Athena
It's been 20 minutes since Jack left. I kept staring at the direction he went, hoping he would come back. I didn't know what this feeling was, but I felt like something wasn't right.
Izzy and I walked together patrolling the camp while Reed explored the edges of the campsite. We didn't hear a thing, it was dead silent.
"How are you doing?" Izzy asked.
"What do you mean?"
"Athena, you can't fool me, we grew up together." She says.
Who am I kidding, I can't keep anything from Izzy. "I just feel like something's off." I explain "I mean why would they camp so close to us."
"I don't know, maybe they wanted a quick escape for when they captured you, like a rest spot." She says.
"Maybe, I just think it's too reckless to be honest." I say.
We continued to walk a couple more minutes before I smell something in the north side of the forest.
"Someone's coming!" I mind link to Reed. He quickly comes running and his guard is up.
"Who is it." He says.
"It's him, keep your guard up and be ready to fight." I order. We watch to see any movement from the forest, but it's too dark to see anything.
We start hearing sticks snap, but still don't see anyone come out.
"We know you're there, quit playing games and get out!" I yell.
Then noises suddenly stops, "I knew I couldn't hide from you Athena." Cole says revealing himself from the darkness.
"It was foolish of you to come here alone." Reed says, but Cole just smiles.
"Maybe, but I'm actually just here to talk." He says.
"What makes you think we will listen to anything you have to say." Reed says.
"Oh trust me, Athena would love to hear what I have to say. Especially when it involves her father." He says with a grin and then I felt a huge weight drop in the bottom of my stomach.
"What did you say!" I yell and fire started coming out of my hands.
"I think you need to come with me to check on your dad Athena." He says
"She's not going anywhere with you!" Izzy says.
"Oh I think she will. There's something she needs to see." He reaches his hand out to me. I know in my gut I shouldn't trust a thing he says, but I have no choice, not when it comes to my dad. I take a deep breath in and my flames go away.
"I'll go." I say
"What! No you wont, it's probably a trap." Izzy protest.
"Athena she's right, we can't trust him." Reed says. I look at both them and their faces looked worried, but I have to do this. I'll just be smart about it.
"Come with me, if it is a trap then at least you guys well be there." I say. They look at each other and nod.
Please don't let this be a trap.
********************
We follow Cole all the way to the Rose Mountain Pack. We make sure to keep a safe distance from him, but also being aware of our surroundings. As we got closer, I mind like to Mark to warn him about what was going on.
"Mark are you there?"
"Ya I'm here, whats up?"
"Izzy, Reed, and I are heading over with Cole."
"What! Are you ok?"
"Yes we're fine, he said I needed to see my dad. Do you know anything about what he's talking about?" Mark doesn't say a thing. Which only verifies something was wrong.
"Mark what aren't you telling me?"
"I think it's best you see for yourself."
Without hesitation I ran past Cole as fast as I could. I needed to check on my dad, I needed to see if he was ok.
"Athena Wait!" Izzy and Reed yell, but I don't listen. Somethings wrong with my dad and I had to find out what it was.
I ran all the way back home and I see Mark waiting outside my dad's house with CJ. I run past them without even looking at them and head straight to my father's room. I reach for the door nod and my hand starts to shake. I take a deep breath and open the door.
The room was dark, so I couldn't see anything at first. I walked over to his bed where I saw his sleeping silhouette. I placed my hand on his chest and felt his chest rise.
Thank goodness.
I turn the lamp on and thats when I saw what Cole was talking about. My father looked like a human skeleton, his color had completely left his body. His cheeks were sunk in and he had purple circles under his eyes. If I didn't see him breathing I would have sworn he was already dead. I grabbed his hand and he felt cold and clammy.
"What happened to you dad? Why didn't you tell me something was wrong?" I whisper and start to cry. Why wouldn't he tell me he was sick. Why didn't he just come to me for help.
It was things like this that I hated being alive. Everyone was always scared about me losing control. They always acted like I was gonna blowup at any moment. I'm sure thats why he kept it from me, and why Mark kept it from me as well. I put his hand on my cheek.
