The Unfortunate Truth

Darius the Dick - 17

"It's almost Christmas," Brody whispers to me.

"Yes, it is, and you better not have gotten me anything," I huff out.

It's a few days after the dinner with my brothers. I was lying next to Brody in his bed and we were cuddling. Something that I found out he loves to do, which shocks me a little bit considering he was a big bad Alpha and all that.

"As if I wouldn't get my mate something for Christmas," Brody snorts as if he were offended.

I grumble a little bit, "You didn't have to."

"And you didn't have to either but I know you got me something."

I gasp and lift my head off his chest to whack him there. He gives me a cheeky smile and I glare at him. "You found out. How? Who told you? Was it my brothers? Rosie?"

"Madeline," Brody answers. I groan and lay back down and he chuckles, the deep sound making my heart swoon. "She didn't mean to, it was an accident."

"I'm going to kill her."

Brody laughs again as he runs a hand up and down my back. "She didn't do it on purpose. She was talking about a present for Titus and then I asked when she was getting it and she said she already got it when she went with you to get mine."

"It was supposed to be a surprise," I mutter.

"Well she didn't tell me what it was."

I huff a little bit, "I guess then it's not so bad."

"I figured you'd say that," Brody answers back. He breathes out a deep sigh and cuddles into me a little more.

Well that wasn't inconspicuous at all.

"Brody?" I hear a grunt in response. "You don't want to get out of bed, do you?"

"No, darling, I don't. Why on earth would I want to leave your side...ever?"

I giggle a little bit and hit his chest. As much as I loved simp Brody, I knew that he had things to do. "I'm guessing you have some pack stuff to do today. And Andrew is saying that you need to leave?"

Brody chuckles again, it resonating through his chest. "How right you are, Dani. Yeah, I have some paperwork to get done and prep for some new things being brought in. Then I have a meeting in a few days with another alpha."

"I see," I mumble. "Well," I move my head to look at him, seeing a tired expression over his gorgeous face. "You need to get a move on then."

"Dani..."

"The faster you go get your things done, then the faster you can leave and come home to me!" I say happily.

Brody smiles tiredly and leans back towards me. His face was dangerously close to mine, his lips practically brushing against mine as he whispers, "All the more reason to not go at all."

My brain is putty. My mind is mush. How dare he act so sexy in the morning. I couldn't function this early in the morning normally, when he adds that, how am I supposed to think straight at all?

I lean forward and give him a quick kiss before I pull away. "And what are you gonna do if you don't?"

I could see that he didn't like my quick display of affection, and I was proven right when he grabbed the back of my head and gave me a sort of passionate kiss. It actually took my breath away.

It lasted a few seconds before he pulled away, quickly taking my bottom lip and softly biting it with his teeth.

Oh lord. My insides are swirling.

"Don't test me, mi amor," Brody whispers as his eyes stare intently at me, piercing me.

His caramel eyes practically swirl with love. Oh god, I'm going to kiss him senseless if he doesn't stop. Oh dear lord, what if he uses his alpha voice, no, I'll be a wreck. I will literally be putty in his hands.

I breathe softly, not daring to say anything or even move as he stares intently at me. He smiles a little bit and places a tender kiss on the corner of my mouth before he pulls away and gets out of bed.

Oh dear god, I roll off my side and onto my back as I stare up at the ceiling. If he does that again I'll probably pass out.

I look over at his gorgeous ass in his boxers, seeing that he moves to go over to his closet. He suddenly stops and turns around, running a hand through his messy hair as he looks at me.

"Madeline wants to eat with us again today," Brody says. "I forgot to mention it earlier."

I turn my head to look at him. "Yeah?" He nods. "I would love to."

"You can't kill her!" Brody calls out as he walks into his closet.

"We'll see!" I call back in a sing-song voice.

~

I managed to get up with Brody and head off to the pack house. He left to go to his office while I hung out with the gang for a few hours. We watched a movie and played some cards and stuff like that.

It was just nice to see them after a while, we haven't hung out much the past few days. After I hung out with them, Brody came to get me and we went to have lunch with Madeline and Titus.

"Hey girl," Madeline smiles at me.

There was already food at the table, and I'm happy that she already knew what we liked to eat. I was starving since Brody and I didn't have breakfast beforehand.

