“I didn't... I never knew they... Jason, I swear to you I had no idea they had a pup.” Bolder's words confirm my initial thought, but I hold no resentment against him. I heard the story, and he did nothing wrong, I would have done the same if I were in his shoes. I would kill first and ask questions later if my mate were hurt.
“Alpha Bolder, Beta Tison, Brian. I have to tell you something that's been nagging me from the start. Bear in mind this started even before I knew Samantha and I were mates.
Brian, you very well know that Marie and I never got along. It might have been childish and in some way similar to sibling rivalry, but the truth is I have always had a bad feeling about her. I don't know how to explain it, but always seemed off somehow, even as kids. She would just stare at her friends whenever they scraped their knees of something, not helping, but definitely provoking the accidents. And how she always managed to look innocent and never get in trouble, it was just so cold blooded and... “
OK screw it. I'm just going to say it. If they laugh and call me crazy, it's fine. At least I've put it out there.
“I always thought she was a psychopath. OK, I know I might sound a bit much, but if she is her father's daughter, then she might have set Sam up for everything, right?”
I'm in a full blows Kanye W style ranting at this point.
“The bullying in school, the attack and stabbing of Sam and even getting my dad to lock her up in the dungeons to be tortured. I just know it my bones that Marie knows who Samantha is and also knows what happened to her parents. I can just feel it, Luder feels it too.”
I could feel Alpha Bolder's anger rise and, as soon as I said about Sam getting stabbed and locked up in the dungeons, he just erupted like a fucking volcano. And who can blame him? He rose to his feet and a loud angry growl echoed, not just through the office, but I'm pretty sure through the whole grounds of the Academy. He's one scary Alpha, I'll give him that.
“Get you stuff boys, you have officially graduated from the Academy.” He decrees after calming down and his anger subsided enough to allow words to come out of his mouth instead of growls.
“Hell yeah! Wait, what? But we didn't win against you.” Brian's confusion matches mine to a tee, although I wouldn't have questioned Bolder's decision. I would have accepted it, not giving him any chance to change his mind.
I was about to shove my elbow into Brian side, to make that idiot shut up, when I suddenly start feeling dizzy.
What the fuck, why do I feel so drained, all if a sudden, and why are my ankles and wrists stinging? It lasts only for a few seconds, and none of the men in the room seem to notice. I try to shake it off, and rise from my seat, prepared to go and pack my bags, when it hits me again. The dizziness, the severe lack of energy, the pain, oh Goddess, the pain.
This time they notice, mainly because I collapsed back into my chair with a thump.
“Jason, are you feeling alright, buddy?” Tison eyes me suspiciously.
I move to respond. “Yeah, I jus... “ when another wave hits me again, this time in full force and I can almost make out an incredibly faint voice asking for help.
It didn't take me or Luder too long to figure it out. These are not my feelings, they are my mate's.
“Samantha's in trouble. It's bad. I think she might be hurt!” I scream at Bolder, trying my best not to faint because of what my mate's projecting onto me.
Luder tries to convey to her that we heard her and we're coming, but I am not sure she is hearing him.
“Do we know where she is?” Bolder asks and picks up a mobile phone.
“Back home, I don't think she would have left.” I answer, silently praying to the Moon Goddess for Sam not to have left. The memory of her telling me she was planning to leave Crescent Moon still haunts me.
“Let's go. I have a plane ready to take us to England, but even with it being a superspeed one, it will still be a few hours until we get there.
Do you have anyone you can trust to go search for her before we arrive?” I know who I can ask for help, but I hate it with all my being. Luder snarls because he knows exactly who I am going to call.
I try to reason with my wolf and explain that I don't like this any more than he does, but it's for our mate. Her life, her safety and wellbeing is more important than our Alpha male pride. He agrees, and I let Alpha Bolder know I have someone that can help.
“Let's go. I'll make the call on the way to the plane. I don't want to waste any more time.”
