Beyond Fate

Crime

(Nathan pov)

I watched from the doorway of the hospital entrance as our new Alpha stood there allowing Johnny to lay into him. Not that I didn’t think it was justified but I couldn’t believe Mitchell was just standing around taking it. He hadn’t tolerated Johnny's behaviour towards me on the night of the rogue attack even though he had been angry with me. So why would he just stand there while Johnny punched him relentlessly in the face.

The only thing I could think of was that somehow Mitchell must have found out the truth of Rose’s attack. I knew that the only copy of the original statements had been destroyed years ago. It wasn’t my finest moment and I had my own selfish reasons for taking that file. Alpha Felix hadn’t cared when I’d asked for it; he only asked I never showed it to anyone else.

I watched the scene in front of me. Johnny had Mitchell pinned down but Mitchell didn’t seem to have any intentions of fighting back, if he had Johnny wouldn’t have stood a chance. He just lay there on the floor while Johnny crouched over him laying hit after hit. Mr and Mrs Clayton were trying to pull their son from our alpha unsuccessfully, which made me wonder if they were only appearing to try.

I stared daggers at the old man’s back, the asshole still thought he was Beta playing by his own f*****g rules. I could have had him thrown in the dungeon for his little trick the other day. The old dog was still so loyal to his daughter I didn’t blame him for that but I couldn’t just let the old boy disrespect me. I was Beta now and he’d needed to be taught a lesson. I hadn’t wanted to hurt Alisha but Kelly told me it was the only way to hurt Clayton, we both knew I couldn’t win if he challenged me in a fight so I had to let him know if he didn’t fall into line with the rest of the pack it was his children that would suffer for his actions. And she was right, the plan seemed to be working. Clayton hadn’t been causing any trouble; he hadn't even tried to approach our new alpha about his treatment of Alisha; everything seemed to be falling into place nicely.

Then this attack on Alisha had happened and suddenly Mitchell was singing a different tune about her and from the way Mitchell seemed to be reacting to me I could tell he wasn’t going to be as easily manipulated as his old man. I was going to have to be more stealthy with my dealings from now on. I hadn’t thought for a second he would question me about where I’d reassigned Alisha for work. I hadn’t planned to send her to work the harvest. I’d wanted her close to me back in the pack house, maybe as one of the cleaners then I would have her in my arms again soon enough. I was sure of it, my plan for us could work but I’d been feeling my mate pulling away from me for some time now. My wolf scolded me for it everyday, that I went home to Kelly and not Alisha. He was going crazy without being able to be close to her.

Ignoring the commotion happening in the reception, I took my chance to sneak onto the ward while everyone was distracted following the heavenly scent of my mate leading me straight to her room. I walked in stopping dead at the sight before me. Alisha’s tiny form lay on the bed in the middle of the large room. The lights were dimmed now but it did nothing to take away the awful sight of her beaten body. Her beautiful body that normally had my wolf howling with the need to claim her just with a look now made me want to cry and tear through every pack member that had hurt her.

Her head was Bandaged so much you could barely see her beautiful blonde hair that was now tinged pink from the blood. Her face was hardly recognisable from all the bruising, her face was covered by some type of mask that was attached to a machine that seemed to be making her chest move. Other machines and tubes attached to every surface of her and I could feel something inside me dying at the sight of her. My wolf howled in agony over his mate in this state. I touched her hand gently afraid I might hurt her feeling the sparks of the mate bond shoot through me.

“What are you doing here?” I jumped hearing the athouritive alpha tone in Mitchell’s voice; it seemed to be all he used on me since he got back. I was going to have to win him round again, I stood to attention hating that it was automatically done.

“ You seemed a bit busy out there so I thought someone should probably stand watch in case someone came to finish the job” Mitchell nodded at me but he eyed me with suspicion like he didn’t quite buy my reasons.

I couldn’t exactly tell him Alisha was my fated mate not after spending the last four years claiming Kelly was. I may have gone a little overboard with tarnishing Alisha but I couldn’t risk Mitchell seeing Alisha as anything other than a villain. Mitchell had always had a soft spot for Johnnys sister when we were kids I’d see him staring at her when he thought no one was looking there had been a time I thought they would have been mates which always drove me crazy until the day I turned eighteen and knew Alisha was mine, by then Mitchell had rose and Alisha was mine and only mine but then those stupid trials screwed everything up and I couldn’t claim an omega as my mate not if I was to be the next Beta. Alisha’s rank already had people branding her as a spoiled brat who’d shown her true colours as a coward and got the rank she’d deserved. I couldn't allow my reputation to be tarnished along with her. Alisha had ruined everything but being a coward.

