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  “I think you’ll hate me when you find out what I did.” I told him softly. I knew I had to tell him everything. Confess to him my knowledge of our being mates. I was so afraid of him leaving me.

  “I could never hate you, Crystie.” He said sincerely.

  “Trent, I knew we were mates.” I started but began coughing. He helped me sip on the water for a minute before asking me to repeat what I’d said.

  “I’ve known we were mates since my sixteenth birthday.”

  “Why didn’t you come to me?” I cringed at the hurt in his voice and eyes. “Do you not want me as a mate?”

  “I really do Trent; more than anything!” I said quickly. I hurried on to explain before he got any more upset. “For as long as I could remember you had been with Nikki,” He was about to cut in, but I stopped him. “I heard you when I was out. You were the only one I could hear, but I heard what you said, and I am so sorry. I caught your scent on my sixteenth birthday. You had driven up to school with Nikki in the car and you both had sat there talking, and I had been thinking how good you two were together, and though you both were so in love. I knew she would make a perfect Alpha female, already having Beta blood.”

  “Then you got out of the car and I scented you on the wind. I couldn’t bring myself to break you and Nikki up.” I went on and told him the whole story, me losing my wolf, the loss of senses, the pain of not being with him; everything. “I came on this trip to help me be able to deal with you two getting married. It was just so hard.”

  I was a little hopeful that I hadn’t ruined our mating when he kept my hand in his the whole time, rubbing the back of it with his thumb.

  “Is that why you would never meet my eyes?” He asked.

  “Yes, I knew Alphas could tell their mates with one look into their eyes, so I avoided it.”

  “What about your scent? I remember catching the scent on the wind several times when we were younger, but I couldn’t pinpoint it. I thought maybe my mate had died. That’s why I chose to marry Nikki. I hadn’t scented that perfect smell in a couple of years.”

  “Once my wolf left, I got a cold. It was just the common cold, but Mom didn’t know what to do. Daddy remembered from when he was human, and helped me get better, and then I started taking vitamins and supplements to help keep me healthy, but when they got into my bloodstream, it changed my scent.”

  He just sat there thinking for a while. I was getting nervous as to why he wasn’t talking. He still held my hand, but what if it was just an action he wasn’t really aware he was doing?

  “Do you hate me now?” I asked, not being able to take the silence any longer.

  “I told you, I could never hate you.” He said as he reached up and started rubbing his hand in my hair. “I’m more mad at myself than anyone for not catching on. You’ve gone through all of this alone, and shouldn’t have had to.”

  “But I should have given you the choice.”

  “Well, instead of playing would’ve, could’ve, why don’t we head home and plan our mating?” He smiled at me, and I couldn’t have been more happy than I was at that moment.

  I finally had my mate with me.

  Chapter 14

  After two days in the hospital, I was going stir crazy. I had only been let out of bed to go to the bathroom. Trent had stayed with me, only leaving to shower and change once a day. I had had no lack in visitors, though. Everyone was pretty much camped out in my room until now.

  I had been able to talk everyone into going back to the pack house to get ready to leave. After speaking to my parents and Alpha Parker we’d all decided to just go home. We had been having too much bad luck on this trip and didn’t want anything else happening.

  My infection had pretty much cleared up with the IV antibiotics that they’d given to me. I had not run fever since the day before, so as long as the fever stayed away, they would release me the next morning.

  I felt lighter in a lot of ways. It had been very freeing to have the secret finally out and not have to hide anything anymore. Trent had sworn that he would help me find a way to get my wolf back. I told him not to make any promises, but he was determined. I think it scared him to think I was as fragile as a human, but I had gotten used to it.

