Chapter 10

Amelie

"There's a ritual. It's dangerous and painful, but it will unbind you from Tate," my mother quickly retorted.

I was frozen in shock, "you want me to become a Scared One? Are you serious! Do any of you care for me at all!" I was screaming at this point.

I turned and ran. I went straight to my room tossed everything in my suitcase. I grabbed my phone and texted Tate. "I'm heading home early. I'll see you soon."

I got a reply right away, "see you soon then." I don't know why but his text seemed off-putting to me. I brushed it off. I was between a rock and a hard place, and I was choosing the hard place. I rushed down the stairs to the door. I wasn't going to stop for anything, not even to say goodbye to my siblings. I get to the car and throw my suitcase in the back seat. I start the car and peel out.

My whole body felt like I was going to explode! I was an adult. How dare anyone tell me what to do. I felt Inari stir in the back of my mind. "please calm down. You know they were not trying to harm you but help you."

I was amazed, "How can you be on their side! You know what the rejection ritual does to wolves. I would never be able to shift again. You would be a prisoner in my mind."

"Better than an actual one! Right now, you are walking into the arms of your prison warden." She snarled at me.

I pulled over on the side of the road. I couldn't keep myself composed any longer. Tears were streaming down my face again. I feel like all I do is cry every day. I'm so tired, and I just want a break.

"I will do anything to keep you safe. If that means I get locked away, I can make that sacrifice, can you?" Inari's words cut deep into my heart. I didn't know. I had never thought about losing the ability to shift. I didn't shift often, but that didn't mean I wanted a part of me gone. I also wasn't sure that Tate and I could not work things out and be happy again.

"Please don't fool yourself. He has always been controlling. You just didn't see it until I became too late." Inari was pleading at this point. All she wanted was for me to turn the car around and head back to my parents.

"I have to try. He's my mate. There's a reason we are together." I pull myself together and pull back on the road. I had to try. I didn't want to fail.

I spent the rest of the trip in silence. Inari didn't say a word to me for the rest of the journey. I pulled up to the house mid-afternoon. I grabbed my bag from the backseat and went inside.

"Hey babe, I'm home." I put the best happy face on that I could.

From the kitchen, I heard, "Am, we are in the kitchen. Leave your bag there. I'll take it up later. Come, tell us how your visit to your dad's pack was. I'll make you some tea." I was pleasantly in shock. It felt like I had the old Tate back. He was sweet and kind. I felt a weight lift off my shoulders.

"See! You were completely wrong. He missed me." I snap and Inari.

"I don't trust him. Somethings up, I just can't figure out what yet." Inari glared from my eyes at Tate and Karen. She was keeping her guard up.

Tate put a mug down in front of me, and I took a sip. It was my favorite rose, chrysanthemum, and fennel tea with honey. "How was the heir ceremony?" Tate askes with a smile.

I take a few more sips of my tea and start to tell him all about the ceremony and how we almost didn't have enough food. As I'm gleefully recounting the past few days' events, I start to feel dizzy. "Inari, what's going on?"

"I don't know, but I can't hold on much longer." Inari fades entirely out of my mind. I can feel her, but she's asleep. I feel my body become heavy, and I fall from my chair to the floor. All I can see is Tate watching me with the most vial grin I have ever seen. "Am I going to die?" I thought to myself.

Tate got up from his chair and crouched over me. "So, you thought you could get away from me. So that you know, you are mine forever." I completely lost consciousness after that.

I woke up later with a horrible headache. I was at the loft above my shop. I felt my ankle burning, and when I looked down, I saw a silver cuff on my ankle. What the hell was going on. I try to calm down. I was in a complete state of shock, panic, and fear. "Inari, are you there? Are you OK?" I needed to hear her voice.

With the quietest of whispers, I hear her, "I'm here, but the sliver hurts. I can't move."

I know I'll get it off. I'll go to the shop and grind it off. I slowly, with all my strength, get up out of bed and go for the door. It's locked from the outside. How could that be? I didn't install a lock on the outside. I bang on the door and yell, "Help, I'm locked in. Someone help." I heard footsteps coming up the stairs. I step back from the door. It opens, and it's Tate standing there.

"Glad to see you are awake. Since you like being at the shop so much, I figure you should live here now," his grin made me sick.

I had to try and reason with him. "Tate, you know you can't do this. I know you are mad I went to my parents, but I'm home now. Let's talk about this." Before I could say another word, he started to walk towards me.

"There is nothing to work out. I am your mate. You are mine. End of discussion! You will do as I say and live as I tell you." He pushed me down onto the bed. "Now show me how good of a mate you are." He pushed me down with all his force, and I tried the fight him, but without Inari, I was too weak to fight an adult male wolf. My fighting only enraged him more, and that's when it happened the first time he hit me. Blood came from my mouth.

"Why?" it's all I could get out before tears started streaming down my face. I had always held back my tears from Tate, not wanting to show weakness, but now I couldn't help it. I was truly broken.

He stepped back, "next time, do as you are told, or it will be worse." He turned and slammed the door behind him. I could hear the locks being positioned into place.

"Inari, you were right. I became his prisoner." I was sobbing and shaking.

Inari was crying too as she was trying to comfort me. "We are going to be OK. We'll make it out somehow."

I laid down in bed and cried myself to sleep.