7. Sophie: Josephine's Pov
Chapter Goal: 400 votes (for an early update)
QOTD- what do y'all think of the story so far?
*there's a lot of POV switching in this chapter
"Happy now?" Archer rolls his eyes and hands me two granola bars.
"Mmmhmm." I nod, eagerly taking the nut-based food from him.
"I feel like I'm depriving you of food by giving you this." he says, not letting go just yet. We both look at the full plate of breakfast sitting in front of him and look back at the granola bars. "Just take some of mine. You can't possibly get full off of granola bars."
"I can." He still doesn't loosen his grip on my granola bars.
"At least eat some bacon or eggs." he pushes his plate in between us, but I push it back towards him and shake my head. I don't like bacon, I've never been a fan of it. Call me crazy, but I can't stand bacon. Every single other wolf I know loves the flavor and texture; the only thing I can focus on when I see bacon is all the grease, oil, and processed fat. "Why do you look so disgusted?"
"I don't like bacon
"Very funny. Eat." He tries to feed me a piece of bacon, but I don't open my mouth, refusing to let the piece of food in. "You're being serious aren't you." his question comes out more like a statement. He takes my silence as a yes, and I prepare myself for the typical werewolf reaction that I always get about my disliking of bacon. "Why don't you like bacon?"
"It's all the grease and stuff that makes me turn away." I answer, letting out a sigh of relief when he withdraws the bacon. "And the taste. I just don't like bacon."
"Then eat the eggs." Archer hands me a fork and points to the scrambled eggs on his plate. "I don't want you to be hungry."
"I just want a granola bar."
"It's not going to fill you up."
"Yeah it will." I open the granola bar and take a bite out of it. I rarely ever eat a real breakfast in the morning; I either don't have time to make myself anything like eggs, cereal, and all that stuff, or I don't have the ingredients. I've pretty much been living off of granola bars, protein bars, and nutrient supplements for the last two years. Alan and I go out to eat sometimes, but that's only when we absolutely need real food in us. Our main priority is paying bills, groceries come afterwards.
"If you get hungry, just tell me." Archer says after a couple minutes, looking at the nearly finished granola bars in my hand. Werewolves eat a lot; I'm not surprised that Archer is concerned about my eating habits. Two granola bars is considered normal for humans, but they manage to fill me up pretty well.
"I'm fine, Archer. Really." I shake my head, smiling to reassure him that I'm not rejecting his cooking for any major reasons. "I've been eating these for breakfast for a long time. I'm just not feeling eggs and bacon today."
"Okay then." he still stares at me funny. "I like your hoodie." he compliments after a brief pause.
"Thanks." I mumble, adjusting the piece of clothing. I don't like people saying things about this specific hoodie, even if it's something good. Comments just make me over think my decisions and I can't handle over thinking certain things like this hoodie. "What happens now?"
"What do you mean?" for some reason, my question catches Archer off guard and he ends up speaking with a mouthful of bacon.
"Carly's being locked up, what happens now?"
"We work on getting your siblings back, finding out where the rest of your family is, and how all of this happened." he tells me, listing everything like a simple to-do list. None of this is going to be simple; if it were, I would have Nate and Elia with me right now. "Most likely all of this is connected. I'm going to ask Carly a couple questions and I'll report back to you afterwards."
"How will you know if she's telling the truth?"
"I'm an Alpha, my wolf and I automatically know when our pack members are lying to us. You'll be able to do the same when you become Luna." he answers. "As we get closer and progress through the mating bond, you'll slowly gain Luna abilities."
"Oh." I nod, not really having anything else to say. Now that I know that Archer doesn't actually have a secretary and that I was being played by Carly for the past two years, I'm starting to question a lot of things. Did my parents pay her to do what she did? Or did she really think that she had the right to pretend to be a secretary for Archer? This could be a completely separate problem, but it still has ties to the security breach, and the security breach is connected to my situation.
"Turns out some people thought that Carly is the 'mystery girl' from the park." Archer says to keep the conversation going. "The rumors don't bother you, do they?"
"Nope." I shake my head, being honest with my answer. "I like hearing what people say in the pack, it's funny what people come up with. It's already been a week-"
"Nine days." Archer corrects me, not even trying to be subtle. "It's been nine days since our first date."
