Mine to Protect Chapter 133: SAVAGES

*Derek *

Hazel’s breath hitches at the sight, and she lounges herself towards the dumpster, jumping on it, to have a better look inside. Her wolf whines, and then she says through the link, “They are here.”

My heart jumps in my throat, and I jump on the dumpster beside her, looking inside. The sight that awaits me is horrible, there’s a pile of dismembered bodies inside, and from their features I recognize my warriors, now reduced to pieces.

Who does something like that? They are savages!

Hazel jumps down the dumpster, and shifts back to human, she starts crying loudly, pulling her hair, and sobbing, “It’s all my fault, they are dead because of me!”

“It’s not your fault, these people are sick!” Damon mind-links, jumping on the dumpster himself to assess the scene.

I shift to human too, I want to hold Hazel, and console her, but she moves away from me, not letting me touch her.

“No, you don’t understand!” she sounds hysterical now, “I killed Carol, and wrote payback with her blood on the floor. I wanted to take revenge, to anger her. She did this because of me, she wanted to take revenge too. So many people, so many lives, because of me. And Alice, Alice is dead because of me,” she cries out, crouching down on the floor, and crying her heart out.

My heart aches for her, it’s not her fault, those people are monsters, but I don’t know how to make her understand, how to make her listen.

“Alice is not here,” Damon says through the link, his voice somber and calculating.

This gets Hazel’s attention, she looks up to Damon for confirmation, “Are you sure?”

“Positive,” he mind-links, jumping down from the dumpster. “I have sent out five warriors with her, and they are all here, but she’s not.”

“They must have taken her somewhere, but here I can’t smell any trace we could follow,” I say, sniffing around.

“We must try to get in contact with them, offer them a bargain. Me in exchange for Alice,” Hazel says, fresh determination clear in her eyes.

“Fuck, no! You are not offering yourself up!” I all but growl at her.

But she ignores me, instead, she closes her eyes, takes a deep calming breath and mind-links someone.

*Hazel*

This is absolutely one of the hardest things I had to do, but it must be done.

I mind-link Lukas, and he replies immediately.

“Hey, little wolf, is everything alright?”

My heart squeezes when I hear him use the nickname he chose for me, I missed him calling me that, I miss his friendship and his silly jokes. But this is the price to pay for what I have done, I have crossed a line that should have never be crossed, I am lucky that he’s still talking to me.

“How do you know that something is wrong?”

“Come on, now. You have been avoiding me like the plague for the last few months, you didn’t even come to my mating ceremony, and now you mind-link me all of a sudden? Something must be wrong,” he’s trying to sound playful, but I can hear a tad of underlying bitterness.

“They have kidnapped Alice, the people from the lab, I have no clue where they have taken her. I was hoping that Cindy’s father could know how to contact them, I want to offer them a bargain.”

“A bargain, like you in exchange for Alice? This is not a good idea, little wolf.”

“Just help me ask Beta Snow if he knows, please?”

“If you say please, then how can I refuse? I’ll go ask him now and link you later.”

“Thank you, Lukas.”

“You can thank me by contacting Cindy more often, she misses you a lot, and I’ve missed you too.”

I don’t say anything, not wanting to make false promises, or dish out false excuses, they deserve better than that, and eventually Lukas breaks the link connection.

I explain to Derek and Damon that I am waiting for news on whether Snow knows how to contact our enemies or not, and when I mention Lukas’ name, I see Derek swallow hard. I hope he doesn’t think I kept in contact with him, or that we are having a fling on anything; I couldn’t handle Derek’s jealousy right now.

A few minutes later, Lukas links me back, and tells me the unexpected, Snow is dead, someone killed him in his cell this same day, somewhere after dinner, because the guards testified that he was still alive at dinner, and that he ate his whole portion.

“Someone must have infiltrated the pack, they’ve torn his throat out, not giving him even the chance to scream for help,” Lukas says through the link, sounding immensely pissed.

“Be careful, and keep Cindy safe for me, please, she’s already suffered enough.”

“I will, don’t worry. I am sorry I couldn’t provide any useful information. I will try to find out who killed Snow, although I think we both know the answer already. Maybe he just knew too much.”

“It’s possible. Also, Lukas, I need to tell you something important. My wolf warned me that a war was going to happen soon, in a week or two, she was not sure on the timing. I know that things are tense between us, between you and Derek, but…”.

He doesn’t let me finish, “I’ll be at the Crescent Moon with my warriors in two days, and I will contact all my allies for support.”

“Thank you, really. With everything that happened, I don’t have any right to ask you anything, I am sorry.”

“Look, stop apologizing to me, I am as guilty as you, and maybe some more, I wasn’t the one in heat after all, I should be the one apologizing to you. I value our friendship, and I was not joking when I said that I missed you. So, let bygones be bygones, and start afresh; what do you say little wolf?”

“I like the sound of it, and I missed you too. Although, I didn’t miss your silly jokes!”

“Well, it’s a two for one package, so I’m afraid you’ll have to bear those too.”

“Ok, maybe I have changed my mind, you don’t need to come for the war, no one is going to hold you responsible for missing it.”

“Ah, ah, nice try. See you soon, little wolf.”

“See you soon.”

I cut off the mind-link feeling like a heavy weight has been lifted from my chest. It’s just a pity that we reconciled under such dire circumstances.

I push the thought of Lukas out of my head, and address Derek and Damon, who are both waiting to hear the news.

“Snow is dead, he was killed in his cell, the identity of the killer is still unknown, but Lukas thinks that he was killed because he had too many dangerous information.”

Derek curses, while Damon’s wolf whines.

“We should go back to the pack and think of another way to save Alice,” Derek says, in his Alpha authoritative voice.

“Or, maybe, we could try to get in touch with someone else we know, who might be connected to those people. Someone like Alpha Jackson, or Alpha Anderson. During the last Court meeting, it was pretty clear that Alpha Jackson is somehow in cahoots with them. And Lukas also confirmed that the Court of Alphas is implicated.”

“Hazel, Alpha Jackson is incredibly dangerous and cunning, I don’t think that reaching out to him will get us any answer; he will possibly just find a way to put you in harm’s way,” Derek says sternly.

“I am with Derek on this, it’s too dangerous,” Damon links, expressing his opposing opinion.

Two against one, I know arguing my point further won’t get me anywhere, so I just pout out my disappointment, and secretly think of some ways I could get in contact with Jackson behind their backs.

“Don’t you dare even think about it! I know what’s going on through your brain, and don’t forget I can feel you through the bond, I know you are up to something mischievous and rebellious,” Derek says angrily, pinning me down with his severe glare.

I roll my eyes at him, whispering under my breath, “tell me why I marked him again?”

“I’ve heard that, and it’s because you love me very very much, and you can’t stay away from me. I have my eyes on you, my kitten, you won’t get away with one of your little stunts, this time.”

Just great! Getting my plan in motion now is going to be practically impossible. Annoying clingy Alpha.