Chapter 7

Aaron’s POV (this is when Beth hears the front door open) “Mate.” “NO!” I yell, running towards her as she slowly blinks. She’s draining out, she’s so pale, she’s dying, oh God, she’s dying! I can’t lose her. I can’t. My wolf is howling, and my heart is in my feet. I can’t lose her, not before I’ve even known her. ... Alpha Joe standing before Peter and I seems stressed at best, his body rigid as he plasters a smile onto his face. That’s not a friendly signal, but I don’t care. His pack is smaller than ours, and, if Alpha Joe is any indication, not nearly as well trained as we are. That means that my pack is superior to his. Alpha Joe steps back, waving us into his pack house. I step in without any hesitations. Peter, my Beta, close on my heels, wishing that we could just discuss a few different tactics for defending our packs and territory from rogues, also get to know why Joe’s pack is not affected by the plague, and then get back to my pack. As we move farther into the house, a scent suddenly overpowers my nose, filling the air so that I feel like I’m suffocating on it. It smells like the forest after it rains, mixed with a soft undertone of lemon, and is easily the most gorgeous thing I’ve smelt in my life. I wouldn’t even mind if I literally suffocated because of it. It’s just so… intoxicating. ‘MATE’ My wolf screams at me suddenly, and my whole body tenses. My mate is in the pack; in this very house? I freeze, fighting as my wolf goes into a frenzy, using all of his power to try and make me shift, so that he can go find her. To be honest, I’m desperate to do the exact same thing. I feel like I’m getting drunk on her scent, and all I want to do is match the beautiful smell to my beautiful mate. As we go farther up the stairs, her scent becomes overwhelming, filling my mind and making my wolf start fighting even harder to get out. My thoughts aren’t doing anything to calm my wolf down, and I grit my teeth, clenching my fists. I can’t go looking for her now. Just as we get to the end of a hallway, Joe pauses at a door, before opening it and ushering us inside. Peter and I step in, turning to face a desk covered in papers and maps. Paperwork is spilling over the sides, and there are piles of documents on the floor. It’s a total mess, and Joe doesn’t look too pleased. “BETH!” Wordlessly, Joe stalks out of the room, his steps picking up pace as he goes back to the stairs. Not knowing what to do, I begin to follow him, Peter shrugging slowly before walking behind me. We go up another flight of stairs, and by the time we reach the landing, Joe is shaking. I frown; is he going to shift, right here and now? I can’t understand why he is so pissed off; so, his desk is messy. So what? And who's Beth? If I thought my mate’s scent was strong before, then it’s overpowering now. Everything on this floor, it seems, is coated in her scent, and I sway on my feet a little. She’s up here. I know she is. I follow absentmindedly, trying to process the fact that my mate could be only a few rooms away from me, and a new boy joins Peter and I. I see Peter give him a weird look, but before either can speak, Joe stops suddenly and throws open a door. The new boy runs in after him, and they both pause a few feet into the room. I watch as Joe’s back tenses, all of his muscles bunching together tight, as he stares at something I can’t make out. The other boy promptly turns to the side and gets sick, spilling the contents of his stomach as he turns to the side, away from the door. What is in there? I wonder, looking at Peter. He seems as curious as I am, and so we step into the room at the same time. I still can’t see anything – Joe’s frozen form is blocking the entirety of the room from my vision – and I shove him roughly, trying to get around him. What I see stops me dead in my tracks. A beautiful girl is laying on a pathetic excuse for a bed in the corner of the room, staring at Joe. ‘Mate!’ My wolf screams again, and my heart soars. But, something’s wrong. She looks sad, unbelievably so, and her face is coated in bruises. Her pretty chocolate colored eyes are filled with pain, and she barely glances towards me. Now I know who Beth is. I search her body, trying to find out what’s wrong, what’s making her so upset, and I freeze. Her arm is laying out in front of her, her beautiful, pale wrist slashed with lines of red, blood pouring out of her so quickly that it makes my stomach flip. “NO!” I yell, running towards her as she slowly blinks. She’s draining out, she’s so pale, she’s dying! I can’t lose her. I can’t. My wolf is howling, and my heart is in my feet. I can’t lose her, not before I’ve even known her! As I drop to my knees beside her, I see her try to shift her way towards me, and then she winces as it causes her pain. I snap my hand out, trying to get her to stop moving, to just relax, as her eyes widen. Before I can say anything, or try to do anything, her eyelids slip closed, and they don’t move again. That seems to snap me out of the slow-motion I felt I was moving in, bringing