Rule 35, Alpha

-Chapter 20-

Butch

Everything hurts...and it's like my body is weighed down.

Squinting my eyes against the harsh lights, I try to sort through my fuzzy memories to try and figure out exactly what happened. I do remember being ambushed, and seeing the bastard controlling Alec's body...and the haze of pain as I both saw and felt my mate being tortured...even though it turned out to just be an illusion, Tempest assured me of that before-

Oh Goddess....Tempest!

I shoot up in bed, only to groan in pain as my head both swirls and pounds in my skull, along with my stomach feeling like a washing machine on the spin cycle...

"Butch, sweetheart, you need to lay back down." My moms voice calls out, grabbing my attention. I look up to her both concerned and relieved expression as she tries to push me back against the bed, but I don't budge.

"Mom, it's Tempest! She's in danger, I have to help her!" I argue, trying to resist my mothers urges without hurting her. The last thing I remember before finding myself on my living floor was my mate, and the look on her face as she apologized and sent me to safety...a look that promised retaliation.

"It's okay baby, she's fine." She tries to reassure, but I clamor out of the hospital bed anyway, only stumble as my legs nearly give out beneath me.

What the hell?

"Honey, you need to take it easy, the wolfsbane isn't completely out of your system yet."

Leaning against the wall, I attempt to work through the swirling in my head to argue.

"I can't...Tempest...the asylum...that thing controlling her brother...she sent me here...she's alone with them, I can't..." My fractured thoughts are barely understood by my own ears, coming out in labored breaths.

"I promise you sweetheart, she's safe. Just sit down and rest please...you've been through too much to be pushing yourself this hard." Mom pleads, and this time I don't fight her as she sits me back down on the bed, pulling on the the hoodie she hands me to replace the destroyed shirt that was removed. My jeans are still on and filthy in comparison, my shoes and socks are gone though, leaving my feet bare.

It seems focusing on this helps with my disorientation a little, as well as my panic.

"What's going on mom?" I murmur, and she sighs as she places a hand on each side of my face.

"We didn't realize she was gone until she was long out of reach, she slipped out passed all of us...and went home before disappearing again. We were all worried sick since we knew she went to find you...we were afraid she would make the exchange, that is...until we got a report that the asylum was burning. That's when your father took a group of wolves including your future Beta and Gammas to investigate..." She trails off, but before I can ask anything my father appears in the doorway.

"Good to see you awake son, you had us worried."

"Thanks...but what happened? Tempest wasn't inside was she?" I ask anxiously.

"No, we found a group of unconscious witches and wolves outside, and a few more inside after putting out the fire. We found signs of a big struggle on the top floor, along with the bodies of two deceased wolves and a young female witch...from the smell she was one of the henchmen."

"Tryxa..." I mutter, relieved she's no longer a threat.

"Your mate was involved, one wolf was killed by explosion, one had a fatal knife wound to the heart, and the witch had teeth marks on her throat and was severely crushed...from how it looks, Tempest killed the wolves, and her pet killed Tryxa."