Chapter 49

*Silas’s POV*
Everything goes red as Damon talks about Athena as if she’s something he now owns. I snap and leap in for the kill. He won't go down willingly though. He shifts and meets me midair. We go tumbling on the forest floor trying to get at each other's neck. I manage to grab into his scuff and bite down hard. Hard enough, a metallic taste fills my mouth. He pushes off me to create some distance and we begin to circle each other. He managed to scratch me in the face as he pushed. I can feel some blood trickling down.
This gives me a chance to look back to see if Athena is alright. I turn my head and see Freya giving her a struggling knee up onto Lotte’s back. They take off running and I turn back to my opponent who also notices his prize is getting away. He tries to take off towards them, but I don’t allow it. I step in his line of vision that is focused on my mate. I roar at him to get his attention off her. He bares his fangs and growls deeply. His eyes are blazing with fury and makes a leap towards me. A desperate move. As he leaves his underside unprotected, I get low and throw him away from me. He lands on his side and quickly gets up. He spreads his wings and take off into the air. I also spread my wings and go after him. He goes above the trees and looks around looking for my mate. I take this distraction and collide with him. He looses his bearings and falls towards the earth. I quicken his descend and push him towards the ground. Just before the collision I pull away. Dirt and grass go flying and he is stunned.
Lotte is no where in sight. She must already taken off. I land on the ground with a thud. I approach my brother for the kill. He is done. He will never be able to hurt anyone else. I nudge his back paw to see if he reacts.
Seeing that he doesn’t move, I lower my head to take hold of his jugular. However, once I am close, he leaps up and claws my muzzle. I jump back and create some distance. I grumble and paw my nose that he scratched somewhat deeply. He gets to his feet and his eyes scan the fighting. I look around and notice James’ team joined the fight.
Seeing that they are outnumbered. He howls for a withdrawal.
Not going to happen. He is not getting away on me again.
He takes off towards a deep thicket in the wood and I chase after to cut off his escape. Then before my eyes, he disappears. Like he just turned into a translucent mist that has no scent and no aura. That damn witch. She did this so I couldn’t follow. I turn back to see, all the rogues disappeared. Everyone looks around in bewilderment like I just did. These fuckers don’t know when to quit.
I examine the damage and see only a hand full of rogues are dead. No pack warriors got severely hurt which is good. I see Freya going around healing wounds and everyone shifts back to human form. I stay in wolf form and walk to Freya. I want to go see Athena as soon as possible.
I nudge my muzzle on her arm and she looks up at me. I kneel down to signal to get on my back. She nods and hops on. Once she is secured to my back, I look around for my beta. My eyes connect with his and open a link.
“Im going on ahead with Freya. Take care of things here.”
He gives me a brief nod and starts to bark out orders. I take off into a run and leap into the sky. Flying as fast as I can to my pack house. I look up and see the blood-moon shining bright above us. This night will be engrained into my mind as the worst night of my life. The night I came so close to losing her.
The house comes into sight, and I begin my descend. We land on the ground with a loud thud. Freya slides off my back and takes the cloths she collected out her bag. She throws them to me and I catch them with my mouth. I shift back and quickly slip my shorts and t shirt on. I walk into the house with a fast pace with Freya right behind me.
I look around and finally find Cirilla in the kitchen filling a glass with water.
“Where is she?” I ask.
She turns towards me and she eyes go wide. Is there something wrong with my face?
“We put her in your room and im about to start checking her wounds. Before you go barging in there, I would go clean up. Your top half is covered in blood and that scratch looks nasty. Get that taken care of so you don’t worry her more.” She says and walks in the direction of my room.
I guess I better go get cleaned up.
“Ill just go to Alarics room to clean up. You can go on ahead and go check on her if you want.” I turn to Freya who is standing in the entrance of the kitchen.
“Its fine ill wait for you. You get cleaned up ill stay here.” She says. I nod and head towards the stairs. I walk up three flights up to the Beta’s floor. I walk through the largest door and into his room. Luckily he had it cleaned before we left on our little journey. I go into his closet and steal a black t-shirt and shorts. After grabbing a fresh set of cloths, I go into the bathroom and turn on the shower to a hot setting. I need to purge his filthy blood off me. I peel off my cloths I currently have on and throw myself into the shower. I let the steaming hot water run along my body, rinsing the blood off. I look around to see what kind of shampoo my Beta has in here, and luckily, he uses the same one I do. I wash my hair that is stale with dry blood and scrub my body with an old spice bar soap.