my brain back to full-speed as I tear off a strip of fabric from the hem of my shirt. I tie it tightly half way down her forearm, trying to stop the bleeding, as Peter rushes up beside me. “What can I do?! What do we do!?” He screams in my ear, clearly panicking, as he flutters his hands all around her body. I growl at him, and he moves his hands farther away from her. Nobody touches my mate. “Why is she bleeding? What happened?” I don’t realize I’m voicing my thoughts out loud until Peter places a hand on my shoulder, cutting me off, and tries to move me back away from her. I growl again, but he ignores it, turning to the door. “SOMEBODY- what the fuck?!” I turn, following his gaze, only to see the doorway is empty. The two men are gone. “Where’d they go?” I yell to Peter, and he stands up, running out the door after them, screaming for a pack doctor or someone to help us. Knowing that Peter is getting help, I shakily climb onto the bed beside her, my poor little mate. I’m a God-damned Alpha, I’m good at killing, not saving. Fuck! I gently tug her, so that the upper half of her body is across my lap, holding her close to me. Shocks run along my body, everywhere that she touches, and I faintly register how perfectly she fits in my arms. My wolf is howling in my mind, ecstatic to have found her, and I do my best to block him out. I can freak out about finding her later; right now, I need to concentrate. Yes. I am good at killing. So if the God of death tries to take Beth from me. I will kill him too. Peter comes rushing back in, with a pretty blonde girl on his heels, and Alpha Joe close behind her. “Oh my God, no, no, no…” The blonde trails, clapping a hand over her mouth as she drops to her knees beside me, her hands shaking. “Joe, help her, she’s dying!” The blonde screams, turning to the Alpha. He seems torn, looking between the blonde girl, who I’m sure is his mate, and the girl in my arms. He pales as his gaze settles back on his mate, shaking his head almost imperceptibly, "No." “WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'NO'?” I scream at him, before his mate has the chance, and he meets my gaze hesitantly. “Our... official pack doctor is on a trip to the Alkali Pack right now.” He was stumped, and I growl. How can they not have a pack doctor?! ‘We’ll have to bring her back to our territory,’ Peter whispers through the pack link, and I nod, checking her arm again. The bleeding has slowed down, to a faint trickle, but she’s still unconscious. I scoop the rest of her body into my arms, standing up, and Peter follows my actions. Without another word, we go running out of the pack house, careful not to jostle the precious girl in my arms. "Alpha Aaron, wait!" Someone called out to me. It’s the blonde. I don't care and keep moving. The blonde acts instead of talking. She takes a bottle of potion from her arms and handed it to me. The intricately carved glass bottle was filled with some dark purple liquid, which reflected in the sunlight. She looks at the girl in my arms with worry. "I’m Joe’s Luna. Luna Grace. This is the potion that Joe cherished. It will cure Beth." What? I really couldn’t tell. I also don’t have much time to deliberate on that. I just grabbed her hand, held tightly unto Beth, and left the place as fast as I could. After what seems like hours, but is really only fifteen minutes, due to the insane speed that seems to appear when an Alpha wolf is upset, I reach my pack house. Every jolt, every whimper that my mate makes, sends pain shooting into my heart. She has to be okay. She has to live. "Get the pack doctor!" I gave the order and Peter went immediately. Tic Tok Tic Tok... Time was flying, but our pack doctor didn't. Peter and he are late. I was ready to mind-link Peter when Beth suddenly opened her eyes. She raised her hand and stretched it out towards me. Her movements were very slow and reserved. I could tell that she was still very weak and probably still in pain. I stopped moving around the room and stooped in front of her, my heart shattering into pieces just seeing how pale and miserable she looked at the moment. I held onto her hand and didn’t say anything. ‘There's no more time!’ My wolf urges me, he's anxious. “Shut up!” I silenced him. Then I lifted the portion Luna Grace had given me from my pocket. At this moment, it’s the only chance. For Beth, so do I. I hope Ally’s right. And she should pray that she was right. If Beth dies, I will bury their whole pack with her. Without further hesitation, I take out the bottle of the potion and put it close to Beth's mouth. "Drink, please." I hold Beth's back and could feel that her skinny body was losing its vitality. Beth coughs violently and frantically shakes as her breath is hiked. I hurry down to help her sit upright to take the potion, but it’s accidentally knocked to the floor. “Damn it!” I silently curse as I begin to think of what to do next. I look at Beth’s body and see that she has opened her eyes, looking at me. She finally says as if already giving me her last wish. “Kiss me.”