19. Chapter Seventeen
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
MICHAEL
I watch helplessly as Mae is dragged away, limp in the man’s arms. I continue to fight against the remaining two of the four rogues I have been fighting since we were attacked. Maybe if I can kill these two, the others will not have gotten far, and I can catch up and save Mae.
But as I continue to fight the last two rogues, I realize that’s not going to be possible. The man holding Mae has started to run. I see several people run past me, and before I know it, those same people are helping me fight off the last two rogues.
“What took you so long?!” I yell as I turn around. “What took you so long to get here?”
I see several other warriors and the alpha standing in front of me. I shouldn’t be yelling, but they just kidnapped my mate. I don’t care about anything but Mae right now.
They reached us too late. If only they had arrived a couple of seconds sooner, then they could have caught the man and rescued Mae before they took her away.
“Calm down,” Xavier demands.
I stare at him in shock. I know he’s my alpha, but I know for a fact he wouldn’t be calm in this situation if it was his mate.
“Calm down?” I reply in anger. “They just took my mate! They took the person I love. The person who’s meant for me! They could kill her or torture her any second.”
Is that not going through his head because it isn’t his mate? It isn’t often that rogues come onto our pack’s land and kidnap people. It’s very rare; however, the few times it’s happened, we always sent people after to go get them.
They never make it far because our top priority is getting them back. I know a few pack members just ran past me to go follow them, but is it enough, and will they get there in time?
“I know. They attacked some of the other borders right at the same time, so it took us longer to get here. We couldn’t just leave the other places defenseless and let the rogues get to the women and children,” Xavier explains.
I know what he’s saying is right, but this is about my mate. They took my mate away from me, and I couldn’t do anything about it.
“So much that you couldn’t send anyone to us?” I ask respectfully.
It’s wrong of me to ask, but I need to know. Were the other parts in that much danger?
“Yes. Over twenty attacked in one place and thirty in another. They just kept coming out of the woods,” someone in the crowd says.
“We tried to get reinforcements to you as soon as possible,” Xavier says. “I know it’s your mate and emotions are high right now. We’re going to get her back.”
Hopefully, alive.
Some rogues don’t care and kill their captives within a couple of minutes once they’re off pack grounds. I just hope it isn’t in Mae’s fate to die so soon. We were just getting close.
What if they get short with her because she can’t respond to them? Do they know she’s deaf? Will they hurt her because she won’t respond?
“Who ran past me and followed them?” I ask.
“Two of our best trackers. They’ll find her. We’re going to find her. Don’t worry.”
I can’t help but worry. Mae’s deaf and can’t communicate with any of them. Not unless one of the rogues knows sign language, which I’m pretty sure they don’t. Not many people do in the werewolf community.
It isn’t common for werewolves to be deaf. Not unless they get tortured and their healing can’t happen.
I’ve heard of torture where they put silver down their enemy’s ear and inject werewolves with wolfsbane several times. That’s one good way to make a werewolf deaf if they do it enough times.
Anything could happen to Mae. They could be interrogating her, and she won’t be able to answer. They could hurt her for not answering, and it wouldn’t be her fault.
“Will they intervene if they can?” I ask.
Most of our trackers are also amazing fighters, but they don’t get much practice. Normally, they’re under orders to track and gather intel as much as possible, but not to engage in any type of combat. I hope that’s not the case this time and they immediately locate her.
“If it’s a fair fight, yes. If it’s not, then they probably won’t. I don’t need them dying,” Xavier says.
“But you’ll let my mate die?” I question him.
It isn’t a good situation either way. Everyone hopes no one will die, and I hope the same. But I also want my mate back.
“I didn’t say that. She isn’t going to die. We aren’t going to let that happen.”
“I’m going after them,” I say and turn around.
That’s enough chit-chatting. I’m not going to wait for them to come back with or without her. I’m not going to take that chance. Not when her life is on the line. I need her. She’s my responsibility. She’s my life.
“You will not,” Xavier commands, his chest rumbling as the words leave his tongue. “That’s an order.”
I turn, my eyes piercing his. “She’s my mate! If the roles were reversed, you’d be going after your mate!”
He glares right back at me. “I don’t need to lose you as well. You aren’t thinking straight, and you might do something stupid.”
I scoff at him. “Sometimes, it’s better not to think straight and actually do something. Get the job done.”
“Not happening. If you go against my orders to stay here, then I’ll have you thrown in the dungeon until we do find her.”
“You wouldn’t.”
“I would, and I will.”
I clench my jaw and turn back to fix my eyes on where the trackers ran off. Everything inside of me hopes they find her and can bring her back safely. But with every passing second, it isn’t looking good. They should have gotten to her by now. They should have been back already.
Everything inside of me was itching to disobey Xavier’s orders and run to her. It’s an instinct to protect her, and right now, I’m not. I feel like such a failure.
