Mine to Protect Chapter 131: WHAT NOW?

*Derek*

Hazel’s brows furrow in confusion, and then she looks at me with a panicked expression, while shaking her head.

“I think you got the wrong number,” she says, hanging up.

Then she closes the distance between us, taking my hand in hers.

“Derek, I really don’t know this person, I haven’t dated or flirted with anyone when we were apart. I…”

The ringtone goes off again, the same number appears on the screen. This time Hazel looks unnerved, she glares at her phone, and all but yells after picking up the call again, “Who are you? What do you want? And how did you get this number?”

“Hey, calm down chica, I just saw your advertisement and thought we could spend one pleasant night together. What do you say? Are you free tonight?”

“No,” she doesn’t wait for his reply, just hangs up and blocks his number.

One second later she gets a message from another unknown number, this time it’s the photo of a dick, with the words, “want to suck it?”

Hazel drops the phone not expecting something like that to appear on the screen, and cleans her hands on her trousers, like she has touched something disgusting.

I pick the phone up, and take a good look at the picture, and at the number of messages that start storming through her phone.

“What the fuck is this?” I ask, more to myself, than to her.

“Derek, I don’t know where those are coming from, I swear it, I’ve never met these people, and I would definitely never have sex with them. Please, please, you have to believe me.”

Hazel is clutching my arm hard, her hands are trembling, and she sounds frantic.

She keeps pleading with me to believe in her, and through the bond I can feel her dread and unrest. But she doesn’t need to plead, I know she wouldn’t do something like this. The detective I’ve hired to follow her, never mentioned anything of the sort, and Damon was also keeping a close eye on her, I am sure he wouldn’t approve of any of that.

So, I take a deep breath to calm myself down, because, even if I know that she is not prostituting herself, having men sending pictures of their dicks to her mobile number is making me furious; I want to track them down and make them die a painful and slow death. But first, I need to appease my kitten, before she thinks the worst.

I hugged her tightly, feeling her heart beating rapidly into my chest. I massage her back slowly, trying to calm her, and then tell her smoothly “Kitten, I know that you have nothing to do with this, so don’t worry, I am not angry at you, and I am not thinking that you have betrayed me, ok?”

I feel her relax a little at my words, and she presses the side of her face on my chest, seeking comfort. I caress her head lightly, while the mobile keeps beeping with incoming messages.

“Do you mind if I switch it off?” I ask, annoyed by the beeping sound.

She shakes her head no, so I switch it off, exhaling in relief at the peaceful silence that follows.

“Someone must have put your number online. But why? And who?”

I open the browser on my mobile and type her telephone number in the search engine’s search box, then hit search, and my mouth flies open at the results I get.

There are ads and posts citing her name and telephone number, inviting anyone to contact her for the best sex experience they’ll ever have. The worst part is that the posts are all coordinated with pictures of her in compromising positions, and I know those pictures are real, because I have taken them myself with my own phone. Someone must have hacked into my phone.

Hazel peeks at my phone’s screen, and her expression changes to one of horror when she sees the images and the titles. There’s even that picture I took after we had anal sex, fuck, she’ll never get over this, I bet she’s already thinking about going to live in a bunker and never resurface again.

“Kitten, don’t worry, I’ll have them all removed, I don’t know how they put their hands on these, I swear,”

But she doesn’t let me finish, with a face as pale as a ghost, she takes a few steps back, then she shifts in her wolf and starts running at top speed.

Fuck, no! Where is she going?

I shift into my wolf too and run after her; I can’t let her be alone in a moment like this, she would certainly do something dangerous and get caught.

“Kitten, stop, let’s talk things out,” I try through the mind-link, but she is blocking me. I hope she’s not thinking that I shared those pictures with anyone, I would never expose her like that, I would happily carve out all the eyes that have landed on those pictures, but I guess it would take me sometime, seen as they have been spread all over the internet.

“Damon?” I mind-link him.

“I know, I am already working on taking the pictures and ads off. Someone must have photoshopped them, and they did a hell of a good job, they look fucking real!”

“About that…it’s because they are real, someone must have hacked in my phone and stole the pictures. I need to find out who did it, and then I will make him wish he was never born!”

Silence.

“Damon? Are you still there?” I asked perplexed, not getting any reply from him.

“Yeah, sorry, I was just a little taken aback, I mean, she’s always blushing, acting shy, and then these pictures... Are we sure it is the same person?”

“Just shut up and take them down!”

“Yes, Alpha, at your service.”

I keep following Hazel’s wolf, she’s incredibly fast, and I am having trouble keeping up, she’s smaller than me, and can pass through very narrow passages while I have to take alternative routes.

She’s heading towards the gate, and I order the guards to let her through, it would be pointless trying to stop her; I will just follow her and make sure that she’s unharmed. Then, I’ll need to have a serious talk with her, she can’t just bail on me when something upsetting happens, we are a couple, we should face this stuff together.

She’s running in the direction of the city, so I suppose she’s planning on going back to her apartment. I am not sure this is a good idea, those people could have easily found the location of her apartment, the same way I did, and her purse was missing from the location where she’s been attacked, they could have easily taken her keys and stuff to find more clues about her.

Sure enough, she gets to her apartment building entrance, and shifts back to human form, to put in the entrance code.

Don’t even get me started on all the looks we get from passersby, while running at top speed in the city center, and all the lustful looks Hazel is now getting, standing completely naked on the street outside her building.

I immediately shift and stand behind her to cover her nudity with my broad frame, as a reward, I get myself a couple of whistles of appreciation from the passing oglers.

The door unlocks, and Hazel swings it open, keeping it open for me. At least she is not pushing me away, that’s something, I guess.

“Hazel, I don’t think we should come here. They might know where you live by now, they could be waiting in there to ambush you, or maybe they are watching the building, waiting for you to come back. In any case, it is not safe here, we should leave now,” I try to reason with her, but she shakes her head vehemently.

“No, this is my safe place, they won’t find me here, I just need to feel secure in my apartment, where no one can reach me, and no one can hurt me.”

She’s completely delusional, anyone can find this place if they have enough money and resources, this is not a safe place. We reach her floor, and I am getting more and more uneasy, something bad is about to happen, I feel it in my gut.

“Hazel, listen…” I try to reason with her again, but I don’t finish my sentence, because when she puts in the code and the door clicks open, I hear another more sinister click. I immediately grabbed her by her shoulders, shielding her in my embrace, my back to the door.