"Date?" I ask, taken aback by his question. "That was a date?"
"I think so," he admits, just as confused as I am. "A walk in the park is considered a date, right?"
"I don't know." I shrug, actually thinking about it now. Was that my first date? "It was the first time we got to spend time together in public on purpose." I say, referring to when he and Courtney tricked me into going to the mall. "But I think we get to choose if it gets to be our first date or not."
"Do you want to call that our first date?" he asks me.
"If you want to." I shrug, not as worked up about this as he is. "It's just a first date."
"I want our first date to be special." he says. "Something like going to see a movie and dinner or something like that."
"I guess." I know that a first date is supposed to be important, but Archer and I kind of got to do that within the first week of actually making conversation with each other. He and I always get to talk in private during our frequent car rides. "We won't be able to do that for a while, though. Going to the movies or out for dinner will expose us."
"We could always go in disguises." I suggest, already imagining us in wacky costumes. "We could wear a bunch of face paint, dress up as animals, the possibilities are endless!"
"I don't appreciate your sarcasm." he deadpans, taking my words way too seriously. It was just a joke, I think that was pretty obvious. "We can always leave the territory, no one from our pack will see us if we aren't on pack grounds."
"Do you know how crazy you sound right now?" I scoff, shaking my head. Alpha's only leave their pack territories if it's for a serious reason like the recent rogue hunt. And even if they leave their territory, they never stray very far. "The closest city outside of the pack borders is three hours away."
"And?"
"Don't Alpha's have a thing with leaving their territory?"
"I'm fine with being far from the pack as long as it's for something important."
"You're saying that you want to leave your pack territory just for a date?" I try to make him understand what he's saying right now. "That's a three hour drive to the closest city and a three hour drive back, and that's without traffic. Plus if we spend time there, it's going to add another couple more hours. You're willing to leave your territory just for a date?"
"Yes." he nods. "You're my mate, driving a couple hours isn't much."
"Oh, speaking of driving, here."
Archer's Pov
"What's that?" I ask, looking at the wad of cash that Josephine is holding out.
"Money." she says in a 'duh' tone. "You've been driving me places a lot, this is to pay you back for gas."
"Keep it." I tell her, not wanting to take her money. I already know about her financial struggles and why she has to work all the time, the green bills she's trying to give to me are coming out of her own pocket. "You don't have to pay me back for anything."
"Yeah, I do." she pushes her money closer to me, trying to get me to accept it.
"That's at least a hundred dollars you're holding there, I'm not going to accept it." I decline, pushing her away.
"You probably spent more on gas, just take it. I owe you."
"No, you don't." I growl, my wolf starting to surface. Josephine is my mate, and I like her a lot and I try to keep my wolf at bay when I'm around her, but she just knows how to push my buttons. My wolf and I don't like people pushing us, and that's what our mate is doing right now. "You are my mate, you don't have to pay me for anything. What's mine is yours."
"If what's yours is mine, then that also means that what's mine is yours. So I'm just transferring money to you, not losing anything." she turns my words against me.
"I'm not going to take your money." I growl. "Put it away."
"Be like that then." she huffs, knowing that I'm not going to take her payment. "I'll eventually pay you back, you just won't notice it."
Half an hour later when the two of us are back in my office, she asks, "Is getting Nate back going to be easy? Like, how does the whole Elite thing work?"
"There's a special security system with the Elites." I explain, looking up from my computer. "Getting your brother back is going to be a long process, but not a very difficult one. We will both have to do a lot of paperwork, contact the Elite leaders, and I have to make sure that he doesn't go on long missions to get him back."
"How long is it going to take?" Josephine asks, eager to reunite with her brother. "Can you really get him back?"
"I can, but it's not going to be overnight or anything." I answer, trying to think of the fastest way to get an Elite back home. "It's going to a couple months because the paperwork has to go through, validations have to be made, things have to be finalized-"
"But we'll be able to do it, right?" When I nod, it's like her entire world changes. She jumps to her feet, throws her arms in the air, and squeals, "I'm gonna get my brother back!"
"It might take a couple months-"
"I can wait!" she says, still smiling like a child. "I'll be patient, as long as I get him back. And while I wait, I'll keep trying to get Elia back too." After sitting back down and calming herself a bit, Josephine turns to me and asks, "Is there any way to contact Nate?"
