Rise of the Underdogs: JACOB

The Hunt Begins

Moving quietly through the halls of the clinic, I made my way to Ember and Heaven’s shared office. A place I knew well but also revered. Revered because they were the reasons this clinic existed. Pushing open the door, I stood there for a moment, just basking in their light.

Ember was sitting at the desk, while Heaven was working on getting patient medications ready. They were in their element, and I was so proud of my baby sister and her bestie.

The desk, what many would assume would be cluttered, was neatly arranged with important tools within reach. Medication bottles were kept in a locked closet, available only to those who had access to it. That was a very short list if you were wondering. Continuing to work the room with my sight alone, I smirked at the plastic wall sconces full of varying paperwork ranging from patient charts, discharge papers, and other things.

What? I’m in no way a medically-inclined person in my family. I’d sooner wipe my ass with poison ivy before I’d attempt building what my sister and her friend had created.

Heaven was the first to look up. Her hazel eyes narrowing, her brow furrowing, and one fisted hand went to rest on her hip as she took in my appearance. “Have you gone for a rest since she was brought in?”

“Yeah, and I showered.” I stated softly. “Heaven, I know you recused yourself from the case, but I need my baby sis now more than ever. You too, Ember.”

Shooting to her feet, Ember stared at me. “And what about food, Dipshit? I haven’t seen you eat much lately.”

“Whoa there,” I said, “Don’t be jumping the gun, Em. I’m actually heading back to the packhouse to freshen up and eat. What I need you for is something different. Something only you guys can help me with.”

Their eyes took on a worried light, and it made me wince. Heaven reached for me, her hands taking one of mine as she glared up at me. “What is it?”

“She woke up.”

Ember’s eyes flashed with something that looked like knowing. When our eyes met, she nodded once to let me know her visions were playing out without any interference. I was following her second sight to the letter without trying. “You figured it out. Good.”

“Her name is Ruby Arden, but it’s not her waking up that got me like this. She was…” my voice trailed off, unsure how to word the disaster that was my Mate’s life. “She was forced. She needs female company, not male. I want Ruby to feel like she can trust me to give what she needs without question, fanfare, or wondering why I’m not enough. She needs to understand that I’m willing to do what it takes.”

Her eyes doing that little silvery swirl they did when she was searching the future, Ember’s already small smile faded completely. Meanwhile, Heaven moved for the door, her hazel eyes glittering dangerously.

“She will survive this stronger than before,” Ember finally declared. “But I’m afraid that is all I can say.”

“Okay, Shrimp. Keep your secrets, and I’ll just keep doing my best,” I told her.

Making my way back to room thirteen, I centered myself emotionally and mentally before walking back inside. Stopping in my tracks as I spotted one of the other nurses inside.

“It’s a shame, you know. Birthing a bastard child out of Mateship,” her voice was brittle, cruel, and I hated it.

“Enough!”

She whipped her head around, her eyes widening with fear as she stared me down.

“How f*****g dare you shame her without knowing her story!?” I snapped hotly. “How dare you place your archaic values on her like that?! Do you have a heart, or is it as stone-cold as your resting b***h face?”

“Delta Jacob!” She started, but then paled even more than before. “I… I…”

Inhaling, I let a slow grin spread across my face. I didn’t need to turn, I didn’t even need to ask who was behind me. He was always downwind, always lurking in the shadows with the deadly precision of his rank.

“Did I just hear you correctly?” Paul asked, his voice dangerously low. “Did I just hear you call a helpless infant a bastard?”

The nurse shook her head, her calm cruelty replaced with the fear of insulting my older brother and Beta. “I… that was taken out of context!”

“I want you out of this pack before sundown, Glenda. The Alpha’s one rule that can never in this lifetime be broken is that all children are to be seen as the next generation and should be treated with the same respects offered to adults. If it’s one thing my best friend and Alpha hates is when someone like you treats a pup as less-than over a perceived slight.” Paul snarled.

