Chapter 42 My Wolf
forty-two
My Wolf
*BENJAMIN*
The walls around my mind tense up first, and a blinding headache flashes through my body, so much that I have to close my eyes. I don’t even feel the guys around me kicking or punching me anymore. The pain of my walls being ripped down is so much worse.
One by one, they crumble. Each one makes my head feel like it’s being split into pieces. When I think I can’t bear it anymore, the pain so intense I might just die from it, it stops. A dull ache, the only reminder that my head felt like it was exploding only a few seconds ago.
My human.
The fog of my mind clears up, and I can see his head. Proud and beautiful with gray fur and alert, smart eyes.
You are here, I whisper. You are really here!
I always was, he tells me. I am sorry for staying hidden for so long. I had to… to make sure we survived.
What’s your name?
Stellan, he says. He is so composed, so different to how I am, but there is an air of comfort around him that pulls me in. It feels like I finally came home, like the last piece of my being finally appeared and makes me feel whole again.
Stellan, we are dying. We can’t survive these vampires.
Let me handle it, he says, like it’s the most normal thing. I had years in which I stayed hidden, to heal. I have a lot of strength.
He is so mature. Poor Stellan… ended up with a human like me.
You are wrong to think that, he scolds. I should have been stronger, yet it took me all this time to come forward. Not even our mate bond made me strong enough. Our wonderful mate! You protected her all on your own. He pauses, looking guilty. Well, that’s a talk for later. Let me come forward.
He doesn’t need to ask twice. I take a mental step back, allowing him to take charge, and with a loud growl, I can feel him taking over my body.
He shifts effortlessly, as though we weren’t bound by silver just half an hour ago.
Stellan tears through the first vampire, without much effort, and then jumps onto the next.
“How is that possible?” one of the guards yells.
Stellan ignores the ruckus around us, instead focusing on the battle ahead of us. He dodges an attack and rips through that attacker.
“Master Atticus, what is happening!? His last dish contained some wolfsbane, and he should be weakened by the silver-“
“Shut up and get out of here to get help,” Atticus orders.
Stellan raises his head, gazing up to the tribune. Our gaze meets Atticus’s eyes. With the other guards dead or unconscious, I expect him to jump down and fight us. But he simply stands there, shockingly calm, just looking at us.
The door to the tribune opens, and a woman steps out next to Atticus. I instantly recognize her by her short hair and tall athletic body. She is Silas’s ally, or so we thought. The woman named Juniper, who definitely sold us out.
“You were right, Juniper,” Atticus mutters. “He is of alpha blood.”
Juniper stares at me. There is something in her eyes, something I can’t quite put my finger on. What is she trying to tell me?
“If you are not gone by the count of three,” Atticus suddenly disrupts our stare-down. “I will come down and kill you.”
I don’t know what type of game he is playing, but Juniper and Atticus are a different league of warriors, just like Lucian. Battling them while still weakened would be stupid. Let’s get out of here, I tell Stellan. We need to find Nova and Maddie!
Right, priorities, Stellan agrees, before handing me back the reins.
I don’t waste any time on Atticus and Juniper and dash out of the room.
We need to find Maddie and Nova as quickly as possible.
Maddie in particular. I am sure Nova knows how to handle herself, but Maddie is a child, and she is in grave danger.
I have no idea where I am, but with Stellan’s help, I manage to find my way up the several floors, until I am back to where my cell was located.
Stellan dashes past it, knocking one of the guards off who tries to jump into our way.
Now that he is fully awake, I feel so much stronger, so much more powerful and present.
I didn’t know this was how it feels to have my wolf spirit.
While Stellan was always with me and I was able to use parts of his power and shift, I only now realize how weakened I actually was.
That’s Nova’s scent! I exclaim.
She is a couple of floors upstairs, Stellan growls. Let’s get her out of wherever she is.
Oddly enough, I take up Nova’s scent in various places. She must have moved around a bit. I have no idea how she did that, and how she outsmarted the vampires, I just know she did. If anything, she has proved to be the born beta with her skills. Nerves of steel and dangerously cunning.
There she is, I exclaim when we reach the second floor and Nova steps out of a room. She eyes us instantly. “Benji?” she whispers.
I shift back to my human form. “Yes, it’s me.”
“You got away from them!”
“So did you,” I say.
Nova wipes a knife with her clothes and puts it away. “Grab something to dress in from the guard in my room?”
I nod, hurrying inside and pausing momentarily when I notice the room is empty.
“Bathroom,” Nova whispers. I follow her instructions, rushing to the bathroom and ripping the door open.
The tiles of the bathroom floor are splattered in blood.
There was clearly a fight happened here.
My eyes fall onto a vampire, blood is leaking out of a wound, and he is gagged and tied to the sink, but he still seems to be alive.
Barely. “He didn’t do anything to me,” Nova explains.
“It felt wrong to kill him. But he’ll be out of it for a couple of hours. I made sure of that.”
With Nova’s help, I tug his pants and shirt off and slip into the clothes, ignoring the uncomfortable, wet feeling of his bloody shirt on my skin. At least it’s a dark shirt, so Maddie won’t recognize it as blood when we find her.
“Give me the short version,” I tell Nova.
“They believed I was a helpless girl,” she explains. “Outsmarted them. Found my way around here. And you?”
