With a single large hand wrapped around my bruised and battered arm Matteo hauled my struggling form off of the stage and through the closest exit. Once we were out of the view of prying eyes he immediately shoved me up against the nearest gum covered wall...Right next to a dumpster.

"I will never belong to you, I will never be your mate and I will never forgive you for what you've done here." I spat out furiously upon impact with the aforementioned gross ass wall, I made sure to get my point across before he could say anything. Matteo's eyes were quickly shifting darker the more and more I continued to speak and I swear I could see a fang popping out.

Besides the fact that I could never be his mate considering I was yet to make contact with my wolf. I suppose arguing over it all was null because I could never reciprocate the bond; But I was just that repulsed with the idea, I had to start sh:t.

Matteo's hand suddenly slammed into the wall directly beside my head, tiny pieces of brick and possibly gum crumbling and falling onto my shoulder. "I am the most powerful alpha on this side of the hemisphere, maybe even the world someday, we'll have to see. But, you on the other hand, you are the exact opposite of what I'm destined to be with. You think that I want this, that I want you as a mate? You are weak, you clearly lack intelligence, you are stupidly loud, you don't come from a formidable pack and I could keep going...I mean, look at yourself."

Humiliated, furious and disgusted were just a few of the colorful choice feelings I was currently experiencing after hearing Matteo's lovely speech. I wanted to reach up right then and there and smack him across his chiseled features but my body was literally giving out before my eyes. Like, honestly, I don't even know how I was still standing at this point.

"Look at yourself." I think that became evident to Matteo as he repeated himself just as my knees began to waver on the verge of giving out. He moved his hand down from the wall and gripped the shoulder of my shirt hoisting me up. This time when he spoke, it actually sounded slightly concerned and way less judge-y.

I watched as Matteo's dark eyebrows furrowed together almost impatiently as he took in my piteous state. His eyes slowly returned back to their equally unnerving amber color. "You're injured."

No sh:t, Sherlock.

"I am? I hadn't noticed." I breathed out, my voice was hollow and humorless. I leaned my head back against the brick wall in an attempt to create as much distance between his impossibly close body.

Just as quickly as Matteo seemed minutely interested in my wellbeing, he pushed away from me with a growl leaving me to support myself alone. "Your attitude is going to get you killed." He stated bluntly with his back turned away from me.

I scoffed, rolling my eyes. "Yeah, well, you would have an attitude too if you were tortured for three hours straight in front of a pervy audience. So, fingers crossed!"

Matteo suddenly stared at me with a bland and rather unamused expression across his brooding features. "And this is my fault, how?"

I waited for Matteo to bust out laughing or something because I was certain his question was not meant to be taken seriously but the painful awkward silence that settled upon us said otherwise.

"Literally all of this is your fault, everything here! They are your pack and your men, following your orders, therefore your fault." And he thought I was the stupid one, I pushed myself off of the brick wall and moved to start walking down the alleyway to get away from Matteo and get off of this campus.

Matteo lazily side stepped in front of me, blocking my retreat. "You could have just shifted, it would've saved you from well...All of that." He gestured up and down my battered body with a condescending flicker of his eyes. Insinuating that I was to blame again.

Immediately my entire body tensed up at the mention of shifting. As if I wasn't already traumatized enough by my own pack emotional torture in regards to my wolf problems, Matteo's monsters certainly managed to do the job and round me out with some physical torture.

His keen eyes easily picked up on my discomfort as he took a menacing step towards me, "So, tell me then, why didn't you shift, pup?" Matteo's lips formed into a creepy pseudo smile as he watched me nervously back away with every step he took towards me.

The minute Matteo found out that I couldn't shift, I knew I would be a goner. This would provide him an easy excuse to off me and continue on with his day of slaughtering and conquering my pack.

"You definitely aren't the type to stand up to authority, you weren't not shifting as an act of defiance towards me which means there has to be something else. You can clearly take a beating which means that this isn't the first time this has happened to you..."

Sh:t. He's reading me like a book.

My foot caught on the heel of my other foot as I skirted away from Matteo and his prying questions causing me to land hard on my ass. Just as Matteo would have been upon me, the side door burst open. Both Matteo and I jerked our heads to see what the urgent intrusion was, I was quite grateful for the diversion whereas Matteo seemed about ready to rip off the head of whoever stepped through the door.

