His Blind Mate

Chapter 23 No Loose Ends

Kyhan

The smell of coffee wafted in the air. Sleep had me in its clutches, fighting for me to give in to its embrace. I tiredly reached for the cup Raphael handed me then took a sip of the burning liquid, letting its bitter taste wake my senses. The howls and wails had reduced to sobs, but everybody in the pack was awake by now, awaiting my orders. I kept my link with them open, letting their pain and sorrows go through me.

At around three in the morning, we’d lost all of the kidnapped gammas. For the last three days, our bond with them had weakened to the point that we couldn’t feel anything from them. Then the overbearing pain of having the bond severed shook me awake and everyone else in the pack. Their links to me stretched so thinly, the suffocating pain of their sufferings rushed through the bond, and within seconds, the links snapped, leaving behind an odd hollowness.

Their families were demanding to see me, but until the nurses came out of the emergency room to report on the condition of the one victim they let go, I wasn’t going anywhere. We had no bodies to bury, only empty graves to grieve upon. We were too late to save them. I … was too incompetent to save them. Until now, I had not the slightest clue as to where they were taken, and only theories on what their motives were.

“He’ll be fine, Alpha,” said Raphael, pulling me out of my thoughts.

“Do you really believe that?”

He slumped on the chair beside me and sighed. We were waiting right outside the double doors, hoping the news would be positive. Yula was with them. They had to save him. It was right around four when his sister asked for me to come to the clinic right away. They managed to keep him alive for almost a week now; he had to live.

“I have to.”

“Who’s in charge of their funeral?”

“Rose and Peter,” he answered. “We should have the service this afternoon.”

I leaned back on the small chair and sipped my coffee. I kept my link with the pack open since this morning, letting their grief and pain known to me. I couldn’t afford to lose my head right now to my wolf. We had to think this through, but this is what I’d been doing all this time and nothing!

A nudge to my right jolted me out of my thoughts. I snapped my head up at Raph. “What?”

“Your eyes were changing.” He shrugged.

I sighed as I buried my face on my free hand. None. The anger vanished like it had never been there and my thoughts were silenced. “Sorry,” I muttered.

“Have you told Luan about it?”

“No.” I drank the rest of my coffee in silence. Raph seemed to get the hint that I didn’t want to talk about it. When we were done, he offered to dispose them.

What would she think of me if she knew about my wolf? Only her brothers and Raph knew about him and when I showed them, Kai almost killed them off for disturbing his sleep. They accepted me right away and helped me keep him at bay – warning me when they noticed the changes and keeping me in chains when I felt like he was trying to get out again. Will it scare her? Change her opinion of me? I don’t want her to fear me just as my Mom did when I lost control of my anger and lashed out at her. I don’t want her to leave me.

“You shouldn’t leave her alone at the cabin,” Raph commented, sitting back down beside me. After our first night together, I had to spend the next three nights back at the packhouse. Work kept me occupied, but I checked in on her from time to time. She seemed fine with the arrangement. There were no complains. She’d also began training with my gammas, though only when Raph was in charge.

It wasn’t easy to be apart when she was within reach. However, I was afraid of losing control to Kai. He’d been demanding me to mate and mark her when this was Luan’s choice and not his instinctual needs.

“She stayed for you,” he added, and a surge of guilt pierced my heart.

“She’ll leave if Kai takes control,” I said dryly. Although Kai had been behaving himself lately, I knew that it was only because her heat would be soon. He was waiting for that opportunity to finally have an excuse for claiming her. Goddess, help me not to give in. I heard it was difficult for males to let their mates go through their heat alone. It was unheard of for males to avoid their mates during that time as there was also a high probability that their mate would get pregnant.

Just thinking about what we could be annoyed me.

“At least let her know. She’s your mate. You should trust her.”

Before I could digest his words, a sharp pain wracked through me. I slumped over in my chair and when I glanced at Raph, he was groaning on his side. No. I forced myself to stand to go to the last gamma, our one last clue, but my legs gave away when our link began to stretch itself. A scream tore through my throat as it snapped. I slumped forward on the cold floor. Pained howls rang in the distance. What now? He was our last chance at taking a crack at this case. Now we had nothing and we couldn’t even avenge them. The vampires wanted my mate. With nothing to go on, how could I wipe them off the face of this world before they make another move on her? I had to keep her safe. I must keep her safe; I’m her mate.

Hearing a grunt behind me, I picked myself up from the floor just in time to see Raph run out of the hospital. His howl joined in the chorus seconds later. My pack was grieving. I could feel Kai lurking in my head, angered by the death of his subordinates.

The gamma’s death had certified the danger they were all in. If I was my dad, I’d chase my mate out of my territory to keep the pack safe. But I was different. I didn’t have to choose because there was only one option: to protect what is mine. I am both an Alpha and a mate. This dilemma falls right into my duties to them.

A crying she-wolf in a nurse’s uniform made her way to me. “Alpha,” she croaked when she was an arm’s length from me, her inky hair falling like a curtain around her face. She was his younger sister.

“I’m sorry,” I said, looking away from her.

“Don’t apologize to me, find whoever did this to him and kill them!” she shouted. Normally, they didn’t raise their voice at the Alpha. Had she known how Kai was seething at her disrespect, she would’ve held back. She lowered her head, fists to her sides. “Please,” she said weakly. “You’re our Alpha.”

I gave her a curt nod before leaving. ‘You’re our Alpha’. For her to place her faith in me even after this failure brought life back into me. This wasn’t a time for me to lose hope and crumble. I had to stay strong for all of them in order to protect them.

And the first thing I had to do was convince my mate. I needed her. We all needed her.

XXX