The Choice

Kieran

The next day I spent either with my security team or with Lena in her room. It was tearing me apart that someone personally attacked my family… my mate… my pups… innocent pups… who does that?? Once I finally controlled Duncan from ripping Gwen’s throat out we went back to Lena. I could hear the monitors and I just hate the noise but at least they’re not going crazy so I guess that’s all I could ask for. I grab her hand as she’s sleeping and just lay next to her. I let out a deep breath trying to collect my thoughts and I could feel tears well in my eyes.

“I will get whoever did this to you… I promise you…” I fell asleep on her lap and just let her scent calm me. After the nap I’m calm enough to do this without hurting anyone.

“Conrad, meet me in my office. I need a team to get Gwen.”

“Sure, but let’s not be too upset about this mission.”

“She hurt my luna! Not just mine, all of ours! And the future of this pack!”

“Ok ok I get you and Duncan are angry! I’ll be there in a few minutes. Just let me finish this training session.”

“Sure, fine.” I cut off the mind link with him and tried to calm myself again. I kiss Selena’s cheek and make my way to my office. By the time I got there Conrad and his team were already there.

“Wow, you guys are quick.” I was a little surprised since he had just told me he was in a training session.

“We figured this was important and came straight away.”

“Thanks for hurrying. Alright it’s a simple mission, we grab Gwen, interrogate her and let her go home or we hold her in our prison. So according to Selena, she has a couple of places she likes to go. The palace garden, her room or a sunroom. So based on that unless she’s with her mate, it should be a simple grab and go mission. I want a short and sweet mission. Let’s move out!” We all headed out as calmly as we could and made it back to Cedarcrown. Luckily, when we get there, we’re as quiet as we can be.

“Teams, get ready. Keep your eyes open for her! I want her to be as unharmed and quiet as we can be!”

“Yes alpha!” They all shout out of respect. After a few minutes of silence I get a mind link.

“I found her alone! She’s in the garden!” Conrad tells me and I couldn’t help but smirk. The hunter becomes the hunted.

“Proceed with caution, we don’t want the family to get a warning that we’re here.”

“Yes alpha.” Conrad and I go in slowly trying not to make noise. Luckily for us the sunroom is open so we can just get in and out. We go in and as she’s about to scream, I cover her mouth.

“Not so great being hunted, is it? Come with us and no one will hurt you.” She surprisingly comes quietly and comes back with us. We drag her to our interrogation room and throw her down onto the chair.

“What do you want that you couldn’t ask me at my home?” She asks me snippily.

“Fine, we’ll get to the point. We know you and Damian poisoned Selena. Why,” I’m beyond pissed with her. She hurt my mate… my pups…

“Cause Selena wants you to feel pity for her when she inflicted it on herself!” She yells at me and it just makes my blood boil. I lunged at her but luckily for her, Conrad held me back.

“Why do you think that!? She trusted you! She loved you! Pitied you! And you betrayed you!” She cackles at me and throws her head back.

“It’s not betrayal.. all she had to do was listen to my parents… if she had just let mom or dad pick her husband like they wanted to then she wouldn’t be here.”

“So you’re saying she deserved to be banished because she wanted love and not to be a pawn!?” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing!

“Absolutely.. all she had to do was do as she was told.”

“But you didn’t when you found your mate!” I growled at her.

“I was actually in the process of picking my mate when I met Damian. Selena didn’t even try to pick someone. Dad tried for months if not years to get her to pick someone. That’s why she was banished. What we didn’t know was you… so I faked my escape and the whole time I was here relaying information to my parents. So they knew about you, your courtship, your engagement, your mating ceremony, even your pups… and your family.” I growled at her again and just punched her in the jaw.

“That’s for poisoning my family! Lock her up until I say so. I need to inform my luna.” I growl at her again and leave before I completely rip her to shreds. Conrad follows behind me to Lena’s hospital room. She’s still fast asleep, but the monitors are off so that makes me happy.

“Any news Connor?” He and Mia have been taking care of them personally along with their team and I know Selena is in expert hands.

“We got the poison completely out of her, the pups are safe and she’s just sleeping. She was throwing up for a while but that could either be her body’s response to getting rid of the poison or morning sickness. Either way the poison is getting out. So we’ve been giving her some anti nausea meds to help with the vomiting, and some IV fluid to rehydrate her so she has something in her system to keep her hydrated.” Glad they keep it in layman’s terms for me. I never understand the medical jargon.