"The only way to contact Elites is through mind-link or to see them in person." I shake my head. Josephine is aware of how Elites barely get to contact loved ones; they're told that before initiation. "We can't call, video chat, or email them because of the small chance of someone tracking the location of the Elite headquarters, but I can let you check on your brother's stats and what he's doing."
"Can I see them right now?" she asks, looking at me like a child begging for candy.
"It's right here." I motion for her to sit beside me and turn my computer so that she can see the screen.
Josephine's Pov
'We're really close to mate right now.' my wolf states when I plop myself down on the couch next to Archer. He doesn't seem to notice our close proximity, but I do. I'm basically leaning on him to see the monitor. "What's your brother's full name?" Archer asks.
"Natanaele Biagio De Luca Mancini." I answer.
"I don't see any 'Nathaniel's in the Elite files."
"My brother's official name is Natanaele (nah-teh-nah-el-leh)." I slowly pronounce my big brother's name. And when Archer looks at me like I grew an extra nose, I type in the name myself. "All my siblings and I have Italian first and/or middle names, but we go by the English translations here."
"What's the English translation of Natanee- Nate's full name?" I chuckle at his attempt to pronounce Nate's legal name.
"It's Nathaniel Blaze De Luca Mancini. The original is Natanaele Biagio De Luca Mancini." I answer, feeling myself smiling at Archer's stunned expression. "Traditionally, we wouldn't have middle names at all, but since my parents grew up in America, they gave my siblings and I middle names along with both of their last names." I explain, knowing what questions he's going to ask. "My mom's last name was De Luca and my dad's last name was Mancini."
"So your parents moved here from Italy?"
"No." I shake my head, liking that I can at least tell Archer about my family. He might not get to meet them, but he'll get to know about them. "My grandparents were the ones who moved here from Italy, both of my parents are American."
"That's interesting." Archer comments, thinking about what I just told him. "What's your full name?"
"In English, it's, Josephine Violet De Luca Mancini."
"What's the Italian version?"
"Guiseppina (jo-zep-pee-nah) Violetta De Luca Mancini."
"So, Josephine in Italian is the same, but you just use a z instead of an s?"
"It's spelled completely differently." Stretching out my arms, I type my name into his computer and watch as he tries to read it. "I just thought that the J in your name would be pronounced as an H. Like how the word, jalapeno, is." Archer says.
"That's so stereotypical." I roll my eyes at his last spoken sentence. "Are Nate's stats showing up?" I ask, wanting to get off the topic of names and back to checking on my brother. Our short mind-links are just to reassure each other that we're alive, there's no catching up with each other or anything. So at the moment, this is the closest I can get to him.
"According to the computer, he's just started a mission outside the pack borders." Archer informs, pointing to the computer screen. "He's going to be away for at least three months, but we'll still be able to work on getting him back while he's away."
"He won't know that we're trying to get him back, right?" I ask, not wanting my brother to know what we're going to do.
"He won't know until he gets back from his mission." Archer clarifies. "Why?"
"I don't want him to be distracted." I tell him, knowing what will happen to Nate if he's aware of my actions. The work he's doing as an Elite is dangerous and risky; any distractions can cost him his life and I don't want to add anything more to his plate. "Am I allowed to know what he's doing on the mission?"
"Of course you are, you're the Luna-"
"I'm not a Luna." I cut him off, not liking that he keeps using that word. Each time he addresses me as, Luna, it makes me less and less fond of the position. I don't like being pressured into things, anyone who knows me would be aware of that. But Archer just knows about my past, he doesn't actually know me. "What's Nate doing on the mission?"
"He and a couple other Elites are tracking rogues." Archer answers, frowning at the fact that I straight up declined the Luna position.
"That's going to take three months?"
"The rogues that he's tracking are like the ones we took out in the recent rogue-hunt. Since the rogues have been lingering around for so long without being caught, I think that the two groups are connected." he explains, confusing me a little. Archer Stone is known as the Alpha who never lets any rogues pass his territory, for there to be more than one group of rogues lingering around must mean that there's something wrong.
"Is it something major?"
