Brooke's POV
"So where to next?" I asked Jace, smiling widely.
"I'm going to show you around a bit. I'll bring you to the mall first, in case you ever need to buy anything, you can go there." Jace said and started driving.
The drive was quiet and I guess you could say, it was awkward. I turned the music up and stared out of the window. Thinking.
Yes, I still haven't decided whether or not to forgive him. And no, I will not rant about that to you again. Because well, I've been ranting a lot, and frankly, it isn't helping my case at all.
I was so deep in thought, that I didn't realise we had reached the mall, until Jace opened the car door for me. "Milady." He had said graciously.
I didn't reply to that, merely smiling at him awkwardly. Truth is, I didn't know how to act. He was treating me like I wasn't just his friend, when I actually was.
Suddenly, Jace stopped smiling. He stiffened. I never saw him like this before and it scared me.
"Jace! What's going on?" I demanded to know. He didn't answer.
"JACE!" I said loudly. This time he answered me, with one word.
"Rogues."
Now I would like to say, that I took the whole thing under control and that I did what was necessary during a rogue attack, but that was certainly not what happened.
I had gone into shock. I didn't move. I didn't say anything else. It was as if someone had froze me, and prevented me from moving. At that time, I was sure the only emotion shown on my face, was how terrified I was.
But Jace, on the other hand, snapped into action. He slammed the car door, making me jump a little, got in the car and sped off.
He had the whole thing under control, not that I ever thought otherwise. Being the alpha, he was in charge of many things. It was not unusual for an alpha to be in control of what was going on.
Within minutes, we were back at the pack house. Jace got out of the car, and motioned me to follow him. He broke off into a run. But me, being the incredibly physically unfit person, I couldn't keep up with his pace. I was panting heavily, calling out to him to slow down.
He realized this, and I guess he didn't want to slow down, with the fate of his pack in his hands. So he ran over to me, and lifted me with ease. He carried me all the way there. I might have been scared before, but now I wasn't as scared. I may hate Jace, but even I can not deny that with him, I felt safe, like he would protect me from all danger.
Blood. That was my first thought when we entered the pack house. I could see it. I could smell it. It was splattered everywhere. I resisted the urge to puke at the sight of it. Bodies - dead bodies - were strewn carelessly all over the room. In short, it was utterly gruesome.
Cayden was already there waiting for us, standing in a protective stance in front of his mate, Taylor. The minute he saw us, he told Jace briefly the pack's situation.
"Brooke. You and Taylor need to get out of here. There's a secret hiding place at the basement. Cayden already told Taylor about it. Go. And hurry. I don't want you getting hurt." That was all Jace told me, before they ushered us away, down to the basement.
"Wait, Jace!" I stopped him. I brought him into a tight hug, squeezing him so tight that I was sure I had cut off all blood circulation in all parts of his body. "Stay safe." I told him.
Even in this situation, he managed a small smile. I wanted to say more, but I knew we had to go now, before the rogues came and found us. I pulled Taylor away from her mate, and said a final goodbye, before we ran downstairs to the basement.
The basement was a small, rectangular room, that I guess was the library. It was full of books in wooden shelving. Taylor walked over to the second bookcase, then stopped. She started to tilt random books. "Taylor! What are you doing? Where is the hiding place? We have to hurry! I think they're coming!" At this, Taylor seemed to get alarmed.
"I don't know Brooke! Cayden said to tilt a green book, to open the door to the hiding place! But they are all green!" You could easily tell from her voice that she was freaking out. And in all honesty, so was I.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DON'T KNOW?" I whisper-yelled. As soon as I said it, i felt bad about snapping at Taylor. I took a deep breath, then said, "Okay. Sorry, let's just try every book. Do you know which bookcase it is in?"
Taylor nodded, and pointed to the same bookcase as the one she was looking at just now. We got to work, tilting every book they could see. We didn't search for very long, before we heard footsteps, and the low voices of a few men. I panicked, and scanned the bookcase quickly. Then I realized something. The pages of every book were the usual white. Except for one book.
It was a small book, compared to the others. And so thin, that you could barely see it amongst all the other books if you didn't look closely enough. And it was so cleverly hidden at the bottom most shelf of the bookcase.
The sound of their footsteps against the hard cement ground was getting louder and louder, telling me that the rogues were coming closer. I reached out, and jerked the book towards myself. For a brief second, nothing happened. My heart was thumping so loudly, that I was scared the rogues might hear it, and find us.