A long, messy blonde haired girl was shoved through the frame first and was followed by a large wolf who grasped her by the scruff of her neck. "Alpha, this one says she has crucial information that you need to know."

Matteo raised his eyebrows sardonically, "Does she?" He mused, clearly not interested in what he saw, no doubt, to be a last ditched effort to survive.

The girl cleared her throat pushed her hair out of her face and stepped forward to address Matteo. Tiffany. Standing there with a black eye and that same b:tchy little face was Tiffany. "I have things that you need to know but for a price."

The wolf holding Tiffany clearly wasn't anticipating her turning this into a bargaining chip, he went pale in the face as he nervously looked from Tiffany back to his alpha. Matteo narrowed his eyes and turned completely away from me, stepping towards her proud form.

"What information could you possibly have to give me that I so need to know about?" He bit out with a cruel sarcastic edge to his tone.

Out of all of my years of experience being harassed by Tiffany, not once have I ever witnessed her frightened. That was my job, her's was to be the haughty b:tch that owned the earth but as Matteo came to a stop before her, I got to watch Tiffany actually cower. Her once cocky demeanor vanished before the Alpha of the Malice pack and was replaced by an almost tangible fear that even I could sense from my spot on the floor.

I'm sure if the circumstances were different I would have found the scene to be quite amusing. But they weren't. So, instead of cackling wildly or documenting the historic moment, I sat frozen to my spot wondering what kind of information she had access to that she could use as a bargaining chip to freedom.

"It's about Olive, the one you claimed on the stage, your mate." Tiffany's cerulean eyes darted in my direction maliciously taunting me from afar aaanndd she's back. "But I need to know that I will not be harmed anymore before I tell you anything."

F:ck, I knew where this was going.

He ran his hand across his jaw, turning towards me with a chuckle resonating from his chest. "Olive?" Hearing my name on his lips made me sick and hearing him laugh about my name made me angry, it was great. He obviously must have missed the beginning of my public torture session.

Matteo's quiet laughter resolved but the smile on his features remained as he returned to address Tiffany, "Alright, you've piqued my interest. You have yourself a deal, no more harm will come to you, you have my word."

Tiffany let out a sigh of relief upon hearing Matteo agree to her terms, she flicked her hair behind her shoulder obviously quite proud of herself. "Olive didn't shift in front of everyone because she doesn't have a wolf, she's not able to shift! She can't heal like us, she isn't as fast and she is weaker than most humans I've come across. She's a lame werewolf, a pathetic excuse of a member of our pack." She was breathing heavy after her rapid expulsion of information, looking up at Matteo expectantly.

I felt my stomach drop instantly. It was all out in the open now and Matteo was left to process the information Tiffany had just unloaded on him. He didn't even spare another glance at Tiffany, instead he looked over her snobbish figure directly speaking to his man. "Take her away with the others."

Her crystal blue eyes marred with terror, "We had a deal! I was to go free, you weren't going to hurt me anymore, you can't do this!" Tiffany's voice was shrill as she was dragged backwards back into the auditorium.

"I'm a man of my word. You asked for no harm to come of you so, from this point on, no one will hurt you." Matteo leaned in the door frame, savoring the scene before him. "You didn't however put in anything in our little contract about freedom, dear."

With that, Matteo slammed the door shut on Tiffany's bizarre blend of screaming and sobbing. And with the resounding sound of the door I felt my heart rate pick up rapidly in my chest as Matteo pivoted on his heel and faced me again.

Unlike earlier where his eyes were simply considerably darker, Matteo's were full on black now and his entire body was so stiff. It appeared like it was taking everything in his power to not lose control and shift before me to rip my face off right then and there.

He stalked over to me and this time instead of scrambling away on my hands and knees, I sat motionless watching his advance. Matteo reached down and grabbed my face roughly in his large hand, jerking me forwards and capturing my attention. His voice was deadly low and his grip on my jaw was beginning to become painful, "What did she mean about you not having a wolf?" Matteo grit out, each syllable coming out like venom.

He knew the answer as well as I did, I was wolf-less and as good as dead to him. There was no way an alpha, let alone the alpha of the most fearsome packs to ever exist would take me as a mate or even a prisoner really. So, I did the only logical thing a person would do in my situation...

I hocked another loogie and spat it right in Matteo's face.