaced with a print pick of annoyance.
"That's not the point!"
Damn it, I couldn't lie, not even when every cell in my body urged me to wipe the knowing look from his eyes.
"Then why do you suddenly feel concerned about a letter?" Alpha Ken asked. It was an innocent question, but intuition told me to keep the exact info to myself.
"I guess letters do so well to make me remember a lot from the past I guess, love letters and stuff," I lied.
"How specific!" He grunted a response.
"How none of your business!" I shot back with an eye roll as I gave him a pointed stare.
At that moment, I realized Alpha Ken might as well be a different person from yesterday and I wasn't just talking about the 180 in his attitude. Gone was the cold-cut Alpha, in its place someone gruffer, more world-weary. Stubble shadowed his cheeks and jaw. His skin had taken on a pallid case and his hair looked like he'd raked his fingers through it a thousand times.
He paused, his throat flexing with a hard swallow. I watched him perk up to his feet, with both hands stuffed into the pocket of his pants as he reached for the note, staring at it.
"That bastard!" He cursed.
"We both had an alliance in the time past, but---" he continued and then paused, raking his fingers through his hair.
"Ethan broke it off and ran away with Sienna, my little sister," he finally added. The idea of Ethan still alive coincided with the uprising of nerves in my stomach that I couldn't help but inhale and exhale a lungful of air.
"Sister?" I asked as some of the tension bled out of my shoulders.
"You'd understand soon enough," Alpha Ken said, and in seconds, I felt him grab me by the hand as he had me led out of the cave.
"Where are you taking me?" I asked, trying to wrench free from his grip.
"We're heading back to the pack," he snapped. Panic surged through me the minute I realized he was taking me back to the one place I never wanted to be.
In less than a couple of minutes, we'd arrived and as expected there were a lot of wounded members, and elders which had all resulted from the attack. The minute we'd walked into the mansion, the elders around all gave me looks that made it obvious that I wasn't needed there either.
"Why is the thief here?" a bold elder yelled from a distance, followed by the loud murmurs that came from the other members at the sight of me. I swallowed nervously in each of the more ways to escape, knowing I couldn't live my life looking over my shoulder, especially when I had no place here.
"Watch how you speak about my mate!" Alpha Ken suddenly cut in. and the minute he did, the whole hall suddenly went silent.
"Mate?" I heard more silent murmurs from the elders as they backed away.
At the snap of his fingers, they all suddenly went silent once again. And then in seconds, dozens of maiden girls hurried towards us with their heads lowered to the floor.
"Make sure she's taken care of, she's had a long day from the attack" he ordered, and without a single glance my way, he turned and headed for the hallway but then his soft grip on my wrist made me pause in my tracks.
I gulped nervously watching as he took more steps closer to me. He leaned forward; his expression intense. The touch of his gaze followed me and insistent pressure on the small of my back made my skin tingle.
"I'd be heading out to the Alphas gathering in a couple of hours and you're coming with me!" Alpha Ken said and without any approval on whether or not I wanted to be there, he scurried off.
My head grew light, every ounce of consciousness arrowing to the heat building in my veins, scared, knowing Ethan would be there along with my father who was the Alpha of my usual birth pack. Even for the fact that I was meant to be his heir, I loathed him after what he had done to me.
"I can't!" I protested.
Silence fell heavy in the room, the minute I'd said that, and, in that moment, he had a finger up in the air dismissing the other maidens. The minute we were left alone in the hallway, I finally summoned up courage, to spill off all that had happened.
"I had a rebirth, and that's because the same Ethan you speak of, used to be my mate. But unfortunately, I had been killed by Ethan and my father," I said. The minute I did, the look in the eyes of Ken made it obvious that he was shocked at my confession.
"I see, why you were so concerned about the note," He responded and then went completely silent for a couple of minutes.
"I'd protect you and help you get revenge," Alpha Ken surprisingly added. By the time my brain processed his words, he was already gone.
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I sat in the passenger seat of Alpha Ken's black SUV with my nervous fingertips tapping my knee. I glanced at Ken, who was busy concentrating on the road ahead, I bit my lips and looked down at my hands.
"Is there something, on your mind?" He asked and my eyes snapped his way. Had I been so obvious?
"I was just wondering why you suddenly----" I responded, but then was cut off by the loud shatter of our car's glass windows and before I could process what was happening, our car came to a stop. It happened so fast that I bumped my head against the dashboard of the car, black dots suddenly blocking my vision.
I looked over to Ken and realized he'd been knocked out as well. With as much strength as I could muster, I tried crawling my way out of the car. As I did, in my blurry vision a figure loomed over me. One I couldn't put a face to. My blurred vision made my head throb so bad that I blacked out seconds later.
Help!...