Dr. Olsen looked over at him with sharp eyes and observed how still he was, and how his eyes kept flittering between him and the young woman on the cot.
“She probably has some broken ribs,” the doctor told him turning to look at his patient. He noticed the limp arm and he carefully picked it up, but the young woman flinched on the cot.
Caden noticed the action and said in a hard voice, “What did you do?”
“It seems she may have a broken arm, Alpha,” Dr. Olsen replied taking more interest in the young woman who caused such a reaction from the young man he knew since he was in diapers.
He carefully put her arm back down before turning to Caden. “I need to get some x-rays of her,” he stated with a frown. “Unfortunately, we don’t have an x-ray machine here so I need to take her to an actual hospital to get them.”
Neither Caden nor his wolf liked the sound of that, but Caden nodded his head at the doctor’s logic.
“Fine,” he snapped looking at Abella and then he turned toward the door ignoring the inclination to stay and sit with her until she woke up.
“What the hell is wrong with me?” He growled to himself and his wolf only howled lightly not telling him anything although Caden had a feeling that he knew something.
Caden scowled as he headed down to his office not noticing the Council members or Jenna in the hallway.
In the infirmary, Dr. Olsen made his call to the hospital to admit Abella and to have access to the hospital’s equipment. He looked at the young woman on the cot and said quietly, “Who are you? Why did Caden have such a concerned, bewildered reaction to you?”
He gasped as her eyes fluttered open for a second and he stared in grey eyes filled with pain.
“I…don’t…the…answer,” she gasped out before her eyes closed again as she passed out.
Dr. Olsen looked at her again with suspicious eyes before he walked over to his desk. He grabbed a book from the bookcase behind the desk and sat down to flip through the pages until he stopped. He read what was on the page and his eyes lifted up to look at the woman lying on the cot and he settled back into his seat his gaze never leaving her.
Twenty minutes later, his phone rung snapping him out of his intent focus and he picked up the receiver listening at the voice on the other end.
“Can someone come up and help carry her down?” he asked quietly and he listened a minute before hanging up.
Then he mind-linked Caden, the ambulance that I requested has arrived and one of the men is coming up to carry her down. I will let you know more after I run the tests.
He didn’t wait for a reply as he began to collect the things he would need so when the door opened, he was shocked to see Caden. Caden had a scowl on his face and his body was tense as he strode into the room, but for some reason he didn’t want someone else carrying Abella down.
“I will carry her down,” he said woodenly as he walked over to the cot, but the doctor watched closely and as soon as Caden picked her up his body relaxed as he curled her into his chest.
The pack doctor’s eyes smiled, but all he said was, “Let’s go” leading the way as Caden followed with Abella in his arms.
Dr. Olsen supervised the transfer to the ambulance and he said quietly so that no one heard him but Caden; “I will contact you when I know more” and Caden nodded his head once before he turned heading back into the house.
Dr. Olsen climbed into the back of the ambulance chuckling to him self and shaking his head.
“Don’t worry, young lady,” he said taking her hand. “I will make sure that you are well taken care of.”
Caden walked back into the pack house with his usual scowl on his face.
“Caden,” Jessa yelled running down the stairs. “Where is Dr. Olsen taking Abella?”
“To the hospital,” he said shortly. “She needs x-rays and he doesn’t have the required equipment here to take them.”
Jessa frowned at him, but Caden ignored the look and continued to his office.
In his office, he leaned against his desk as his wolf growled at him and his mind kept going back to Abella.
“Come in,” he said absently when a knock echoed through the silent room.
Jenna sashayed in with her eyes shining and she purred, “Hey, Baby. I am glad that you are okay.”
She wrapped her body around him and began to kiss him, but Caden didn’t feel a thing so he pushed her gently away.
“Not tonight, Jenna,” he said wearily, and walked around to sit down behind his desk.
Jenna narrowed her eyes and put her hands on her hips as she said, “What is your problem, Caden? You haven’t been in the mood for almost a month.”
She sighed and said quietly, “I didn’t mean to hurt Jessa when I kissed Timothy. I was just upset that day and I wasn’t thinking clearly.”
She looked up at him through her eyelashes, but Caden didn’t even look at her.
Jenna clenched her teeth before saying, “Caden, are you ignoring me?”
Caden sighed and lifted his head looking at her squarely, “No, Jenna, I heard what you said, but at the moment I have a lot on my mind including the protection of the pack.”
Jenna’s eyes widened briefly and then she said, “I am sorry. I hope that the human will wake up soon so you can question her about what she told the rogues. I will leave you to your work.”
She smiled at him seductively although she tried to cover it with sincerity for her concern for the pack. She blew him a kiss and walked out of the office where her eyes gleamed with satisfaction. Jessa coming down the stairs saw her exit the office and her own eyes narrowed as she saw the satisfied the look in Jenna’s eyes.
“Jenna,” she said coldly as she walked past her.
Jenna grabbed her arm and said smugly, “Caden is busy at the moment, Jessa. He just asked me to leave so he could do some work.”
