Protect.

Chapter 16

Chapter 16




"That should do it. I reset your bones, so it should heal correctly. Based on your healing process, I can take the bandages off in a half-hour and you should be able to walk. I must admit, you heal much faster than regular wolves. Perhaps it's due to the fact that you are female." Fred spoke in wonder.
All I could do was nod my head, I was still holding my breath to stop myself from screaming. Fred had to re-brake my bones once they had already started to heal in order to reset them.
In milder terms, it hurt like hell.
We had to eventually kick Alec out of the room, he was about ready to attack Fred for causing me pain. Before he had to leave, Alec was holding my hand the entire time. I swore I was squeezing his hand so hard that I thought it would brake, but he didn't even flinch.
I let out a shaky breath to calm myself when Alec came back into the room and sat in the chair beside my bed.
He looked at me while he spoke to Fred. "How is she?" Concern was clear in his eyes.
"She will be just fine. Should be healed in about a half-hour."
Alec nodded. "You are dismissed, Doctor."
Fred bowed his head and walked out the door.
"How are you feeling?" Alec asked me as soon as the door closed.
"I'll be alright, I can already feel it healing."
"You heal faster then most wolves." It was a statement, not a question, but an answered it like one.
"Yes."
"Does it have anything to do with you being a white wolf?"
"Most likely. And I'm sure you heal faster than most too."
"I do."
"So, how long would it take for you to heal from the injury I obtained?"
A cocky smile worked its way up on his lips. "About 10 minutes."
My eyes snapped to his in doubt. "You're lying."
"I'm really not." His smile had now grown.
"That's not possible, even if you are some insane alpha."
"Insane?"
"You know, like all the stories say, about the ferocious alpha of the Glacier Forest pack."
He simply shrugged. "Well I don't mind the stories, they keep other wolves off my land. You're the exception of course." His smile only grew as I felt myself blush.
"So what's your secret?" It was an innocent and playful question, but from his reaction you would think otherwise. The smile quickly faded from his face and there was a trace of something in his eyes...was that...guilt?
Before I could call him out on it there was a knock on the door followed by it opening. In walked Will.
"You know we never actually said to come in." I couldn't help myself.
He turned his head to the ground and I saw him holding back a smile.
"I could tell you we about to invite me in." I already knew there was something up with Will from the moment I first saw him, and everything he had done since then only confirmed my suspicions.
"Where were you?" I decide on saying, rather then asking him how he knew that, when I knew he would only avoid the question.
"Dropping that wolf of in the dungeons."
I gulped. "Dungeons?"
"They are under my house." Alec simply stated.
"Under your house?!" He now turned to me in worry after realizing the new tone my voice had taken.
"Yeah..." He dragged out, as if not seeing it as strange.
"That's not safe for you."
A condescending smile took form on his face. Alec and Will exchanged a look, there expressions mirrored each other's.
"What?" I asked impatiently, apparently I was missing something.
"So where else would we put it, if not under the alpha's house?" Will asked.
"Somewhere in town." I answered in a 'duh' tone.
"That wouldn't be safe for my pack. The reason it is under my house is for the same reason wolves are afraid to come on my land. They have to go through me before getting to my pack."
I admired his selflessness in making this decision, but was still not comforted by having prisoners under my feet while I was sleeping at night.
"Aren't you worried they could get out and.. I don't know.. kill you in your sleep?"
"They would be absolute fools if they tried to kill him, the first thing that prisoner would do is run. They wouldn't make it very far though." Will explained to me.
I didn't need to ask why they wouldn't make it very far. To be quite honest, I didn't see anyone making it out of Alec's grasp without him knowing.
"Don't worry about it, everything down there is made of titanium and we don't keep any wolves down there that are strong enough to break it. Not to mention there are always two guards down there around the clock." Alec reassured me.
"Ok. But, what I still don't understand is why you keep prisoners. All other packs that I know of just kill trespassers."
"We want information from them." Alec simply answered.
"But, to get answers they must be conscious, and for them to be conscious they can contact their pack. So, when that wolf from the woods wakes up he will tell his pack that I am here, and that I'm a white wolf."
Alec and Will exchanged another look. "You don't need to worry about him contacting his pack."
A sudden wave of anger washed over me. I was tired of the secrets. "Stop lying to me!!" I hissed out through my teeth. My hands were clenched at my sides and I was glaring daggers at the both of them.
When no one spoke I went to sit up so I could leave, but Alec saw my movement coming and pushed me back down on the bed.
"You need to stay here until you are healed." Alec told me, but there was a underlying plea spoken with his words.
"Screw that. I'm getting away from you two." I was enraged that my own mate was lying to me. But, more than that, I was hurt. I was hurt that he didn't trust me. I understood that we hadn't had a lot of time to talk since my arrival, but I had asked him about what was going on, and he continued to conceal the truth.
I went to get up again, but his hands pressed down on my shoulders to keep me restrained.
This only angered me more. I began to thrash around on the bed, trying my best to slip from his grasp, but to no avail.
"Let go of me!" The longer I was restrained, the more enraged I became. He had no right to do this.
"Stop, Chloe! Your going to hurt yourself!" Alec pleaded with me. I couldn't deny the pain I was feeling in my leg, but I was far to stubborn to still my efforts to escape because of an injury.
I began to growl from annoyance and anger. I could faintly feel my nails elongating into claws. If there was one thing my wolf hated more than anything else, it was being told what to do. If it was anyone else besides my mate, I would have already been throwing punches. My wolf had a soft side for Alec, but even she was angry with him, and it was beginning to show.