"Hi," I smile and give her a quick hug. "Hi Titus," I nod after I pull away from Madeline's hug.

"Luna," Titus gives a small head nod, his brown hair hiding his eccentric blue eyes for a moment.

"Titus," I grumble in a warning tone. I knew damn well that he wasn't going to stop it, but that didn't mean I couldn't get snappy with him whenever he used the title.

"My apologies ma'am," he quickly apologizes and looks back up at me.

I huff a little bit and stab some of my potatoes with my fork. Everybody knows that I hate it, yet they still keep calling me Luna. It just didn't feel right when I technically wasn't yet, who knew if I ever would be.

"So," Madeline pipes up and excitedly grabs my left arm. "How was your tour around the pack house? What'd you think of his office? Isn't it cool! And how did you react to him being alpha? I still think it's weird and he's been alpha for like four years-"

"Mon amour," Titus softly whispers as he leans into Madeline's left side. "Let the girl speak."

Oh, he speaks french. God damn. I didn't know though, he doesn't really have an accent. Aside from when he said that at least.

Madeline blushes a bit nervously and gives me an apologetic look. "I'm sorry! I'm just so excited to have a friend! My brother's mate at that!"

I furrow my eyes, "You don't have any friends? But you're so sweet."

She shrugs a little bit, "I have some friends I guess. But everyone says I'm too peppy and whatnot so they don't want to hang out with me. But that's okay," she giggles. "I have you and Titus."

Brody grumbles a little bit under his breath and she rolls her eyes, "I've had you since I was born, doofus, you don't count."

"I'm offended," Brody mockingly says and takes a bite of his turkey sandwich.

Madeline huffs softly and ignores the comment, immediately turning back to me. "So, did you like the tour of the place?"

"I did," I smile at her. "I've seen some of it when I was younger but it's obviously a lot more updated since then. It's a very nice packhouse."

"Are you busy today?"

"Me?" I question and see that she nodded. "No, Brody has some Alpha duties to do so I was just going to go back to my grandparents place after we eat here."

She perks up a little bit, "Would you like to come watch a movie with me and Titus? Actually," she huffs, "more like just me, Titus doesn't watch movies a lot."

"We talked about this mon cheri," Titus grumbles. "They're too long."

"Yeah, yeah," she rolls her eyes. But then turns back to me with a grin. "So, is that a yes? Please, plus I need to spend more time with you. Get all the deets about my brother being a nice guy for once."

I hear Brody snort from next to me and I give him a soft elbow. "That would be lovely," I say to Madeline.

She smiles bright and unwraps her sandwich that she hadn't touched yet.

All of sudden there's a lot of commotion being heard from around the hallways outside of the lunchroom. Brody and I share a curious glance with each other. We both furrow our eyes and run towards the corridor, with Madeline and Titus following in behind us.

We see a bunch of men, along with some women running down the corridor towards the back of the house. They were shouting things at each other, and I honestly couldn't make much out since there was so much at once.

Brody opens his mouth to say something but someone spots him.

"Alpha!"

We turn to see someone running towards him, someone that I don't recognize. Tall, black hair, fairly muscular.

"Nigel, what is it?"

"Rogues, a lot more then the last time. On the border," Nigel informs him. He gets pushed a little bit for the amount of people running past him and he almost falls over.

"What?" Brody snarls a little bit. He wraps a protective arm around me after I get pushed a little bit. "Why weren't we informed earlier? Why hasn't anyone tried calling me?"

"We were just about to, sir!" Nigel says, his green eyes widening in fear. "We had no knowledge that they were here until some of the lookouts saw them on the edge of the tree line. Everything is in shambles. Everyone is just out there fighting, there's no order. We need you sir."

Brody huffs softly and turns to look at Titus, "Go, I'll be out with you shortly."

"Yes sir," Titus nods. He leans down and plants a quick kiss to Madeline's cheek before he runs off with Nigel to go outside.

Brody turns to look at me, and I immediately ease his worries. Lord only knows how stressed he was right now with just finding this out and needing to go deal with it. I didn't need him worrying about me like last time. I wouldn't do that to him again.

"Go," I whisper out. "I'll go with Madeline down to the bunker."

Brody doesn't even hide the surprise on his face. "You will?"

"Of course," I whisper back. "Just come back to me?"

