Queen, Alpha, Mate

Chapter 16

Diana POV

As I see the wolves surrounding our car, I panic. We're stuck here! I yank at my seatbelt, but I can't get it to open. I look at Josh next to me and his eyes have turned a shade of pine green. Josh is not there anymore, this is Rhys I'm dealing with now.

"Rogues." he warns us.

In the front, Daniel has reached for a knife in his boot and is cutting open his seatbelt, he then cuts open Katie's before tossing the knife to Rhys who frees himself and me.

"Stay in the car!" He says to me, his eyes piercing mine. I nod. He punches through the back window, crawls out of the car and shifts. His wolf is magnificent and I am in awe. His wolf is golden brown and he almost seems to reflect the sunlight. His pine green eyes are focused on the enemy. Daniel and Katie quickly follow his example, punching out their windows, crawling out of the car and shifting. Daniel's wolf is black and white and of course I recognize Katie's brown wolf. They're all magnificent. From what I can see, they're a lot larger than the rogue wolves that are swiftly approaching the car. The rogue wolves outnumber them though. Silently, I curse to myself. Why can't I shift yet? I need to help my mate! My mate is in trouble and I can't do a thing. I crawl into the middle of the car, where it is hardest to reach me. I mind link my mate. "Be safe, my love. Come back to me." a loving image shoots across the link before it is cut off. The battle begins.

Rhys POV

No matter what, I must protect my mate, my Luna, my queen. She may not me harmed. I shoot this message across the mind link to Daniel too. I look at Katie's wolf, she seems to be just as determined as I am. I count the rogues. There are at least twelve of them, meaning we each have to take four of them. It doesn't add up though, I smell thirteen rogues. Where is the last one?

Since we already entered my lands, I can mind link my pack. I tell my gamma to come with reinforcements asap and that we're under attack. I glance at my mate in the car. Love for her flows through me and drives me forward. I snarl and crash into the first rogue. His head comes clean off. The remains of the rogue fall to the ground abruptly, his face contorted in a surprised expression. The rogues growl and two more launch themselves at me. I see Daniel and Katie have each taken on two of the rogue wolves as well. Over half of them are remaining though. What are they waiting for?

I easily tear through the two rogues launching at me, though one of them managed to bite me in the leg. That's going to hurt for a bit. Meanwhile, Katie and Daniel have also torn through their opponents. It's almost as though they're not even trying to beat us.

Another rogue launches himself at me. This one is different from the others, stronger. He manages to headbutt me in the ribs, sending me flying into a tree. Luckily, he'll need more than that to defeat me. He stands on his hind legs, ready to strike me with his claw, but I manage to dodge him and bite him in his side. The rogue whimpers and loses his balance. This is the only opening I need as I finish him off.

'Alpha, we're close', I hear my gamma say through the mind link. 'Hurry up!' I respond. Daniel and Katie are still in battle, but I need to check on my mate. I open the mind link back up. The first and only thing I hear is 'Help!'.

Panic strikes as I sprint towards the car and find my mate is not there.

Diana POV

The battle begins and I'm watching anxiously as my friends and the rogues clash. I'm focused on my mate staying alive, I need him to stay alive. His first two enemies are down. There aren't many left now.

Suddenly, the smell of rotten eggs enters my nose and I gag. I turn around, but too late. Someone shoves a strange smelling cloth in my face and though I fight it, I feel myself lose consciousness.

When I come too, I'm slung over the shoulder of a big, burly man. I can't move. Wolfsbane, I realize, they must have given me wolfsbane. I try to stay very still, so maybe they won't realize I'm awake. The burly man walks toward a small cabin and when he reaches it, he plops my down in one of the chairs. I still can't move and he ties me down to one of them.

"Awake, are we?" he says, and turns around with a yellow grin on his face. He brings his face close to mine and smell makes me gag.

"Oh, we're going to have fun with you, princess." He barks a laugh.

Two other rogues enter the cabin. They address the the big, burly one. "Catch of the day?" one of them asks. The other one adds "and what a catch she is! Is that our beloved princess?" he says mockingly as he takes my chin in his grimy hand. "Has the poor little princess been caught by the big, bad wolves?" He says with a fake pout.

I still can't move, but if I could, he wouldn't have gotten to finish that sentence. They stay and talk amongst themselves for a while, talking about what a pretty price they can get for a princess the Hellscape territory. Great, they want to sell me.

After what feels like hours, but was probably minutes, I feel the wolfsbane's effect lessen. I still can't move, but I can feel the mating bond between Joshua and myself again. I start yelling through the mating bond only one word. 'Help!'

After several minutes I hear a reply, not from Joshua, but from Katie. 'Diana, where are you?'

'I don't know, somewhere in a cabin, it can't be far from where you are. There's three of them. They want to sell me. I need you to come quickly.'

'Your mate is frantic over here, we'll be there soon!'

I mindlink Joshua. 'Find me' I tell him, 'Katie has the description of where I am.'

'I love you' He links back.

"Hey! Who do you think you're talking to?" One of the rogues says. He must have seen my eyes glaze over. Not a moment later the cloth covers my mouth again and I feel myself slip into oblivion.

When I come to, I'm in a strange car, with a man I don't know. At least the rogue smell is gone. I feel a sharp sting in my abdomen and when I look down, I see my stomach is cut open. I look up to see Joshua's worried face telling me that it's all going to be okay. It's the last I hear before I slip back out of consciousness.

Joshua POV

I run like hell. Cabin, cabin, cabin, do I know anything about a cabin? As I run, I sense my gamma approaching. His big, black wolf joins Daniel, Katie and I in our sprint through the forest. I ask him if he knows the location of any cabins nearby. He says he does and sprints off to the East. We follow him. I can smell my mate's scent and it's becoming stronger. We must be going in the right direction!

As we get closer, I can see them hauling my mate's limp body out of the cabin and into a waiting car. When they see us approach, I hear them curse loudly. I don't care. I see red, they hurt my mate.

As we approach them, one hauls Diana's body out of the car again and holds a knife to her throat. "Come any closer and she's a goner." He threatens. I back off and keep his focus on myself by warning him that he'll never get out of here alive if he even harms a single hair on my love's head. It's a good thing he didn't count on Katie sneaking up behind him and lunging at him, knocking him off his feet. Fortunately, she manages to free Diana from his grip. Unfortunately, he manages to fling his knife at Diana, hitting her square in the stomach. To say we made short work of these rogues after this is an understatement.

My eye falls on my mate, who is bleeding profusely and is starting to lose all colour in her face. I carefully pick her up and tell my gamma to get us to the pack doctor. I tell Daniel and Katie to check the perimeter to make sure we're not being followed by rogues. In the car, I'm stroking my mate's hair, placing kisses on her face and praying to the goddess that she survives. I wouldn't know what to do without her.

We get to the pack house as fast as wel can and she is rushed into the ER for emergency surgery. You wouldn't believe my relieve when they told me she was stable, but would probably need to recover for a few days. I tell him to keep the room locked and only let me, Daniel, Katie, or my gamma, Alex, in.

"Please, my princess, come back to me soon!" I say and kiss her forehead. "Come back to me", I beg as I feel a tear stream down my face.

The next few days will be torture. I don't want to leave her alone, but I have to go see my parents to let them know what happened.