Despite the twist of fate I still figured out a way for Alisha and I to still be together, I even kept her hidden away in her room every night when she was brought to the pack house to live with the other omega females. I saw how all the males had scanned over her body that day as she silently walked through the pack house with the others to her assigned room.

I hadn’t needed to protect her but I had. You’d think she’d be grateful for me keeping the other males away from her; I even had to warn a few of the younger males to keep away from her. It seemed that her tarnished reputation wasn’t enough to keep them from desiring what was mine.

I was actually getting somewhere for a while Kelly and I would be the face of the pack and I would have Alisha for myself but then bloody Rose had to start intervening. She'd manopolise Alisha’s time and even stop my midnight calls to Alisha’s room. I’d gotten so frustrated one day I’d gone and confronted Rose to stay away from Alisha but she’d flipped the tables on me and said if I didn’t stay away from Alisha she would make Mitchell aware of the situation and we both knew if Mitchell forums out Alisha was my mate and not Kelly he’d put a stop to it. The i***t had too much respect for the mate bond but he didn’t know what it was like to be given a mate that was so disappointing rose was the perfect Luna material, Alisha should have been the perfect Beta material after all her parents were great Betas and she had beta blood on paper our match was perfect but now it was a nightmare and it was all Alisha’s fault. I’d heeded Rose’s warning somewhat I stopped visiting Alisha it was only when I knew Rose would visit Mitchell I would be there, Alisha seemed to understand the situation because she was just as desperate for me in those times but she had ideas of proving herself a good beta thinking it would change the situation I had been intercepting her requests for retaking the trails. I couldn’t allow her to take the Beta rank back not after I had claimed Kelly as my future Beta female. Sometimes I wondered if Alisha was trying to make me look stupid I couldn’t have her taking Kelly’s title now I had publicly declared she was my mate. So I began sabotaging Alisha. I didn't want to hurt her but she needed to learn her place in the pack was how it always had to be. I knew the new ideas were coming from Rose too, she was building Alisha up after I’d worked so hard to keep her in line.

When Rose had died I thought that things would go back to how they had been before but my mate seemed to have developed a lasting confidence from the red head, along with caring for the alpha pup Alisha seemed unbreakable even with the new rumours of her not saving rose.

When she moved back into her parents house I knew I’d lost her, she began to despise me. We still had s*x now and then but it was always angry and I could tell it was only our fading bond keeping her thethered to me. So I had started behaving like an asshole in order to break her down and force her back to me. I would never let on how much it crushed me whenever she told me no. I still felt the twist in the pit of my stomach at the look on her face that day Mitchell had come home. I was offering her a place in my life, a chance for her and I to be together but she had once again thrown it back in my face. So I’d overreacted and made her story sound worse than it was in front of Mitchell. I just wanted him to break her down so she’d have no choice but to come back to me where I could keep her safe. She just needed to learn her place, that it wasn’t by my side but in my bed, out of the public eye. She was mine, heart, body and sole and no one was taking her away from me.

Mitchell had now moved past me to sit in the chair I’d been about to sit in. I wanted to roar at him for being near her. no I wanted to rip him from that chair and tell him to stay away from what’s mine. But I couldn’t and that made me more furious than anything else.

“ You can leave now Beta” Mitchell said over his shoulder, not taking his eyes off my girl. I gritted my teeth ready to tackle him. I had to stifle my wolf from growling. He didn't want to leave his mate. We didn’t like the way Mitchell was suddenly so concerned for her. I wasn’t concerned about it too much though Mitchell was the one man in this pack that didn’t want any other female. He was so gutted by his mate's death a lot of people doubted he’d ever recover but just to be sure I needed to make sure I crushed his new found care for my mate before anything began. I couldn’t have her develop any new friendships, it was her last friend that had planted the seeds of doubt that led to Alisha leaving me in the first place.

Things would change now. This isn’t what I wanted for her and it’s certainly not the way I’d have done it but I knew my girl would be broken and ready to give up, feeling the hate of everyone around her. It was only a matter of time before she would come back to me. She would come round to my way of thinking and then she’d never leave me again.

