Underboss, Unexpected (Book #1)[To Be PUBLISHED]

Chapter 1

Chapter 1 – Jason Hobbs POV

She was the 'Chosen One,' the person that would help restore the balance that was currently askew and failing. After the last ditch effort from Elder Bellamy, I volunteered to seek and rescue, not fully understanding or aware of the horrors that were taking place. We – the Gods and I – didn't have a backup plan, destruction and revolution, by the Elders never once crossing our minds. Everyone unaware until it was too late, and now we had finally found the right person, with the right qualities but walking into her hospital room to what I saw wasn't part of the plan either.

Bloody, bruised and battered, wasn't the shape we were hoping to find her in, but that's the state she's in, injuries sustained able to mislead anyone with eyes to believe not that the Chosen One was beaten, but that she was in a life threatening accident, holding on by a thread because the car that hit her, won.

Dirtied hair, swollen face, no swollen everything; broken ribs, ankle, tibia, ruptured spleen, shortening of her large intestines, fractured Ulna and Radius on her right arm, bruised liver which caused her to go into septic shock. Her body so broken she was incapable of fighting off infections from toxins unable to leave her system.

"No," I whispered in pain, this little girl who was someone's punching bag... this wasn't the life she was intended to live, I searched high and low for her, but all I could think now was, 'how would she ever rise to be what she was destined?' the only sound around me in this room coming from the machines keeping her alive, "I – I don't even know what to do Jason, or think, this – I have no idea how this child is even alive right now, I lost her three times on that table, but she's fighting, her inner will weak, yet strong enough to live, she wants to live," Jenna Hampton, my friend and the Chosens' Ones surgeon, her eyes sadden said.

"I've failed," I say but not because I'm seeking pity or anyone to tell me otherwise, but because that is how Mother, the Gods and I all felt. We had waited too long, given too many excuses before we finally stepped in, before we accepted that not only shifters were being impacted by those that were chosen to lead and protect but humans as well. Too many innocent lives changed or taken away in vain, the numbers growing exponentially, "The next forty-eight hours are going to be crucial, we can tell that there is brain activity, however we won't know what has been altered until she has woken up," Jenna said telling me what I already know.

A knock on the door quiets us, but we see dressed in all black, Lux Carmine – one of the compilers I over see – pop his head into the room, scanning before shuffling inside, closing the door behind him.  

"Do you know what has happened?" I finally ask, with her – the Chosen One – right in front of me, I can concentrate on the details that led to her being here. The person(s) responsible surely have been caught and will pay for their crimes against an Innocent. "Yes but when the others find out what has happened Jason, they'll refuse that anyone could survive this life she has led. She was to be adopted by a human family, the Richards, Robert and Tina Richards, both 28 years old, however with her issues, when they found out they were able to conceive and have, they returned her to the foster center. They were nearly finished with the process but nonetheless they returned her-' I cut Lux off.

"Like she was piece of furniture that didn't belong in their house?" I said controlling my anger – barely.

Jenna lifts a brow at me, as Lux replies "You said it; I did not," he grunts out.

When I didn't respond he continued, "Well then, she was just lost in the system, her caseworker had too many children to care for and was told she didn't take up much space, she is the type of children that could blend into the wall if given the chance. Other children, that demanded more, were priority and then Andre Bydar kidnapped her from the state facility, or that's what the place she was found was leased under, but based on descriptions we know that his name is Leo Madden."

Lux remained silent, dragging my eyes off of the little girl, I look at him, his face red with anger, he avoids looking at her, choosing to stare at the beige wall, "What?"

Flicking his gaze over to me, before looking down at the file in his hands, I see a different side to this big muscular man. Normally tough and hard, laying things out coldly with no emotion, I see a flick of regret there that I can't understand, until I glance at the girl and in her condition I can see how she could affect a man like Lux.

"We used her blood scent to track her back, inside the storage space where she was being held we found pictures," He says handing over a few pictures for me to see, taking them I start with the first. A man in his later thirties maybe, holding a little girl, then another with a young man, and so it went, picture after picture of this family, this man with his children, at different locations. Handing me a picture, "that's her," he says pointing to the battered young girl, whose face is swollen and looks nothing like the picture.

"I'm fairly certain that he is her father," Lux says, and I hold the portrait picture of him next to the picture of the girl and can instantly see the similarities. I nodded but Lux still has that hard cold look about him, there was more, "The setup," he says handing me a second stack of photos. These are rough, by the third picture, I'm able to draw the same conclusions that Lux was. The first picture, in a room painted black, a massage table, a hole where her face would go, and beneath it, were pictures much like the first set, but these were wrinkled, covered in some type of liquid. I'd wager anything that the liquid surely came from the young girl, blood splashes, on the ground, the chair, everywhere.

"That poor child," Jenna whispered under her breath, I nodded, "He beat her mercilessly, while she watched those pictures..." I said in repulsion, not even wanting to be tainted by those pictures I fling my hands out towards Lux, and knowing what was wrong he took them wordlessly.

"What are you going to do? What's the plan?" he asked waiting for his orders.

I shook my head unsure, "Research her family... I don't think we can return her right away, I can take her though, I can – I'm – I want to do this," I said strongly, knowing this wouldn't be an easy road, but if this little girl could fight for her life, hold on in spite of her life and current injuries she just needed someone to love her, to support her and help her grow and I was more than read to be that person for her.  After all she was the Chosen One.

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