Rejected My Alpha Mate novel Chapter 1

####WARNING This story will contain: Strong Sexual Content, Strong Language and Scenes that may be triggering, Viewer discretion is advised.#########

"Get away from me!"

I kick at the three men trying to hold me down and flail my arms as hard as I can. My fingertips have become claws as I try to reach for my inner wolf to shift in self-defense. I only just had my eighteenth birthday a week before; I haven't gotten good at shifting on my own yet and it is nowhere close to night much less a full moon so instinct alone won't let me shift.

'Rayne?'

I try to get my wolf to wake up in my mind.

'Rayne? Wake up!' I try again to call her.

One of the men has my arms stretched over my head while the other two have got my legs. I struggle against them, but it's useless without my wolf coming to my aid. I'm too small to cause much damage. They have me beaten with numbers as well as size.

A fourth man steps into my view with a clear glass in his hand. It's full of some kind of dark-colored liquid -Wine? Surely not blood!- and I can smell it from across the room. Its bitter odor stings my nose. I feel tears welling up in my eyes and I hate myself for them.

What good is crying going to do me?

"You do have spirit! I like that in a girl. Now drink this. Trust me: you'll like me better after some of our magic potion."

I don't know what he means. I do know I don't want whatever he has in the glass.

All my intentions to keep my mouth shut, to spit it out, to refuse to swallow, go away as he cruelly pinches my nose shut, cutting off my air.

I hold out as long as I can until my head aches and lights are flashing in my eyes from lack of oxygen.

The moment I open my mouth to take in a breath he is pouring the liquid between my lips, flooding my mouth, filling my throat, choking me. I gag and gasp and grunt to try to get air while getting rid of the rusty-tasting concoction.

"That's a good girl! Give it a few minutes. Everything will seem so much better."

I try to free myself from the hold of the men. It's still useless. I'm getting so hot. Why is it getting so hot?

I remember I was on my way home from school. I was grabbed off the sidewalk and thrown into the back of a white van.

"Your daddy wasn't lying when he said you had a lot of fight in you. He owes me a considerable amount. Depending on how tonight goes? I just might even let him have credit left over to hit the tables again. It isn't as if he'll pose much of a threat to the house. I doubt he could win if we rigged every game in his favor."

I want to scream when his hands move up my legs to raise my uniform skirt. I try to shout for help, but my tongue is thick and useless in my mouth. I can barely move my limbs as heat seems to be racing through my body spreading out from my stomach making me pant.

"That's a good girl," he mutters as his hands grasp my panties, dragging them down my thighs while I scream at the nothingness in my mind where my wolf usually waits, "You just lie there. I'll take care of you. I'll give you what you need."

Sweat has beaded on my brow. I know I've been drugged. What was in the cup? What did I drink?

A thick finger forces its way inside me and I struggle anew at the invasion.

"Nnnn---"

I keep trying to say 'no' even though I'm pretty sure it's useless. No one in this room is interested in what I have to say.

"Un-fucking-believable. She's pure."

I have no idea what he means. I've only dated one boy before and all we'd done was kiss even though we were in love. I am saving myself for my mate.

Luckily the handle is easy to press down and the door swings open to let me sprint out into the hallway. My paws skid on the slick floor, sliding me into the opposite wall where my head strikes another door hard enough to make me dizzy.

I can hear the men in the room scrambling to come after me. They might catch me if I don't keep running. I can barely hold onto my connection with Rayne as my blood boils in my veins; I can tell my wolf wants nothing more than to bite, claw, tear the men chasing us.

I push my body to race down the hallway. I stretch myself out with every leap to cover as much ground as possible. I have never run so fast before.

A maid comes out of a room with her arms full of linens. She walks to her cart and I can see the door to the room she's left out of is still cracked open.

I don't think about the consequences or what could be waiting on the other side of the door. I just push my body through the crack and kick with my back legs to close it behind me.

The poison in my system cut my connection to Rayne, forcing me to release control of my wolf form and shifting me back into my human body as I lay panting on the floor of this strange room.

"I agreed to maid service. I'm not sure what service you're supposed to offer, but I know I didn't ask for it."

I look around the room until I see a man standing in a hallway in nothing more than a low-slung towel about his middle. He is tall, even by werewolf standards, and broad in the shoulders. His dark hair curls around his forehead, his ears, down his neck; he looks as if he hasn't been to a barber in far too long. His blue eyes meet mine and I lose all concept of time or place.

"Who are you?"

I heard him ask the question even as the men chasing me began to bang on his door, demanding to be let in to retrieve me.

I'm tired. I'm confused. I'm burning from the inside out from their drugs and I'm naked on a stranger's floor because my own father sold me to pay his debts to his bookie.

Feeling hot tears leaking down my face, I manage to rasp out, "Please. Help me?"