"Dad don't leave me, I need you still. You have never gave up on me even at my lowest times. I already lost mom, I can't lose you too." I cry.
He doesn't move, his breathing was low. Wolves don't get sick, it not in our nature. There had to be something making him sick. "I'm not gonna let you die like this, I promise dad."
*********************
Jack
As we reach the area where Coles men were staying. We hid in the tree line and waited for my men to show up.
"Alpha I'm here." I turn back and to see Dom jumping off a tree. Dom has been scouting for me for years now. He's actually one of my top dogs I have.
"Hey Dom, did you see anything?" I mind link to him.
"Ya, they just arrived. One is sitting by the fire and the other is inside the tent."
"Alright, you and I will take the guy sitting by the fire. Sean and Nate, you guys will get the one in the tent." I mind link to them. "But remember keep them alive."
"Yes Boss!"
We quietly sneak up to their campsite, until we are only a few feet away. One of the men was sitting by the fire smoking a cigarette and the other saw him near the tent getting his shoes on.
"Now!" I mind link to them and we jump out charging at them.
I ran up to the guy siting by the fire and tackled him to the ground. I pinned him down and put his hands behind his back. I looked over to see Sean and Nate, successfully tying up the other man and Dom starts tying up this guy. I yank him up to a sitting position and punch him in a face.
"Where's Cole!" I yell, but the man doesn't say a word. I grab his shirt caller and punch him in the face again.
"Where's Cole!" I ask again. The guy looks up and one of his eyes are already swollen shut.
"You idiot." He say and starts laughing. I continue to punch him till a few teeth fall out.
"Wanna call me an idiot again." I say. He starts to cough up blood. "I'M NOT GONNA TELL YOU AGAIN, WHERE'S COLE!" I use my Alpha voice and this time I saw fear in his eyes.
"I-I don't know? They never told us what are jobs were, just that we should wait here." He says.
"Wait here for what?" He coughs up more blood and I lift him up by his neck. "Wait here for what!" I ask again.
"He..he wanted us to wait here for him when he got the girl. He said that they were gonna bring her here tonight." He say and I throw him to the floor.
"SHIT!" I say "It was a fucking trap. I need to head back, you guys bring these guys back to the camp site and tie them up. Dom you stay here incase Cole comes back."
"Yes sir."
I head out running back to Athena. I shifted into my wolf and ran as fast as I could. I can't believe I didn't listen to her. She had a feeling something wasn't right, but my stubborn ass just wanted to kill the son of a bitch.
Please be safe Athena, I'm coming.
******************
Athena
I walked back outside feeling an enormous amount of rage. I see Mark looking down in shame and I march towards him and punched him square in the face.
"Athena!" Izzy screams and stands in front of me trying to hold me back.
"You knew, You knew this entire time and you didn't tell me!" I shout.
"Trust me Athena. I wanted to tell you, but he asked us not too." Mark says holding his jaw. CJ ran to him and was checking over his injury. He quickly pulled her behind him, as if he was protecting her from me.
"US!" I say, Marks face froze as if he knew he fucked up.
"WHO ELSE KNEW!" I yelled trying to get to him, but now Izzy and Reed ran up to me to hold me back.
"He wanted to talk to me and Jack. He made us swear not to tell you, he was afraid you'd..." He doesn't finish his sentence, but I already know what he was going to say.
"I'd what? Lose control, because thats all I'm known for right? Losing control and putting everyone in danger!" I say
"No thats-" I cut him off. "No but it is!" I shout and yank my arms from Reed and Izzy. I step back to look at everyone. "All you guys have been keep secrets from me, because you're afraid that I would lose control. I will never be good enough for any of you. You guys will continue to treat me as if I were a child, waiting for my next tantrum!" I yell.
I couldn't hold back the tears any longer. I wasn't crying because I was sad, more because I was so angry and disappointed. I could never be the person I wanted to be, not when everyone sees me as a monster.
"Athena please, we didn't want to keep it a secret. We wanted to tell you, but your dad thought it was better this way." Mark says, taking a step closer, but I can see CJ trying to hold him back.
