THE ALPHA's MATE: A Romantic Thriller

by Jennifer Winget

  I turn to her, giving her a reassuring smile that I’m alright now before I focus on what Rolfe said.

  “The attack was a diversion,” I say, knowing full well what they were after, but I couldn’t say it out loud.

  “I got two of them in the forest, but I wasn’t quick enough to stop the rogue from reaching the house. I’m sorry Ellie.”

  I stare at the two men who had been here. The rogue had gotten them pretty good, but they should be able to recover just fine, “No one died, it wasn’t your fault,” I tell him.

  Because it’s ours, Raelynn adds, speaking my exact thoughts, We need to tell mate the truth.

  We will. When it’s time, I tell her.

  “Luna!” a guard yells as he rushes into the house, “Luna, the attack is over and the warriors are on their way back.”

  “Alright,” I tell him, before instructing him on what to do, “Run to the pack doctor’s and tell Jade to be prepared for our injured.”

  “Yes Luna,” he says before racing out the door he just came in from.

  I turn to Rolfe, “Can you go to the pack cells and help Walker?”

  He nods before giving me a quizzical look, “How do you know he will be there?”

  “Trust me, he’ll be there.”

  With that Rolfe left the house as I turned to Sawyer who had exited the safe room to help.

  “We need to help get people to Jade,” she nods her head as she bends down and tells the little girl attached to her leg to go tell everyone that it is safe before we head out the door, only to be greeted by hundreds of warriors exiting the woods.

  Kids ran to their parents as mates reconnected. Scanning my eyes over the crowd, I couldn’t see Axton anywhere.

  “Luna,” someone called as I went to the wounded soldier on the ground. Creating a tourniquet quickly on the gash on his leg, I told one of the men to get him to Jade.

  I went to each one of the warriors who were at the field, checking to make sure everyone was alright.

  I scanned the field again when I finally saw him helping one of the warriors and directing a patrol to watch the border. He turned as if sensing me and our eyes connected.

  The second Axton’s eyes met mine, he was in front of me. His eyes roamed every part of my body, checking for any sign of harm, “Are you alright? Are you hurt at all?”

  He grabs my arm, but there isn’t even a sign that a wound had been there. All that’s left was a little scratch.

  “Axton, I’m right here,” I reassure him as I place my hand against his cheek. He pulled me into his chest as he breathed in my scent.

  “Rolfe linked me that a rogue got into the house,” he said as he pulled away to examine me again.

  “I told you, I’m fine,” I say again. I noticed his wounds as his chest moved up and down. I could see deep cuts across it, “You’re hurt.”

  “I’m fine,” he shakes it off as he just keeps looking at me.

  “Axton,” my voice was cut off when I looked into his eyes. He was still looking over every inch of me, trying to make sure that I was here, that I was safe. That’s when I saw it, that emotion that wanted to tear me in two.

  It was fear, fear of losing me as I had felt his pain when he was hurt as he had felt mine.

  There was another fear there. The fear he must have felt when I left. The heart wrenching fear of losing a mate, of having them taken from you. I recognized it because I held felt when I thought he had rejected me. I was wrong.

  But there wasn’t just fear in his eyes either. There was love and need and desire all swirling around in them.

  “Axton,” I say again, this time drawing his eyes to mine before I grab his collar as I pull his lips down to mine.

  Chapter 20

  Ellie POV

  I could feel every emotion in that one kiss. All the fear and the relief and the love were overpowering in that one kiss.

  I pulled away as he rested his forehead against mine. My eyes were still closed as the smile refused to leave my lips.

  “I love you Ellie,” Axton whispers, making my eyes flash open to meet his as he gives me a soft smile, “I know you might not believe that yet or you still aren’t sure that I am in this a hundred percent, but I am. I love you; I’ve never stopped.”

  My wolf howled in my head at the joy of hearing our mate’s words as I smiled up at him.

  I don’t know why after all that’s happened I would believe him, but I knew in my heart that he wasn’t lying. I don’t know what happened between us, if it really was a warlock that had separated us or not, I just knew that I believed him. When I looked into his eyes, all I saw were the same ones that had met mine on that first night during his birthday party. All I saw was love.

  “Axton, I love you too,” I told him before smashing my lips against his in a much more heated kiss that left us both breathless and smiling like too idiots.