Jessa nodded her head knowing how hard her brother works.
“Okay,” she said quietly as she turned back around breaking Jenna’s hold on her.
“You should be more respectful to me, Jessa, as your future Alpha Female,” Jenna said harshly.
Jessa turned her head to look at Jenna neither woman noticing Mr. Alderman standing in the shadow end of the hallway.
“Jenna,” Jess warned, “Don’t be getting too ahead of your self. Caden will choose his own mate unless Leana comes back.”
Jessa scowled as she said Leana’s name, but she knew that if Leana ever came back, Caden would choose her as she was his true mate as all noble and loyal werewolves have in the past.
Jenna’s face turned ugly and she muttered, “That bitch, she doesn’t deserve a man like Caden. Even if she had been a werewolf instead of a useless human, she wouldn’t deserve him.”
Jessa shrugged her shoulders as she turned away and said over her shoulder, “Maybe, maybe not Jenna, but she is his mate and there is nothing you can really do about it.”
Jenna narrowed her eyes at her back and then she flipped her off before heading to the living room.
Mr. Alderman watched the whole exchange and he shook his head as he stepped back letting the shadows swallow him up.
The she-wolf Jenna was up to no good, but she was in for a rude awakening. He needed to get to the hospital as he headed up to his room.
After closing the door, he grabbed the orb Abella’s mom left him and Mr. Alderman mind-linked the other council members, I am going to the hospital. Please make my excuses.
He didn’t wait for their agreement as he turned off the mind-link, and with a slight spell, he was at the hospital. He straightened his old shoulders and headed into the building. One thing most of the werewolf community didn’t know was that he was a male were-witch. It was one of the reason Abella’s mom had been left under his care after the Council had found her. She had needed training with her powers and he was the obvious choice.
It seemed that his knowledge would help to train another witch although something told him that Abella was not goi
ng to be hard to train at all.
He smiled gently as he headed up to the portion of the hospital that allowed Dr. Olsen to house his patients. Dr. Olsen wasn’t a doctor on staff here, but Caden donated money to the hospital because the hospital had needed some new equipment, yet he also asked for permission so that Dr. Olsen if he ever needed it could have access to certain equipment at the hospital. Dr. Olsen rarely used it as werewolves healed quicker than humans did, especially if they stay in shifted form long enough.
Dr. Olsen was coming out of a room as Mr. Alderman arrived on the floor.
“How is she, Mac?” He asked as soon as he walked up to him.
Dr. Olsen looked at him in surprise, but answered, “She is badly hurt. She has four broken ribs, which she was lucky that it was not the same ones she had broken before, some internal bleeding, a badly sprain arm that at first glance I thought was broken, and a series of bruises across her body. I am keeping her asleep until she can handle the pain.”
Mr. Alderman nodded his head and asked, “May I see her?”
Dr. Olsen allowed the chart he was carrying to hang to his side, as he looked him at suspiciously. Then he shook his head before saying, “I believe that you know more about what is going on with this young woman than anyone else at the moment.” He looked at him closely before asking, “Does Caden need to know about this visit?”
Mr. Alderman looked at him with narrowed eyes and Dr. Olsen nodded his head in understanding.
“Okay, Jed,” he said quietly using his given name as friends would before walking away.
“Thank you, Mac,” Jed whispered before he walked into Abella’s room.
Tears came to his eyes as he viewed Abella on the bed. There were tubes running to her body and her face had a cut and swollen lip. A heart monitor was attached to her and he was relieved to see that her heart rate was normal for the moment. He walked closer and pushed back a strand of her hair.
“I know that you didn’t tell them anything even though you don’t particularly like Caden,” he whispered to her, and he watched in shock as her eyelids flickered before they stopped.
He placed the orb next to her on the table by her bed and sat down in the chair next to it.
“I need to tell you a story, Abella,” he said quietly as he leaned forward in his seat. He looked toward the figure on the bed and he began:
A long time ago, there was a man who offended the Fates and in punishment of his callous attitude to them, they cursed him with the ability to shift into a wolf. He was the first of his kind as up until that moment werewolves were merely wolves with above average intelligence. He was the first true werewolf and he started on his journey to make others of his kind. He created the first pack through his hard work although he was still learning about the abilities the Fates cursed him with, and it had been said that he could have took revenge on the Fates and destroyed anything within his path. He still had a human soul although he had a wolf soul too, and both of them didn’t care for the idea of destruction, but they did care for survival so instead of creating destruction, he decided to create life instead. Five years went by and he had created a very large pack that would eventually separate to create other packs, but that would be later down the road. He didn’t know about the concept of mates until the Fates decided since they cursed him and he didn’t use it for destruction, then he deserved a reward for his honest and hard work. They decided that each werewolf would have a mate, a person that would be their other half. Unfortunately, the Fates were to learn that their reward was going to be tested in the most severe way. The Fates learned that most of the pack members were pleased with the mate that Fate had dealt them, but there were a few who believed that they deserved better. The Fates were upset with these pack members, but decided that maybe they were wrong in the mates they had chosen so they decided that these individuals had the option of having a second mate. The Fates believed though that there had to be a line drawn to such disregard for one’s mate that an Alpha, as leader would take the punishment because they would only have one mate in their entire life.