"We're just going to figure out what the rogues are planning and then we're going to kill all of them." he says as if killing a bunch of people is no big deal. They may be rogues, but they're still people. People who probably have family or personal problems of their own.
"Are you really going to kill all of them?" I ask even though I already know the answer. Archer doesn't show any mercy to anyone, I'm still surprised that he's acting so nice towards me.
"Josephine, you know it's going to happen."
"I know." I sigh, trying not to think about the rogues too much. Ever since Archer discovered that I'm his mate, he's been acting the complete opposite of the scary Alpha that everyone knows him to be. I was reminded today of that side of him when he called Carly on the phone; when he went into Alpha-mode, he was a completely different person.
"I thought you don't have a problem with killing?" he asks. "You shot at least a dozen rogues the rogue-hunt last night."
"I didn't directly kill anyone." I whisper, hating conversations like these. I'm a wolf, all wolves kill; it's the only way to survive; that's what they teach us as we grow up. Whether you're a rogue or pack member, it's either kill or be killed. During the rogue-hunt, I tried my best to only shoot rogues in certain areas like the shoulder and legs, not anywhere that would instantly kill them. The entire pack is taught to show no mercy and to kill on instinct, but I can't bring myself to do that. Shooting and waiting for someone else to finish the job is the closest I've ever gotten to taking someone's life. "I only slowed down the rogues, my teammates did the rest."
"You did that on purpose?" Archer narrows his eyes at me. Usually when people look at me the way he's doing right now, I don't care much, but the fact that it's him staring at me that way, it makes me feel bad. "Your orders were to kill on sight."
"I know, but I wanted to scout the rest of the building-"
"You were blindly shooting-"
"I was aiming for the limbs of rogues." I shake my head, not liking the way he's looking at me. Technically I didn't do anything wrong, but I know that what I did went against my orders, I couldn't bring myself to directly kill anyone. "I hit my targets, didn't I? I didn't jeopardize the mission or put any of my teammates' lives at risk."
"Your orders were to kill on sight." Archer repeats, his wolf beginning to surface. His eyes slightly darken and he tenses up, almost like he's trying not to lash out on me. "Why didn't you follow your orders?"
"I wanted to scout the area-"
"That wasn't part of your instructions."
"I couldn't kill anyone." I admit, trying to get him to stop glaring at me. Alphas have a big thing about pack members going against their orders, I'm not surprised at all that Archer is acting the way that he is right now. "I never have and I can't imagine myself doing so in the future."
"You're a tracker-"
"I track who I'm supposed to and I let my teammates who are trained to kill do the job. It's bad enough that I'm involved in so many deaths, rogues or not." I try explaining myself, trying to get Archer to see things from my point of view. It doesn't seem to work very well though, he just keeps glaring at me.
"Your orders were to kill on sight, to not let any rogues escape."
"No rogues escaped." I remind him, hoping that he'll understand that I didn't jeopardize the mission or anything. "I just can't bring myself to kill anyone."
"You killed two rogues, almost three when you strayed away from everyone else-"
"I didn't kill them, they were just unconscious." I shake my head. "I was provoked and ended up beating them senseless."
"What did they do to provoke you?"
"That's not important,"
"You disfigured a gun, they must've said something important. I heard you screaming something about not calling you Soph-"
"No." I growl, hating the sound of my old name. It's been two years, almost three since I went by Sophie. I know that it's just a name and that I should be over it by now, but it just recalls too many memories and I can't handle thinking about them. Archer doesn't have to know about Sophie, it's already bad enough that Derrick knows about that. I'm not sure if Archer knows that his sister, Camille, was friends with Elia, but it's better if he doesn't. All of my siblings' friends all know me as Sophie, and I can't confront them about that without raising suspicions.
"Can you tell me the backstory about this?"
"No." I answer, not ready to tell him about that yet. I know that he's going to eventually find out from Derrick, his sister, or someone else; that just isn't important at the moment. "I just used to go by that name, you don't need to know anything more than that."
"Hey, Archer, I got some paperwork-" Archer and I both look up to see Derrick standing by the office door. "Hey, Sophie."
"I go by Jo now." I remind him, trying not to give my Beta the normal attitude I give when someone calls me that. "I'm gonna go take an early shift at the cafe." I announce, getting up to leave, trying not to let my true emotions show.
