Protect

EVERETT

She’s fucking missing. Again. I will fucking tear the heads off of those patrol guards if she’s left the territory.

“Stop pacing, Alpha. The guards haven’t seen any sign of her. No one has left today. She’s probably still in the pack,” Lucius tells me, attempting to calm me down.

But all he’s doing is fueling my rage. She can’t leave. Not again. I was distressed enough the first time.

I can’t fucking take her being gone again.

Bursting through the door is Ace, an unreadable expression on his face until he drags in with him a few of my wilder warrior wolves and scowls at them.

“These four have something to tell you,” Ace declares, glaring at all of them without a hint of mercy in his eyes.

“We… We may have put the human down in the dungeons, with the rogues,” Tyler mutters, rolling his eyes.

Immediately, at his words, I storm out, sprinting over to the old pack house that’s been reformed into secret dungeons that only the warriors and titled wolves know about, and head into the cells.

Following behind me is Lucius and Ace, dragging the four treacherous wolves with him.

These rogues will eat her alive.

What if she’s already dead? Fuck!

This is my fault. She’s in my pack.

Those wolves would never have done anything like this if they knew she is my mate. But I just had to keep it a secret, because I still hadn’t made my decision.

And it could have gotten her killed. I could have killed my mate. It would be my fault.

But when I see her beautiful green eyes beaming out, her petite body surrounded by rogues, I sigh a little but rip the cage door open once I take the lock off.

She’s there. Unharmed. Alive. Without a scratch on her.

Still beautiful.

And the rogues group around her, as if protecting her, protecting her from me. I’m her fucking mate and why are these rogues protecting her?

Not that I want her hurt. But I don’t understand.

“Everett?” her shy voice calls out, making my heart skip a beat just at the sound of my name leaving her lips.

“Aurora, come here,” I order, extending my hand to get her away from these brutes. No one will hurt her.

I know that Ace and Lucius and the warrior wolves are behind me, just outside the cell. But I don’t care about anything else anymore. I just need her to be safe.

I need my little mate to be safe.

She takes my hand; her soft little hand fits perfectly with mine. The smile that graces her lips informs me that she’s fine, that she’s not hurt, that she’s not angry with me.

But there are four wolves I’m furious with. Utterly and undoubtedly furious with. I instantly tug her to me and embrace her, not caring who’s watching.

I bet these rogues wouldn’t have been too kind to her if they knew she was my mate.

But she’s safe now. She’s safe. She’s with me. No one will hurt her.

She accepts the embrace and squeezes me tighter, burying her head in my chest. I need her, all of her. She completes me, and it’s not just the mate bond.

It’s real between us.

This deep need for each other.

I take in her scent, breathing as much of her in as I can and attempting to calm myself down.

I guess I can’t be too angry with those wolves. They didn’t know she was my mate, and they should thank the goddess she is unharmed.

But even if she wasn’t my mate, this isn’t allowed, and they disobeyed me. They need to be punished.

Of course, if she had been hurt, I would have ripped all four of them apart.

She has been in here for hours. Hours!

That shouldn’t have happened. And I let it happen.

I should pay more attention to her and what she’s doing. I need her to be safe.

I wonder why those rogues didn’t hurt her.

But at least she’s not hurt.

I drag her out with me and up the stairs of the basement, leading her outside so she can get some clean air.

She’s been breathing in that toxic rogue air. The others follow us out, but I’m busy checking her body to see that she’s all healthy.

Still clumsy as her ankle rolls, just whilst standing still.

“You’re okay, are you? You’re fine? You’re not hurt?” I question. She shakes her head and smiles at me.

“I’m fine, Everett. No one hurt me,” she tells me, even though it’s not true. Those warrior wolves intended for her to be hurt, my mate, my little mate.

I turn back to them, pull Aurora to my side protectively. I scowl directly at the wolves, piercing my eyes right into their souls, making them quake.

They can feel it. They can feel their Alpha’s rage, and it’s made them understand. Aurora is my mate.

And they’ve just tried to hurt, possibly kill their Alpha’s mate.

“You are fucking lucky I don’t rip your heads from your shoulders. What you four did was against the rules, and particularly to my mate.

“If you had known she was my mate or if she had been hurt, you wouldn’t be standing here. You would be dead. But I’m going to show you four mercy, and only because she’s okay.

