Desire for you- ALPHA RYAN Book 1
Chapter 5

CATHERINE

The Crescent Pack. He called them all here.... I looked at him and his pack members. This had to be his beta if they talked so familiarly about everything and his mate was Maya. I wanted to get out of there as soon as possible and was making my way to my room when he finally stopped me.

"Let go of me please Alpha..." i tried to release my hand from his.

He shook his head "Ryan and I won't let go of you. You will come with me now." I was pulled along by him to a garage. Where the hell was he going with the car?

I finally hesitated and didn't really want to get in "Come on get in now." he said and reluctantly I got in the car.

"Listen. I want to watch the Crescent pack. If they gave you to Arnor, there must be more to it than that. No alpha in this world would willingly give up their members. I need to replace out what's behind this. I'll make sure they don't see you. Maya will protect you in time."

"M-Do what you think is right." said I. I didn't believe a word he said. He didn't acknowledge me as his mate either, and now he's bringing in the Crescent pack? The only logical explanation for me was that he wanted to give me back to them.

Moon Goddess I have to get out of here somehow. My mind can't take another imprisonment. Rose was also unusually calm, probably because she was thinking the same thing I was.

I had to seize the next opportunity to get out of here. I looked at Ryan from the vantage point. He was big, strong, an alpha. This could be difficult but did I have any other choice? He promised me he wouldn't give me up but again he wouldn't accept me as his mate yet where was the guarantee of a free life?

I looked out the window and sighed.

He looked over at me and raised his eyebrows. "We'll take a little trip into town. Buy you necessary things you need." He finally said.

I shook my head "I don't need anything." I said, keeping my gaze out the window.

He smiled and shook his head. He stopped in front of an Apple store. "Come on." he said and we got out. We walked into the store where he was greeted directly by an employee. I stayed further away from him and watched everything. The employee put several cell phone packs in front of him, Ryan looked over at me and finally chose the black one.

The employee added a couple more Airpods. Ryan paid for everything like it was nothing and pressed the boxes into my hand. "This is yours now, they've got it all set up," he said.

"I really don't need this," I said again, wanting to give it back to him.

"Don't argue." He looked me in the eye, to which I lowered my gaze and sighed. I just nodded and walked with him to the car. We walked to several stores, me following behind him rather than actively participating in the shopping trip.

Especially since I had no money of my own and didn't want him to pay for everything. He grabbed everything my gaze caught on "If you keep this up, I'll run right back out of here..." I finally said, looking at him askance.

He grinned at me "I'm not doing anything. I just want you to want for nothing." he said and pocketed his card by the pay machine.

A box of sleeping pills wouldn't be bad.... Then this would all finally come to an end.

"Listen, I'm not used to brand name clothes like that.... I really don't need it." I said. We were at Prada, after all. He rolled his eyes and took the bags and we ran out of the store.

The way I looked, I would have felt better in a thrift store than Prada. He was already about to rush in at Louis Vuitton and I stopped in front of the store. I shook my head "Th-This isn't me Ryan, I really don't want this." I said again, momentarily despairing. "Come on don't be like that." Were his words and already he was walking in. I swallowed and looked after him. He was busy looking for something.

Was this possibly my opportunity to get out of here? My gaze was fixed on him, rigid and emotionless.

I swallowed.

'Rose... Shall we?" I asked her uncertainly.

'I don't know... Apparently he's serious. Let's wait for the evening, if things turn around, then we can always leave.' Rose said, trying to persuade me to stay.

'But what if they take us? I'm scared Rose...'

'He won't drop us...' Rose had hope and has never been pessimistic. Even in captivity, she always tried to convince me that at least we'd live and we'd make it one day.

Ryan finally looked over at me and frowned. I guess he realized I was arguing with Rose and came up to me.

"What's going on?" he asked me. I couldn't pretend that nothing was wrong. It felt wrong to me. "I can't do this here. Pretending nothing is wrong while I know that tonight the Alpha from the Crescent will be here, you don't see me as your mate. The last thing I want is to be on a shopping trip with you. I've been saying I don't need these things for what feels like forever, and you're making me do something I don't want to do. Are you even listening to me?" God did that just come out of me?

I paused for a moment and ran my fingers through my hair. He looked at me with his mouth open and finally nodded.

"I explained about the Crescent, and that I don't want to rush into anything right now either." his gaze darkened in a way.

"Let's go." he finally said and walked in front of me to the car.