I didn’t protect her.
I truly failed.
It was one of my duties to protect my mate at all times. If I don’t get her back, I will never forgive myself and will replay it over and over in my mind, trying to think of every possibility, where I went wrong, why I failed to protect her. Mulling over the fact that if I had been just a few seconds faster, I could have gotten to her, and this wouldn’t have happened.
“Don’t think like that,” Xavier encourages me. “I know what you’re thinking, and it’s not good. We’re going to get her back.”
I don’t look at him. Part of me is still angry he commanded me to stay here while she’s being taken by the rogues. But the other part knows he’s right. I wouldn’t have been able to do much if I was out numbered.
“Jason is back!” someone shouts.
My eyes zero in on the person limping back onto the pack grounds. What happened? Healers run over to him and help him walk to us.
“What happened?” I ask.
“We tried. We really did. There were only two of them, and we started to fight. All of a sudden, three more appeared. They captured Peter,” Jason forces out. He’s exhausted and bloodied.
Worry fills me as I process his words. They took Mae and Peter.
“Were they alive?” I ask.
“Yes. Both unconscious. I’m sorry, Michael. We really tried to save her, but we couldn’t. I’m so sorry.”
I force a smile on my face. “It’s okay. You were outnumbered. I completely understand.”
Everything inside of me wants to yell and scream that he should have tried harder, but I can’t. I was outnumbered and couldn’t get to Mae. They got outnumbered, and the rogues took one of our men.
There’s no way he would have been able to do anything different. There just wasn’t, and I have to be okay with that. I can’t blame him for something he can’t control. It is out of my hands.
I turn toward Xavier, waiting for him to say something, anything. But he doesn’t.
“What are we going to do? What is our game plan?” I ask, impatience in my voice.
I need to know something. I need to know we’re not going to give up. I need to know we’re going to do everything in our power to get them back.
I need Mae back.
She is my life.
I love her.
I can’t live the rest of my life without her. That thought is heartbreaking, and I can’t do it. I don’t want to do it. I finally found her a couple months ago, and now I’ve lost her.
“Can you mind link her yet?” Xavier asks.
I tried to get in contact with Mae through the mind link as they were carrying her off, but I couldn’t. She must still be unconscious or they have injected her with wolfsbane.
“I can’t,” I say through my clenched jaw.
I hate not being able to contact her. Is she okay? Are they torturing her? Can she see where they are? Is she alive?
“They might have injected them with wolfsbane,” someone in the crowd mentions. “If they did, then you won’t be able to contact them.”
I already know that, but other people might not have been thinking that.
“Maybe they didn’t inject Mae with it? They may think she’s not part of the pack yet?” Jason remarks. “We didn’t have a huge celebration like normal. And they could think her scent has changed because she’s been around us for several months.”
My eyes widen in curiosity at this thought. Jason could totally be right. They may think she isn’t part of the pack yet, and so, they wouldn’t inject her. That was my hope.
Even so, she won’t be able to contact Peter if he’s been injected with it. She doesn’t know the layout of the woods around our pack, whereas Peter does. And to top it all off, she won’t be able to understand or hear anything. That’s the biggest problem.
But they won’t be able to communicate.
I sigh. “Yes, but if they’ve injected Peter, they won’t be able to communicate.”
Do they need to communicate with each other? I don’t think they do. I just need to be able to communicate with Mae so I can figure out where they’re holding her.
Xavier nods his head. What are we going to do? How’s this all going to work out?
“Jason, you recover. Once you’re better, we’ll talk about the plan and how everything’s laid out,” Xavier says.
I’m in shock! Can he really be serious? Are we really going to wait that long? How much will they have to endure before we rescue them? Before we rescue my mate?
“I’ll be fine once I sit for a few minutes. I’ve already told you what I know, but I can draw more details on the map if that would be helpful,” Jason replies. “We need to find them. Who knows what’s happening to them right now. And who knows if the rogues are going to move locations within the next forty-eight hours. We need to come up with a game plan now and act on it.”
“You know I’m going to agree with this,” I speak up. “We don’t know when or if they’re going to move.”
Surprised, Xavier inquires, “Are you sure? If you need time to rest and heal, you can have it. We’ll discuss our plan with the information we have.”
“I’m all right. If I had a mate, I know I’d already be out there searching. I’ll heal while I sit and talk with you guys. Either way, I’m going to be sitting, so I might as well be productive.”
“ Thank you,” I mind link Jason.
He doesn’t have a mate and doesn’t know what it’s like, but he’s willing to help anyway.
“ Welcome. You would do the same for me if the roles were reversed,” he replies.
I would do this for anyone. Having a mate taken away is not something I want anyone to experience. No one should experience this at all.
“Well, let’s get to the room and talk about this. Come up with a plan to rescue Peter and Mae,” Xavier announces to everyone. “You know who you are! Come to my office now.”