Chapter 44: Forty-four.

Elijah was heading back to his house, dread filling him with every step as his feet seemed to become heavier and heavier. He was anticipating, another explosive argument with Colt. Which he believed was ridiculous, all he had done was act to protect her, and there was no reality in which he would have ordered an attack upon Colt's mother when she was pregnant. None. He simply didn't have that type of atrocity in him.

So he was wracking his brain trying to figure out exactly what was going on, because the hurt that Colt was holding on to was obviously very real, and somehow she believed he was a part of it.

He mildly acknowledged, he could have asked the man he killed if he had thought of it first, but shrugged it off because that asshole dying was more important. There would be no mercy for those who threatened his mate, and that was non negotiable.

He was so lost in his thoughts as he replayed everything that went on, he didn't notice the red car that was in his driveway, was now driving out of sight up ahead. He entered his driveway in wolf form and found a dejected Zachary sat alone on a small wall surrounding some flowers and shrubs his Mom planted, wearing a pair of sweatpants and a hooded jersey belonging to himself, that normally lived in the trunk of his car.

Instanly he began to swing his head from left to right, sensing something was amiss, as he only now registered the missing car in the driveway was the same one he had just seen disappear down the road. His shift to his human form was painfully quick, fuelled on by anger and irritation. Within two minutes he had Zachary's throat in his grasp, enraged at what he deemed was a complete and utter failure. Ignoring completely the clothes Zachary had also pulled out for him as they tumbled off the wall and onto the ground, in a heap.

"Where the fuck did she go?" he asked through gritted teeth. His other fist clenching wildly as his anger at Zachary continued to grow.

"Honestly, I don't have a clue." Zachary struggled to say around Elijah's tightening hand, as he dealt with the brunt of Elijah's misplaced anger. "Did you kill the others?" he choked out.

"Are you kidding me? You fuck up on a basic order and then have the disrespect to question me Zach!" Elijah began to shout, his spittle hitting Zachary in the face, as he threw his Beta back on the ground and began to dress.

"No, Alpha. Just working out what I need to tell Marcus to organise." Zachary groaned, frustrated with Elijah's temper tantrums. "She wanted to be alone, by the way. Your mate, whose state of being you haven't asked about yet. Also, there isn't any stretch of imagination, where she is okay right now. In case you wondered." he added, without raising his voice, despite his disgust at Elijah oozing out of it.

Elijah's fist impacted with Zachary's jaw before he even realised he had raised it, knocking his Beta back to the ground he had just got up from. But even though he was shocked he didn't regret it, he fully believed Zachary deserved everything he got. "Watch your tone, Zach." he spat out. "Remember, I am the Alpha of this pack, and Colt is mine!"

Zachary sighed and nodded, he hated when Elijah's grandfather's influence reared its head. It turned his best friend into a complete ass, and a jealous one at that apparently. His only concerns for Colt lay in the fact she was the pack's Luna, and his friend should know that. But his Alpha? He seemed too wound up to realise his own mate was a living breathing person, nevermind his friends.

"Where did she go?" Elijah growled, refusing to even bother to look at Zachary now.

"I don't know, Alpha." Zachary sighed, disappointed to see the ugly side of Elijah rearing its head, a side he had hoped would be gone now things with Colt were becoming better. "She did offer to run me over, if I followed her though." he added with a grimace.

"How long, will she be?" he sneered, at what he interpreted as cowardice, rather than the respect it actually was, respect that Zachary had for Colt, respect Elijah kept failing to show her himself.

"She didn't say." he replied, deliberately omitting that she may not be coming back, worried it would cause a permanent break in Elijah's sanity if he did actually lose his mate, now he had finally found her.

"Damn it!" Elijah yelled, storming inside to get his cell, and shouting over his shoulder, "Go and fucking get Marcus then!"

Elijah heard Nora upstairs, playing contentedly with her Nanny, as he made his way to the kitchen where he had left his cell, then proceeded to make his way out back to call Colt. He needed to lay his eyes on the woman he wanted safe. The woman who just had an attempt made on her life and selfishly drove away. The love he felt he was late in protecting, late in finding, late in understanding!

Damn it, why am I always late when it comes to her. he thought and it didnt help that it was Zachary, his incompetent Beta who had found her first earlier, and stepped in to defend her before he could even arrive. In Elijah's mind, it should've been him to save her. Damn it! he thought again.

Compounding matters further, it was his, and as far as he was concerned her own pack, he had failed to protect her from in the first place, which made everything so much worse. As far as Elijah was concerned his grandfather's 'legacy' could go screw itself, because he would personally slaughter every man, woman and child in this pack if that is what it took to keep her safe.

Everything was so messed up right now. He dialed Colt's number, again and again, knowing he would have to wait on her pulling over to answer it, at least he hoped that was the case, he didn't need to worry about her driving on the phone as well right now. But still he insisted on continually calling her all the same. Time was marching on though. Where the hell is she? he wondered. Then it happened, his call was sent to voicemail, it didn't ring out. She ended it. She was shutting him out, again!

The noise that fell from his lips was more of a pained roar than any growl he had ever made before, and in a rage with his bare hands he began violently dismantling Nora's climbing frame, tearing into it, splintered chunk by splintered chunk. Until all that was left was kindling fit for a bonfire, and a horrified little girl watching her big brother destroy something so precious to her, something he built for her himself when it was just the two of them.

Author's Note. This was originally part of a longer chapter, which I'm currently editing. But I thought I better give you something to read as you wait and have published it on it's own. The next part shouldn't take as long. Promise. B x.