  “Daddy!” a little voice screamed. I turned around just in time to see Zea running past all the wolves and into Axton’s awaiting arms, “Are you okay? There were a bunch of bad wolves,” she rushed out as Axton rubbed her back, trying to soothe her.

  “I’m fine,” he tells her, smiling at her questioning look.

  “Good!” she yells excitingly.

  “Luna!” Reid screams as he comes running up to us, “Ellie, we need you in the pack doctor’s office. Doc says she could use you to help some of our injured.”

  “Of course,” I turn back to Axton, “Will you take her?” I ask him, nodding my head to Zea.

  “I’ll take her home along with some of the other kids,” he tells me as he places one of his large hands against my cheek, “Are you sure you’re alright?”

  I gave an exasperated sigh, “I told you, I’m fine. I’ll be home soon.”

  Giving him one last kiss, I rushed off to help Jade.

  ◆◆◆

  Running into the doctor’s office, I went straight for the first patient I saw. Cuts and claw marks radiated his body as he held tightly onto a bleeding gash in his thigh. Without a second’s thought, I grabbed a suture kit and cleaned out his wounds before dressing them and giving him morphine for his pain.

  Then I moved on to the next and the next. One of the best things about wolves are that we heal. Maybe not instantaneously, but we heal ten times faster than any human so most of the injured that I saw were stitched up and on their way back home before two hours even went by.

  However, some of the more severe cases were still here. Those were the ones that Jade was focusing on. I walked up to her as she worked to rebreak a misaligned arm.

  “Need help?”

  “Always. Grab his shoulders while I twist,” she told me as I brace his shoulders, forcing all my weight into so he wouldn’t move, “On the count of three. One.”

  In one motion, she snapped his arm again.

  “So much for three,” I laughed.

  “Yeah well, math was never really my thing,” she smiled as she put the bone in a splint, “Hey, thanks for helping out. I know it’s probably been awhile since you’ve been back in a doctor’s office.”

  “It’s fine. I actually kind of missed it.”

  “Oh yeah?”

  “Yeah, I always loved helping people, especially on nights like tonight when they really need another hand,” I tell her honestly.

  “Of course, you love helping people and taking care of the pack,” she says, giving me a smirk, “That’s the Luna in you.”

  I laugh as that as I take off my surgical gloves and toss them in the trash bin, “The Luna, huh. I don’t know about that,” I smile before changing the subject, “Are you alright?”

  “I’m fine. Why do you ask?” she said, hurriedly.

  “I didn’t see you at the pack house. I figured you were out in the field during the attack,” I tell her, “I just wanted to make sure that the doctor was just as healthy as she is making her patients.”

  She gives me a soft smile, “There you go again, always wanting to take care of the pack. A ro
gue did get close, but one of the guards got him. I’m fine.”

  “Okay,” I tell her, but something just doesn’t feel right, “Jade, what was it you were trying to tell me earlier?”

  “What?” she asked, taken back slightly before quickly stammering out some lie, “I wasn’t trying to tell you anything. Why- why would I even know anything. I don’t, that’s it- I don’t know anything and-”

  “Jade,” I grab her shoulders before pulling her into one of the empty rooms, “What is going on?”

  She bit her lip as she stared at the ground, “I don’t think I can tell you.”

  “Jade, we have never lied to each other before and we aren’t going to start now. What were you going to tell me and how do you know about Zea?”

  She let a deep breathe before finally looking into my eyes, “I know about Cortez the same way I know how you and Axton were separated and I know why.”

  I took a step from her, “What?”

  “I promise, I didn’t know until after the fact. He was keeping a promise he made to me. He was trying to protect you,” she rushed out.

  “Who?” hurt that my own friend knew and didn’t tell me.

  “The warlock, one of Cortez’s.”

  “Michael,” I say, knowing there was only one who ever showed me kindness. The one who helped me to escape without Cortez ever knowing about Zea.

  “Yes. He’s on his way here to explain everything to you, but I just needed you to know that it wasn’t Axton that night,” she pauses for a second before continuing, “But I’m not convinced the rogues were acting on anyone’s orders but Cortez’s. He planned this attack.”

  I scoffed, “I figured as much. What do you know about Zea?”

  “I know what she is and I know why you need to protect her,” she says.

  I was about to ask her more but Reid came barging into the room, “Luna, you’re needed at the pack house for the meeting.”