"Of course, my love," Brody says. He leans forward and gives me a quick yet passionate kiss before he pulls away.

"Brody!"

I turn around to see that both of my brothers were following the trail of the remaining people. Me being shocked was an understatement.

"What are you guys doing here?" Brody asks.

"Thought you could use some help," Roman quirks.

Oh, they want to fight? Both my brothers are fit, muscular and god could they fight. I swear they're better than half of Brody's pack. If they were out there on the front lines, I'm sure they wouldn't have a problem.

Brody raises an eyebrow, "Really?"

"My baby sister's mate needs some help," Konan says. "All the more reason to."

Brody gives them a warm smile and nods, "Thanks you guys. Let's go." My brothers run off ahead of him and he quickly turns to blow me a kiss. "I'll be back."

"You better hope so," I respond back.

Madeline comes up next to me and we watch as our mates run off to fight yet again. For the second time within a week. And I hope that it has to be my fault. Anything with fighting or rogues is always my fault.

~

We were downstairs in the bunker as they call it. Thankfully it wasn't near any of the cells that they had, I would definitely hate to go over there and see all the wolves that they had captured and imprisoned.

I know they'd have good reason to do it. But I just didn't want to see it.

They separated me from the rest of the pack. The bunker had a little gathering area where most of the people were sitting. Corned off there were little rooms with beds in them for rest. I'm sure it was for if they were down here for a long period of time or for people with children who want them off from everyone else.

But apparently there was a chamber that I was supposed to be sent to. A place made for anyone the alpha and luna wanted in there. I would assume this is where Brody, Madeline and their mother were when Augusutus was killed.

This must be hard for her.

We were the only ones in this little chamber, aside from the three guards that were here for us. I panicked a little since his parents weren't here, which I assumed that they would be, and I could only hope that they were okay. Yes, even his father, at least for the time being.

The small area was nice, you know for being in a cold basement. But the heat was on in here, so that was a bonus. The walls were indeed made of cement, with dim lights on the ceiling so that we could at least see. There was a couch against the wall, a bookshelf with some books on it, a few pictures but not much.

At least it wasn't cold and dreary.

"Made-"

I turn to ask her something, but I abruptly stop talking when I see her sitting on the couch, her arms crossed over her chest and staring blankly at the wall.

I move down next to her and gently pat her leg to show that I was there. She flinches and looks up at me, and that's when I see her caramel eyes have tears in them.

"Hey," I whisper and wrap an arm around her. She sniffs out a little sob and lays her head on my shoulder. "It's gonna be okay."

"I'm just worried," she whispers and softly shakes her head, me feeling her hair move over my skin. "I hate when Titus has to go and fight. I hate it."

Oh.

She's worried about her mate. Understandable. I worry about Brody all the time. Literally all the time.

"He'll be fine," I reassure her. And I can only hope that I'm not lying to her. I get why she's all fearful, she probably hasn't known him for that long, considering that wolves can find their mates when they are sixteen. Which is the age that she is right now.

"How-How can you stay so c-calm?" Madeline whispers out.

"Well," I mutter. "I just pray that everything will be okay and that he'll come back to me. I've seen him fight, and I know that he's strong. I know that he can manage. So I just have to keep up my faith."

"Keep up with faith," Madeline repeats. She stares straight ahead for a few moments before she turns to me and starts wiping her eyes. "I'm sorry, you probably think that I'm just some little kid crying over this. You're the same age as I am."

"Hey," I reassure her. "There's nothing to be sorry about. I worry about Brody all the time."

She looks up at me, a sad look in her eyes. "You do?"

"Of course I do," I admit. "Whenever your mate is doing something dangerous, it's obvious that you're going to be freaked. No matter what age you are. you guys haven't been mates that long. So you shouldn't feel bad about being worried. You'll get used to it more as time goes by."

I totally just said that to make her feel better. I haven't gotten used to Brody being in danger even though I've only known him to be in a few fights. I also know that my mom thinks the same thing. Every time father has to go out and deal with rogues, along with my brothers, she's worried every single time.

Madeline looks up at me, her caramel eyes examining me.

"Have you?"

I huff and give her a sad smile, giving her my honest answer. "No."

~

The fight has been going on way longer than the other one did. Of course, I can't say that for sure since I was unconscious in surgery during the other one. But it just feels really long. It's been almost an hour, and I can't help but feel like there's something else going on. There's no way there's been this many rogues coming in and fighting.