"What? Why?" Archer asks, trying grab my hand. "It's only noon, why are you leaving?"
"I have homework to do." I shrug, technically not lying. Derrick moves to the side to let me pass, but Archer, as expected, comes walking after me. "I have things to take care of, you do too." I say when he tries following me out of his house.
"But-"
"Bye, Archer."
*** (one week later, 11pm)
Archer's Pov
"This is all Derrick's fault." I growl, punching the wall in frustration. Josephine and I were having a good time until he interrupted us. I thought that my mate and I were doing pretty well since she wasn't mad about waking up next to me, but now she doesn't want to see me in person. We've talked over the phone, texted, and mind-linked. I've tried Face-Timing and video chats, but she refuses to let me see her.
I've checked in at the cafe and the training center and I found out that she hasn't been coming to work, school, or training. As far as I know, Josephine has been hiding. I showed up at her house one morning to drive her to school and she wasn't there, I smelt her, but she wasn't there. I've even tried looking for Alan at his work and at the high school, but I can't figure out his schedule. I don't even know enough about him to search him up in the pack records.
'Josephine.' I try mind-linking her, but I can tell that my message doesn't get through, meaning that she has her mind blocked off at the moment. Usually, I have a better chance of getting a reply when I text her, but I was being stupid and decided to update my iOS software. Now I won't even know if she calls or texts me back.
I've tried asking her where she's been and if we could meet up somewhere, but she's constantly coming up with bogus excuses.
"Fuck it." I growl, getting my keys and walking out my house.
I need to see her.
Josephine's Pov
"Alan!" I scream, holding my hands in my head as another wave of Heat course through my body. It's been like this for the entire week, but today has been the worst of my Heat. And even though the pain is almost unbearable, I can still tell that something is wrong. My wolf isn't speaking; I can feel her, but it's like I can't reach her. 'Al-' I try mind-linking my friend, but end up screaming when my mind-link attempt backfires. The message amplifies and rings in my ears, almost like the partial message is trapped in my head.
"ALAN!" I shout, knowing that something is definitely wrong now. No matter what's happening, or how bad my Heat is, Alan always gives me a sign to tell me he's here. Forcing myself to get off the ground, I try my best to steady myself enough to walk towards the door. "Go call your mate." is the first thing I hear from him.
"I can't..." I whisper, trying not to touch him or breathe in his scent. "Mind-link doesn't work." I groan when Alan's arm accidentally brushes against mine. My Heat is making things difficult for the both of us right now; neither of us can concentrate very well on the situation because of the stupid wolf hormones. Ever since my Heat started, Alan and I have been trying to board up all the rooms and windows so that he can't smell my Heat. Neither of us know what exactly Heat does, but we do know that it impacts everyone.
"Call him." Alan groans, starting to breathe through his mouth so he doesn't smell me. "Hide. I think it's rogues, you need to hide yourself. Don't even come out to fight, they'll smell your Heat."
"How close are they-"
"Go." Alan shoves me back into my room and chucks my phone at me. When I start smelling the sour stench of rogues, I rush to call Archer on my phone. "Pick up the damn phone!" I whisper-yell when it goes straight to voicemail. I try texting him, but a little red symbol pops up and it asks me to send it again.
A crash is heard from the living room and that's when I take refuge in my closet. It's stupid to trap myself inside a small space like that, but it's the best hiding place I have right now. I lay down on the floor of my closet and get as close to the wall as possible so I can move the boxes so they look like they're pushed up against the wall, concealing my body. Once I confirm that the boxes look realistically pushed up against the wall, I move the hangers of clothes above me and try not make it look like all the clothes are centered in one spot. "Your pack took over one of our hideouts. We're getting even."
Heart beating hard in my chest, I clench my fists to prevent myself from making sounds as more waves of Heat hit me. It was bad enough not being able to see Archer during my Heat, adding in the proximity of Alan and the fact that there are rogues here, it's just making the entire situation worse. My body gets impossibly hotter each time I sense other wolves near me; and by the way everything I touch is burning my skin right now, there has to be at least three rogues dealing with Alan right now.
"You live with Sophie, don't you?" I hear a familiar voice ask, his voice both scaring and confusing me. "Where is she?"
