Bentley
Ihad no idea how long I’d been hidden away in the medical center, but from the smell of my clothes, it had been a while.
My eyes started to blur as I looked at the small numbers and words on the datasheet I was trying to read.
At this point, I knew Dr. Faulk’s work just as well as he did, if not better because I already found where he’d gone wrong in some of his formulas.
It had always been my dream to work in research after I did my time in the hospital and made a name for myself.
That dream had been shattered only five years after graduating when I was bitten and changed into a werewolf so I could be a concierge doctor for the wolf’s dying wife.
After having been trapped with them for years and almost forced into an arranged marriage of sorts to their mentality unstable daughter, the Collective found out.
Darius had no idea, but it was his men that came and saved me, I recognized the logo on their uniforms when I got here.
Of course, I had no idea who Darius was before all this, but the Collective was a small community and information about the important people of this world got around.
It shocked me to know he left the Collective to join two other prominent alpha’s starting a new pack with an unknown woman.
To say that it was an utter shock to be told I was being sent to this new pack on an island in the middle of nowhere was an understatement.
The Collective knew I wanted out of the deal they forced me into when they saved me and used it as leverage.
Originally, I was told that even if I didn’t get picked, I was to remain here so I could send them information and updates on how things were going on the island.
Pissed beyond belief that I was still going to be under their thumb even so far away made me resent everything and everyone involved in the ordeal.
All I ever wanted was to be free to help people, and research new ways to save those people most didn’t care about.
Then I met Viv and it all fell to shit. Never had I met a woman so unafraid to do whatever it took for the people she wanted to protect.
It made me feel like scum for letting the Collective and the man who changed me control my life for so long.
The more I got to know Viv and learned her story — the god awful hand that she had been dealt in her life— made me seem like a bratty child.
Almost as if she could sense what I needed, she gave me the job to research everything, and provided me with a way out of the Collective’s clutches even if I didn’t mate with her.
Even growing up, I’d never been amazing with people.
I was short tempered and easily frustrated when I didn’t feel like I was getting heard, which made me look like an ass.
Viv called me on my bad attitude and never once let me step out of turn where it mattered, and I liked that about her.
It’s as my mother used to say: start with like, because like can always bloom into love, and love is always worth the effort of trying.
Now here I was finally free and able to do as I always planned, but I didn’t have Viv by my side to talk things over with.
I knew research wasn’t her gig, but she had a curious mind and was brilliant in understanding how the body worked.
We would talk into the late hours of the evening about Dr. Faulk’s work, which are some of my most cherished life moments.
Yet once again, it’s all been ripped away.
I’m not a warrior like the others. I might be alpha in name, but that is not a role I can take on, I much prefer to be in the shadows.
Since I’ve become a werewolf this is where I’ve been, hidden away working alone with lab assistants to order around, but anyone can do that.
It doesn’t make you an alpha. Watching Rik, Tav, and Darius, even Koit sometimes— they’ve shown me what it means to act like an alpha.
Tristan is much like myself, having been lost in the shadows of our world, but even he never backs down from a fight.
“Ah good you’re here,” Tav said as he barged into my lab. “I need you to bring whatever supplies you need to keep someone alive for another few hours.”
Turning to face him, I leaned against my work station, crossing my arms. “Is this another one of your victims?”
Even though I knew it was a stupid idea to push back against Tav these days, I couldn’t help myself.
Orion and Tristan seemed to be able to find their place with these four men who’d been with Viv the longest. Myself on the other hand, was still held at an arm’s length, even after I’d officially mated with her.
Granted that only lasted a few days before she was taken, but still I was a mate brother and deserved to be respected as such.
“Fine, if you want to let the best lead we’ve ever had in finding Vadik or Viv die, that’s cool. Just know that if we never find our mate, that will rest on your shoulders— you strong enough to carry that kind of weight?” Tav asked, waving a careless hand as he turned to leave.
A warning growl slipped through my lips at his dismissive tone. “Don’t treat me like a child, Tav. I’m just as much of a man as you are, even if I haven’t shed as much blood to prove it.”
That caused Tav to stalk towards me getting right up in my face.
“I’ll treat you like the pathetic child that you are Benny-boy, because from where I’m standing you’re doing fuck all to help.
You hide here in your lab crying over Viv being taken, and when anyone even tries to deal with you all they get is bared teeth.
You know what happens when someone tells you time and time again they don’t want help?
People start to believe them.” Closing his eyes he took a breath and a step back.
“We are all hurting, we’ve all lost something, but hiding isn’t the way to deal with this.
Forget I ever asked for your help, we’ll manage best we can. ”
Spinning on his heel, Tav marched out of the room, but I was hot on his heels. “You’re one to talk, you ran away.”
As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I knew it was a mistake, and in the next instant I was slammed up against the stone wall with an arm over my throat.
“Do you want me to kill you?.” Tav snarled eyes shifting with his wolf pressing to be free.