They can't have that many. I mean they could, but that would be highly unlikely.

"What's taking so long?" I grumble and place my feet on the coffee table.

"Relax, Luna, I'm sure they're just being thorough," Calvin nods politely at me.

I don't know if I'll ever get used to hearing them call me Luna. And I'm not even technically their Luna yet. That's why I hate being called it. Maybe someday in the future, but right now? That's a definite no.

"Calvin," I grumble and give him a pointed look.

He nods and looks away out the door that he was standing by. Linus was off by the other doorway, that one leading to a bedroom and a small bathroom. Apparently they weren't taking any chances even though there wasn't another way to get into the bedroom aside from this room.

There was another guard standing by Calvin, one whose name I now know as Maxi, well that's what everyone calls him. His real name is Maxwell, but he hates it. So Maxi it was. Same with me and my name, so there's not really any room for me to argue.

Madeline was asleep on the couch, her legs were draped over my lap and I was leaning back, waiting very impatiently for all of this to be over with. I really wanted to talk to Brody, just ask how he was, but there wasn't a way to do that just yet.

So I was very anxiously waiting for any news, when something started happening.

The boys heard commotion coming down the hallway, spiking me to sit up. I could hear it as well, but they didn't know that.

Calvin suddenly turned and nodded at Maxi, "Stay here, wait for my signal. I'm gonna go check it out."

Maxi nodded and actually stood a bit straighter, making himself look more alert as Calvin made his way down the hallway. Calvin was obviously the man in charge, hence giving around the orders.

I suddenly tensed up a little bit and gently moved Madeline's legs off of me. Thankfully she's a heavy sleeper and didn't wake up. I didn't want to worry her if this wasn't a big deal. But I'll admit I was a little worried.

I went over to Maxi, who was standing by the door watching Calvin intently as he walked down the hallway.

"Maxi?" I question.

He doesn't move from his tensed up position, just merely gives me a head nod. "Yes, Luna."

Okay, they're not going to stop calling me that. There's no chance in asking them not to. They won't listen.

"There's something wrong, isn't there?"

Maxi tenses up a little and casts me a quick glance. "Everything is going to be fine. We're going to keep you safe."

"I have no doubt that you would," I answer back. "But have you made any contact with Brody? This is taking longer than I would have thought."

"We don't know," Maxi answers and gives me a quick look before snapping back, seeing as Calvin turned and went down the other hallway. "Cal! You see anything?"

"Not yet!" He calls back.

"What do you mean you don't know?" I quickly ask him. That didn't exactly sit right with me. That means that something could be wrong. And if something was wrong, that meant that Brody could be in danger.

Maxi huffs a little bit and I quickly grumble back at him. "Maxi, don't bullshit me. Tell me straight up."

Maxi's jaw flares again, "We haven't had any contact with him. We usually wait to get an all clear signal from him or an update of some sort, or even him asking if someone is okay or something like that. But we haven't gotten anything yet."

"So, something could be wrong?" I quickly ask.

"Or he could just be too busy dealing with them, the aftermath, locking them up or dealing with wolves in the infirmary," Maxi suggests. "Relax Luna, let's not jump to conclusions yet."

I nod softly and stand by him as we wait for Calvin to come back. Linus was standing back by the bedroom door, occasionally glancing over at us. Madeline was still asleep on the couch, and I so wish I could have that kind of innocence that she had. Just to be able to sleep without a care in the world.

God, I wish I could do that.

My head turns back to the open door and hallway, where Maxi was still watching like a hawk. Calvin came running past the corner, giving a small shrug as he starts walking back to us.

"I didn't see anything. But I swear that I heard-"

And that's where shit hit the fan.

All of a sudden two guys drop down from the ceiling, landing on top of Calvin.

I gasp and take a step backwards, though I didn't exactly have to. Maxi gave me a small shove as well to make sure I wasn't near them. Though they were a good sixty feet from us, all part of being future Luna I guess.

"Linus!" Maxi calls as he takes off to go and help Calvin. The two guys that dropped in had freaking ropes tied up to the decently tall fifteen foot ceiling. What is this? A freakin spy movie?

Linus runs over from his spot on the other side of the room, seeing that Maxi was fighting a guy while Calvin was trying his hardest to get the guy from straddling him off of him.