  Nikki and I had a conversation about me being Trent’s mate. I had been nervous for nothing. It was just as Trent had said, which it wasn’t that I didn’t believe him, it was just that sometimes men are oblivious to what a woman actually feels. But Nikki truly didn’t want anyone. She told me stories of the summer she’d spent with her mate, Travis. She said no one would ever be able to compare to him, so she didn’t want to lead anyone on. She was happy just to have her friends and serve her pack as Beta. She actually thanked me for saving her from the Alpha position, and told me I had all the makings of a wonderful Alpha female. She said an Alpha female is not a warrior of the pack unless needs are just that great, but she was more a mother of the pack; caring for everyone and putting the pack above all else. She said I had been doing that my whole life; especially the past couple of years. She said I had suffered more than any she-wolf should have to suffer for what I had thought was the good of my pack. Nikki had made me feel so much better and more confident in what would be my new position. I would still be an Omega, but that would be paired with the responsibility of Alpha Female.

  I was dozing off when the door opened to show Bolton, who had been left to guard me while Ryan and Jerry went to get everything ready, and a male nurse. The nurse had a blank look on his face instead of the usual friendly one all of the other doctors and nurses had. I looked at Bolton and he seemed to be regretting something, but I figured I would talk to him about it when the nurse left.

  The big guy had black hair that was kind of a military cut, tanned, sun roughened skin, and dark brown/almost black eyes. I got a really bad feeling from him, but let him do what he needed to do without speaking to him. I was too worried about what was wrong with Bolton.

  After the man put the injection into the IV port, he started removing the IV from my arm. Alarmed, knowing he wasn’t supposed to be doing that, I looked over to Bolton whose eyes had welled with tears.

  “What’s going on, Bolton?” I asked; panic setting in as the man just watched me. I felt light headed from whatever he’d given me.

  The tears in his eyes fell silently as Bolton backed himself against a wall, shaking his head. “I’m so sorry, Crystie.” He said brokenly. “I didn’t have a choice.”

  “Bolton what have you done?”

  “I didn’t have a choice. I had to. I didn’t have a choice.” He kept repeating that over and over again, and I could feel the self-hatred and regret coming off of him. I knew he was telling the truth; that he hadn’t wanted to help whoever was doing this.

  As I grew sleepier from the drug, I nodded to him. “It’s okay. I forgive you.”

  The last thing I saw before I fell asleep was Bolton sliding down the wall, sobbing into his hands.

  =========================================================

  I woke with a start as cold water was thrown on my face from a bucket. I was chained up against a cold block wall in a cell of some sort.

  I looked around and saw three men in the room with me. Two of them were so dirty and grimy I couldn’t really tell their features. They were staring into space, their yes holding no emotion. It truly looked like there was no one home in their bodies. I don’t even know how to describe it, but I had never felt as scared as I did at that moment.

  I looked over to the third man when I could no longer handle the look in the others’ eyes. I could see intelligence in his green eyes, and it seemed as if they held some regret, but his words held none. He was short, and pudgy with sandy blond hair. He was much cleaner than the other two.

  “I hope that you will cooperate with me because I really need your help.” He said. “The other two fought me, and when I finally had them broken down and willing to do what I wanted, they couldn’t calm my wolves and were torn to pieces.
Pissed me off, but I was too late both times.”

  “Who are you and what is it you want?” I asked. I was proud of myself because my voice sounded more confident then I felt.

  “I have been making wolves; trying to form my own pack that will be stronger than all others, but they all keep turning feral as of late. Your friend was one of my earlier wolves, but he refused to fight for me.” He walked closer. “Since I was his maker, he had to obey my command, so he ran away at the first opportunity, and I was never able to find him until I walked into the airport in Beaumont. I followed him into the bathroom and started questioning him. What did I find out but that he was joining the pack of a born Omega, which I know the legends told of them, so I think ‘Hey! Maybe she’ll be able to tame my army’.”

  “You made Bolton help you?”

  “Yes.” He said jovially. I had to reassess my first impression of his intelligence. This man was crazy. “It’s one of the many benefits of being a maker. Your wolf has to obey you until they find a mate. Which is almost unheard of. A natural born Omega…” He shook his head in delighted wonder. “The power you hold that you don’t even realize.”

