Chapter 85

Chapter 85
(Chase’s POV)

My dad linked for a pack doctor while I tried to wake Kaeleigh.

“Leave her alone Chase,’’ my dad snapped at me, “you’ve caused enough damage.” I growled at him. He immediately squared up to me. “You want to take a go son, I may be thirty years your elder, but I am still your Alpha and I will put you on your ass.” That was enough to shock me. My dad was furious at me. Shit, I looked at Kaeleigh, who had gone deathly pale and was starting to burn up.

“Dad,” I pleaded, “what’s happening?” 

“What’s happening?” he shouted. “What do you think is happening? Why would you try to mark her when you know the conditions?” 

“I thought maybe it was a lie,” I said in a small voice.

“Well, well done. You now know it’s true.” He glared at me. “I’m sure that will be a comfort if you’ve killed your mate.”

“What!” I panicked and started to shake Kaeleigh again. “Baby, wake up please,” I begged. Her skin was burning. 

“Dad, she’s burning up.” I was trying to keep calm, but Onyx was howling in my head.

“Put her down,” he said. “For goddess sake, where the hell is that doctor?”

The door opened and my mum and the doctor walked in. 

“About bloody time,” my dad shouted, and the doctor looked at my dad terrified, but hurried over to me and Kaeleigh. He went to touch her and I couldn’t help but growl. I didn’t mean it, but Onyx was growling “Mine” in my head. The doctor stopped and looked from me to my father, who was also throwing him a murderous look.

“Maybe it would be easier if you were to wait outside,” the doctor suggested, and we both growled this time.

“Oh dear goddess,” my mum sighed out loud.

“Both of you, out!” When we didn’t move, “NOW!” I jumped, my mum never got angry. I carefully laid Kaeleigh back on the bed and glared at the doctor one more time before retreating from the room with my dad.

We headed to the living room, and I dropped onto the sofa, suddenly exhausted. My dad went and poured two drinks and walked over and handed me a glass before sitting on the other sofa. I gulped it down in one and looked at him.

“I don’t understand, dad,” I said, and he sighed. 

“Why did you think it was a good idea?” he asked, and I shook my head and didn’t say anything. We sat in silence for a while. I traced my thumb around the cut glass design, my mind not really going anywhere.

About fifteen minutes later, my mum walked into the room, followed by the doctor. We both looked up and my mum smiled sadly.

“Doctor,” my dad said getting up, “how is she?”

“She’ll be out for a few hours, but she’s fighting off the infection, and she’s strong,” the doctor said. “She will be fine.” I breathed a sigh of relief. 

“What caused it?” I asked. The doctor looked at me sadly. 

“She rejected the mark. It’s rare, but it can happen.” Then he looked nervous. “Even with fated mates.” I looked down at the floor.

“Thank you doctor,” my mum said. “I’ll show you out.”  

We lapsed back into silence while my mum showed the doctor to the door before coming back in and sitting down next to my dad. I looked at them both.

“I panicked,” I said. “She was going to leave me.” Both my parents looked shocked at that.  

“Why would you think that?” my mum asked. “Kaeleigh loves you. Why would she want to leave you?” I explained everything Elaina had told her about the binding spell. And then about the conflict with the curse. I told them how Kaeleigh had said I should find another mate. 

“It was like she had stopped fighting,” I said, “like this was the last straw for her.” I closed my eyes as I felt the tears slip out again. 

“Everything she did, everything she said was just another way of saying goodbye,” I looked at my parents. “I couldn’t bear it. I needed her to know she was mine, and there could never be anyone else.”

“Chase,” my dad looked at me apprehensively, and I knew what he was thinking.

“No!” I said firmly. “I don’t want to hear it.”

“Maybe you have to,” he snapped, and I growled.

“I will not take a chosen mate,” I said slowly. “Kaeleigh is my mate. No one else. We will figure something out.”

“And if you don’t, it’s seven weeks until your birthday Chase,” my dad sighed. “There are fifteen hundred people whose lives depend on us here, son.”

“Then we move to plan B,” my mum said, and we both looked at her.

“Which is?” my dad asked 

“We cut the pack,” she looked at my dad. “We tell them about the curse and we find them homes in new packs under new loyalty.” She smiled at me. “I just know that it will work out, somehow.” She then turned to my dad. “Would you give up if it was me?” My dad growled instinctively and pulled my mum closer to him, onto his lap. 