"Luna!" Linus yells and gently pushes me back into the room more. "You stay inside and do not try to come out here, I mean it!"

With one more worried look, he quickly slams the door behind me, leaving me and Madeline alone. I didn't even know that she had woken up until I turned around and saw her sitting up, her brown eyes looking at me with curiosity.

"Danielle? What happened? Where are the others?"

"I don't know," I tell her honestly. I huff and turn back to the door, staring almost annoyed at it. I may not be able to fight in my wolf form, but I can promise that I'm a damn good fighter as I am now. My brothers trained me specifically because I couldn't fight like a normal wolf. So I know that I'm damn good.

Stupid being the mate of an Alpha.

"Some men dropped from the ceiling," I grumble. "And Linus shut the door on us. They're all outside dealing with them."

"What do we do?" Madeline questions.

"There's nothing we can do," I mutter and turn back to her. She was now standing, fiddling her hands together nervously. "We just have to wait here until they're taken care of. But don't worry, I'm sure everything is fine."

A sudden noise is heard towards the small bedroom, instilling fear inside me.

Curse me and my big mouth.

Madeline jumps a little bit, her gaze snapping over to the open doorway and sort of staring it down.

I'll honestly admit that I was a little freaked out. But I was hoping that it was nothing. Though when has that ever gone in my favor before?

"You heard that, right?" Madeline whispers. I nod, and she continues. "You think it might have been the duct system?"

"The what?" I question.

"The duct system. For the heating and air conditioning and stuff like that. There's a small place for it next to the bedroom. It's just how the plans worked out when they built the pack house."

Oh shit.

"Madeline," I huff out. I was going to tell her to move over to me, but I was too late. Madeline screamed and scampered over to me, clutching onto my arm tightly.

It didn't take long as three figures stalked into the room, two of them I didn't recognize, but one I did. One of them practically haunts my dreams and is one of my personal stalkers.

Darius Black.

Leader of the Grigori's.

At first my mind wandered, trying to figure out how the hell they got in here in the first place. But then I froze once I realized how. They came in from a vent in the other room. You have got to be kidding me.

"Daniella Maria," Darius whistles, a smirk on his face. The way his Spanish accent says my name would make most girls swoon, but instead I cower away in disgust.

His darkly tanned skin goes well with his green eyes and black hair, I'll have to admit. But I hate his guts. Almost as much as he hates mine.

"Mi princesa," Darius rolls out. "Life would be so simple if you would just stop running from me."

I softly shake my head, my blue eyes glaring at him. "Darius, I figured you would have learned by now. I hate your guts."

"Ooh," he smirks and puts a hand to his chest. "I'm wounded, babe."

I huff out an angry breath, "Don't call me that."

I tried to keep me and Madeline as far away from them as possible. But as soon as Darius stepped foot into the room, the other two men crept in. One moving to my left, and the other to my right by the couch.

I could feel her trembling behind me, and I wanted to hug her and tell her everything was going to be okay, but unfortunately I didn't know how this was going to play out.

"Come on sweetheart," Darius grumbles. "We've been down this road before. You know how this is going to go. Just come with me and make it easy on everyone."

"No," I snarl and practically bare my teeth at him. "You should know by now that I am NEVER going to go with you."

"Oh," Darius chuckles darkly, which sends a shiver of fear down my spine. "You can't win this time, little one."

Suddenly one of his men, the one by the couch, reaches a hand out and grabs Madeline, pulling her into his chest. I quickly put a hand out to grab her back, but he puts a knife to her throat. Both of our eyes widen, with her hands going up by her throat. Looking at me desperately as she tries to pull away from him.

"No," I snarl and hold my hands up in front of me. "Don't touch her. Let her go, you can have me but just don't touch her. Please."

"Danielle!" Madeline's voice rings out.

The man holding her smirks at me, his lips tilting upwards at the corners. He then looks over at Darius, who was giving him a smirk back. Which I easily want to slap off of his face. Just one look from him makes me want to spit at him.

"Fine by me," Darius huffs out. He nods towards the guy holding Madeline, "Blake, get her out of here."

Blake quickly moves her towards the door that was behind me. I move towards the couch, since I was definitely not going towards his other friend. Blake rips the door open and shoves Madeline outside.