We all leave in a hurry not bothering with packing anything to take with us. Tison doesn't join us, because he needs to stay in the States and take care of the pack in absence of their Alpha. So it's just Alpha Bolder, Brian and myself speeding to reach the private airstrip as soon as possible.
It's time I swallow my pride and make the call I've been dreading.
In the 3 minutes that our conversation lasted, I have given Alpha Luke of the Blood Moon pack the minimum amount of essential information. I was careful to tell him enough so he knows what and who he's dealing with, and just how great the danger is.
The avalanche of insults addressed to me when he put two and two together has made Luder vow to rip his head off as soon as he lays eyes on him. He figured out who his adversary is in the fight for Sam's heart. He knows I'm her mate, but he's not stupid, he also knows I tried to reject her. I didn't say anything, I knew I deserved it, and right now I need Alpha Luke on my team. I'm not exactly thrilled about him being Sam's knight in shining armour for the millionth time, but desperate times and all..
As soon as our plane landed in England, and we had cell reception once again, my phone rings. I pick up after the second ring, knowing it's going to be Luke.
“We found them. A few of us are scouting the area from a distance.”
“Why haven't you moved in on them, yet? We need to take her out of there as soon as possible.”
“I didn't know how you wanted to play this. There might be people involved that you might not be prepared to hurt.”
“Who?” I ask, my patience running thin and myself running to the car that will take us to where Luke and his guys are.
“I'm not sure if you knew this, but Jennifer, Samantha's friend has joined my pack recently. She insisted to be part of the group to look for Sam, and she recognised some of the people going in and out of the building where she is being held.”
“Who?” I ask again, losing the last bit of patience.
“Jennifer said she saw Samantha's adoptive parents.”
I don't know how to react, or what to tell Luke. I get why he hasn't taken action yet. Has Marie really stuffed everyone's head with lies about Samantha? Who else is in on this? I can't help but wonder if my parents have joined Marie. I shook the thought away as soon as it popped in my head.
“We'll be there in half an hour. Wait for us, unless it's absolutely necessary to strike.” I bark at an annoyed Luke before I end the call. I can tell he likes me just as much as I like him.
I already know Brian and Bolder heard my conversation with Luke, so we start talking strategies right away. Alpha Bolder suggests that both myself and Brian call or text our parents to check in on them and see if they might be involved in Marie's plan in any way. It's a great idea, so I call my father first. Him and mom are on their anniversary trip in Lake District. They go every year for 3 days to celebrate their anniversary. I curse myself when I'm hit by the realization that my parents were away from the pack, doing stuff I didn't want to know about. So I just apologise and make up a stupid reason for calling them. I just said the first thing that came into my mind when dad told me where they were. I wished them a happy anniversary and ended the call as quickly as possible. Safe to say they are not in on Marie's plan, and I don't think this is a good time to tell them.
Next up is Brian who calls his mom, because his dad didn't pick up on the first try. I can see how nervous that made him, and I'm nervous too, but with my dad gone, Mr Richards would be very busy running the pack.
It l
ooks like I was right, because Brian's mom tells him that his dad is very busy with pack business. She complains that it is not a good time for the Alpha and Luna to take a few days off since they had some random attacks and border breaches. She sighs telling Brian that is nothing too serious, it's just a lot of work for the pack leaders.
Before he hangs up, Brian casually mentioned my cousin. I have to give it to him, he inserted her smoothly into the conversation, asking his mom if Marie was helping her take care of the Luna's duties until she came back. The reply his mom gave him was the final bit of evidence we needed. If any of us had any doubts before, they've cleared now. We learned from Brian's mother that Mary said she was going to visit Jennifer in Blood Moon pack while my parents are away. Apparently she said she wanted to spend some time there in the hopes of finding her mate. Of course nobody questioned her reasoning. She just turned 18 and didn't find her mate in our pack. How fucking convenient.
We all look at each other, obviously knowing what Mrs Richards didn't.