As for our cursed werewolf who became the first Alpha, he discovered that his mate was a human female who the pack found and taken in after the slaughter of her family by a group of rogues.
She had been badly injured and after learning that she was his mate, the first Alpha had been elated and then worried because of what she had been through. As not to scare her off, he began to woo her so she could trust him and the pack. Eventually she learned to trust them, and she fall in love with our Alpha, and then he told her about the concept of mates, one special person who was an individual’s other half. She had been scared at first by the notion and turned him away, but finally she accepted the idea, or so he thought. He asked her to marry him and he knew that she had been hesitant but she said “yes.” He had been happy and he thought she was too until a few days before the wedding she had attack of nerves, and she ran away from him. He searched for her almost two years until he realized she had just disappeared and that the human part of him had begun to disappear as she had. The beast inside of him began to take control more often that his pack began to fear him although they knew that he would never harm them, but there was no one to calm him down when he needed it. For a year, the beast within him became stronger until his human half began to diminish slowly. Then one day, a young woman wondered onto the pack territory lonely and scared, but our Alpha reminded of his mate ordered her taken out of their territory. Fortunately, for him, one of his fighters decided that the young woman needed some time to heal before sending her out to defend for herself, and so he took her to his home, and his mate treated her like another daughter. It took a few months for the young woman to regain her strength and when she did, they didn’t want her to go. Unfortunately, the Alpha had learned that she was still on pack territory and he literally went into a rage in front of his pack members. It was the young woman who actually stood up to him and told him that he was being a “bastard” for raging at his pack for being kind to a wounded individual. The Alpha was stunned to see this human female standing up to him, and his pack members held their breath hoping that he would not kill the young woman. She continued to rail and holler at him as he stood there in shock watching her until finally spent, she collapsed onto the floor. He astounded the family she was staying with when he stared down at her before turning and walking out of the house. For a week, he disappeared although his best friend who later became his Beta ran the pack in his absence, and then he came back apologizing to his pack for his behavior. The pack could tell that he was trying to savage the humanity that had been slipping away from him after his mate left him, but the beast inside of him was still strong. Every once in awhile after that, the beast would come out and when that happened, the pack members knew to stay away until he calmed down. It shocked the pack when during those times the young woman was the only one who could calm him down. The Alpha, through her help, was able to bring back that human half of himself that he wanted to forget and for a year, they learned all about each other. The young woman told him of her secret that she was no ordinary human, but a witch. The Alpha had been stunned at the news, but legend has it that he laughed afterwards and just held her in his arms. Some believe that they fell in love with each other although others have argued that the Alpha had a mate so how could he love another.
Jed stopped there as he stared at Abella before he looked over at the clock and he was stunned to realize that an hour had passed.
He slowly got to his feet and his aging body creaked as he rose.
Mr. Alderman, a voice said to him through the mind-link, Caden is calling a meeting and would like us to be present for it.
Okay, he answered back.
He looked down at Abella again and he said softly, “I will continue the story next time although I am very bad at telling stories as you must have noticed.” He laughed quietly at his own joke before saying to her again, “Take care of your self, Abella.”
With th
ose words, he smiled gently said another chant, and disappeared.
Back at the pack house thirty minutes later, Jed sat in a chair in the meeting room as Caden talked with his pack.
“We don’t know if we took out all the rogues at the compound,” Caden was saying.
Jenna injected, “We don’t even know what the human told them.”
Caden shot her a glare and she snapped her mouth closed.
“I am putting the pack on alert until further notice. The patrols will be increase and for those still in school, I want you to go to school together and return home together. I don’t want to give any other rogues the chance to take one of our own. We will also increase training and everyone able and willing will attend.” Caden made sure that the whole pack understood what he was saying. In addition, he made sure all pack children would be housed in the pack house, as would their families. The pack house was big enough to house the new families, but it was going to be crowded for a few days until Caden was positive that they gotten all the rogues.
Jed watched Caden as he talked and the older man could see how Caden’s eyes flashed blacker as his wolf kept trying to gain control although Caden was keeping him reigned for now.
After the meeting, Caden walked away without a word to anyone although Jenna tried to catch his attention.
Jed heard a few of the pack members talking as the council left the room.
“The Alpha is beginning to lose himself,” one murmured.
“How can you say that? He is trying to protect the pack,” another argued.
“Really, and yet, it seems to me he has us all trapped in one place if the rogues do attack. I am just saying that ever since his mate left him, he has been thinking a lot more irrationally that is all,” the other countered.
“So what would you do differently?” The first one asked, but there was no answer.
The silence was broken by one of the council members mumbling to the others, “Alpha Caden needs to get a mate and soon” and the others nodded their head in agreement.
The Witch Prophecy Page 7