The Beta and his Mate

Xavier’s POV

My blood ran cold when Jax uttered those two words that we’d all been dreading to hear for weeks now.

They’re coming

Not only did I have a pack to look after and protect I now also had a mate to worry about on top of that. I know Blaine could look after herself, that she knew how to hold her own in a fight, but it didn’t ease my nerves any less, especially when I saw her running alongside us towards the battle ground. Blaine was a stubborn one though and fiercely protective of the ones she cares about so I knew trying to talk her out of running into battle was not an option for her. She was not one to cower in the corner and let others do all the dirty work.

That was why I didn’t fight her too hard on going back and staying with Anna. I had to remind myself that this was Blaine and even if her stubbornness and lack of listening ability stressed me out to no end I still wouldn’t change anything about her. Blaine was my little firecracker, the crazy to my calm and I’d be stupid if I tried to change that about her.

The battle was basically over now, it not having lasted very long in the first place. With Blaines instructions and the amount of extra training sessions about warriors we had taken on board it was a fairly easy fight. Still no matter how easy a fight seemed you never relaxed until way after the last rogue was dealt with. We learnt that the hard way when a neighbouring pack of ours had been hit with multiple waves of rogues. Unfortunately the pack hadn’t seen it coming and had suffered severely because of it.

I looked around the clearing as I killed one of the last rogues who had been idiotic enough to enter our land. Just a few more rouges remained but thanks to our increased stamina they were being quickly picked off by warriors, making sure that not one escaped the punishment they deserved.

I spotted Blaine run after an injured rogue and smiled as I watched her rust coloured fur glint in the light, I sure was one lucky guy.

“Xavier get your head out of your ass, we still have stuff to do” Jax smirked as he made his way over to me.

Jax had already shifted back into his human form and slipped on a pair of old worn out trackie bottoms that we had dotted around the territory.

‘Whatever man’ I laughed through the mind link before trotting off behind a tree so that I could shift myself. To be able to do the clean up that was required I kind of needed my opposable thumbs back.

“How’s Anna and JJ?” I asked Jax as I came up behind him with a bunch of logs and twigs that I had collected from the woods in the surrounding areas.

“They’re good man, the rogues didn’t even make it through our first line of defence so no stress there” he shrugged as we both deposited my collected wood into the centre of the semi clearing. Even if these wolves weren’t part of our pack it was important to us that they got a proper cremation, only then will their spirits ascend to the Moon Goddess. She can deal with them how she sees fit.

I nodded my head as I watched more warriors dump logs and bits of brush onto the ever growing pile. We had gotten confirmation from our scouts that no more rogues had entered or exited our territory and with a sigh of relief from many around us the mental alert we had all been sharing had gone from critical to just cautious.

“Where’s Blaine by the way? I thought she’d be the first one here to question me about the safety of others and whether we were all okay” Jax laughed as he looked around the clearing.

I frowned before looking back up to where I had spotted Blaine disappearing off to. Jax was right, she knew the dangers of being out in the open, especially in the middle of an attack. After she dealt with that run away she would have definitely come straight back, believing in safety in numbers. The rogue she was chasing didn’t look like he would of given her much trouble so what was taking her so long?

Just as I was about to take a step in the direction where I saw her disappear to I heard Blaine’s voice whisper through our mind link and into my head. ‘Xavier’.

It wasn’t much but it was enough to set me on edge as I froze on the spot. I heard Jax and a few others trying to gain my attention, asking if I was okay, but I didn’t answer. My sole focus was concentrated on the mink link as I tried to grasp it tighter. The link was weak, making me nervous beyond belief as I put everything into strengthening it.

‘Blaine? Blaine where are you?’ I yelled, hoping my message was getting through all the static that was clouding the link.

I stood there for several seconds, frozen to my spot as I put all of my energy into keeping this link alive. I was the only reason the link was still open, Blaine being to weak to hold it herself. ‘Help’ was the last thing I got from her before she slipped into unconsciousness and it was like the snap of the link closing was a gun going off before you began a race.

I was off like a shot as I sprinted towards where I last saw Blaine, following the weak trail her scent had left. I could feel the presence of several pack members following closely behind me but I paid them no attention, my vision focusing in like a laser at what was in front of me.

It was difficult to pick up her scent, what with the strong stench of blood in the air along with hundreds of wolves scents and I thanked anyone that was listening that she had been in her wolf form when she took off. If she was in her human form I doubt I would of picked it up.

I cringed as her voice filled my brain as she regained consciousness. She had only managed to scream my name before the link snapped back shut again but it was enough to set my muscles on fire and my stomach to feel cold with dread. I had lost my sister and my parents to a rogue attack, there was no way I was going to lose Blaine to one too.