Then I heard a creak. The whole bookcase shifted it's position, revealing a passageway so small I nearly couldn't fit through. We didn't waste a second, and immediately squeezed through the passageway and made our way into the little room that Jace called a hiding place.
As if by magic, the bookcase shifted back into its original position as soon as me and Taylor were both safely in the room. The next few minutes were torture. Taylor and I sat so still. We could easily hear the voices outside. Loud, gruff and terrifying. It was hard to hear them from where we were seated. And although I wasn't 100% sure, I was certain I had heard them saying something about capturing the Luna. The Luna being me, I was scared stiff.
I guess Taylor must've heard it too, because I could see her face pale, and could feel her fear radiating off of her. Thankfully, the hiding place was so skillfully designed, so that the walls were thick, making our scents faint to the people outside.
I heard them shuffling around the room, as if looking for something, or in this case, someone. They found nothing, and seemed dissatisfied with that. I heard one of them swear that he could smell our scents. At this, I gripped Taylor's hand tightly, praying that they would go away. They did, eventually, after searching for a while more.
As soon as they were gone, we sighed in relief and plopped down on one of the sofas in the room.
"Taylor, why do they want to capture me?" I finally picked up the courage to ask. Her face hardened, like she didn't want to tell me at all. Her eyes held no emotion, as she began to speak, "I don't know much of it. But I do know this: The rogues. They want you dead. And it's all because of Jace. He killed a certain pack, I forgot the name of that pack, but anyway, one of them in that pack survived. He's the alpha. His mate is dead, and he wants revenge. He's going to kill you for revenge."
I didn't talk for quite some time after that, just letting that piece of information sink in. The people that wanted me dead were barely about 10 meters away from me. Of course I was scared. I could only hope that Jace and his pack would've killed all of them.
I wasn't sure how long we stayed in that room. But it sure was long. Taylor and I spent most of our time talking about the most random of all things. From time to time, we could hear the gun shots, screams of terror, everything through the thick walls of our hiding place, and smell the salty stench of blood. At these times, we would do nothing but cower at the side. You may think of us as cowards. But I don't care. You weren't there during that time. You wouldn't have known how terrified we felt. The experience was horrible. And yet, I wasn't even viewing, much less fighting in, the battle.
I never really believed much in the moon goddess. That night, however, I prayed so hard to her, to keep Jace safe, and there was nothing more I could ask of her.
The fight probably lasted about a couple of hours, before somebody came to get us, telling us the fight had ended. He wouldn't tell us anything about the fight though, instead claimed that it wasn't his place to tell me. We ran upstairs hurriedly. For one reason, we wanted to see if our mated were safe. For another, we were trying to avoid looking at the all the blood, bodies, everything gruesome about the fight.
Taylor reached the living room first, and when she saw her mate, she ran to him. He picked her up and spun her around in circles. I could not help but smile at how cute they looked. Cayden wasn't very much injured, other than a deep gash on his leg and a couple of bruises and minor cuts here and there. So that was good.
What wasn't good, was that I couldn't see Jace anywhere. "Cayden, where is Jace?" I tried to keep my voice calm, but I was sure that didn't work out. Cayden didn't answer me. I was sure I felt my heart stop for a millisecond.
"Cayden, where is he?" My tone, hard. He sighed, but answered me anyway. "Look Brooke, during the fight, bad stuff happen, and well- "
I cut him off. "Did he ..." I didn't need to finish my sentence for Cayden to know what I was talking about.
"Not exactly... Its complicated... " He rubbed the back of his neck. I was getting annoyed at the fact that he wouldn't answer me properly. I wanted to ask him, where exactly Jace was.
Then, as if on cue, a stretcher was brought in. The thing is, Jace was in that stretcher.
I peered in to look. But I wished I hadn't seen him, for what I saw made me gasp and made my legs feels so weak that I nearly fell to the ground.
Jace was nearly unrecognizable, with the millions of cuts and bruises that decorated his body. His eyes were shut.
And I realized, with shock and absolute horror, and a sickening feeling in the pit of my stomach, that my mate, Jace, was in a coma.
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Hey guys :)
So since I took so long to update the last time, and when I did I had given you an incredibly short chapter, I decided to update again, with a longer chapter this time.
I hope you like it!
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Thank you :)
~Claudia