28 - Breakdown
Samantha
I still here, still in this box of a room. I grit my teeth. My vision is starting to be spotty and I know I'm showing some signs of dehydratation.
Each time I open my eyes I hope to see something else, I hope to wake up and find that it all was just a nightmare. Everything. I hope that I would open my eyes and find that it's the first day of school.
Our senior year in high school, the day when we find out our ranks. The day I sit in the crowd, bored to death, joking away with Jen and Marie and accepting my Beta rank. A somewhat uneventful day. We would gave started school where I would have never been bullied, first because I was the Commander's daughter and a Beta, and second because I was Marie's best friend.
In this scenario, finding that Jason is my mate would have been a great thing, cliché in the best way possible.
A flash of anger sweeps through me when I open my eyes and see that I'm still in this room.
As the seconds, the minutes, the damn hours, pass without anything new happening, I become agitated, frustrated, and borderline manic.
I wish I was anywhere else, but here. Anywhere.
At least when I was locked up in the pack's dungeons, I knew what time of day it was. I had my own twisted little way of deducing if it's morning, afternoon or the dead of night.
I knew, from being a pack member, roughly when the guards' shifts would end and when the next group would start. Based on whomever came to apply more beatings, or practice new torture methods, I was able to figure out if they are the morning shift, the afternoon ones, and so on, thus knowing at least if it was day or night. No such luxuries in this box.
I huff at myself, and get angry soon after, as if a switch had been flipped.
What is wrong with me that I consider that as an achievement? I am an Alpha, for Goddess' sake, I am Marie's equal. And friend or not, I could challenge her and I could also win. She was never the one to train too hard.
I start crying hysterically. I can't challenge Marie. I could never win against her, who am I kidding? If she is as determined as she showed me, then she must have started training, hard. Even if I would somehow be stronger than her, I don't particularly like the idea of hurting Marie, despite what she's done to me. She has every right to hate me, my family did murder her parents, after all.
I should just give up, that would be the easiest thing to do, for everyone. I wouldn't be missed that much anyways.
My mind starts listing a list of pros and cons in regards to me living or dying. It's decided amongst my current multiple personalities, that dying wins. It's OK to give up and allow the lights to finally switch off.
I start thinking of the people in my life and the impact my imminent death could have on them.
Jennifer will be hurt the most, probably, but she has Ryan now, and he will get her through it, they will be just fine, I'm sure.
My mind goes to the great guy that would leave anything and come to my rescue, no questions asked. Luke will go on and meet his mate, the girl that needed his help way too many times, without offering anything in return, will long be forgotten.
I smile when I think about Carla and Rudy. They will keep themselves busy with The Hound and will need to hire new help, but they will manage alright. They are such kind souls that have helped me when everyone else turned their back on me.
Thinking about Jason pains me the most. I tried to reach out through our bond, but had nothing in return. I guess Jason will be more than fine, I should worry about him. Me dying would be the best thing he could have hoped for, it's the answer to the problem I arose, his way out.
He will be free of me and the Moon Goddess might even bless him with a second chance mate. My blood boils when I imagine Jason's second chance mate to be Rianna. Oh, how I would come back to haunt and scare the living days out of that bitch.
I pull hard on my shackles, fists balled, rage consuming me for a few seconds, before the pain from the silver coating becomes to much and I relax my hands.
“That's enough!” Ming's voice shocks me out of the imaginary world I was creating. I am so happy to hear her voice once more. “Stop this fucking moping session, and pull yourself together from what I can only assume is your way of having a mental breakdown.”
Auch, that kind of hurt my feelings a bit, but who wouldn't go the same path I just went on? I have no idea how long I've been here. I had nothing to eat or drink, my mouth is as dry as the Sahara. I've been drugged, and while unconscious, I've wet myself. I don't even want to think about what is going to happen when I would need to open my bowels. I would rather die, this is enough humiliation and psychological torture to break even the strongest and sharpest of minds.
