"I'mright here, Xavier"
When Selena woke up the next day, she realized she had forgotten to close the curtains. She was woken up but the sunlight on her eyes which head led to an instant headache.
She right away had an idea that this was gonna be a rough day for her. The shower refreshed her only a little bit as the headache was still there. When she entered the dining room for breakfast, the atmosphere around her was quite dark.
Most of the pack members looked at her with anger and contempt, and she understood what was happening. She knew with Damien's exit, something like this would happen, considering how much they all looked up to him.
Whispers came to her ears from people talking about how she was gonna destroy this pack. They thought this was her revenge against them for treating her the way they did.
Selena scoffed mentally on hearing this. Damien and Adriana were the only two people who hadn't mistreated her, and they think she'll throw him out for revenge?
She had just taken a bite of her toast when Ileana walked in and banged her tray on the table. Everybody cringed, considering how sensitive their hearing was.
Ileana glared at everyone, "I have been hearing a lot of rumours since the morning. The fact that my parents left, is completely on them, if they want, they will come back, and if they don't, they won't. So just shut up and go off with your work, stop spreading rumours and hatred or I can promise that you'll be the reason for the fall of this pack."
Everybody turned around and focused on their food as silence prevailed over the pack. Selena knew that Ileana, as the alpha's daughter and the current beta female, had a lot of their respect.
"Remind me never to mess with you girls," Connor said nonchalantly and Ileana shrugged.
"How could you do that, Selena?" A voice interrupted Ileana before she could speak and they found Mathew and Raymond standing in from of them.
Mathew was one of the best warriors, and Raymond was also a trusted individual of Xavier. They knew these two guys were not bad, but at this point, they didn't know how many people Stacy had manipulated to get what she wanted.
"How could you throw alpha Damien out like that?" Raymond, who Selena knew was one of those people who weren't that fond of her, asked her.
"I didn't ask him to leave, I didn't throw him out. Leaving was his wish," she said, her voice filled with authority. Izzy didn't like being spoken to like that and it fueled her anger.
Raymond scoffed, "You are not our alpha. We are not bound to listen to you."
Selena's eyes flickered to Mathew's. The guy came up with Raymond but looked uncomfortable and hasn't said a word.
"Mathew, what do you think?"
Mathew's eyes widened as he hated being the one everyone was waiting to speak, but he didn't give in, "I don't know."
Connor raised his eyebrows questioningly, "You don't know?"
"With all due respect, I was there yesterday, I saw Damien sir leaving, I know you didn't throw him out. But he isn't one to leave his pack just like this, so, I don't know. The rules you brought made sense too. But from my perspective, you could have done a bit more to urge him to not leave yet."
Selena felt a little bit of pride, in knowing that at least someone knew that something was wrong, even though it was a hit to their plan because Stacy might have figured it out too, at least they knew their previous alpha well enough.
'She isn't smart enough to figure this out,' Izzy scoffed.
She stood up and addressed the whole room before speaking.
"The pack is going through some tough circumstances, if Damien wants to come back, there is always a place for him here. For now, just focus on your training. Let's make sure that his fear doesn't come true."
Raymond scoffed, "I am telling Alpha Xavier when he comes back."
"Sure honey, try it," Ileana stood up next to her, staring at him.
Connor, however, just sat in his seat and glared at him, Raymond's hard front started breaking already on seeing Selena and Ileana facing him like they are ready to kill him and Connor's glare was the last straw. He simply walked out of the room.
____|~.~|____
"I don't get it. You guys are living in the town which is away from us, so that our pack wolves don't sense you, so how in the world did Adriana see Stacy there?"
Selena wondered out loud as her image flickered in front of Damien's. The man sat still in his seat and took a deep breath.
"Are you sure that it was her?"
"My eyes have never let me down yet, Selena."
"I didn't mean any offence, Adriana."
"I know darling, but trust me it was her. I was caught a little off-guard since she's a fast runner and there was no scent to follow. But thanks to Lorcan's portion, next time I see her, she wouldn't get my scent either."