Finally, the water runs clear, and I shut off the water and step out. I quickly dry off my body with a towel and throw on the shirt and shorts. I rub the towel throw my hair to get the excess water out and throw it into the hamper Alaric keeps by the door. Lastly I look for a first aid kit to close up my wound. Thankfully it wasn’t hard to find under the sink. I find a butterfly closure bandage and clean up the cut with some peroxide and close it up.
I make my way downstairs quickly and find Freya sitting on the counter looking at her phone. She hears me come in and I nod at her to follow me. She leaps up and is instantly behind me following me up the stairs.
Since many pack warriors are out, the pack house is so quiet. There are a few around and greet me as I pass them. However, see one group almost made me stop in my tracks. Anna’s group. Luckily, I didn’t spot her, so I dodged a really messy bullet there. They all stare at my like I’m a ghost and watch me continue up the stairs. it’s a matter of time before she hears I’m back. She is Lotte’s younger sister but are nothing alike. Anna is pretty and has a good reputation within the pack being the Gamma’s younger sister. It was a huge mistake associating with her. Because a few moments of weakness and sleeping with her, she is the self-proclaimed future, Luna. I occasionally hear whispers that she is planning her Luna ceremony and everything. Some are starting to believe that nonsense. Well, sleeping with her wasn’t the only reason she thinks like this. When father was alive, he originally arranged with the former Gamma an arranged mating between me and Anna. Since plans were already in place for Cirilla they came up with the best partnership they can come up with. This was before father decided he wanted Damon as his successor and not me. It’s disgusting really.
We get up to the top floor and hear voices coming from my room. I look at Freya and we both approach the door of my room. I lightly knock and the voices go quiet and footsteps approach. Lotte opens the door revealing Athena looking way better than she did before and out of that horrid dress.
She catches sight of us and her eyes become a bit glassy. Im assuming out of relief that we are alright. Freya practically runs to her and engulfs her in a huge bear hug.
“Sweet girl, I’m so glad you’re alright. Im sorry we didn’t get there sooner.” Freya sobs and rocks Athena. Tears are spilling out of both their eyes Athena clutches onto her tight. Like she’s her second mother. I stay in the doorway and watch quietly. I will not approach until she specifically tells me to. I don’t know the full extent on what Damon has done to her. I doubt she wants any man touching her right now.
After minutes pass, Freya lets go of her and dries both of their tear-stained faces. Athena then turns her eyes towards me and manages a weak smile. Her black eyes scrunch up and her smile is full of reliving happiness.I don’t deserve that smile. I don’t even deserve to be in her presence right now.
I smile back and Freya begins to do her own examination. The damage is bad but nothing her wolf cant fix. Almost ever inch of her body is bruised and battered. She must have put up quite the fight seeing how much damage he inflicted.
“Nothing is broken thank goddess. You need sleep and ill make up something to get rid of the wolfsbane in your system.” Freya offers.
“Thank-you Freya. Would you mind calling my mom and telling her I’m alright?” She asks.
“Of course.” Freya nods and leaves the room.
“We’re going to go check the pack warriors, they should be returning any minute. Holler if you need anything.” Cirilla says and starts pushing Lotte out the door.
“I will, thank you.” My mate says .Leaving just us in the room.
We stay silent for a few moments until she finally pats the bed to tell me to come sit. I do as she says and sit at the foot of the bed. She is still smiling and curls up in the sheets.
“I don’t deserve that smile.”I finally break the silence and look away in shame. This immediately turns her smile into a frown.
“What do you mean?” She asks a bit sadly.
“You were taken because of me. This happened to you because of me.”
“No this happened because your brother, is a sick bastard. He did this to me. Not you. Besides, you and your pack got me out of there.” She scoots up to me and lays her head on my shoulder. “Don’t blame yourself for this.”
“I can't help it. Im supposed to protect you. Now you are as bruised as a peach, and I was helpless to stop it.” I sigh deeply.
“Stop talking like that or I’ll call Lotte back in here and I bet she’ll kick your ass for me.” Her lips tip into a slight smirk.
This makes me bark out a laugh. A genuine laugh from the gut.
“That I don’t doubt. Why don’t you get some sleep angel. I’ll go sleep somewhere else.” I kiss her lightly on the head and go to get up. However, she clenches onto me and pulls me back down.
“No! I don’t want to be alone. Stay here.” She wraps her arms around me and pulls us down, so we are laying on the bed. She doesn’t let go and buries her face in my chest. I hold her close and close her off from the world around us. Her scent wraps around me and finally calms my angry wolf.
“I love you angel. I will never let that happen to you ever again.”
I feel her face scrunch up into a smile. “I love you too.”