“Great… wake up my flower… I’m here for you.” I can hear the others around me chuckling at me, but I don’t care. I can give tough love to everyone else, but my Luna has me around her finger.

“W-what happened? Where am I?” She asks us groggily.

“It’s alright you’re in the hospital.” I grab her hand and she looks at me shocked.

“The party! What happened?!” Well that’s a start at least she remembers that.

“You were poisoned by your tea.” She looks at me and holds onto her bump.

“The pups… no my pups!” I cup her cheeks as she starts to cry and put my forehead against hers.

“They’re fine. Connor and Mia plus their team have been working around the clock on the three of you. The poison is out and they’ve been observing you for the past few days.”

“Thank you…” She looks at them with tears in her eyes as she keeps rubbing her bump. “So they’re ok?” She looks at me with hope in her eyes.

“Yeah, they’re fine and you’re fine. The poison is out of your system.” We all breathe a sigh of relief.

“What else happened to me?” She asks me with concern.

“You were throwing up a lot, and you passed out at the party. We immediately took you here. Luckily this poison isn’t deadly. It could’ve been a lot worse, but you were dehydrated for a while.” Connor explains. We both breathe a sigh of relief. Then she asks me the question I’ve been dreading to answer.

“Who would do this to innocent pups??” I look at Conrad who just nods to me. I let out a deep sigh and tried to think of how to break this to her gently, but I guess there wasn’t.

“There’s no easy way of telling you this so I’m just going to tell you.” I grab her hands and try to reassure her and myself. “It was Gwen and Damian…”

“WHAT?! HOW COULD THEY DO THIS!? I TRUSTED HER!” I could see the angry tears running down her face. She tries to get up from the bed and I had to hold her back.

“We all did, my flower, but yet she played us all. Her exact words to me ‘It’s not betrayal.. all she had to do was listen to my parents… if she had just let mom or dad pick her husband like they wanted to then she wouldn’t be here.’” I hear her growl and I slowly back off. I had never seen her so angry before since I’ve known her.

“This whole time… not even Gwen loved me… I comforted her… loved her… gave her a place to go when she was scared… and this is the thanks I get?! Even she thinks I should’ve just been a pawn in their stupid game?! How is it she gets to have her mate when I was on the verge of not having you!?”

“According to her, she was in the process of picking someone when Damian came to the party that day.” I try to hold her hand but she just snatches it away.

“Let me at her! I want a piece of this! I want to use my training on someone!” Conrad and Connor hold her down and growl at her, but she growls back. Damn it’s hot, but even just a month or so ago she didn’t have this confidence so I guess there’s a bright side to this. “Let me go guys, I maybe your sister, but remember who you’re dealing with.”

“Yeah and as our luna we’re supposed to protect you! I’m glad you’ve got some confidence and guts to growl at us, but you can’t do that! You’ll hurt yourself and your twins! Don’t go down to that room otherwise you’ll regret it for the rest of your life!” Conrad growls at her. I could hear his wolf on the verge of surfacing.

“Conrad’s right luna, if you want to really rub it in your family’s face that you got what you wanted, then just stay here with us. We’re your new family now, you don’t need them. You’ve truly blossomed here and I couldn’t be more proud of the luna you’re becoming. Just months ago, you wouldn’t have even thought of growling at one of us, and now look, you’re almost off to rage war with your family.”

“Well, isn’t that what she did? Poisoning is attempted murder, and that’s punishable by either jail, war or death.” All of us looked at her in shock. “What? I pay attention in my lessons! Just because I’m the black sheep of the family doesn’t mean that I didn’t pay attention in the little schooling I had, and during my Luna lessons with mom.” I give her a smile and grab her hand again.

“I know you want to go after Gwen, and you’re right she flat out admitted it to me so yes she should be punished, but now isn’t the time. Especially with your due date around the corner.” That seems to calm her for now.

“You’re right… let me just use the bathroom and see what we can do from there.” I help her up and she makes it halfway across the room before a puddle forms at her feet. She looks at me and then Connor with shock all over her face. “I think my water just broke…”