I can't help but breathe a sigh as soon as I know that Madeline is safe. At least for now. Or so I hoped. Who knew what was on the other side of that door?

As soon as the door was closed, both Blake and the other guy moved to the door, them leaning against it in case anyone tried to get through.

"You know," Darius grumbles and takes a menacing step towards me.

I can feel my legs turn to jello as he gets over to me. They shake slightly, along with the rest of my body in fear. He staggers towards me with a swagger. He knows that he's got me. He knows that I can't do anything. I'm sitting here like a duck, because I can't do a damn thing.

There's absolutely nothing that I can do to stop him. He can overpower me, I know that he can. Plus the three men in here, I'm completely trapped and there's nothing that can help me stop all three of them.

"I've been looking for you for a long time, darling."

My mind instantly flickers back to what Brody calls me. He calls me darling. And he's the only one that can call me that. I don't like other people calling me that. Not now, and not ever.

"Do not," I growl. "Do not call me that."

Before I can even say anything, Darius is suddenly right in front of me. He grabs me by the throat and holds me up against the wall by the couch.

My eyes widen and I bring my hands up to try and pry his hands off of me. But we all know how well that went. He just snarled even more and held me tighter.

I gasped for air and stared at him, feeling my stomach fall when I see him glaring at me. Those dark and menacing eyes that give me nightmares.

"You have caused me trouble for sooo many years, young pup. When are you going to realize that I was always going to find you?" Darius chuckles.

See, the Grigori's don't really go for the males of a royal pack all that much. They go for females, especially the princesses. They either make some ransom demands back to the kings, or sell them off to other people. With Darius, I'm pretty positive he'd rather keep me and make me his slave than anything else.

He's been after me for years, and I knew that there was no stopping him.

Father always had really good defenses. No matter what Darius threw at them, father would always retaliate back. But Darius unfortunately would never give up. That's one thing that I hate about them. Well, that and them existing in the first place.

"All those years of looking for you, trying to figure out what the next plan was. What the next plan of attack was going to be. And here all I had to do was wait for you to go to a weaker pack. If I had known that, sweet cheeks, then I would have stopped and waited a long time ago," he smirks.

"Your father owes me something. He owes me a great deal. He's killed my family time and time again, and I want to do the same to him. I want to take away his only daughter."

My eyes furrow a little bit and I manage to croak out, "What? I thought-"

"You thought I wanted to sell you or something?" Darius smirks and shakes his head. I felt like his fingers were digging into my throat even more. "Naw, naw, no I want to bring you back to your precious little home. And then I want to kill you, right in front of your precious father."

I flinch a little bit, still trying my best to breathe through my squeezed off pipes. I may be a wolf, but this shit still hurts.

"I want to see his face when you're dead, I want to see how he feels knowing that his family died."

"Go ahead," I huff out.

Darius's eyes furrow and he lessens up a little bit on the hold he had around my throat. Although I could feel that some of the pressure was taken off, that doesn't lessen the pain that was still there.

"I'm sorry?"

"I said, go ahead," I croak out. "You'd be d-doing him a f-favor. He's wanted me dead for a long t-time."

"You're just asking for it."

"And if I am?" I challenge back.

"Why you little bitch," he snarls. He suddenly digs his other hand in his pocket, before drawing out a knife. He thrusted it down onto my arm, the instant pain that I felt easily told me that it was a silver knife.

I breathe in deeply through my teeth, not wanting to give him any satisfaction from hurting me. But it's hard, he stabbed me with a literal knife.

"Mi querida," Darius hummed. "You are in for a world of pain, way more than just that. When I'm through with you, no one will even be able to recognize you." He quickly ripped the knife out of my arm, making me whimper slightly. Silver fucking hurts.

'Come on guys,' I plead silently.

I was just buying time. I could sense what was happening on the other side of the door. Apparently Darius thought that he was winning. Definitely was not.

The door burst down, meaning that both Blake and the other guy were thrust to the floor behind Darius. Before anyone could even react, I notice that Linus and Calvin were on the two guys that were thrown to the ground.

I literally want to sigh in relief, but I'm in a bit of trouble at the moment. Darius hadn't let go of me, in fact, he's actually holding onto me even tighter than before. Stupid bastard.