  “What exactly do you want me to do? Calm your pack and that’s it?” It seemed too easy for everything that he’d done. H had to have another plan. Why was he training an army?

  “That’s the biggest part, but I do need information from you.”

  “What kind of information?”

  “I’m going to take over your pack, after the other packs merge with yours of course, and then we’ll have enough wolves to challenge the King.” He said happily like it was a done deal.

  “No! I won’t help you take over my pack or any others.”

  He immediately lost his smile and jovial demeanor. “You will if you want to make it back your precious pack! The only way you’ll go back is when I take over the Alpha’s position!”

  “I would rather die than betray my friends and family.” I told him and knew that I would. It was the only way for me to protect them all. “Why do you want to do this? What is your name?”

  “The ‘King’,” He said making quotation marks with his fingers when he said king. “Killed my family in his rise to power. The were do not need a king; we were doing fine without one, but then when he came out to claim his royal birthright, he killed any who opposed him. That included my brother, his mate and his kids. All because my brother said he would not bow down to a king.”

  I knew this history. There had not been a king or queen in two hundred years, but then a male was finally born with the royal mark signaling the rise of another king. He’d been hidden and trained until his twenty-first birthday when he came out of hiding to claim the throne. All but one American pack had celebrated. The Riverstone pack had been a vicious and deadly pack. The Alpha, Weston Hughes, and his brother Will had both openly stated that they had plans to assassinate the king, so the royal guard had killed the Alpha couple and taken the children to be raised in the royal court. They then disbanded the Riverstone pack; separating them into the other American packs. It had all been done humanely.

  “But those children are alive and well. The king had a family in his pack raise them. I met them when I went.”

  “LIES!” He yelled, making me cringe back further against the wall. “That’s what he tells everyone, but he MURDERED THEM!”

  He stood there, trying to calm his breathing. The fear coming off of me couldn’t have helped his situation. Finally, with him staring at the floor, he asked calmly. “Are you going to help me?”

  I shook my head. I wouldn’t help this man seek his revenge.

  He turned to leave, but when he got to the door he turned to the other two men. “Show her how we welcome newcomers.” And then he walked out as the two feral rogues advanced on me.

  Chapter 15

  I was so scared I was literally shaking, but I tried as hard I could to project calm to the two ferals in front of me. They seemed to hesitate, but kept advancing; shifting to wolf form as they did. I guess I couldn’t project something I was nowhere near feeling.

  They both attacked at the same time, one biting into my leg and the other attacking my side with his sharp fangs. I screamed at the pain coursing through my body, I couldn’t control it. My whole body felt like it was on fire, but amidst my screams, I heard the two wolves whine out in pain, though I couldn’t concentrate on the sound.

  Another stabbing pain shot through my already shredded leg; this time it was closer to my hip. Again, in the back of my pain ridden mind, I heard the cry of pain come from one of the wolves.

  By the time I was finally able to open my eyes and clear my mind a little of the pain I was in, the sight before me had my mouth gaping open. The two feral wolves were battling each other, teeth gnashing and claws slicing through fur. The snarling sound was almost deafening. My stomach, which was already rolling with the shock settling in my system, emptied itself of what little contents were in there.

  I saw one of the wolves grab hold of the other’s haunch with his teeth, shaking him back and forth, tearing the meat he had hold of. It was like a dog with a chew toy, but this chew toy fought back by reaching around and latching on to the other’s foreleg and snapping the bone, actually tearing the paw off.

  I closed my eyes and concentrated on breathing, but the smell of blood in the room didn’t help my stomach. Then it hit me, I was smelling the blood. I could smell the coppery tang of the blood. I could even pick up the fact that there was three sources of the fresh blood, plus some traces of old blood. I hadn’t been able to scent things like that in a couple of years. Did that mean my senses were returning? Was my wolf back?