With tears streaming, the woman tried to beg for forgiveness, but Paul was beyond giving a damn. “I was…”

“No, there is no excuse you can use to inflate your wrongdoing as justice. There was no reason for you to verbally assault my little brother’s Mate, either. Children are sacred to Alpha Logan. Everyone here in this pack knows it. If you can’t deal with it, then the gate is where you left it. Don’t let it hit you where the Goddess split you.”

“That’s not fair!” Glenda wailed.

I pulled out my phone, snapped a pic, and sent all the recorded information to Logan before anyone else knew what I was up to. Seconds later, using his Vampiric ability of teleportation, he apparated in the room with a dark snarl. “What the hell was that? What was that recording you sent, Delta? I want an explanation, and I don’t mean later.”

“As you command, Alpha Prince,” I replied. “What you heard was exactly what happened when Glenda assumed no one was listening. She’s shown poor bedside manner, and her insight to having children without a Mate is, well, archaic at best.”

Paul grunted in agreement. “I was here to check in on my brother when I heard her call Saffron a bastard. It’s not right.”

“No, Beta, it’s not right,” Logan snarled. Red bled into the grey-blue of his eyes, Ignacio demanding to be appeased as the righteous hand of burning Truth. “It isn’t right at all. And the punishment?”

“Banishment from the pack,” Paul said without preamble.

“Acceptable,” Logan stated, his voice carrying the strength of Ignacio mingled with the soft tenor of Hernando, his wolf. “Ensure her papers are in order and inform my brother, King Neil about it. I don’t want any loopholes, so make it bulletproof.”

Paul inclined his head. “What made you snap, J?”

Before I could answer, another voice spoke up. It was meek, yet strong, like a quiet courage was slowly building from the ashes of whatever fires she walked through. “Because he knows what happened to me. He knows I… I was hurt. Forced into doing things for males that were more interested in their own gratification rather than following the Goddess’s edict.”

“Then your child,” Logan whispered, calmly lifting the infant into his arms. His words and intonation perfectly reflecting Ignacio’s, he continued: “This purely innocent soul was the product of violence and disgrace. Not your own, but that of others who’ve signed their death warrants without realizing it.”

Without another word, powerful blue flames burst forth from Logan’s body. I moved fast, holding Ruby carefully but firmly as she went into full panic mode.

“Be calm,” I whispered. “He’s not hurting your boy, I promise.”

“If you hadn’t noticed, Mate, that’s fire!” She cried out, snapping at my hands as her nails turned into claws. Apparently, my Mate and I shared that particular ability – able to shift certain parts of her body without completing the full-body shift.

The flames now engulfed Logan and the baby, but it wasn’t a burning flame. He only used them for enemies. This was different. These flames were for cleansing, not harming.

Wait. Hold the damn phone.

“Did you just…”

“Let go!” Ruby sobbed, her eyes locked on her pup. She broke free, the lines and tubes tearing from her skin. Blood welled and trickled, but her maternal determination won out over the pain. “Give him back!”

Then the sound of infant giggles filled the air, strong, true, and perfectly musical in its cadence. She stopped feet from Logan, her strength sapped so suddenly she fell to the floor while staring at the man holding her pup. At the hybrid who’s power could destroy countries, but didn’t because he valued life. “What… what are you?”

“Vampire and Werewolf. Mortal and immortal.” The words were explanation enough, yet, she wasn’t staring at him in fear. She was gazing at him with awed adoration as he set her pup in the crib once more.

As I put her back in bed and pushed the call button, Logan spoke again. “Paul, assemble a team. We’re going hunting, and I’m bringing Kaden. I saw them, the leaders of the Rogues that hunted her in the forest. Having the babe in my arms was a conduit of possibility, so I let Ignacio trace the bloodline to the source. He found them, so now we move.”

“Total takedown?” Paul asked.

The smile that graced Logan’s face was one I’d only seen once. In Mexico. When his grand-uncle Nicolai had targeted Ember and Wynter. The day Logan told him that he’d make a walk through Hades look like a day in the park. “No. Complete obliteration. They will chirp before they lose what life they have left. Which is why Kaden is coming with.”

I was still reeling from Ruby’s use of the word Mate. Yes, it was said in the heat of the moment and said with some level of sarcasm, but she still said it.

She still acknowledged me as hers.