“Mine,” he nuzzled into her neck and she smiled and snuggled further into him. My dad rolled his eyes and huffed, “Ok, fine” as he looked up at me. 

“If we begin to run out of time, we move to plan B.” He then mused some more. 

“Over a thousand people leaving at once. I’d be out of commission for a week or so. We’d have to prepare for that.” An Alpha is connected to everyone of his pack so when one breaks loyalty and renounces the pack he feels the break, too many at once can kill a lesser Alpha, and the stronger the rank or power of the werewolf that renounced the sharper the pain. It can almost be as strong as the pain of rejection from a mate.

“Then give me the pack first,” I said, and he looked at me. “I’ll take the pain. It’s my decision anyway,” I shrugged. My dad smiled proudly. 

“There’s my Alpha son,” he said.

“Well, it’s late,” my mum said. “Kaeleigh is going to be out of it for a while yet. Why don’t you go and get some rest?” She stood up from my dad’s lap.

“I don’t think I can sleep until I know she’s awake and fine,” I replied. I stood and walked to the sideboard where there was a pile of books and papers. “I’m gonna go through this stuff that Isabella sent up. Maybe there is something that can help.” I carried everything to the dining table and started to spread them out into categories.

“Want some help?” I looked up, and Jensen was standing by the door.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, and he grinned.

“Yeah, nice to see you too, dumbass,” He walked over to the table. “Couldn’t sleep and heard your idiot move from my dad.” Who no doubt was told by my dad, I thought. “So thought I would keep you company, stop you going all cave wolf on us.” I grinned at him as he sat and started thumbing through a book in front of him.

“Okay,” my dad called, “night guys,” and he and my mum disappeared out the door. Jensen and I settled in. 

I told him about what Kaeleigh had learned from Elaina, and my decision not to take a chosen mate, and then plan B if we had run out of time. We went through everything that Isabella had sent up. She had found some things out about the original sorcerer and was working with another sorcerer to uncover more information.

We worked solidly for about four hours when a voice came over the emergency security mind link

“Security breach,” the voice sounded. Jensen and I looked at each other. We wouldn’t have been the only ones to have got the alert. My dad, Alrik, Seth and Zack, as well as various other security officials.

“Details?” I linked back. The response came immediately. 

“Sightings of trespassers on the west perimeter. Area four,” Shit, that was by the plunge pool, and the voice carried on. “Shit, sir, something else is coming in.” I waited impatiently for him to come back to us. 

“Sir,” the voice said, “the dungeons were breached, and the prisoner is free.” Fuck, I glanced up at Jensen. They were talking about Adam. I should have killed that mutt while I had the chance. 

“How did the breach occur?” I asked.

“Record shows the door’s green light around thirty minutes ago.” Thirty fucking minutes. He could be anywhere by now.

“What the fuck took so long to find out?”

“Not sure, sir,” he replied. “It just said that the dungeon door was accessed by Kaeleigh Buckley.” 

What? I looked at Jensen briefly in fear and then I was out of my seat and through the hallway to Kaeleigh’s room. I burst in through the door to find her room empty. Fear gripped me as I searched for signs of a struggle, but there wasn’t one. What I did see sent my blood cold as I slowly walked to the bedside table. Sat on the table was an envelope with my name on it. I slowly picked it up, feeling like I couldn’t breathe, and ripped it open.

The first thing to fall out was the engagement ring I had given Kaeleigh earlier in the evening. I grabbed it with my hand and held it tight as tears had already slipped down my face. I pulled the other item out with a shaky hand. I could hear Jensen next to me, but not what he was saying. My ears sounded like I was in a wind tunnel. I opened the piece of paper and recognised the delicate swirls of Kaeleigh’s handwriting. I read as my heart felt like it was breaking.

“My dearest Chase,

I am so sorry. I simply can not stand by and let you give up anything. I heard you talking to Jensen, and I am not willing for you to lose all that you have built.

So now I have a plan C, and I do this for you, because I love you. And I hope that you can forgive me for what I have to do.

You wanted to know if I was yours earlier, well I am yours. I will always be yours until the day I die. Please remember that and where my heart really is, no matter what you hear now.

I love you forever, 

Always yours,

Kaeleigh.“