Keaton. (remember him? Derrick's cousin?)
Why is he here with rogues? Archer said that he's the former Beta's son, shouldn't that mean that Keaton is only loyal to the pack? But besides the questions that are flying through my mind, dread settles in my stomach as I remember all my past encounters with Keaton. He's that one older guy that's been perving on my friends and I. Ever since he noticed that my family hasn't been around, he's been pushing with questions and trying to make advances on me. I didn't want to say anything to Archer about it since I've been okay handling it myself, but now I regret keeping my mouth shut.
"She's at work." Alan covers up for me. He doesn't know about that Keaton has still been trying to keep in contact with me after my darker days, but he is aware of the fact that Keaton has been giving our friends and I trouble. "You need to leave her alone."
"Don't tell me what to do." I hear Keaton say, followed by a groan from Alan. I wait for the sound of Alan hitting back, but it never comes. Instead, I'm met with the sound of shuffling and another sound of pain coming from my roommate. "Don't even try mind-linking anyone, we already laced you with silver."
"I'm going to go find Sophie. Keep him down, but don't kill him. Yet." he adds after a couple minutes of silence.
"Sophie, I know you're here." Keaton taunts, walking into my room, only ten feet away from where I'm hiding. "Damn." I can basically hear the smirk on his lips as he audibly sniffs the air. "Seems like someone's in Heat."
Shit.
I try to keep my heartbeat steady so he can't hear me, but that's when he starts walking closer to the closet. "I can make it all feel better." his voice sends shivers down my spine. The only person I want right now is Archer, being near anyone else just makes my Heat worse than it has to be. All of a sudden, I feel an arm wrap around mine and yank me out of the closet. I let out a scream; not because of the sudden movement or from the way he's roughly handling me, but because of the burning sensation that comes from where our skin makes contact.
It's nothing like the soothing sparks that I feel whenever I'm with Archer, it's the complete opposite. Keaton's touch feels like someone's holding my arm over an open flame. "Let her go!" Alan shouts from the living room.
"Inject him." Keaton commands the rogues restraining Alan. I look up and see the four rogues take out a syringe full of wolfsbane. Usually, Alan would be able to easily take them on, but the silver that they previously drugged us with is taking a major toll on him. Forced to watch him be injected with the large amount of wolfsbane, I witness how Alan goes limp in only a couple seconds. Wolfsbane can't kill him, but it can definitely cause some serious damage to his body. I yell for them to stop what they're doing to Alan, only to be shoved back into my room.
"I finally have you alone." Keaton whispers in my ear, his breath grossly hot and sticky on my neck.
"Let me go." I gasp, trying to get the world to stop spinning.
"Don't fucking talk back to me." he snaps, picking me up by my arm and throwing me against the wall. Once again, the actual impact of hitting the wall isn't what I feel, it's the burning sensation of Keaton's touch that causes me to let out a scream. "Loud bitches like you need to shut up."
I hear the sound of a belt being unbuckled and Keaton saying, "I'm doing you a favor, treating your Heat."
"Fuck off!" I do my best to put some distance between the two of us, but it's impossible to do so without causing more waves of Heat to wash over me. Refusing to close my eyes and make him think that I'm afraid of him, I open my eyes just in time to see him raise the belt over his head.
Archer's Pov
"Rogues." I growl, immediately recognizing the sour stench coming from outside. Knowing that the smell is coming is the direction of my mate's house, I slam my foot on the acceleration pedal of my car and race to get there as fast as I can. As I near her house, different scents hit me. But overall, Josephine's is the one that stands out over the smell of rogues.
She smells... different. But in a good way. Her normal scent already drives me crazy, but now it's addicting. My wolf almost forgets about the rogues before I snap him out of his trance. "It's the Alpha!" I hear someone shout from inside the house. I see a small group of rogues climb out the windows and start running away from the territory, but I don't even think about chasing after them. All I care about right now is my mate.
"Josephine!" I call out when I see the broken door. Rushing inside, I follow my mate's scent into her room.
"Get away!" she screams, using her arms to shield herself from me. She lays curled up in a ball on the floor of her room, her hands weakly curled into fists. I rush to her side and it's not until I actually touch her that she realizes who I am. The sparks that come from touching her are stronger than before, but I keep focused on the situation.
