I charged my way into the house. Unprepared for what was to happen next. All the furniture had been overturned and smashed to pieces. Blood coated the walls, the carpets and the broken piles of mess.
I pray that they all made it out with their lives.
“He took her,” Amy screamed through her sobs once her eyes landed on me. “Declan took her. You need to hurry”, she cried. My heart stops. My whole world feels like it’s being turned on its axis. An hour ago, she was safe, happy, And on her way back to me, and now she was missing. I want to run after my girl. She needs me, I know she does, but I don't want to leave Amy, who is bleeding and beaten. If she does, then even when I do get Faith back, she won’t forgive me.
Amy’s arms are wrapped tightly around her, my mate and my friend. Poor Amelio, I can see massive chunks of skin missing from various limbs, wolf bites. I’m sure he was a low ranking warrior. He didn’t stand a chance against an Alpha wolf, and to make it even worse, from what I can see, he was still in his human form when he was attacked. The gurgling that rushes from his lips almost brings me to my knees as he coughs blood, and it splatters Amy’s face. Her tears run through them. They are a mess.
“Go, I'll get Amy and Amelio help” David places his hand on my shoulder and squeezes it. I trust my beta to know what to do. I tear my way back outside and shift as I sprint towards the trees. It's not hard to track them. Not only was I able to follow the trail of blood, goddess, I hope that's his blood, But I could also smell the sweet scent of lilies and morning dew. Faith smelt like summer to me.
Duke, we need to go faster. I urged my wolf, I felt slow, but the world whizzed around us as we tore through the thick shrubbery. We hurdled our way over a large fallen tree and came to a skidding halt in a very small clearing.
I found Declan dragging my unconscious mate by her underarms through the thick of it. How far did he actually plan to get like this in human form?
I shifted back to my human form. He wouldn't be able to understand me otherwise.
“Declan, stop”, I roared at him.
He didn't look surprised at my having caught him. He had to have known that I would come for her.
He gently lowers Faith to the floor and places himself in front of her in a sort of protective crouch. How dare he!!! Duke snarls. I hate being treated like the threat equally as much as my wolf did.
“Back off, she is mine”, Declan gnashes his teeth at me. I have never seen a man who isn't a rogue look so feral before, so manic.
My ears detected movement from beyond the trees, and my eyes immediately scanned the area for the source of the noise; my chest swelled with pride as my 15 best wolves surrounded us; Declan could try, of course, but he had nowhere left to run, and he certainly had no chance of making it any further than this with my mate.
“She is not yours! What are you even doing here?” I growl back at him.
“She didn't even look at the card.” he cracked his neck to the side. He looked deranged, honestly. I could see large chunks of his flesh missing and what looked like several bites marks. Amelio and Amy put up a hell of a fight for their niece, judging by those deep wounds. I hope they hurt like a mother fucker.
My mind drifted back to the flowers. He had sent a card, I offered it to faith to read, but we had been too distracted to open it, and then it just laid on my desk, forgotten.
“What was in the card Declan,” I ask.
“Oh, don't pretend you don't know. You cheating scum.” he spat.
“Humour me then” I ground my teeth. This was taking too long. I wanted to get to faith, but I had to be careful. If this came to a fight, I would win it, we were on my territory, and I had him surrounded, but he has faith, and I can't let her get hurt just because I took a chance.
“I just wanted one last opportunity to change her mind. If she still didn’t want me, then I would have backed off. I only asked her to spend the day with me, all I needed was one last shot, and I could have changed her mind about me. But instead, I come here, and she's fucking marked. It was still red! That bitch went and let you mark her the night before I came.” he seethes.
“ and what the hell are you planning on doing with her now?” I was torn between defending Faith. He should never call her such dirty names. And finding out his sick plan. A part of me also wondered if she had read his card, would it have changed anything?
“I am going to take her back to Crescent moon. Once she spends a few days back in her old life, she will remember how good it fits. She will reject you and accept me. She will be with her family again, and I’ll provide her with the life she always dreamed.” This guy is delusional. She’s already marked. Unless one of us dies, then that mark is there for good. He could never have now, and we both knew it.
“You need to let her go. Because that’s just not going to happen. The only way for you to remove that mark on her neck is to kill me, and you don’t stand a chance against me.” To fight an Alpha to the death solely for the claim of his Luna is one of the few laws all wolves must abide by. He would be sentenced to death himself. “Besides, do you think she will forgive you if anything happened to me? You think she would want to lay next to the man who beat her, killed her mate, and then kidnapped her each night?”
I wish I knew more about Declan, his story, what had got us all here; if I did, I might be able to reason with him better. Why would he reject her just to fight this hard to get her back? It made no sense to me.
“I think she’d forget all about you.” He grins cockily.
“You mean the way she forgot all about you?” I regret the choice of words the moment they part from my lips. I shouldn’t be goading him right now, but he had gotten under my skin with that vile comment.
“Maybe I’ll just kill her. Then nobody can have her,” he threatened me, but I could tell it was just that, a threat. She may be unconscious, but she didn’t appear to have any other wounds on her. He cared about her, even if he were sick and twisted.
I launched at him shift in the air as my body twisted gracefully. In the split second that I had Declan distracted, one of my warriors had the common sense to get to Faith. I would have to remember to thank him for his quick thinking later. With her pulled to safety, I could fight without having to worry.
My teeth narrowly missed his thigh as I snatched at it. He was fast, the bugger. Before I knew it, his pitch black wolf had taken his place.
We launched at each other over and over again until we were both tired, bloody, deeply wounded and covered in the others spit. I was stronger, but he was certainly faster than I was.
He dived for me, I managed to roll and come up under meaty him, my mouth covering his throat if I just bite down, I’d kill him, and I was about to, but in the corner of my eye was Faith, and the doubt crept in, would she be sad to learn of his death? I didn’t want to do anything to make her unhappy.
I spat his fur from my mouth, but before he could roll out of my grasp completely in a stroke of luck and a little bit of skill, I managed to catch him in my teeth again, this time around the back of the neck, it took the last of my strength, but I managed to snap it.
It would leave him paralysed for about forty-eight hours. He’d heal, but not before we tossed his limp body back across his territory.
I limped over to Faith, and I shifted back into my human side. I clung to hear and just listened to the sounds of her breathing. She’s alive, she okay, we made it, I repeat inside of my head, over and over again.
“Alpha Kyle” warrior Darius stood knelt in front of me “what should we do with the trash?” He asked. At least I wasn’t the only one who had a dislike for the visiting Alpha.
“Take it out. Just toss it over the border from which it came.” I continue with Darius’s trash reference. I liked it.
“Oh and you and you”, I pointed to two soldiers names I didn’t know, “help Darius, would you,” I ordered. Each of the men nodded and quickly walked over to help Darius with the garbage.
“And you.” I pointed to the young man I had seen rescue my Faith.
“Yes,” he replied, confused.
“Thank you for getting my Luna, our Luna out of there. We owe you our undying gratitude.” I smiled brightly. I was so relieved. She’s okay.
He bowed his head in respect.
Alpha, you better get to the hospital! David’s voice broke the connection,
Tell me. I couldn’t wait.
Just come. He sighed and cut the link.