Chapter 92: Chapter Thirty-Nine

**Benjamin’s POV**

“Dude, that was crazy,” I suddenly froze as Ryan’s familiar chuckle rose through the air in my bedroom. “I can’t believe you almost killed that Beta,” he said behind me, and at the recent memory, my anger flared up again instantly.

I couldn’t help it. 

Christopher Reese was Travis’s older brother, and Travis was the man I despised most in this world. Mina had placed her trust in him, and instead of being her friend, as he so claimed, he betrayed my mate. He joined forces with the lycan beasts, conspired against her with them, and most likely even took part in her abduction. And so, to me, almost anything and anyone associated with that low-life merited a brutal and miserable death. 

“I should have killed him,” I hissed over my shoulder before regaining composure and tending to my bag. “And believe me, if it weren’t for you and everyone else, I would have,” I groaned and finally turned around with a packed duffel.

Ryan’s eyes narrowed as they went from me to my luggage, then back to me, and before long, a worried look drew on his face. “What the hell do you think you’re doing, Benji?” he whispered, the slightest trace of humor now completely gone.

“What does it look like,” I growled back, pushing past him and out of the room.  

“Wait!” 

Ryan followed me down the cracked steps of my stairway and begged me to stop, but as my pace stayed unbroken, he soon found that his pleas were falling on deaf ears. 

“Goddess, man,” the Beta then cried, forcefully tugging on my bag as a last resort. “What are you doing? You can’t go out there alone. Are you out of your mind?”

Out of my mind? Maybe. 

But out of time? Most definitely. 

Mina had been abducted ten hours ago now, and though I couldn’t bear to think of what she might’ve had to endure already, I knew the fate awaiting her in Colevan would be far more horrible. She was a half-breed, and half-breeds didn’t get to live in the Lycan world, so any chance she had of surviving rested solely on Silas and me.

“What did you expect, man? That I’d stay here and do nothing while Mina died? Come on, Ryan, you know better.” I yelled back, furious that my best friend was the one trying to stop me, of all people. “She needs me, don’t you understand? I have to go to her.”

“I get it, but-”

“Mina’s all alone, man. She might be hurt,” I cut him off and took advantage of his sudden hesitancy to pull away. “Who knows how long she’s got before they decide to kill her. I gotta leave now.”

But Ryan didn’t give up and even rushed out of the house with me, tripping us both over my busted front door. “Going alone is total suicide, and you know it!” he yelled and argued. “You have a pack. Let us help you; let us come with you.”

“For what? So we can all die together? Forget it!”

The Beta growled as we raced down my driveway and quickly rooted his body between my parents’ SUV and me. “Dude,” he pleaded, asking me again to reconsider.

“Move, Ryan. I don’t want to hurt you, but if you don’t get out of my way, I will,” I warned him through gritted teeth, anger once again rising to dangerous heights.

“Then do it! Fight me because there’s no way I’m letting you leave Jester alone.” 

“Damn it, man, look around!” I let out, unnerved, as I gestured back to my destroyed home. “Look at all the damage I’ve caused already. How many bodies did we bury just this morning? For fuck’s sake, your own father died because of me. How can you say you want more of this?” 

My friend’s head jerked back at my words, and in his furrowed brow and clenched jaw, I could see beyond his sadness to a much deeper sense of disbelief. 

“Died because of you? No,” Ryan opposed, his voice now suddenly heavier. “He died *for* you—*for* all of us. He was a fighter, a protector, and if he were here now, he’d tell you the same thing I’m trying to: in a pack, we have each other’s back. It’s our way of life, and using his death as an excuse to go rogue is like insulting his memory.”

“Ryan, I-” 

“No,” he stopped me, shaking his head. “You listen to me for once. You’ve helped me avoid some of the worst mistakes imaginable through the years, and now it’s my turn to tell you that you got it wrong. You’re letting pain and fear cloud your judgment, and if you do that, Benji, if you leave now, you’ll become a rogue. Let me help you instead.”

I stood still, reeling from the weight of his stern but honest speech, and as my thoughts raced through my mind, one against the other, Ryan put a hand on my shoulder and studied my face.

On one end, he was right. My feelings of inadequacy blinded me to a universally known fact; a united pack always rallied behind its Alpha in the face of adversity. But on the other, my guilty conscience nevertheless remained steadfast. I wished I could tell my friend what he so desperately wanted to hear, but the truth was that so long as I continued to make the decisions in Blackwoods, I would see that no other werewolf lost their life over me.

“You can’t help me with this, Ryan,” I replied softly, taking his hand off my shoulder. “I have made my choice. As your Alpha, I command you to stand down, and the second I leave, to take back the title and take care of our pack and our family. I do not doubt that you will do a better job at it than me, Alpha Lafleur.”

**Amina’s POV**

“We’re almost there, little one,” the lycan Beta whispered before his hands forced my thighs open for the thousandth time. “Three days is far too long for you to tease me like this,” he moaned, shoving his cold, wet tongue into my ear.

His men cackled from their front seat while I cried, screaming through my gag for the Beta to stop, but his fingers still crept decidedly over my bruised skin and left behind the raw burn of sandpaper. Bile rose from my upturned stomach to my throat as he neared the part of me he coveted most, and when I felt him move my underwear to the side, my revulsion manifested in yellowish, bitter water.

“Damn, Simon! You made her throw up again,” the other Lycans laughed as I struggled to escape from the Beta’s grasp. “Maybe you should let us try,” the driver said half-jokingly. 

Simon ferociously growled and nearly split my neck in two as he yanked on my hair to pull me back. “No one will have her before me,” he barked at his men, his right hand finally withdrawing from between my legs. “She’s mine first.”

“Of course, Beta, but after that?” the driver asked again, staring at me through the rear-view mirror, his mouth practically foaming at the thought.

“After that, she’ll be all yours, Delta,” Simon grinned sinisterly before adding, “Assuming she survives me first.”

My heart clenched at his threats, and despite his two heavy arms holding me, I pushed and pulled against the Beta in a last futile effort to escape. In the struggle, my head knocked into his hard, and my feet hit the seats before us so suddenly that, for a moment, the Lycans lost control of Benjamin’s truck.

“Shit!” the Delta groaned, swerving between lanes as the other men, both inside the cabin and outside in the cargo bed, yelled and stiffened. “Here, Beta, use it,” one of them said, handing him a transparent and cylindrical little tube I feared instantly. 

“No,” Simon howled, echoing my own muffled whine. “She just woke up from the last sting, and we’re almost – Sit the fuck down!” he shouted at me, landing a nasty, backhanded blow on my face. “Aaron will want to talk to her,” he growled louder, struggling to hold me.

The truck again swerved, this time narrowly missing the roadside ditch, and under the protests of his men, Simon took the drug-filled syringe and brought it to me. My back arched as the needle entered my skin and plunged into my muscles, and despite my best efforts, my body soon became heavy, and my strength waned. The sedative took hold of me faster than the first time, and as my heartbeat and breathing rapidly slowed, I saw flashes of nervousness and apprehension behind the Beta’s glare.

“Fuck, the Alpha won’t be happy about this; you’ll be out for days,” he told me, dragging me back to his side despite my weak moans. “Oh, hush, little one. I promise this is the last time I do this to you,” he sighed, his voice taking on a low and jagged tone as I began to fall asleep.

“If Aaron lets me have you,” Simon said, stroking my cheeks, “I want you wide awake for everything I plan to do.”