The Alpha's Tortured Mate

Oh No!

“Son, why don’t you go to bed? There is not much more you can do tonight, and you are falling asleep at your desk... I can take over and inform you in the morning of where I got to.”

I looked up to see my father’s worried eyes. Since Marie called, I have been in-between calls with our scouts, Pi is, and the King. “Let me finish up this paperwork, and then I guess I will step away for a little while to rest.”

I wrote out a few reports about budget cuts and when our next warrior meeting will be and stacked the papers in the file folder on my desk, so I could look at them tomorrow. I sometimes make wrong reports when I am sleepy, but my mind will not shut off. I was about to stand at my desk when the line rang.

“Riverside--”

“Yes, I am sorry to interrupt your sentence, but is Alpha Mathew there? This is especially important, and I cannot stay on the call long. I cannot chance anyone hearing me.”

“This is Alpha Matthews' son, Alpha Keane. Alpha Matthew is also in the room. I will put you on speaker.”

“Alpha Matthew speaking.”

“Alpha, this is Fredrick the pack doctor from The Crescent Moon pack. Terri gave me your number years ago because if I ever needed something, and he was not around to help me and there was no one else to trust, I could trust you. I do not trust anyone else with the information, I could trust you.”

“Yes, Fredrick, I remember you. Terri spoke highly of you. What can my son and I help you with?”

“I need to report something to the king, but I know the Alpha is watching me. I do not know if you are aware of the attack that happened on our packlands or not, but it injured--”

“Yes, Marie called earlier today and let us know what is wrong?”

“The young lady who was injured, I do not know if Terri looped you in on her, but I do not have the time to give you all the information. She had years' worth of Wolfsbane running through her veins. I finally ran enough iv through her system that I got the majority of it out, and she is now awake and healing. Alpha. It was no accident that she was being poisoned, but I know this girl very well. Her name is Oakley, and her father was—I must go, but tell the king her accident and the Alphas' death were very fishy.”

“Will do--”

“Bye Mom, I love you. Don’t forget to pray to the goddess for a speedy recovery and I will be there soon.”

The line was cut abruptly, and I just stared at my father as he stared back at me.

“Who is Terri's dad?”

“Nolan and Niguel's father, he is Alpha Quitons Head warrior... You know, come to think of it, I have not received a letter from him in months. We normally send a hawk once a month to address things within the pack. Terri’s wife was originally from your grandfather’s pack, me and he created a bond as your mother's sister is mated to his cousin, so we always saw each other in passing.”

“I remember him. He was the main instructor at the Palace, he was well-trained. No one could take him and his sons. He has taught his pack. The She-Wolf—Oakley was in the top tier, and now I know why if she has Terri as a trainer.”

“Do not forget she also knows Nolan and Niguel. If they were undefeatable at 14-15 imagine now. No wonder our wolves were taken out... I will have to send him a letter and ask if he would be willing to send one of his sons to help train our warriors if our pack and Crescent are undefeatable, the rogues will not approach.”

I growled, “I need to get in, so I can see her and steal her heart away from Nolan.”

“Let me at him, we are a lot stronger now!” Lennox was chomping his jaws at my head.

“Lennox, we will get our girl, I promise you.”

I looked at the clock on the wall, 3:00am, “Should we wait to call the king's advisors in the morning?”

“Son, go to bed. We will reconvene in the morning and go from there.”

I stood at my desk, I clasped my dad on the back, “Goodnight dad.”

“Goodnight son. The news we got might not have been what we wanted to hear, but at least we know she is going to recover.”

I bowed my head to him and walked to the door. When I pulled the door open, Olivia was approaching the door to knock. Her eyes looked shocked at first, then turned into a smirk, “Good Evening, Alpha. I was coming to see if you needed anything.” Her lips turned into a cheeky grin, and she winked at me, “UGH! You should never have let her sleep with you! I told you not to think that she was going to get big-headed and think she reserved the right to accompany you whenever she wanted! OMG, we found our mate... Mate is pure, we are not.”

