Axton POV

I stand there perplexed as Ellie walks past me and bolts up the stairs. I don't understand what she is talking about. She says she left because of me, because I rejected the mate bond. But I know that I didn't.

My thoughts are interrupted by the sudden pain in my right cheek as a hand slaps me.

"How could you do that Axton?!" Sawyer screeches as Walker pulls her behind him in order to protect her, knowing I will be pissed for her touching me, "You rejected her?"

Even though I am pissed at Sawyer for the slap, my confusion over why my mate left is still swirling around in my mind, "I have no clue what she is talking about," I say to her, "I would never do that."

Sawyer's eyes soften as she takes in the lost look I'm probably displaying.

"Then why does she believe that you did?" Walker steps in.

"Because he did," we both turn toward the new voice as my gamma enters the room, "You broke her, Axton."

I growl at Reid as he comes closer to us. I am stilled pissed about his interference from earlier. His left eye is swollen and I smirk at the pain he will feel for stepping between me and what is mine. All my wolf wants is to hurt him again, but I need answers about Ellie and he seems to know, "What are you talking about?"

"Because of you, she had to flee this pack. She was forced on the run. If I hadn't found her when I did, she would have died. The rogues after her were relentless, plus she was running from you. All she wants is to be able to raise her daughter and you threatened that. She fled to escape you."

I was going to ask him why she fled in the first place, what I could have done to make her want to leave, but something he says makes me pause, "When you found her?" I growl out through gritted teeth.

He pales for a second when he realizes what he said. He knows he slipped up and tries to cover it, but he starts to shake slightly in fear as his wolf tenses from the anger radiating off of me.

"You've known where she was this entire time?" Sawyer spoke up.

"You've known where my mate was," I growl, "For seven years. I could have had her back by my side. For the last seven years, and you kept me from her."

He gulps loudly as my body shakes, my wolf completely at the surface, "It is my job to protect the Luna. The only way to protect her was to keep her as far from you as possible."

The second he says it, I lose all control over my wolf. Our rage fuels us as we toss Reid across the room. He hits the wall in the foyer before bending over. At least a few of his ribs must be broken, but I plan on breaking a lot more than those.

He lifts his head, coughing as he looks at me to continue explaining but my wolf doesn't care. He kept me from my mate, and neither my wolf nor I will forgive that.

"You rejected her then threatened to slaughter both her and Zea if she ever came back, Axton!" he growls at me.

I am shocked at his words that I falter in my steps, trying to push down my wolf in order to focus on why he would say that, "No I didn't."

"Yes you did, Axton," he pushes himself up the wall, holding his ribs tightly as he watches my every move, "You rejected her and your wolf broke the bond between hers. You destroyed the bond."

I could hear my wolf whimper and growl at the insinuation that he would ever do that to his mate, I didn't do that Axton. She is mine. I would never give her up.

I know that but why does he think that? I ask Knox.

"We never did that," I tell him.

He shakes his head at my refusal to admit to something I know I didn't do to Ellie. I love her. I would never hurt her. She knows that. She knows I wouldn't leave her and I certainly would not reject her.

"Whether you will admit it or not, it destroyed her. You destroyed her, Axton," he says just barely above a whisper.

Walker comes up next to me as I just stare at Reid, "Did you really know where she has been this entire time?"

Reid grunts before answering him, "Of course not. I found her on the last hunt I went on to track her down. She had been hurt pretty bad. A group of rogues were chasing her and you were chasing her," he nudges his head towards me as he continue, "She knew she couldn't go back to her old pack, so she went to Blue Moon. Her brother had been friends with Alpha Madden and she knew Layla, so she figured she could hide out there for a while. I didn't know she had stayed there."

"Why didn't you bring her back?" Sawyer asks.

"I did," my eyes immediately snap to his to see if he is lying but all I see is genuine truth behind his words, "I didn't believe what she said to be true. I had seen the amount of pain you had been in when she disappeared. I told her what you were like, that maybe something about that night wasn't what it had seemed. So, I talked her into coming back."

"She had been here? When?" Walker asks. I seem to be frozen from saying anything to him as Reid talks about Ellie. She had come back. She was here, so why didn't she stay?

"About six months after she left. We made it back to the border when we saw Axton."

"What?" I ask, shocked.

"You were in the woods with some rogue. You were telling him that he needed to find Ellie because you couldn't mate with someone else until your true mate is dead. We heard the entire conversation, Axton. I couldn't believe my ears when I heard you hiring rogues to murder your own mate."

I just stare at him, "I didn't do that. I thought rogues had taken her. All I have wanted since was to get her back."

"Well, you sure had an interesting way of showing it," he sneers.

I growl as I step closer to him, ready to beat him into a pulp but Walker grips my shoulder, "It isn't worth it."

"Yes it is," I tell him as I continue to glare daggers at Reid.

"No, he isn't," he pulls me back and attempts to talk sense into me, "I don't know what really happened, but he thought he was doing what he was born to do. He is the gamma. It is his job to protect Ellie and that is exactly what he did."

I could feel my wolf growling at me to still kill Reid, but I know Walker is right. He was doing his job as gamma. He doesn't deserve to die.

"Get him out of here," I motion to Walker and he picks Reid up and takes him to the infirmary with Sawyer behind him.

I stare at the wall as I take in the information Reid had shared. It explains why he came back from that last mission and did a complete one-eighty. He didn't want to look for Ellie and he had always been pissed at me. He thought I wanted her dead.

Reid is figured out, but what I can't understand is the events that took place. I never rejected Ellie, but she thinks I did. I never threatened Zea, but she thinks I did. I never hired rogues to kill her, yet she and Reid both saw me do it.

I don't understand what happened, Knox says to me.

I don't either, but we need to figure it out, I tell him.

Agreed, but how?

I don't know, but we do know one thing, I say.

What's that? He asks me.

I know I didn't do those things, that means someone else did, I pause before continuing, Which means someone wants our mate dead.