Chapter 4: Dungeons…?
Alex’s P.O.V
“Do you have any idea what’s going to happen when Alpha Charles gets back?” Freya snapped at me, pacing the now empty room like a caged tigress. “Cameron was fuming when he heard the news. I can only imagine what Alpha Charles would do when he returns.”
“She’s my mate, Freya!” I told her now, my voice coming out harsher than I had intended. “Did you really expect me to kill her?”
“No! God, no!” Freya stopped pacing to look at me wide eyed. “I didn’t say you had to kill her, but neither did I say to bring her back to the pack house! And when on earth was I going to find out that we have a fucking dungeon at the basement?”
“It…it’s a holding cell.” I told her hesitantly. “For wolves.”
“A fucking dungeon!” She snapped, narrowing her eyes at me. “So how about you tell me…what to do next, Alex? Because I don’t have a freaking clue! And I’m on the verge of a panic attack!”
“Calm down,” I sighed, wondering why I wasn’t the one having that panic attack at the moment. “She’s heavily sedated and we’ll keep her that way until we can figure out what happened to her.”
Freya ran a hand through her long dark hair and paused to gather her thoughts. Turning towards me, she gave me one of her puppy eyed looks that could only mean trouble. “I want to see her once, before the doctors and healers get to her.”
My eyebrows shot up in surprise. “What happened to ‘all the trouble we might get into once the Alpha arrives’?”
Not that I was complaining. My wolf was going crazy from wanting to go to my mate, but at the same time, it kept fidgeting because she ‘smelled wrong’. Rogues had a distinctive animalistic smell that could be identified from miles away. It’s a surprise that my mate wasn’t identified before she crossed into our territory. And one of the reasons had been her scent.
Although her scent seemed ‘wrong’ for a normal, healthy wolf, it still wasn’t that distinctive scent that rogues should have. For some reason, her scent was muted…different. Like she was a rogue…and not, at the same time. If that even made sense.
However, I shook my head at Freya. “I can’t put you in danger.” I told her honestly. “Cameron will have my head.”
“He doesn’t have to know, not right away.” She came forward to hold onto my hand. “Please? There’s this…I don’t know, feeling? I just feel like I need to see her once before anyone else gets to her.”
“Fine.” I caved in. “But you’re staying close and we’re getting out the second I sense trouble.”
“Deal.” She nodded immediately. “Now, let’s go before the team gets to her.”
I highly doubted that the team of healers would get to her any time soon, especially since the two patrol guards that she had injured were in critical condition and they were in emergency care that required immediate attention from our healers.
I knew that by bringing her here, I was not only endangering the life of my packmates, but I was making everyone doubt my decision-making capabilities as well. As the future beta, it was my duty to look after the pack’s safety in the absence of the Alpha, and I was doing a miserable job as it was. The last thing I needed was the entire pack voting me out.
But for fuck’s sake, she was my mate! What…how could my own packmates even assume that I would let her die without even a chance to see if I could reach her! She wasn’t that far gone! I could sense it!
“Alex!” Freya’s urgent voice broke me out of my thoughts. I looked up to find her standing at her door, holding it open so I could follow her. “Let’s go!”
“Okay.” I took a shaky breath and followed behind her to the elevator and then punched in the special code that led to the basement.
Freya was relatively quiet as we descended, while I tried to find a suitable excuse to provide the guards in the dunge-holding cells! Fuck!
However, it turned out that I wouldn’t be needing to find excuses after all. Because there was absolutely no one present inside the cell area. Fuckers had run off as soon as I was out of sight. Although I could hardly blame them. There was an extremely dangerous rouge inside one of the cells and since the elevator was the only way in and out of the room, there was no way of her getting out.
“This way.” I guided Freya as we entered the hallway with the cells on either side. All the other doors were open, except for the one right at the back, where the rogue…my mate, was being held.
Freya stayed quiet while examining her surroundings as we walked forward. I was going to be in knee-deep shit if Cameron or Alpha Charles found out I brought her here, but there was hardly anything I or anyone else could do when Freya sets her mind on something.
But the minute we came to stand in front of the cell holding my mate…Freya raised her hand to stop me in my tracks. “Wait!”
Her voice was a whisper, almost like she was trying to listen to something keenly, something that even I couldn’t hear. I tried to follow suit, to listen to anything unusual, but nothing came to mind. The only thing I could hear was the soft, shallow breaths of the wolf still asleep inside the cell.
“What is it?” I whispered back when I found Freya looking in through the cell doors, her brows furrowed in concentration. “Freya?”
“Magic.” Freya said at last, her voice barely above a whisper. “I sense a strange kind of magic…and it’s coming from her.”