  “I’ll be there in a second,” I tell him.

  He looks between me and Jade hesitantly before nodding, “Of course Luna.”

  The second he is out of the room, I turn back to Jade.

  “Promise me you won’t say a word about this to anyone,” she nods her head before I continue, “Good. I’ll deal with all of this when Michael gets here. I know Cortez, he wouldn’t attack a pack like this to get to me unless he had a few men on the inside, so watch your back,” I turned to leave before turning back to her, “And don’t think for a second we are done talking about this.”

  I quickly walked out of the room and started following Reid down the hall and towards the pack house while Reid filled me in with the current information from the rogues that were now in the cells that Walker had been integrating since the attack.

  “None of them are talking,” Reid began as we rounded the corner, “There were fifty-two killed during the attack and thirteen seriously injured and captured.”

  There was so much I was thinking of. I thought about everything Cortez had done to me. I thought about Zea and the danger she will be put in if Cortez ever discovered the truth. I thought about all the danger I had brought into the pack by coming back here and the danger to my mate.

  “How many of ours died?” I asked, pushing all my fear about Cortez and my thoughts about how Jade knows Michael to the back of my mind and focusing solely on being the Luna Axton’s mother had taught me to be.

  “Three pack warriors,” he said, pausing for a second to let it sink in. Three of our members died, “About thirty-two warriors were injured in which you treated many of them with Jade. Axton’s called a meeting with us and hopefully Walker can get some information out of just one of the rogues.”

  “Alright before I go into the meeting, I want to see all of the three pack warriors’ families to talk to them about their loses. Tell Axton not to wait for me in the meeting, I might be a little while. Also, send a few pack members who have had any medical training to help Jade with any of the injured. Make sure that everyone who was there during the fight has gotten checked out and cleared by Jade. Then, double the patrol on the border to watch out for a second attack. I want all borders being watched twenty-four seven,” I told him as we walked through the front door.

  “I’ll make sure you get the address for the families and I’ll send Sawyer over with a few others to help Jade, and Axton has already ordered the border watch with the extra guards,” Reid said before turning to face me, “Ellie, take a breath. I know this attack is throwing you into full on Luna mode right now, but just take a second and collect your thoughts.”

  I took a deep breathe in and out before answering him, “I’ll be fine. I’m going to go talk to the families,” I held up my hand to stop him from interrupting me, “And yes, I will take two guards with me, even though I know I can take care of myself. Tell Axton that I will be back soon and not to worry about me, please.”

  “Of course, Ellie,” he nods and gives me a small smile before heading down the hall to Axton’s office while I turn around and go back out the door I came from.

  I had spent two hours talking to the families. Many of the members were touched and thanked me for coming to talk to them personally, but all I kept thinking about was how this was my fault: How I had brought this attack onto them.

  Pushing the oak door open, I squeezed silently into the room as Walker was talking to Axton, “I don’t know what else to try.”

  “Not a single one of them is willing to give a name, even under torture?” Rolfe asked from the chair beside Axton’s desk as Reid paced near the window.

  “There has to be at least one of them who are willing to say why they attacked us,” Reid said, “Rogues know what happens when they get close to this territory. We haven’t even seen a rogue in almost a year and now, all of a sudden, a group of them attack the pack. It doesn’t make sense unless they were after something.”

  “None of them are willing to talk,” Walker says while turning his focus to Axton, “Half of them have died, not because of their injuries, but because they killed themselves. We know nothing about this attack or who is behind it.”

  “That’s because they are more afraid of him then they are of us.”

  Every face in the room turned to look at me, unaware that I was even in the room.

  “What do you mean, Ellie?” Rolfe questioned me.

  “The person who attacked us, he’s not like other rogues. He doesn’t care about whose territory this is or how many other rogues would die in an attack, but the rogues will follow him because they know. They know to be afraid of him, so afraid that they would rather kill themselves then even think about turning on him.”

  “How do you know so much about this rogue?” Walker asks.

  “Because I know who attacked us, I know who he is and what he wants,” I said before continuing, “He’s ruthless, sadistic, and blood thirsty. He wants what was stolen from him and he is willing to risk anything and everything to get it.”

  “Who is he?” Walker asks.

  “And what exactly does he want?” Axton spoke up, drawing my focus to him. I could tell in his eyes that he knew the answer to his question; he just needed me to confirm it.