( Mitchell pov)

I lay on the ground allowing Johnny to realise his anger. Mr and Mrs Clayton were trying to pull Johnny away but I had to say they didn’t seem to be trying too hard. I think Mr Clayton was rather enjoying himself watching his son lay into me. I couldn’t say I blamed him. I had let them all down by slowing this pack to manipulate me. If I had just got a handle on my emotions none of this would have happened. Lucas had warned me about acting rashly and he’d been right. I regretted every choice I’d made since I’d got back here. I’d just made one bad decision after another.

Everyone around us was screaming the staff were crowding around us now, word would spread and it would make me look weak but right now I didn’t care I was getting exactly what I deserved but however hard Johnny hit me it wasn’t enough there wasn’t enough pain to erase the damage I had caused to his sister. She’d had multiple males attack her and now she was dying.

“ I want the names of the people who attacked my daughter and I want the names of those that stood by and watched while her attackers beat her” Adam demanded, finally pulling Johnny free of me and pushing him behind him blocking Johnny for charging forward again. I picked myself up off the ground wiping the blood from my face with the back of my hand.

“ no that’s not how we do things in silver moon” I stated I was not having anymore actions being taken by single pack members there were laws and I couldn’t let whatever Adam did wouldn’t go without punishment.

“ I beg to differ Alpha, why don’t you ask my daughter if that’s how things are done around here” he spat anger dripping from his voice his mate was stood next to him trying to grab his arm but he shook her off.

“ I am so very truly sorry for what has happened I never meant…” but he didn’t let me finish.

“……but you did Alpha, tell me something if you didn’t know the truth would you feel even the slightest amount of remorse for what has happened to her” I sagged my shoulders not sure how to answer, I honestly didn’t know, I hadn’t wanted her dead but I’ll admit I wanted her to suffer for what I thought she had done to my mate but I hadn’t meant for the pack to unleash their own form of punishment this wasn’t what I wanted I’d never condone this treatment. Adam seemed to take my silence as confirmation that I would have allowed this despicable act to go unpunished.

“ that’s what I thought, I former beta Adam Clayton official request a transfer for me and my family to another pack” he stated without any hesitation in his voice.

“ DAD!!” Johnny shouted his eyes going wide as his anger seemed to dissipate instantly.

“ADAM!!” Mrs Clayton said equally shocked at Adams' statement.

“ go home and start packing, once Alisha recovers we will be leaving” Adam said to his family over his shoulder sternly.

“ Mr Clayton, your daughter is in no condition to leave this hospital” Dr Lynn said harshly from the doorway shielding two frightened young nurses from the scene.

“ Fine but as soon as she is, we are leaving” Mr Clayton stated as his mate tried to pull him back but he was unmoving in his decision.

“ please sir there’s no need for that, as Alpha I will take care of this situation, I promise that swift punishment will be delivered for what’s happened today” I pleaded with them I couldn’t let it come to this my fathers oldest friend, my own oldest friend wanting to leave the pack that had been their home their entire lives because they no longer felt safe. I couldn’t fail again. I had to show them I could protect them, after all the years of devotion clayton has shown to this pack I wouldn’t let it end like this.

“ you’ll do whatever you wish son but I’ll be damned if I allow you or this pack to hurt my little girl anymore than you already have, I’ve waited for justice to be done and now my child is fighting for her life” the agony in his words hit me hard Adam had waited for his pack to do the right thing because after everything he still believed in us. To now see he had lost all hope in the pack he had loved and served for so many years was heartbreaking.

“ oh and unless your idea of justice is tearing those mutts limb from limb where they stand, nothing you do will be enough” Johnny added, having recovered from the shock of potentially leaving his home.

“ sir I am just as outraged by what’s happened, I make no excuses for whatever part I inadvertently played just know I’m sorry, please give me a chance to make this right, let me prove that things will change for your family, for Alisha, I owe her that” I would find all the people that were at the attack today and they would all face punishment.

Adam was right it may have only been six or so men beating Alisha but there was a crowd of at least 30 wolves watching the display, I had checked with Colton earlier to see if anyone had been alerted to anything happening during the attack and he said no one had heard anything not even a mind link which meant they were all guilty. I knew one was Darren Stevens and his father. I'd already started compiling a list of people and had asked Colton to send me files and pictures of everyone working the harvest today.