“I. Did. Not. Run. Away. Other than Orion, none of the others have the strength or ability to get blood on their hands. I am a free agent attached to no pack and free to roam where I please, doing whatever it takes to get my mate back in my arms. The less you all knew about what I was doing, the less you could be held responsible. I protect my family— all my family— the best way I know how. Could the same be said about you?”
His words were like knives to my heart, he was calling me out on every fear and insecurity I had. “Give me a moment to grab a few things. Can you give me a general idea of the person’s condition?”
Tav dropped his arm but not his gaze. “She has been burned, electrocuted, stabbed, and finger nails removed. Before we started on her she was hit in the head as she tripped into a concrete wall.”
My stomach dropped at his words. I was a doctor who helped and protected people, what Tav and Orion were doing went against everything I stood for.
Heading into the patient part of the medical rooms, I grabbed a bag and started to pack it with the things I needed, probably more than I should have since I knew this woman wouldn’t be surviving this encounter.
Tav led me down into the dungeon— they might call it the basement or cellar, but dungeon is what it was.
The empty cells we passed made this look like some medieval set, but I knew that this was real and they were still being used.
Not having grown up in the werewolf world, I was still having a hard time adjusting to its brutal nature.
Some days it felt like even my own wolf was disgusted with me at how squeamish I was about things.
Since the day I was bitten I’d hardly ever shifted, only when it was necessary to maintain control over that part of myself.
I hear people talk about how they have bonded with their wolf and they become symbiotic in their relationship.
That is definitely not how it worked for my and my wolf nature.
Tav pulled open the cell door for me and I entered the room where I saw the woman from the herb shop in town sagging in a chair covered in blood, bruises, and head drooping forward with blood dripping from her mouth.
Quickly, I grabbed gloves out of my bag and started to examine her, noting that Tav had been truthful in telling me what they did, but seeing it was another matter.
Lifting her head, I checked her eyes and saw they were still responsive.
Next, I checked her pulse and noted that it was slow and sluggish, most likely from all the blood loss, if the floor around her was anything to go by.
“Do you have something to help increase her healing abilities?” Orion asked from the other side of the cell. “She was just about to give us the information we really needed to know before she passed out.”
Licking my lips, I thought through a few ideas. “How much time do you need her to be alert?”
Orion let out a harsh laugh. “Well, that depends on her now doesn’t it?”
“I have something I can do that will get her awake fast, but I’m not sure how much damage it will do with how much blood she’s lost and still losing,” I explained.
Tav and Orion looked at each other, then nodded.
“Give us what time you can, we’ll use it the best way possible,” Tav assured.
I grabbed a syringe with a long thick needle and a vial of adrenaline and blood thickener.
This would never make sense to use together, but in this moment knowing I wasn’t saving her, it would do something to slow down the bleeding as I shocked her heart.
Jamming the needle into her heart, I pressed down the plunger and seconds later the woman woke up screaming and thrashing as she tried to bite me.
“No, no, no. Why did you bring me back?.” she screamed, tears streaming down her face. “It was over, why, why would you do this to me?”
Tav pulled me away and squatted in front of her. “Because Sofia, you were going to tell us something very important about your American friends.”
“If I tell you, will you please kill me? I can’t do this anymore, I just want it to be over.”
Tav reached out and lifted her head to meet her gaze. “Yes, tell us about Vadik and his American connection and I will personally end your life.”
Sofia’s eyes drooped with her acceptance.
“Vadik has a half brother who is American. He runs a dark side of the werewolf empire there. They are working together to take over the werewolf world, one brother in charge of each side of the world. Having your mate and the babies that she will birth, gives them everything they need to control those who fight against them. Even your precious Collective will fall in line when they are promised female werewolves who can reproduce healthy baby girls.”
“Very good Sofia, now last question and this will be over,” Tav murmured even as he let his hand drift from her face down to rest over her heart. “What kind of power does Vadik have and how does Viv counter him?”
Sofia let out a sob, as her breathing became more labored.
“He can kill another and steal whatever power they have left, but everything must have balance. He and Viv are connected, as much as he hates it and she doesn’t realize it.
Viv restores power, brings the magic back into the world, but she can’t create it from nothing.
She takes from her mates and those who are powerful around her and gives it back to the world.
Vivianna Beck is the one weakness Vadik has and the one thing he can’t let go of.
He will keep an eye on her, but they will not be together…
.he will hide her....with...his...br.... ”
Seeing that she was fading away as she spoke, I shoved Tav out of the way and checked her pulse.
Her heart was beating irregularly and fluttering out of control.
The adrenaline thickener cocktail was shredding her heart as it pumped whatever blood she had left in her body through the organ.
Nothing I could do would fix this and the only reason she was even still alive right now was because she was a werewolf.
Standing, I backed away as I watched this woman die partially by my hand, and it made me loathe myself.
A hand gripped my shoulder and I looked over to see it was Orion.
“It’s okay not to be alright with this kind of violence.
Each of us have our parts to play in this life.
Some are darker than others, but we need the one who lives out in the sunshine to remind us that life is valuable.
I’m sorry we needed to involve you in this, and I don’t plan on it happening again if we can help it, but what we just learned changes everything. ”