"I'm here." I quietly tell her, trying to pull her arms away from her face. "Let me see what's wrong." I say, concerned at the fact that she's bleeding.
After a couple seconds, she whimpers, "Everything burns."
She hesitant lets me lower her arms and I growl at what I see. "Who the hell did this to you?" I mutter under my breath, inspecting her wounds as best I can without hurting her. A long gash catches my eye, it looks as if a whip stuck her across her face. One of her eyes is already swollen and the stitches on her lip from last week's rogue-hunt busted open.
"Everything burns." she repeats, sounding even quieter than before. She allows me pull her against me, but I feel her jump when I accidentally move too quickly.
"I'm taking you to the hospital." I state, knowing that she needs medical attention.
"No... I can't.." her words come out jumbled and slurred, her unstitched lip starting to take a toll on her speech.
"Your face is fucking bleeding." I growl, not going to let her argue with me on this. She's losing a lot of blood and I know for a fact that she's in pain, the fact that I can't soothe it is killing me. "Shit," I curse when she lets out another whimper.
Setting her on the ground, I now look at the other wounds on her body. The first one I see is a bright red hand print on her arm; it looks like someone's hands burned her. There are bruises on her body too, each one I see makes me feel worse and worse about it being able to protect her. "Stay awake, Josephine." this time, I pick her up as gently as possible and try to lessen the amount of blood she's losing. Normally her wolf would've healed her by now, but I can tell that the air has been laced with silver.
"Alan." my mate whispers, stopping me in my tracks. "I'm not leaving Alan." How did I not notice him laying there before?
Not even starting an argument with her for the sake of her own life, I grab an unconscious Alan by the collar and drag him out to my car. "Stay with me, Josephine!" I shout when my mate closes her eyes. The sudden sound snaps her out of her trance, but I can still feel her head drooping onto my shoulder when I put her in the passenger seat of my car. I can care less about the blood soaking my leather seats right now; all I'm worried about is keeping my mate alive. 'I need doctors and nurses to meet me at the emergency room entrance.' I mind-link the pack hospital. 'I have two critically injured wolves; one unconscious male, he appears to be fine, but might have silver in his body.'
"Don't fall asleep on me, Josephine!" I try shaking my mate without hurting her, but there's not much I can do behind the steering wheel. 'My ma- The other wolf is female and losing a lot of blood. She has a long gash on her face, burn marks on her body, and she's covered in bruises. She isn't healing properly either and most likely has silver in her system as well.'
"Archer." my mate whimpers, weakly gripping onto my hand. She tries to look at me with her good eye, but she fails to lift her head up long enough to do so. "It's gonna be okay, sweetheart." I assure her, trying my best not to panic. "You're going to be alright."
Josephine's house is nearly an hour away from the hospital, but I speed through the roads, thankful that there aren't many cars out at this time. I'm able to make it to the emergency room entrance in ten. That's a long time in this situation, but it's a lot better than an hour. "There's an unconcious wolf in the back seat." I say to the band of doctors and nurses. As half of them open the door to the backseat and tend to Alan, I rush to get my mate. "Why the hell id there only one stretcher out here?!?"
"Sorry, Alp-"
"DON'T WASTE TIME APOLOGIZING!" I cradle Josephine in my arms and follow the doctors inside the hospital, growling at the fact that they didn't bring out two gurneys when I specifically told them that I have two injured wolves with me. "I'm not sure what exactly happened, but there were rogues at the scene." I inform one of the nurses, trying to give them as much information as possible. "I want my personal medical staff working on her." I order, causing a few of them to gasp.
There's a special team of doctors and nurses that are hired specifically for the Alpha. And since they don't know that Josephine is my mate, everyone thinks it's a big deal. "She's a sister of one of my Elites," I explain, trying to avoid as many future problems as possible. "If anything happens to her, you all die."
"Yes, Alpha." the medical team quickly gets to work, knowing the consequences if they don't do their job correctly.
I reluctantly let them take my mate out of my arms and the moment Josephine and I stop touching, she lets out a whimper at the loss of contact. No one else seems to hear it, or maybe they just think that it's because of her wounds, but I know the truth. "She's losing too much blood!" someone shouts. "Foreign contact from males are burning her skin!"
