Alexander! Wait!

~Alexander~

"Oh, they have sculptures too?" Daisy lets go of a broody Alexander and rushes to look at the sculptures...very clothed sculptures. "Why are none of them naked?" She asks, frowning as she turns to her mate.

Alexander nearly laughs at the perplexion in her voice. "Artistic choice."

Still maintaining her frown, she eyes a sculpture of a two men wrestling dressed in only a cloth to cover their private parts. "Since when was decency a thing in art?"

He laughs at how she almost sounds offended. He can imagine her with red curls and a shorter frame, yelling 'off with their heads!' at whoever the artists are. "How am I supposed to know? It certainly is a nice change," he shrugs, taking in the details in their arm muscles and firm postures. The artist is really talented. "It's an African piece. Lutte Traditionnelle. Ooh. It's Senegalese. I've always wanted to visit Senegal. It's a really beautiful country."

"It would have been better if they were naked," she pouts, still fixated on the painting. Whether she's joking or not, he can't tell anymore.

Alexander shakes his head at his mate, grabs her shoulders and steers her away from that section. "Let's go to the Eros section then."

"They're naked?"

He laughs at how child like she sounds. "Yes, they're naked, you pervert." He pauses to pull out his phone when he starts ringing. Sighing when he sees the caller ID, he looks at Daisy. "Sorry, I have to take this." He picks the call while she goes ahead to stare disturbingly at the private parts of the unclad sculptures. "Mum, seriously, you could never have a worse timing-"

"Mr. Bane."

Alexander frowns when he hears a his butlers voice instead of his mum's. "Robert?" He queries, pulling his phone off his ear to stare at the caller ID again. "What are doing with my mother's phone? Where is she?"

"Sir..." The butler trails off, sounding eeriely sombre.

Groaning, Alexander rubs his temples. "Please don't tell me she came home dead drunk and she's blowing up the place asking for me." Because it wouldn't be the first time she's done that. She stopped drinking heavily a few months ago but you can't ever predict what goes on in that woman's head.

"Your mother is in the hospital, sir."

His heart nearly stops when he hears that. "What?" What is he talking about? This is his mother they're talking about here. This has to be some kind of joke she put him up to because there's no way-

"She collapsed an hour ago. I've been waiting here ever since then. It's not looking good, sir," Robert reports, sounding particularly gloomy.

He stays silent for a full minute, waiting, hoping that his mother would cackle in the background, snatch the phone from the butler and call him a gullible fool. When that doesn't happen, his body freezes.

It's not a joke.

It's not a joke.

It's- She really-

"No," Alexander chokes out, catching his mate's attention.

"Alexander?" Daisy calls, a concerned frown on her face but he can't get his mouth to move. "Is everything okay?" She asks, touching his arm.

Her touch snaps him out of his shock. He gulps which does nothing to push down the bile of paralysing fear rising up his throat. Gripping his phone, he asks, "Where did you take her?" He sounds breathless as he finally gets his feet to move down the stairs.

"Plaxi Med hospital, sir. I'll text you the addr-"

Before the man can finish, he cuts the call and breaks into a run. His heart feels like it's about to jump into his chest. He doesn't care when he knocks someone down to ground. He doesn't realize his phone fell to the ground upon impact or the swift footsteps following after him until his mate yells.

"Alexander! Your phone!"

His brain doesn't register the commotion his frantic attitude is causing. As soon as fresh air hits his lungs, his shaking hands pulls out his car keys in his pockets.

"Alexander, wait!"

Shit Daisy. He stops abruptly a few paces away from his car. He can't leave his mate here but he has to get to his mother.

"Are you okay?" She asks, her voice breaking from how much she's panting. "What's wrong?" She grabs his arm, coming to stand in front of him.

The warm feel of her hand and her scent grounds him and breaks through his panic long enough for him to glance at her. "I- I'm sorry, I can't- I have to- my mother- here," he takes her hands and drops his car keys in them. Pulling away from her, he starts sprinting toward the road. "Make your way home!"

"What?" She pulls a blank, still going after him. "Where are you going?"

