21. Chapter Nineteen
CHAPTER NINETEEN
MICHAEL
I pace back and forth in the meeting room. Several hours have passed since she went missing. Is she all right? Is she awake? Are they hurting her?
So many questions are running through my head. Mae just told me that she doesn’t know how to defend herself. What if they’re going to play a sick game, and she has to defend herself in a situation?
“If they’re hurting her, you would feel the pain,” Rylee gently places a hand on my shoulder.
I wish that was true.
“If I had marked her,” I whisper. “But I haven’t.”
I didn’t want to force the mark on her, no matter how much I wanted to be connected to her. It wasn’t right, and I was perfectly fine just getting to know her. I love this phase because I get to know things other people don’t.
And there’s no rule about marking right away. At least not that I am aware of. Xavier didn’t mark Rylee the first day he met her.
“Why didn’t you mark her? You’ve been around her for several months now,” a warrior asks.
“Because it didn’t feel right. Sure, the normal way is to mark each other in the first hour or two, but my circumstances were different. She was absolutely terrified, she didn’t know me at all, and I wasn't going to mark her because it is the normal way,” I reply.
I know it’s against norms, but others have waited for a while…like Xavier and Rylee.
The elders prefer people to mark their mates right away. It gives them reassurance they won’t reject each other.
Rejection rarely happens in the werewolf community. Soulmates are sacred and your perfect match. No one gets paired with someone that isn’t made specifically for them. It doesn’t work that way.
“Not everyone’s the same,” Xavier replies.
“But the elders like it that way. They don’t want people to wait months or even years to mark their mate,” the guy says.
I growl. Just because the elders prefer it that way doesn't make it a rule.
“It’s not a rule that you have to mark your mate on the first time. It’s not a law,” I bark out.
Some people are stuck in the old tradition, but we are evolving. I’ve heard about several mates waiting at least a week before they marked each other.
“But–”
“Let’s just get back to trying to figure out how we’re going to get both of them back,” I demand.
We are wasting time talking about this when we could have already formulated a plan for their rescue. This isn’t just my mate now but also Peter’s life at stake. We don’t want to lose either one of them.
I long to hold Mae in my arms. I don’t want her to feel all alone in some unknown place where they could be hurting her. I’m sure she’s absolutely terrified, and being deaf doesn’t help. Are they interrogating her and hurting her because she isn’t answering?
They knew she was deaf, so if they’re doing that, it’s cruel. Absolutely cruel at that point. But I don’t know if they’re hurting her. I can’t feel the pain because I didn’t mark her.
“Have you tried mind linking her?” Rylee asks. “I know you can do that with her.”
“I have, but she either has me blocked without knowing it or they are giving her wolfsbane,” I reply.
“Hopefully they aren’t doing that. It’s not common knowledge that deaf people can mind link with a pack. I didn’t until I talked to Gina.”
I hope they don’t get to that point with Mae. I’ve never personally had wolfsbane injected into me, but I’ve heard it stings and feels like fire’s going through your body. I never want her to go through that, especially alone.
Would she pass out from the pain? Would they keep injecting her every time she woke up?
I hope if they do inject her with it that they’ll wait hours for it to wear off before they inject her again. Too much could kill a werewolf.
“Are we any closer to knowing anything?” I ask as I look over at Xavier.
“Yes. We know they’re in the same place as they were before. They haven’t left yet, and we don’t know if they are leaving. We’re keeping an eye on them as we speak,” Xavier replies. “We can’t just go in without a plan. Their numbers have gone up, and we don’t know how skilled they are in fighting.”
“The people they sent weren’t amazing,” someone piped in.
“But they could’ve sent their worst people in numbers to distract us as they took my mate. They could have skilled fighters waiting for us when we get there.”
I don’t want to think about that. There are so many variables that need to be considered before we go in. I wish it was easier and much simpler, but it isn’t.
It never is.
“I thought Rogues don’t hang out in large groups,” Rylee mentions.
“They normally don’t. They are normally lone wolves, but more recently, they’ve been hanging out in groups,” Xavier replies.
I don’t like that. When rogues killed my parents, it was just a couple who were family members and had gone insane. That was very rare then, but now, it’s getting more common for rogues to band up in groups of twenty or more.
This is actually the first group we have encountered near our territory who have above twenty members. We’ve heard rumors about it but hadn’t seen it until Mae came. Is it the same group everyone’s talking about or are there others?
I don’t know for sure, but I hope it’s just this one group. Maybe we can get other packs, allies, to come and help take them out so we can be done with all of this.
“I think we should attack them where they’re the weakest,” Jordan, another warrior, offers.
“That would be simple if we knew where they’re the weakest, but we don’t. Their numbers and organization has seemed to change since we observed them for days a few weeks ago. At this point, we don’t have the time to try and figure out their weaknesses,” Xavier stands up.
“If you guys do wait several days, I’ll be going by myself,” I blurt out as I pace the room again. “I don’t care what anyone thinks. I’ll be leaving by myself.” While I heard what Xavier just said, I’m not really focused on what he means.
I was going to leave right when it happened, but they stopped me. Would it have been stupid to go after her by myself without considering what I might run into? Absolutely, but Mae is my mate, the love of my life. I don’t want her held captive for long.
I know why they stopped me. I wouldn’t be any good to her dead, but I have to do something. It makes sense, but at the same time, I don’t want to wait around. The longer she is alone with them, the stronger the possibility that they will harm her in some way.
“We won’t be taking a couple of days,” Xavier assures me. “We’ll come up with a plan and leave.”
I nod my head. Right as Xavier starts to speak again, I feel an incredible pressure inside of my head. Placing my hand on my temples, I close my eyes. So. Much. Pressure.
“ Michael?” Mae mind links me.