I didn't say anything else the whole way and when we arrived I went straight up to my room. He followed me and put the bags down in a corner.

He looked at me for a moment and was about to say something when he decided to do nothing of the sort. He ran out of the room again and now I was there alone. I lay down on the bed and turned on my side. Tears came to my eyes and I didn't know what was in store for me tonight.

'He will protect us Cate don't worry about it.... Maybe we need to give him a spark of trust.' Rose said again, trying to cheer me up.

I said nothing and closed my eyes before falling into a deep sleep.

RYAN

Cynthia was right. She was a tough nut to crack. I left the things in her room and made my way to my office.

I couldn't blame her for thinking that way. She was only worried about herself. I ran a hand through my hair and sat down in my chair.

I picked up my cell phone and dialed a number. "Hey, it's Ryan. I really need your help and that is we need to stir up a past a little bit. Can you help me?" no sooner had I spoken my words than the witch appeared in front of me. "Eleonora, it's good to see you," I said, extending my hand to her. She nodded and sat down on the other chair. "Whose past do you want to stir up Ryan?" she asked me, drawing her eyebrows together.

"It's about the girl I freed in prison. She is my mate and I want to know what happened there." I said and looked at her.

She nodded slightly "Give me your hand." she said and I already handed it to her.

She pulled out a knife from her pocket and made a small cut in my hand. "Through your companions bond, I can track them down." she finally said, muttering some words under her breath.

Before we knew it we were in Catherina's past.

"Cate, Cate, Cate! The Alpha wants to talk to you!" a girl's voice rang out from the room. "Yeah, I'll be right there!" she said, walking into the living room.

"Alpha... What brings you to me?" she asked. She still looked well formed, had a beautiful, happy glow.

Alpha John walked toward her. He was a stocky, grim-faced man and seemed to be in a bad mood. "You remember Alpha Arnor?" he asked her and she nodded slightly.

"Yes, Alpha." she looked at him and played with her fingers.

"Well, you're going to join his pack starting tomorrow and I don't want to hear a peep out of you." he said in his alpha command.

Catherine's eyes narrowed and she could do nothing but nod and accept his command.

The vision of her disappeared and a new one appeared.

Catherine was with Arnor.

"I swear to the moon goddess I didn't steal the necklace!" She looked distressed, had tears in her eyes, she looked drained and was pale like a corpse. She was wearing the clothes of a servant and had bruises all over her arms and legs.

"YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS!" Shouted the woman's voice at her and Arnor walked up to Catherine, grabbed her by the hair and dragged her along word for word.

The men from him came to his rescue, took her away and brought her to the prison. "P-please, you have to believe me, I didn't steal the necklace," she kept saying.

When they arrived at the prison, the guard pushed her into her cell where I found her and tied her hands to two metal chains so that her arms were above her head.

Arnor appeared in the cell with a whip in his hand. You would have thought he was Tom Hardy's brother by the look of him. He walked up to Catherine "You no good thing, when I'm done with you I'm going to send you cut up and back to your alpha." He hissed at her.

"Please believe me I really didn't steal her necklace!" Catherine cried desperately, just hanging there.

"Stop lying, we all found the necklace on you, who knows what else you've done?" said Arnor, lashing out at her with his whip.

He even counted the strokes and stopped at 100 lashes.

Catherine's screaming got under my skin even, but I couldn't see her from this view. When Arnor walked away from her, she was hanging unconscious from the chains and covered in blood.

The scene I had seen was enough for me to understand Catherine and that was just the beginning of it all.

I looked at Eleonora, who was looking at me just as shocked, and gestured for her to get out of her past.

We both gasped again when we were in reality. I stared at Eleonora and she stared at me as well.

"No wonder she doesn't trust anyone." I muttered to myself and sighed. Eleonora nodded at me in agreement. "You can make it better by accepting her as a mate. She would then have someone to cling to..." said Eleonora, smiling wryly at me.

I shook my head "You know, I didn't want to rush this but you all are pushing me to do this." I said and shrugged my shoulders.

"Ryan, you've been looking for your mate since you were 18 years old. What has changed that you don't want to accept her?" Eleonora put a hand on my shoulder.

"I don't know... the only thing that would change for me is that she would be my weakness, I don't want her to become a target. Especially not in this war against Arnor. He would try to destroy her," I said.

She nodded understandably "What if she is your strength? Together you can accomplish anything..." she said, snapping her fingers. Just as she appeared, she disappeared as well.