The GateKidnapped by the Alpha

Elena crossed the front courtyard under broken cloud and thin sun, heading for the private drive. The household sent every request to the Alpha, but the gate had a guard, and a guard could answer yes or no for himself. She went over the sentence as she walked. Open the gate, please. Plain enough that nobody could misunderstand it and polite enough that nobody could object. The drive stretched through quiet parkland between mature trees. She counted the minutes, but still she was walking. The loose house sandals slipped at her heels, and the brisk wind found her bare toes, so she pulled the grey coat closed with one hand. It was a long way from the house to the gate on foot. Worth knowing for later. The iron gate was shut. Beyond its bars lay the public road, where cars passed in both directions, while the estate wall ran away into the trees on either side. Those drivers were ordinary people going about their afternoon, only a few steps away. The guard came out of the stone gatehouse with a walkie-talkie at his belt. He approached her smiling, and Elena waited until he reached her. "Open the gate, please," she said. "Of course, Luna. I'll call up to the house and have them send a car and driver, and somebody to go with you for your safety," the guard said. "I'd rather walk," Elena said. "That's fine. I'll call someone down from the house to walk with you, so you aren't out on your own." His smile had not changed. "Could I use a phone?" "There aren't any phones at the gate, ma'am. We only have walkie-talkies. The phones are up at the house." There it was again: the house first, and then the Alpha. Elena looked through the bars at another car passing on the road. She had come all this way for one question, and it was not about a driver or a walk. It was whether she was a prisoner here. "Am I allowed to leave?" The guard’s eyebrows lifted, and for a moment he looked almost surprised. "Of course, Luna. I'll get in touch with someone up at the house, and they can ask the Alpha who's to go with you. The Alpha didn't leave any instructions." "You don't need the Alpha's instructions. It's fine. I can leave. I'm allowed to leave." "Ma'am, for your safety. Give me two minutes. I'll get someone down here." Still courteous, he reached for the walkie-talkie at his belt. Two minutes, and the house would know, and after the house came the Alpha. "No. Don't worry about it. It's fine." His hand stopped. Elena remained at the gate and watched the cars pass, each appearing between the bars and vanishing again. Over the wall, then. It disappeared among the trees in both directions, and from her window that morning she had seen the lawn running down to the water, with more trees beyond it. Woods or water every way she had looked. So the woods, where the wall went into them and whatever lay on the other side. She turned her back on the shut gate and started up the long private drive toward the house, her sandals slipping at her heels again. So not the gate.