Selena nodded, "But be careful, if those hunters are there then..."
"Don't worry," she smirked, "We're old but not that old to make it so easy for them."
Selena was a little relieved on seeing Adriana's smirk.
"How are you two holding up?"
"It hurts to be away from the pack but we can manage. This is important. How's the pack holding?" Asked the previous alpha.
"Getting ready to complain to their alpha how I 'threw' you out." She shook her head.
"Jeez... what are they five? I mean, he will obviously know when he returns... what's with all the complaining?" Adriana muttered.
Selena chuckled but it didn't last long. "It's gonna be really hard to talk to Xavier."
"Just tell him it was my choice. And let him act out in the beginning, that'll make the drama strong enough for Stacy to believe."
Her image flickered and Damien raised an eyebrow.
"I think it's getting too much for Lorcan. Getting old buddy?"
"I'm stronger than you, old man," Lorcan grunted, "But yes, it is getting too much to teleport both of our souls here, wanna make it faster, sweetheart?"
"It's okay, we're done with the important stuff and..." Selena blinked when she stumbled over her own feet and was almost going to fall but Lorcan caught her in time, "You didn't even let me finish!"
"You've been there for nearly twenty minutes. Teleporting someone's soul isn't as easy as it seems, especially when it is not my strength."
"You okay?" She asked, now a little softly
"Yes, tired, but nothing a little food and a smile from my love won't fix," he smirked.
This was a few days after Damien and Adriana had left. Things were going as normal as they could in the Ferocious Shadows. She could see the wolves getting restless, wanting desperately to have their alpha back.
If Selena was being completely honest to herself, she missed Xavier too, a bit more than she'd like to accept. She missed his face, his eyes, the way he looked at her, his scent... she missed her mate.
However, their wait came to an end pretty soon, because, that evening, the alpha came back, only, it wasn't as they had expected.
Some of the pack members were ready to welcome their alpha with all smiles and cheers. A group of Xavier's pack was in favour of Selena, they couldn't believe that their alpha had made his mate go through so much. These guys were stoic.
The smiles were wiped off the faces of the pack members. Even those who were quite disappointed with their leader looked pale. Selena, who was sitting with Ryan, Connor and Ileana in the lobby, was as confused as the rest of the pack.
There was Xavier, carried in by Aiden with great difficulty, as Evelyn was dragging herself behind them, clearly having trouble walking.
Connor went straight to Evelyn, and that's all Selena saw before she looked at her mate.
She was standing dead still.
Ryan helped Aiden with Xavier as Ileana too went to Evelyn.
After Selena came out of her stupor, the first thing he did was linking Mason to come to the packhouse immediately. She couldn't see any serious wounds, and by serious she meant wounds by silver, on her mate, but he was pretty messed up.
She hurried to where Aiden and Ryan had helped Xavier to sit but she kept her distance, too scared to touch him.
Mason came soon and he brought a stretcher with him. Xavier was wheeled off to the infirmary, Roy helped Aiden to the hospital as well and Connor carried Evelyn.
Aiden was okay, sure he had a few cuts, but he was in the best condition amongst the three of them.
However, when Selena sat by him in the seats outside the rooms where the doctors were treating the two siblings, she could see that he was visibly shaken.
Selena didn't say anything, she just put her hand on his shoulder and Aiden turned to look at her. There was something about Aiden's scent that had her off-guard but at the moment she dismissed the thought.
A tear fell down his face and Selena didn't waste another minute in pulling him close to her. Aiden broke down in tears, attracting the attention of Ileana, Connor and Ryan as hell. They remained quiet too, only Ileana sat on the seat beside his and Connor stood in front of him.
"What the hell happened to you guys?" Selena asked all the while rubbing his back.
"Hunters..." he barely spoke in between his sobs. The place felt a few degrees colder as they all stilled.
Aiden tried to stop his tears and took a few deep breaths. Connor knelt in front of him and rubbed his head and back, hoping to provide some comfort to him.
Aiden sat straight and rubbed his eyes. The tears came again but his voice was stronger this time.