As I drew towards them I shifted into my wolf, not caring for the scraps of fabric as the fluttered to the floor behind me. I just had to get to Blaine, as long as I got to her everything else would work itself out, everything else would be okay.

I squinted into the distance and growled when I spotted a male figure leaning over Blaine as he held her throat in his hand. They were both naked, fresh from a shift, as I noticed claw marks running along Blaines ribs and a considerable amount of blood leaking from a head injury on her left temple. No wonder she was struggling to stay conscious with a wound like that.

‘Blaine!’ I screamed in my head just before I tackled the stranger to the ground, effectively removing him from off my mate.

He was larger than your typical rogue, showing a lot more muscle tone than I was used to seeing on a wolf without a pack but I didn’t let it faze me. Blaine’s last lesson rang through my head, about how you never leave them a second to watch you, and before I knew what I was doing, I attacked.

The two wolves who had followed me into the woods, Henry and a she wolf called Mel, attacked with me and it wasn’t long before we had the rogue cornered in front of a tree. However he didn’t react how you’d assume a cornered rogue would. Instead of cowering in the corner and begging for mercy, this rogue stood tall and proud, as if we were the ones that were cornered and he was the one that held all the cards. He didn’t even bother to shift back into his wolf and just that fact alone put us all on edge.

“Ah the Beta I presume?” The man questioned as he raised his eyebrows at me. “It is a pleasure to make the acquaintance of the messengers right hand man” he smirked as he took in the three of us.

I growled at him as I felt my hackles rise, this man set me on edge, the confidence he portrayed unsettling me more than I care to mention.

“Are you really going to put your lives at risk to try and save that girl over there, that... rogue?” He questioned as his smirk grew.

I growled at him, furious that he would even consider attacking my Blaine.

The strangers smirk turned into shock as he stared at me, looking like he was trying to figure something out. His smirk suddenly returned full force as he looked over at the still unconscious Blaine before returning his gaze to me.

“You’re her mate aren’t you” He asked, directing his comment at me. Whatever he found must’ve answered his question because it wasn’t a second later that he let out a laugh like cough, almost as if he had just heard the punch line to the funniest joke he’d ever heard.

“Oh that is rich, the rogue killer is mated with a rogue?”

I growled at him again as I took a step in his direction, not liking that his attention wasn’t completely on us. How dare he looked at my mate.

“Oh this is going to be so much fun” he muttered right as Blaine started to move not to far behind us. It wasn’t much, just a small groan as she tried to push herself into a sitting position, but it was enough to distract us long enough for the stranger to attack.

He shifted faster than I had seen anyone shift before and went straight for Henry as he swiped him with his large paw. Henry went flying into a nearby tree and I cringed as I heard the cracks of his ribs shatter at the contact.

The two of us quickly moved into action, attacking him on both sides to keep him busy whilst I changed the warning back up to critical through the pack link. It wouldn’t take long for back up, I just had to keep him busy long enough for the cavalry to arrive.

We tried our hardest but with only two of us taking down that one rouge it wasn’t easy. I had been completely distracted, listening out for any noises that could mean Blaine was in trouble. I was obsessing over the sound of her heart beat, her soft shallow breaths and the small groans in pain every time she moved slightly.

In the end the rouge had escaped and I was still kicking myself over it. You should never let a rogue escape, it sent a bad message to both the rogues and packs around you, but I had been too distracted to pay attention to what was going around me. I had already apologised to Mel, knowing that she was kicking herself just as much as I was for what happened. Not only was him escaping bad for our reputation, he also knew about Anna. If that rogue decided to brag to anyone about who Anna was and where she could be found we were in serious trouble.

I was now sitting in the hospital, in the private room Blaine had been assigned to. Thankfully she was strong and her head and rib injuries had already started to heal. The doctor had induced her into a coma though, claiming it would help her brain heal faster after the trama it had endured. It left me restless, not being able to talk to her and ask if she was okay but if this was what she needed to heal then I was just going to have to accept it.

Henry was in critical condition, sustaining injuries like the ones he had was nerve wracking, even for a wolf. Not only had his ribs and thigh bone been shattered to pieces, he also sustained major internal injuries causing him to need multiple surgeries to try and reverse the damage.

I cringed as I heard Sarah crying in the hall down from where I sat, her friends offering her moral support as they waited for Henry to come out of his second surgery. If I had just anticipated the rogues moves, done my job instead of focusing on my mate, then maybe Henry would be here right now and not in a room unconscious whilst the doctors tried to fix him.

I just hoped he made it.