“You’ll be locked in the cells for as long as I see fit. But first, you’ll apologize to Aurora.”

They swallow their pride and clearly give their apologies to my little mate. Lucius and Ace lead them away to our official cells, and I’m left with Aurora at my side.

I carry her—although she protests politely at the start—back to the pack house and to our room.

I still don’t understand how she’s not hurt, but thank the goddess she wasn’t.

“I don’t want you unprotected anymore,” I tell her, probably looking crazy as shit to her with my eyes all wide and a distressed expression plastered all over my face.

“I’m not even hurt,” she mutters, pouting slightly in a way that could make me completely melt if I wasn’t so enraged inside.

“You could have been,” I yell, startling her.

I grab her face in my hands, cupping her cheeks, making sure she’s here in front of me, for real.

I don’t know what I would do if I lost her. I can’t lose her. I need her now. She’s my little mate. She’s mine. I’m not letting her go. I’m never letting her go.

She’ll make a good Luna, a great one. And even if she struggles, I’ll help her. We’ll help each other. I’ll protect her, no matter what.

“I’m sorry, little one. I was…you’re in my pack. You’re my mate. I’m supposed to protect you and you’re supposed to be safe here.

“And you weren’t. You could be dead, and it would have been on my territory. I’m meant to protect you. How could I let that happen?”

I shake her head lightly in frustration, wanting to hold onto more of her. I can’t believe something like this happened.

“Everett, nothing happened,” she says slowly and softly, placing her hands on top of mine and holding my hands to her face. “I’m fine. I’m completely fine.”

I’m about to deny that when a knock comes on the door with Lucius’s voice calling me to my office.

Due to my sudden need to protect my mate, I bring Aurora along with me, making sure she stays in my sights at all times.

Hopefully this feeling will pass, or I’ll find it very hard to do work with Aurora in my office, distracting me with her beautiful entrancing movements.

Anything she does, even her falls captivate me. But her tripping just makes me concerned. Really concerned.

I hate watching her hurt herself, and when she wakes up to her body slamming the carpeted ground, I hate myself for not protecting her more.

Thus, now I’m trapping her to the bed with my body, although a little intimate at this stage in our relationship. Sharing a bed is too, I guess.

But it just feels so perfect that I’ve never really thought of anything else.

“Does she need to be in here?” Lucius asks skeptically, giving a side-glance to my little mate. This small action makes me growl instinctively.

I’ve fallen deeper into our mate connection, but I need to hold back potentially.

Although right now, I want nothing else but Aurora.

“Fine. We put the wolves in the cells, but they decided to run their mouths before we got them down there. Practically everyone will know that you and Rory are mates.”

“So what?” I question defensively. I know I was the one to keep it a secret, but right now, I don’t want anyone doubting us, especially not my Beta.

“If you’re okay with that, I guess everything is fine then,” Lucius concludes. Ace strolls in, a smirk on his face a little more obvious than usual as his gaze lands on Rory.

It’s strange. I’ve noticed he’s been more distant recently, especially after being out in rogue territory with Aurora.

Lucius likes to joke that he has a crush on my little mate, but that may be true.

He has been more attentive to her, looking at her excessively when she’s around, and he doesn’t have the same expression as he did before toward her.

Ace was curious about her but skeptical. Now he’s just curious, and quite mesmerized.

Whatever it is, it better fucking stop. She’s my mate.

“Rory’s part of our meetings now? How are you, little one, after surviving hours with those rogues?” he asks a little too—caring toward Aurora, even though his tone is disguised in a joking way.

I narrow my eyes at him, but Aurora just smiles politely.

“Actually, I just wanted to say, if I can, that being in those dungeons for many hours, the conditions down there aren’t great,” Aurora says, which turns all our attention toward her.

Is she really talking about the conditions down there?

“I mean, Red and Ian and Eden look like they’ve seen no sun, and there are no guards. And they barely get any food. And Ian’s been in there for ages and he didn’t really do anything.”

“Are you defending rogues? Rogues are lying scum,” Lucius scolds her, but I can only narrow my eyes at her curiously.

Is she being serious? She knows their names. She spoke with them. She listened to their stories. They told her their stories.

They were…friendly with her.

Why?