  I tried to feel her presence, but still had silence and stillness where she should be. Still, though, I tried tugging at my restraints to see if my strength had returned, but it yielded no results. I did notice that my pain had subsided somewhat, so was praying that my healing was coming back, too. I didn’t know why it was happening, but I couldn’t be more grateful for it.

  I opened my eyes to see why the wolves had stopped snarling, and saw one with his head tilted at an unnatural angle and the other was just lying there on the concrete floor, panting. He had killed the other one. I couldn’t understand why they had fought. Their orders had been to attack me, but when they had…they had cried out in pain. Did that mean they felt the pain they had inflicted on me? I guess that would make sense. Any animal in pain lashes out if another animal comes close, and that’s basically all ferals are is animals. They have lost all of their humanity.

  If they felt my pain, then why hadn’t anyone else? Where was everyone else? I wondered if Will Hughes kept others far from me to lessen any effect of my punishments on the other wolves. I didn’t know. What I did know was that I needed to try to get away. Trent and the others would be trying to find me, but how would they know where I was? One thing a werewolf can’t do is follow a car trail and I knew that I would have been moved by car or truck. There were too many vehicles on the road to differentiate the motor, gas, and oil scents. I tried again to reach my wolf. I knew she was coming back or I would be in a heck of a lot more pain than I was. I was healing, though it wasn’t were speed, it was faster than I had been before. I tried to hear any sounds outside of the wolf that was now passed out on the floor.

  I heard nothing; no voices, no footsteps, no movement, nothing. I tried calling for a shift, but whatever they had injected me with must have made those reflexes unresponsive. I was so frustrated. I refused to sit here and be used as a pawn in some insane need for revenge. I would not betray my people like that; I would not betray my mate like that. I had to get out and warn my pack, and the King, of Hughes’ plans. I obviously had some effect on that man or he would have stayed and probably helped with the attack on me.

  I kept moving, jerking on the restraints until I could feel some give to them. I took a break to give my arms a rest. They were bleeding from where the cuffs had cut into my skin, and that was when I realized that my arm wa
s no longer broken. I couldn’t believe that I hadn’t thought of it sooner, but with everything else on my mind, I hadn’t considered it.

  The blood had stopped flowing from my wrists so, this time I grabbed hold of the cable holding me so the cuffs weren’t baring down, and started again with the jerking. I felt strength return to me, little by little. This wasn’t the normal, human-like strength I had been feeling. No, it was my wolf’s strength that I had missed for so long. I could feel her stirring, and rejoiced at the return of my wolf.

  ‘Mate!’ I heard her cry softly in my head. ‘Mate’s coming. Close.’

  Did that mean she could feel Trent? Was he here or on his way? Whatever it was, I was happy. With a huge smile on my face I kept working the steel cable. I probably looked like a maniac; all bloody and tied up, naked and smiling like a fool, but I couldn’t help it. My wolf was coming back and I knew it was because our mate was coming for me. She was ecstatic that my mate knew us and was happy with us. I could tell she was weak from suppressing herself, but the longer I worked myself, the stronger she became to help me. We were one again.

  Finally the cables broke free of the rings that were in the cement walls. When I tried one last time to shift, it actually worked. I shifted back to see how I could open the steel door. I thought that maybe Will had been the only one with a key. I looked at the door and laughed at the stupidity of the person that designed it. The hinges were on the inside. All I had to do was work on the pins and I would be able to lift the door out of the way.

  Listening hard, I tried to hear if anyone else was in the building, wherever I was. I still couldn’t hear anything, I guess I should have thought more of it, but I was just too excited to have my wolf back and to be free, I didn’t consider anything else.

  The pins were real easy. I just grabbed the top and yanked them out. It felt so wonderful to have that strength back. I hadn’t realized how low I had felt being at human strength, but the joy and buoyancy I felt now was overwhelming.