"He, he attacked us."
"He?" Selena asked. Her eyes were nearly silver, revealing how close her wolf was to the surface.
"There were ten of them. He had three of them holding me while three held Evelyn, the other three held Xavier as one of them started hitting him." Aiden breathed. He was still shaking a bit.
"They injected him with something, I am guessing Wolfsbane, but the amount was very little, it weakened him though. This guy, kinda lean but muscular, looked like their leader; he took his time with Xavier and then with Evelyn. He didn't hurt her as much as Xavier though. And then he came towards me."
"You looked practically unharmed compared to them," Ileana spoke softly.
Aiden nodded, "Because he saved me."
Frowns decorated all of their faces as they tried to understand what Aiden was talking about.
"He who, Aiden?" Connor asked softly.
Slowly, Aiden raised his eyes and looked at Connor, he remained silent for only a few seconds, after which he answered, "My mate."
"What?" Ileana whispered, "You met your mate, that's great Aiden." She tried to sound as enthusiastic as she could in the given circumstances.
Aiden however, shook his head as his eyes filled with unshed tears again, "No it's not. He left. He saved us from the hunters, looked right at my eyes, and he left. Walked off," Aiden chuckled sadly, "No fucks given."
The wolves present didn't know what to say, it is unheard of for a mate to completely walk off without any acknowledgement. Selena would like to believe that the fact that Xavier had asked her to stay in the pack had something to do with her being his mate as well.
"I am sure we are missing something here," she said, "Mates don't just walk off, Aiden. Don't give up so soon."
Aiden nodded his head, only so that they would shut up. The attention of the crowd was soon diverted when Mason walked to them.
"The good thing is, there weren't any life-threatening injuries. Alpha was injected with Wolfsbane, which explains the slow healing and the weakness and drowsiness. He will be okay by tomorrow morning. And Evelyn just needs to rest her legs. She will be okay before the night ends."
Everybody breathed a sigh of relief.
"I am gonna go to my room guys. I just wanna sleep," Aiden muttered and walked off before anybody could say anything.
"Should we let him be alone at this time?" Ryan asked after he left their sight.
"Let him be... we will talk to him tomorrow. He needs to process what happened as well," Connor answered Ryan.
There wasn't much conversation after this. Connor went to Evelyn and Selena walked to Xavier's room. Ileana took Ryan back to their room as even though he was a lot better now, and could start working out slightly, he still wasn't in the best shape.
When Selena walked into the room, her eyes were hard and set on her mate.
No matter what the situation was between the two of them, nobody touches her mate. She walked closer to him. There was a slight pain within her chest but Selena didn't pay any attention to it, the whole attention was on Xavier.
"I promise you, I will make sure that he pays for his actions, all of them," she whispered as she rubbed soothingly on his head and pushed his hair back.
Selena stayed there with Xavier for the next few hours. She was just about to go check on Evelyn when she noticed the change in his breathing. There were drops of sweat on his forehead and he was mumbling in his sleep.
"Selena... No... Please... I'm sorry... I... Leave her... I'll kill... Leon... NO!"
That's when he woke up. He sat up straight on the bed and hugged her as soon as his eyes landed on her.
"Oh my god... Oh my god..." He kept on whispering and Selena was too shocked to move. But when his body started to shake with sobs, her arms automatically wrapped them around him. He tightened his hold.
"Hey. Xavier, hey it's okay. I'm right here. He's never going to take me anywhere. I won't rest until I show him his place. I'm right here, Xavier."
"I was so worried about you. It was so long since I had seen you. I can't believe I didn't sense his presence behind me any earlier. I could have led them straight to you." It almost seemed like he was talking to himself.
She let him go and looked at him, "But you didn't. You sensed him and you fought him. He played unfairly. Aiden filled me up with a brief idea of what happened."
Hejust nodded and kept looking at Selena, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." Herepeated again and again. It broke her heart to see him like this. Slowly she wrapped himin her arms again while he cried. She held him until he fell asleep.