Hunter
I growled when the Alpha referred to Kailen as his mate. She was never going to be his mate; she was mine. I love her and I’m the one that has been there for her for the last four years of her life. Not him. She was broken, and I helped her pick up the pieces.
“She isn’t your fucken mate!” I growled at him.
“But she’s yours?” He challenged me.
“Is that a challenge, Alpha?” I was in his face and we were both staring the other one down. But I’m the Lycan Prince, this fucker would never beat me.
I stepped away from him and looked over to the platform when I heard Kailen let out a scream. I slid the backpack off and I threw my hoodie and shirt on top of my bag.
I noticed Kailen was now on the outside and she was looking through the small window. What the hell was going on? I knelt down to untie my boots and then kicked them off. I waded into the water until it was high enough for me to swim.
I looked at the platform while I was swimming as fast as I could, but I didn’t see her now. Why would she go back inside? I was almost on the platform when she ran out of the cabin door. She slipped and hit her head on the edge of the platform. She was lying there unmoving, and I started to panic. What could have scared her so badly that she would run away?
I kicked in the water harder to get to Kailen faster. I finally made it to the platform, and I pulled my body out of the water. I crawled over to her. Her forehead was bleeding, but she was breathing.
“Kailen!” I yelled, shaking her. I lifted the upper half of her body into my lap.
“Beautiful, I need you to wake up.” I was smacking her cheek gently. I didn’t realize someone had followed me out here until the platform dipped from the weight. I looked over my shoulder to find Alpha Owen standing behind me.
“Is she okay?” He asked breathlessly.
“She’s breathing. Go check the cabin. Something definitely spooked her in there.” I told him.
“Kailen, come on, Beautiful. Wake up.” I went back to try to wake her up while the Alpha went into the cabin. Kailen lifted her hand to her face with a groan. And I squeezed her to my chest.
“Kailen! What happened?” I exclaimed. Relief flowed through me as she quickly came back to her senses. She started to shake, and I pulled away just enough to look down at her.
“Lycan Prince, you’re going to want to see this.” Alpha Owen came out of the cabin. Kailen was sitting up, and she moved to rest her head on her knees.
“I’m okay, Hunter.” She whispered. I reluctantly stood up. I turned my attention to Alpha Owen.
“What is it?” I asked him and he motioned me to follow him into the cabin. I wasn’t expecting to see what I saw, and Rex let out a thunderous growl.
“I think this note was attached.” He said, handing me a white piece of paper.
I’m glad you remembered K
<3 M
“Do you know what this means?” He asked, but it was Kailen that answered. She was standing in the doorframe.
“Marcus held me in a cabin like this one, but it was bigger. It was built by the same company that built this one.” She stuttered out.
“What? How do you know that?” I asked her.
“The wolf logo in the window. It’s the same.” She was starting to hyperventilate, and the tears were running down her cheeks. I rushed over to her and wrapped my arms around her.
“Hey, it’s okay. He’s never going to get to you. He’ll have to get through me and Rex. Okay?” I whispered to her. I was trying to reassure her fears of being taken again. She finally nodded against my chest and I let out the breath I didn’t realize I was holding.
I pulled away from her just to check the cut on her forehead. She winced when I dabbed it. And I knew she hit her head pretty badly.
“Kailen, let’s head back and get you checked out. We can come back out here tomorrow after you have gotten some rest.” I told her and she shook her head.
“I need to finish this. He knew I would be the one to investigate, and he knew that I would go out to this cabin. This was all planned like he’d been watching me.” She told me worryingly.
“I’m pretty sure you have a concussion. We need to get you checked out.” I told her. And before she could say anything, she rushed to the edge of the platform and threw up.
I went over to her and started rubbing her back. I noticed Alpha Owen inspecting the window.
“Do you know that company?” I asked him.
“My father and his beta have shares in it.” He whispered, more to himself than to me.
“I’ll make sure to pull the file when we get back to the pack house.” He told me, while walking over to the edge of the platform.
“Kailen, are you okay to swim?” He asked her and she nodded. She was resting her hands on her knees while she tried to catch her breath.
“Come on, Beautiful, I’ll help you.” I helped her to sit on the edge and then I hopped into the water. I lifted Kailen off the platform and held her body to mine.
“You okay?” I asked her, and she nodded, looking up at me. Alpha Owen cleared his throat, pulling our attention away from each other.
“I’m okay.” Kailen told me before she pulled away from me and started to swim towards shore.
Alpha Owen was staring at me, and I knew he wanted to say something about how I was acting with Kailen. But I didn’t care, I started to swim after her. About half way there, she slowed down. I could tell that she was getting tired. She was emotionally spent from today.
I heard her bones cracking, and it surprised me that she would shift in the water. We train our wolves in the water, so we are prepared for anything. Her head dipped below the water and when she popped back up, I was looking at Aurora.
“She’s white!” I heard Alpha Owen exclaim. Aurora looked over at him and snorted. She started to swim to shore and made it there before we did. She went over to Zach and Greyson and she shook off the water.
“Really, Aurora!” They yelled out, annoyed at her cheekiness.
“How is this possible?” I heard Beta Finn say to himself.
“What happened?” Greyson asked me when I waded out of the lake. He threw me a towel.
“We found some evidence. We are going to need a boat to retrieve it. I want Zach and a warrior to go with Beta Finn,” I told him.
“What evidence?” Zach asked me.
“Another message.” Was all I told him and he nodded.
“Finn, go with Gamma Zach.” Alpha Owen ordered his Beta, and he nodded. I was looking through my backpack to find some dry clothes when Aurora popped into my head.
“Kailen would like to shift back.”
“Everyone turn around. Kailen is shifting back.” I yelled out. When she shifted back, I wrapped her in a towel. I was glad that Kailen was always over packed. She looked up at me, and I knew that she was scared. I noticed the cut on her forehead was closed and it was just a nasty blue bruise.
She started to dry herself off, then she dug through the backpack that I was carrying and threw me a pair of sweats. She pulled on the jeans she had been wearing before, and then she pulled the shirt and hoodie on. She would now have to go without underwear and a bra. Not that I minded. I just hate that others will be able to look. I peeled my wet jeans off and dried my body off before I pulled the sweats on.
I looked over at Kailen to see her putting on her boots. I could see the slight tremor in her hands. She was worried and scared, but she was trying to put on a strong face. I pulled my hoodie over my head and grabbed my boots. I walked over to where she was sitting and sat down beside her.
“You okay?” I asked her, nudging her leg with mine. She turned to look at me and nodded. I wrapped an arm around her back and pulled her to me, kissing her temple.
“You will get through this. We will get through this.” Between kisses, I whispered. I could feel her nodding her head. I reluctantly pulled away from her to pull my boots on. When she was done putting on her boots, she stood up to pack everything up again. Greyson came over to give her a hand and take the backpack from her.
“Just get your camera, we can carry the bags.” he told her. I already knew that she was rolling her eyes at his request, but I didn’t hear her say anything. She came back over to me and I handed up her camera before I stood up.
“We can always come back tomorrow, Kailen.” I told her.
“No, it’s fine. We should be almost there, anyway. But I would like two of the warriors to stay here, to watch over the cabin. Just until the others show up. I just don’t want anything to happen to the evidence that we found.” She explained, and I nodded. I turned to speak to the warriors, but I noticed that Alpha Owen was approaching Kailen.
“Your wolf is white?” he told her. She turned to face him.
“Pretty impressive for a stupid omega.”