I gulped, “No need Olivia. I am off to bed. You should do the same.” Her cheeky grin faltered, and I swore I saw furry in her eyes, but it was only for a moment, so I could have been mistaken, “If you need anything Alpha, I'm only a call away.” She turned and left just as quickly as she came. A shiver ran down my spine, one moment of weakness, and now it could ruin me. Lennox whimpered in my head, “Will mate turn us away for your party days? I tried to get you to stop... You were hell-bent. You did not have a mate... I knew the goddess had not cursed us.” Before I could answer, Lennox sulked to the back of my mind and put up a block. I cursed myself. It was a moment of weakness and alcohol. I should never have let myself get mixed up with other she wolves. I sulked in my room. The images were floating through my mind, her looking at me in my head over and over, I could not get her out of my head. Her moves, her freckles, her curves... She was beautiful, incredible... Those little moans I got out of her when I licked her back made me wonder what my tongue would feel like on her. I stopped myself, I could not get attached, she could reject me for my stupidity of messing with a lot of She-Wolves. I headed for the shower. A cold shower would help ease my mind. I can explain to her... I just did not want to think about it. I took a shower, got on my PJ’s and climbed into bed. The clock read 4:00am, “Let’s just hope we can sleep longer than a few hours tonight”. I was greeted by silence, and I knew Lennox was upset, and I should have listened to him.

Someone burst through my chamber door, “Alpha, come quick!” “Alpha, it’s urgent!” “I am sorry Alpha, I promise I knocked for 5 minutes before barging in. It is important, please come quick!”

I jumped to my feet and threw on some jeans, a maroon Hentley, and a blazer with my boots, so I looked professional yet casual. I grabbed my black felt Stetson and followed the upset gamma warrior. As I followed him through the halls of our packhouse I noticed a unique scent I had not recognized as one of our own but smelled a tiny bit like Oakley. It put me on alert and Lennox came to the front of my mind. We rushed past the gamma following the smell. The smell was coming from my office. I jerked the door open and met my father and Mother’s eyes. I glanced around the room and noticed Maddox, Anthony and a woman with a baby on her lap. She had dried blood on her clothes and scratches across her face and neck.

“Ma’am, this is my son, Alpha Keane, he has taken over my spot as Alpha. Son. So this is Abaigail Carter, Fredrick’s wife.”

At the mention my eyebrows shot up, I looked at my father, and he had a killing intent look in his eyes, “Good morning, ma’am. I'm sure you being her does not mean good circumstances.”

“N-no Alpha, the—these are not good--” she stared, bawling... “I--I’m so sorry A-Alpha I just--”

My mother walked over to comfort her, “Her mate was brutally killed in the pack's clinic. Supposedly, rogues came to finish the job of killing Ms. Waters and Fredrick barricaded her door and gave his life for hers. Mrs. Carter felt the pain and went to the clinic and by the time she reached the clinic he was mauled, and the door was busted open, and Ms. Water was taken. The rogues have asked that Alpha Cohen release one of their prisoners, a young girl who they found in the woods a few weeks ago, but Cohen told them to keep her...”

Fur sprouted on my arms, and it took everything in me to keep Lennox from shifting right there, “What does this mean?” I was seething, and I needed to keep myself in check.

“She is trusted, so we can talk in front of her son. She may not know as much as the internal group, but she has always been there for us. We all know--” Derrick walked in the room, “My apologies. Alpha’s training ran over this morning as two boys lost control of their wolves and tore each other up on the lawn.” He bowed his head and sulked to the corner. My Alpha arura is pushing through... “Derrick thank you for letting us know, as I was saying... We all know you all were rogues yesterday. ‘I heard low grunts from behind me’ So this means rogues caused this brutality and as Ms. Carter says Oakley is not 100% yet, nor is she 100%. I will call an emergency meeting with the council to see if Cohen will not do it in his own regard if they can make him do the swap.”

“Mathew, she has been gone; 6 hours they could be anywhere by now. Cohen had already told them not to keep her... Which is outrageous to me, there is a warrior locked in the cells for losing his head to Cohen. He asked Cohen why he would not make the trade, ‘You have already made her life miserable enough, don't you think you owe her something?’ Quintion was always talking about her. It was weird. Cohen and Kylie hated her and never liked her, but Quintion was weird... If only her father had been here and knew.”

I growled, “why did their warrior care so much?”

“He is her brother. Well, he is like her brother, he was best friends with her brothers, so they call each other siblings. His name is Axel... Her brothers--”

Someone barged through the door, “Alpha, there are rogues in the meadow. They have a girl... She is covered in blood and is screaming at them to let her go.”

I looked at my father, “GO! I will call the committee and tell them what is happening.”

I wasted no time; I ran out of the packhouse. I barely got through the door before Lennox took over my body and was rushing towards the meadow. The images floating through my brain were pushing him in overdrive. We know she is a good fighter, even caught off guard and with years of wolfsbane in her system, but she lost a lot of blood and was not even 25% of being healed. Lennox blurted, “She needs us. We have to get there”. I opened the link to all my warriors, urging them to the meadow where rogues were residing. They all responded letting me know they were headed that way. Just as I went to respond, I heard a heart-crushing scream and Lennox pushed double time to get to her. “Just hold on baby we are coming for you, I promise.”