"Taxi!" He yells, flagging a few cars before one finally stops. By then, she has already caught up with him. "Plaxi Med hospital please." He hops in without wasting time.

"What-"

The car speeds off before she can complete her words but he surely hears her scream behind him.

"-the hell?!"

×××

~Gabriel~

Three days.

Three days of sending three different spies to tail this son of bitch who calls himself Miguel or whatever his name is.

Three days of failure. Failure in finding out who he is, what he wants, what his relationship with Daisy is. Tired of hearing nothing but disappointing news, Gabriel has taken it upon himself to follow the bastard around.

Apparently, he lives in a huge expensive studio apartment so he's rich. The man is obviously an Alpha but there was nothing normal about that choking pheromones that nearly made Gabriel go feral in a human cafe on Sunday. Gabriel couldn't stay in that cafe for a moment more to hear whatever else his mate discussed with the man. He barely managed to make it out of the cafe before half shifting. He had to lay low in an alley, call his driver and plug his nose so he wouldn't storm back into that cafe to pick a bloody fight.

Gabriel is a member of the council of Alphas. He has been around several Alphas before and their pheromones, albeit irritating, has never elicited such an extreme reaction. Even Alexander has never made him feel that blood thirsty. Whoever this guy is, he's very dangerous. The fact that he has been hanging around Daisy for goddess knows how long is a cause for alarm and shameless stalking.

Ducking down behind a parked car, Gabriel peeks at the other Alpha. The male is looking around with a frown. It can't be. Could he have sensed him?

This part of town is filled with soot, smoke and all sorts of things that irritates a werewolf's nose if they don't dull their sense of smell. There's no way he can smell him underneath all that... right?

Gabriel rushes from the parked car to an alley when the man turns around. His ears pick up the ringtone of the man's phone. He scoffs. Who the hell uses Fairly Odd Parents theme song as their ringtone?

"Hello?" the man's rich baritone drifts into Gabriel's ears.

Damn. His voice is actually quite nice. Snapping out of that weird thought, Gabriel focusses his ears to pick up the voice of the person the man is speaking to.

"How disrespectful can you get?"

Gabriel frowns at the brash voice coming from the phone. It's obviously an older male. Judging from how the suspicious male sighs, he doesn't want to speak to whoever that is.

"First you don't bother to come see me when you're in town. Then you allow your beta to set wolfsbane traps around the parameters just to keep me out?!" The old man seethes.

Wolfsbane traps? Wow. He must really hate the old man.

"What do you want, father?" The strange Alpha groans, already sounding tired of the conversation.

Father? He set wolfsbane traps to keep his own father out of his pack? Gabriel shakes his head. What a bad son. Then again, if given the opportunity, Gabriel would want to shoot at his father for allowing his mother to use him as target practice on Saturday so, eh.

Wait, why the hell is he defending the bastard?

"To look my incompetent son in the eye and make him see the light," the old man huffs.

"Father, please-"

"Abandon that demon and come visit me in my workshop now. I'm sure you got my invitation and my letter?"

Demon? What the hell? This bastard is involved with a demon? Do demons even exist? What the hell is going on?

"I didn't even read it," the younger male replies nonchalantly.

"Then I'll relay the message to you. Either you come visit me or I lead the human police into the pack."

Human police? This bastard must be into some kind of illegal shit. Damn it, Daisy. What kind of man have you gotten yourself tangled up with?

"Do that and I'll forget you're my father and kill you."

The chills that comes with that threat makes Gabriel shiver. Dear Jesus. Just who is this guy?

"You won't do that," the old man says, sounding completely unaffected. It's almost like he hears that on a daily basis... At this rate, he probably does.

"You won't threathen me again or I will," the younger male says calmly.

"What will it take to make you come see me, Micheal?"

Gabriel frowns when the old man's voice suddenly takes on a sad tone. He must really just want to see his son.

Obviously that means nothing to the other Alpha he says, "Illness or death," and cuts the call.

Damn. That was cold. Even for Gabriel.

"I know you're there. Isn't it rude to eavesdrop on private conversations, Mr. Gabriel Carpenter?"