All of a sudden I see Jacks wolf running out of the forest. He shifts back to his human and CJ grabs him some shorts to wear. He observes the scene and finds out what was going on, only proving that he knew about my father's condition. He takes a step closer to me, but I take a step back. He stops himself and looks at me with sad eyes, as if I slapped him in the face.
"Athena?" He says.
"Did you know?" Even though Mark told me, a part of me wanted it to be a lie. I didn't wanna believe Jack would do anything like this to me, but as I look at him dead in the eyes, I can see it was true.
"DID YOU KNOW!" I scream and he looks down to the ground.
"You already know the answer to that Love." He says.
In that moment I ran to him and punched him square in the face. He doesn't fall, in fact he hardly even flinched, I hated his Alpha strength. I keep punching and kicking him until Mark and Reed pull me off of him.
"I Trusted You!" I cry, I was able to break free and punched him again. "You are just like them!" I screamed.
"Athena spot!" Izzy yells. I don't hear her, I just hear the anger roaring inside me and I punch him one last time in the jaw before Reed and Mark get a hold of me again. He spits out blood, but he still couldn't look at me.
I pushed the boys off of me and I walked towards Cole. He had a grin on his face and I grabbed him by his caller shirt.
"Whats wrong with him!" I demand.
"He's been poisoned." He says.
"Poisoned by what!" I demand
"I won't say" He says with a sick twisted smile. "And if you want to save his life, you will listen."
I didn't have a good feeling about this, but I would do anything to protect my father, so I let him go.
"What is it that you want" I say.
He smiles and claps his hands together. "You know what I want?"
"No! Shes not going with you." Jack protest.
"Oh she will, if she wants to save her father."
He reaches into his pocket and takes out a small vile of blue liquid and held it so everyone could see. "This is the antidote for your fathers sickness. You can still save his life if you give it to him tonight or he might not make tell morning." He says and places a hand on my cheek. "All I want is for you to come with me, peacefully and quietly." He says
"I said she's not going with you!" Jack says angrily.
"I'll go." I say in defeat.
"Athena no, we can figure this out." Izzy says.
"She's right, what if he's lying" Reed said.
"I said I'm going!" I shout back. I look at them with tears in my eyes. "Can't you see? My father is dying. I can't risk losing him too." I cry.
"Athena you're not going anywhere!" Jack yells and starts to run towards us. I knew I had to stop him no matter what.
I'm sorry Jack.
I raised my hand and shot fire at him, throwing him back a couple of feet away.
"JACK!" CJ cry's and runs to go check on him.
"Toss the vile to Mark and we can go." I demand and Cole smiles at me.
"One more thing, I need your friend to come with us." He looks past me and I turn to see who he's looking at. "There's a certain mate that would like to see you." He says to Izzy.
"That wasn't part of the deal! Leave her out of this!" I yell.
"Athena." Izzy walks up to me and grabs my hand. "It's ok, I'll come with you." She says.
"Izzy you don't have to do this." I say.
"I know, but I want to." She cry's.
"But why."
"Because you're my sister.... and I can't live without you." She says wiping her eyes. I pull her in my arms and hold on to her tight.
"I promise, I won't let them hurt you." I say and look directly at Cole. "If you or your men lay a single hand on her, then I promise to kill you all." I threaten.
"I believe you will, you have my word." He says. "Now lets head out."
"Athen...Athena...don't.....don't go." I hear Jack say. I don't look at him and I don't say anything back. My heart is broken and crushed, not just because I found out the truth, but also because I hurt my mate.
I guess I was a monster everyone believed I was.
Cole tossed the vile to Mark and extends his hand to me. I looked at it for a second and then looked back at Jack on the ground looking straight at me. He had only pain in his eyes and it broke me even more.
I turned my head back and look down to the ground taking ahold of Coles hand. He leads me away from my home, the people I love, and my Mate.
We started to run and I heard Jack screaming for me to come back, but I couldn't, I had to do this, I had to save my father. I can't loose him, I refuse to loose him. Before we get farther away I try to mind link to Jack one last time.
"I promise, I'll come back."