"She's in Heat!" I recognize this voice as someone from my personal medical staff. "I need an all-female team!"
"What's happening?" I ask a nurse when I start getting pushed away from Josephine, along with the other males that were tending to her. I'm her mate; being close by will actually help her, right?
"The girl-"
"Her name's Josephine Mancini." I correct, not liking that she was referred to as 'the girl'.
"She's in Heat." the nurse confirms. "Every time a male who isn't her mate touches her, her skin burns, causing her to lose even more blood."
"Will having her mate in the room with her help her heal?" I ask. I want to be by Josephine's side while the doctors treat her, but at the same time, I know we can't expose our relationship yet.
"Maybe afterwards, Alpha, but not right now. Having her mate inside the operating room would only slow us down." the nurse explains. "Do you know who her mate is? Or any family that can check up on her?"
"Her family is away at work." I tell the nurse, using the coverup that Josephine herself always uses when questioned about her family. "No one knows who her mate is."
"Do you know if she's of legal age?"
"She's eighteen." I answer, knowing that my mate's age won't require the doctors to call her parents for permission. "I want updates on everything that happens."
"Yes, Alpha."
*** (six hours later, 5am) (A/N I was gonna stop here, but I wanted to give y'all some more content)
"For the hundredth time, Alpha, no one except for her mate and family can visit her right now." the nurse tells me. I want to flat out say that I'm Josephine's mate, but that would just expose our relationship and cause future problems for us. "She can't have any other visitors until this afternoon."
"I'm the Alpha, can't I see her?"
"Why are you so persistent, Alph-"
"Don't question me." I growl, getting ready to kill this nurse. She's literally the only person stopping me from seeing my mate. "Her family is away at work and her roommate is asleep in a hospital bed, I'm all she has right now."
"I guess you can-"
"That's what I thought." I cut off the nurse, pushing past her. Opening the door to Josephine's room, I get in and see a doctor writing stuff at a clipboard at the edge of the hospital bed. "What's her condition?" I ask, assuming that the nurse outside has been telling me bullshit this entire time.
"She's doing better, but she lost a lot of blood." the doctor informs. "She should wake up either today or somewhere this week, but she won't be able to go to school or train yet. Healing should take two to three weeks; I suggest to tell her family to put her own bed rest for the time being."
"Why does she have casts?" I ask, looking at the little boot on my mate's foot. Wolves almost never need casts, we heal too quickly to wear those.
"Her ankle is broken, Alpha. It was one of the first things we spotted when she arrived here." the doctor explains. "She'll have to wear the cast for at least two weeks; it appears that someone struck her and broke the bone."
'We're going to kill whoever did this to mate.' my wolf growls.
"Usually a wolf would heal after an injury, but because of the silver in her body at the time, the healing process is slowed. And we took some measurements earlier and Miss Mancini doesn't have the proper nutrients that a wolf should have in their body; she's at a healthy weight, but it seems like she's constantly eating the same foods and isn't eating a proper werewolf diet. The same thing goes for her friend who was brought in with her." the doctor says. "Do you know who will be taking care of her after Miss Mancini is discharged, Alpha?"
"I will." I answer before clearing my throat and adding, "Her brother requested it. When will she be able to leave?"
"Once she's awake and stable." the doctor leaves me alone with my mate and I take a seat on one of the hospital chairs. But the moment the door closes shut, the heart monitor goes flat and a long beep fills the air.
%^&*(*&^%$#$%^&*()(*&^%$%^&*(*&^%$%^&*&^%^&*&^%^&^%^&^%
"SUPER SORRY I'M LATE!!!"
-me
QOTD- what do y'all think of the story so far?
So it's been three weeks since I've updated, I know. But my schedule has been packed lately and homework (especially algreba), is TAKING ME HOURS TO DO EVERY NIGHT! I'm sorry for the long wait between chapters, but I'm really trying to write whenever I can.
If we reach the chapter goal (400 votes), then I'll update before this Friday, if not, then I'll try to update either this Friday or next. 🍩
If you have any questions for me, either message me (I try my best to always answer), leave a question on my message board (I check it daily), or leave your questions here on this line--->
Chapter Goal (for an EARLY UPDATE): 400 votes
That's all for now,
xoxo Priscilla