"Let go of my baby sister or I swear to the moon goddess, I will tear you apart slowly limb by fucking limb."

Okay, yep, definitely Konan.

His voice definitely intimidated me. There's no question about that. Just because he may not be alpha, doesn't mean he's far from intimidating.

I glanced over from my spot against the wall, to see Konan and Roman standing in the doorway, with Calvin and Linus still on top of the other two men on the floor. I wondered why they didn't just tackle him at first. But my eyes then zeroed in on the knife that he had in his right hand, facing them, so it made sense.

Darius huffs and then sends a small smirk over to me. "Seems like you've got quite the backup here, mi querida."

I shiver a bit in disgust and stare at the menacing green eyes that I hate so much. But I see them sag in defeat. Just as I see it, he drops me. I fall on my butt on the concrete floor and instantly bring a hand up to my neck.

Roman runs over and tackles Darius to the ground, quickly knocking the knife out of his hands.

Konan swoops over and picks up the knife, making sure that no one can touch it. He carefully puts it in his back pocket before he turns to me, frowning when he sees how I look.

He squats down in front of me and gently runs a hand over the top of my head. "Hey, ninera. Look at me."

I shakily lift my head up, still trying to get some air back into my lungs. I had a hand softly going around my throat in an attempt to not make it worse, which basically fails. It still feels like he had a hand around my throat for how hard it was to breathe.

I literally couldn't breathe for how hard he squeezed my throat. It's like my vocal cords were mush. Plus it doesn't help that it hurts when I even try to breathe.

Konan's eyes mimic my own, they show fear. He was scared, as was I. He tries to give me an encouraging smile as he pulls me into his chest, but I could see right through it. I could tell how terrified he was. "You can't scare me like that Dani."

"I'm sorry," I croak out.

"No, no," Konan shakes his head and plants a kiss to the top of my head. "Don't talk. Even with your healing it will take awhile," he whispers the last part. Nobody knows yet and I know that Calvin and Linus are too concerned with the other men to really care.

"Brody?" I whisper. He can't keep me from asking about my mate. I was so scared that something happened to him this entire time. I need to know that he's okay.

"Brody's dealing with some captured rogues and asked us to come find you. He's fine," Konan answers.

I feel a course of relief rush through me after hearing that. Thank the freakin moon goddess. I was so scared. I sag into Konan's arms and breathe out a choked up sigh of relief, one of which he hears.

"Yeah, he's okay Dani," Konan whispers. He takes a few more seconds before he pulls away to get a look at me. I know he can tell I'm scared, based off of how sad he looks. Then it turns to anger when his eyes zero in on my neck, no doubt seeing bruises there already.

His eyes then trail down to my arm, his eyes quickly flaring. "Danielle? What happened?"

"I'm fine," I quickly brush off. "Where's Madeline? Is she alright?"

"Danielle-"

I give him a look, one that he huffs and quickly replies with, "She's fine. Some guards got her out of the area, I saw her myself. She's safe. Now what happened?"

I huff a little bit, but can honestly say I felt incredibly happy knowing that she was alright. Not only did I not want her hurt because she didn't deserve it, but because I couldn't do that to Brody. He already told me about his brother that died, his dad going off and leaving and making him Alpha at an age where he wasn't ready, he didn't need to lose his sister as well.

Especially when it would have been my fault. And this is my fault, all of this was my fault. I can only hope that she doesn't say anything to anyone, with what happened while she was there. I didn't want Brody finding out from her. I wanted to tell him. And I guess that time is now.

"Stab wound with a silver knife," I grumble.

"Dammit," he huffs. "Do you need the medication?"

"I don't know," I grumble.

"Better safe than sorry," Roman pipes up.

I look up and notice that he was standing next to Konan now, and I can't help but wonder how I didn't see him. Nobody else was in the room, I'm assuming that the others were bringing everyone else down to the cellars.

"Probably," Konan agrees.

"Good, we're going to have to sneak some of that," I mumble.

My brothers share a quick glance, and it doesn't take a genius to know what they were thinking about.

"Danielle-"

I quickly cut Konan off. "Don't worry about it," I huff. "I'm telling Brody once I find him."

They both give me a sad look, and I know the hate that I had to be rushed to do it. But with everything going on, I know that he deserves to know. It's only right that he does with everything happening. It just sucks that I know what his reaction is going to be.

~