Ming's response to my ranting thoughts was a series of growls and snarls.
“How come you're strong enough to preach me when I could barely feel your presence a few minutes ago?” I cautiously ask my wolf.
“Our mate is making me stronger. If you would calm down, you could get a bit stronger also.” Ming's reply makes no sense in my mind. A big part of me is getting more certain all this is just another figment of my overactive imagination. In fact I become more and more convinced that my wolf has died. I am certain now that what I am hearing is not Ming, but another one of my personalities.
I have gone insane. I start to trash around, the silver in the chains and cuffs searing through my skin, but I am too deranged to feel pain in the traditional sense. I can almost take pleasure in that. I start to partly shift, but it can't be, my wolf is surely dead, so I must be imagining this as well.
I see the door opening, revealing the worried face of my mate. Jason. For the briefest of moments, I almost melt, wanting nothing more than for him to take me far away from this place, and tell me it's all going to be alright, that I'm safe with him. But I know better, he can't be here, he is not real, it's just my sick mind playing tricks on me. I laugh, not really finding all this funny, more like sick and twisted.
I start yelling incoherent things as the man approaches me. In my eyes, I see him as Jason, but it may very well not even be real, this might be just another hallucination, albeit a vivid one. I start to feel cornered and confused. This turns into fear and I try to fight him with all my might.
He is speaking to me, I can see his lips moving, but I don't hear anything of what he's saying. My brain is clearly playing weird tricks on me. He breaks the shackles open and tries to take me in his arms. Instead, I try my hardest not to let him touch me. It's in my mind, nothing good can be happening right now. Marie must be hiding behind that door, laughing at my expense, enjoying the torture I'm enduring.
A hand touches my shoulders, while another one snakes under my legs, trying to scoop me up. I enter full panic mode, I kick, bite and use my nails to cause as much damage as possible.
I felt like I was winning, but more people burst into the room, and someone jams something that feels like a needle in my left arm.
I think it's done, I th
ink Marie finally killed me, and I just realised I actually wanted to live.
29 - Strike
Jason
I was honestly expecting more of an epic fight, I was fully prepared for way more casualties, we all were. But I guess, half of winning if having the right motivation, having genuine reasons that make the battle worth fighting for.
After getting acquainted quickly and telling each other our strengths and weaknesses, Alpha Bolder, Brian, Alpha Luke, his Beta and Jennifer and I have spent a few more hours spying on the old abandoned bunker and surrounding area. I did not count on Marie having so many helpers. She might have spent all her newly received fortune on building this small, disorganised army
As far as I could tell, everyone from Marie's side was in it for the wrong reasons, mainly money. Most, if not all, were mercenaries and rogue wolves, who knew nothing about working as a team. Us, on the other hand, were all pack wolves, highly motivated by the need to save Samantha.
There had to be at least 100 of them versus our small team, but as soon as we got past the shock of seeing the sheer numbers my dear cousin managed to gather, we focused on studying them for a bit, seeing what we can expect. It didn't take long and we concluded that their only strength was the number. Literally, they were so weak and disorganised, that we got super pumped and felt we had a real chance to get to Sam quickly. Luder confirmed that he can reach Samantha's wolf, and they are in there, so we knew we had to act fast.
We all had our reasons for wanting her safe, and we managed to set aside any differences and fight like brothers, side by side. OK, maybe not like brothers, more like team mates. And yeah, I mean Luke and I. Everyone seemed a bit unsure about us working together, but I think we proved them all that we can set aside our egos and focus on doing the task at hand, like gentlemen. We'll resume disliking each other once Samantha's safe, no doubt about it.
Of course, having someone like Alpha Bolder in our corner, made a huge difference. The man is a literal beast, and was ruthless to whomever stood in the way of him finding his niece. I've never seen anyone plough through the enemy like that and leave an actual trail of bodies behind. But I am not complaining, neither of us are.
Fight For The Highest Wolf Rank Page 14