“They forced me to fight. My wolf resurfaced in full strength and killed the men. That lieutenant, though…”
“Atticus?” she asks.
“Oh, you met him, then?”
“Yeah, he is not easy to crack,” she mutters. “I am not sure if he truly believed my shtick.”
“Same here. He could have fought me, but didn’t even try to stop me.”
“What’s he playing at?” Nova wonders.
“Whatever, but we need to get out of your room. They will look for us here first.”
She nods. “And my cover is bust too now, with me attacking that dude,” she grabs my arm, tugging me along. “Come, I found some spots here where we can sneak around. The building is huge.”
“What if Maddie is in the dungeons?”
“No.” She shakes her head. “She is mostly alone in her room, but they have two or three guards who attend to her, and they are always in this area. She is either on my floor or the one above.”
“What are we going to do when we find her?” I ask as we sneak through the corridor and then disappear into a storage room.
Nova leads me further out of a window and onto a small balcony.
An emergency ladder is leading to the floor upward, and we decide to take it.
“How do we get out of here once we’ve found her? ”
“I have no idea,” Nova admits. “It would be easier for both of us to run, as we aren’t their top priority. They want Maddie.”
We both halt when we hear voices from a window next to us. Holding our breaths, we keep stock still. We might be on the emergency ladder outside, but if they hear or spot us, we are certainly done.
“Lady Juniper,” a male voice can be heard. “I have brought to you the child’s blood, as requested.”
“Finally, took you long enough,” Juniper snarls. “Lord Aloysius is already getting impatient, and you know what he will do to you if he snaps.”
“It’s just… the girl was crying so much. We should have taken that werewolf girl to her. Should I fetch her now?”
“No,” Juniper says. “Master Atticus agrees that we shouldn’t involve the werewolf woman in our business. She might just alert that boy. Did you find him?”
“No, he escaped the dungeons!”
“Put your priorities into finding him and forget the woman for now. And send a guard to the fourth floor to guard the kid.”
Nova and I exchange a gaze. We don’t need to say anything, both of us thinking the same.
They are focusing on my escape, which buys us a bit of time now.
Also, Maddie is on the fourth floor! Once it’s silent again, Nova and I continue our climb until we reach the top of the building.
The fourth floor is the last, and once there, I indeed take up Maddie’s scent.
Nova and I sneak inside again through a window and hide in another storage room. “We need a plan,” I suggest.
“We do.” Nova looks at me insistently. “Benj, you are an alpha’s son.”
“Yeah, I know, and?”
“You have certain gifts and talents. You were your father’s firstborn, his heir.”
“I am weak,” I say. “And I don’t mean that in a ‘poor-me’ stance. I am. My wolf was broken, and he only surfaced fully now.”
Right, Stellan?
I am sorry, Stellan says. As an alpha wolf, I should have more gifts, but I lost most of them when I made sure to save us.
“He says the same,” I tell Nova. “We barely have any gifts and-“
“Who cares about our gifts?” she whispers. “They are not helping us right now. But you are still an alpha’s heir with traits only you have. I don’t have them. I am only the second child.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You can reach out to your pack,” she says. “Alphas usually can do that. It takes a lot of strength and concentration, but it’s doable.”
I stare at her. “Reach out to…”
“Silas and Marcellus,” she urges, grabbing my arm and pulling me around to force me to look out of the window. “The mountains there.“
“That’s close to Marc’s former pack,” I whisper.
“Exactly! They can find us easily when they know where to look.”
“I am not sure if I can do it,” I admit.
Nova takes my hands. “Benji, you have become one of my best friends. I might have only known you for a couple of months, but I really like you. I instantly did. Not in a romantic way, of course. But there is something in you that instantly pulled me in. And Kitty, too, and my other friends. You are honest, you can self-reflect, you don’t hide your past even when you are embarrassed by it.
You take accountability. You are an alpha’s heir, yet rank doesn’t matter to you, instead you always focus on making life better for your pack members.
I don’t know what kind of person you were back in your old pack, I don’t know if you had to be a bully to save yourself from your father, and I don’t care.
Ever since I have known you, you have always thought about others.
And I know for a fact that Lori thinks the same.
She has been raped and hurt over and over again, yet she has accepted you. Why do you think that is?”
I stare at her, completely spellbound.
Nova pokes my chest. “Because of the person you are. That’s the truth. This is who you are, not the person you had to be not to get killed by your father. This here is you. Alpha Marcellus’ most entrusted warrior, his gamma, Lori’s mate and the pack’s protector.”
Stellan stirs in me, and I can feel pride filling him. I am Benjamin, Gamma of Sunset Hills.
“Nova,” I say. “You have to leave.”
“What?” she blinks.
“Leave and run. They are not looking for you right now. You will need to meet Silas and Marc midway and lead them here.”
“Maddie?”
“I will make sure to find her,” I reassure her. “Juniper only now got to do the blood test. We still have some time. Time enough for you to get out of here, and for me to alert Marc. You are the born beta, Nova. You will easily make it past the guards here.
Nova smiles. “Don’t die on me, asshole. I am not going to be the one to tell Lori that her mate was stupid enough to get killed by some creepy vampires.”
I grin. “Right back at you.”