“ I’ll give you 24 hours to deliver your so-called justice Alpha after that I’m taking my family and we’re leaving” Adam said the hate in his eyes said he didn’t believe I would keep my word. I simply nodded, taking the olive branch. Johnny had his arms still folded stood behind his father seemingly unconvinced also, his shirt was torn where his parents had dragged him off me I could now see his many tattoos that donned his large body, it was still strange seeing them he hadn’t had any tattoos when I’d left years ago now it was hard to find any skin without one, only his face seemed untouched.

I looked at Adam Clayton seeing the utter disappointment in his eyes, he saw me as a failure which surprisingly hurt me. He wasn’t your conventional size werewolf, he was actually a rather small man for a wolf especially a beta but that was were it ended you only had to stand up to the man once to see the kind of wolf he truly was, he was a renowned warrior of his time though it had taken some building to have the reputation, my father always said Adam was a protector he used to beat up the bullies in school that were three times the size of him even then when they picked on the little kids that’s why he’d been such a great Beta that instinct to want to protect people wasn’t something that could be taught.

He had always encouraged me along with Johnny when we were pups. I had always admired him and his mate. They were the perfect unit, strong, brave and supportive of one another. I had always hoped it would be the same when I found my mate, over time I’m sure we would have but time was stolen from Rose and I, we just never had a chance to settle into our unit. We found each other mere months before I had to leave for alpha training. I thought we’d have a lifetime together but it seemed the moon goddess had other plans for us.

After the situation calmed down Dr Lynn adviceed mr and Mrs Clayton to go home and pack some things that Alisha might need to make her more comfortable. Johnny left with them probably not wanting to be left alone with me. I couldn't believe things had turned out this way. I’d never thought there would be a time in our lives that Johnny couldn’t stand being in the same room as me.

The beast inside me was raging. He hadn't liked me just taking a beating from Johnny but I had stopped myself from fighting him because I had deserved his anger. Now my beast was ready to unleash on someone but I couldn’t not yet I had to make sure she was ok first.

As soon as the Clayton’s left I looked at Dr Lynn who nodded towards the door. She seemed to understand I couldn’t leave till I’d seen her. I held my breath as I reached her room bracing myself for whatever sight I saw. Only nothing prepared me to see my Beta already there standing over Alisha’s unmoving body.

“ What are you doing here?” I said a little too forcefully he stood to attention immediately turning to face me. His blonde hair falling slightly over his forehead and he looked stressed.

“ You seemed a bit busy out there so I thought someone should probably stand watch in case someone came to finish the job”there was a slight amusement to his voice, no doubt he seemed to enjoy Johnny getting a few swings in though I wasn’t sure it had anything to do with Johnny defending his sister.

I nodded to him but didn’t for a second believe his reasons, he had shown nothing but disgust for Alisha, for all I knew he’d come to finish her off after all it was his mates family that had orchestrated the attack. I moved past him sitting in a chair by her bed blocking him from her.

“ You can leave now Beta” I instructed without looking at him, not taking my eyes off the beaten Alisha that lay almost lifeless in her bed.

Colton, have you done as I have asked?

Yes alpha I have the paperwork ready for you now

Good bring it over to the hospital. I want you to guard Alisha Clayton’s room, no one but her family is to enter, do you understand.

Yes Alpha I’m on my way

I cut the link noticing Nathan was still watching intently. I could feel his eyes burning into the back of my head making me even more suspicious that he had been here to hurt Alisha and I had interrupted him.

“ Nathan one thing before you go” I said without looking at him.

“ don’t come in here again, I’ll be taking charge of Miss Clayton’s safety from now on” I didn’t want him or any of this pack near her, at least until I could be sure of her safety. I didn't know who I could trust right now.

I heard Nathan mutter something I didn’t quite hear before the door slam shut behind me. I didn’t care. I was fed up with his attitude and his actions towards Alisha were arousing my suspicions. I was sure he hated her like the rest of the pack but when I’d come in I was sure I’d seen him stroking her hand. There was more to all this whole thing I was certain. Lucas had seen it straight away but I hadn’t wanted to listen. I was too consumed with anger having been taken in by all the lies, lies I was now determined to uncover.