Right before I was about to dig my claws into his arm, an unnatural calmness claimed my body. My struggling came to a halt and my breathing returned to normal. I was more relaxed then I had ever been in my life. I felt Alec let go of my shoulders and sit back down at his place by my bed.
It occurred to me that I should be scared as hell right now, but I was not in control of my own emotions, so the fear never came.
I heard a sharp intake of breath from Will and when I looked over at him he was staring wide eyed at Alec.
It was then that all my attention turned to Alec. A remorseful expression had taken ahold of his features, in that moment he looked as if he was composed of guilt and shame alone. The strong alpha who had always seemed so confident in his actions didn't seem to be present at this moment in time.
I watched as Alec slowly exhaled, arose from his seat and walked out of the room, all the while keeping his eyes fixed on the ground.
Shortly after I heard a crash from the hallway, as if something had been thrown against the wall. But, the calm feeling never left me.
My eyes turned to Will. In his ice blue orbs I found.... blame? Was that aimed towards me?
He then broke eye contact and silently made his way out of the room, closing the door behind him.

********
Five minutes later the crashing had subsided and I could faintly hear whispers. I couldn't hear them well enough to decipher what they were saying.
The calm still hadn't left me, and as much as I tried I could not become angry again.
For some odd reason I had found it necessary to stay frozen in place, as if whatever was keeping me so calm would kill me if I even dared to move. On top of that my only support I had walked out of the room and left me in here to the mercy of my mind. I didn't try to call them back for the fear something would happen if I even uttered a sound.

I was being absolutely ridiculous.
What did I think? That something was in my mind controlling me? Now I just sounded crazy. I thought my own mind would... kill me if I moved? Preposterous.
I would not be frightened by something that seemed to be happening of my own accord. But the feeling was strange, I couldn't feel afraid even though I knew I should. With this calmness still controlling me, I decided to make my move.

I took a shaky breath before slowly moving my arm towards the edge of the bed. Nothing happened.
My left leg moved towards the edge of the bed and down until it touched the floor. Nothing happened.
I soon followed my left leg's path with my right while sitting up. I sat staring around the room, it wasn't composed of much, like a human hospital. Simply this bed in the center of the room, two chairs beside it and a few machines against the wall. The floor was cold against my bare feet, and the walls were painted a baby blue.
The hospital gown hung loosely around my slim form. Underneath I was completely bare, due to the fact that I had been in wolf form before I arrived at the pack hospital.

I limped my way across the floor towards the door, but stopped before I reached the handle.
The calmness I was feeling did not falter, and I had a gut feeling whatever this feeling was, it was not of my own doing. Every part of my instincts was pointing to Will. I had known there was something up with him from the beginning, but did he actually have some sort of... control over others' emotions? That just didn't seem possible.
Looking past my gut feeling, my brain was telling me to not let my distrust of Will cloud my judgement.
I gently pressed my ear to the door and strained to discern any noises when I heard familiar whispers.
"I'm going to tell her." Alec spoke with determination.
"Alpha, if you tell her, you will be exposing me, and the day I came to you, you made a promise. A promise that you would keep what I am a secret."
"When I made that promise I did not know I would have a mate. Do you think she would tell anyone of this?"
There was silence.
"I told you I would eventually tell Chloe, and that I would give you time to warm up to her, to get to the point where you could trust her. So, now I ask you what is your assessment of her?"
Again there was a pause. "She is not at all what I expected. She's strong in more ways than one but can also be impetuous at times, uncompromising, highly intelligent and intuitive. At times I think it is more than a knack, given the level she sees into people's emotions, but she takes this for granted as well as her ability to tell when someone is lying to her. She's as stubborn as a bull, but as understanding as a sage."
"So, knowing all this and the nature of her character, do you trust her?"
Another pause. "Something I took notice of, she has never betrayed someone she cares for, if someone entrusts her with a secret, she is going to keep it. That's something she prides herself upon."
"So, what's the problem?" I heard Alec ask, as if he was a teacher egging on a student.
"It's just hard to put that much faith into someone that has nothing to lose if the secret does leave them."
"Well, it sounds to me like you have trust issues." I could hear the smile in Alec's voice.
I couldn't stand this anymore, I opened the door and practically fell out into the hallway. As soon as the door opened Alec and Will had already turned to face me in shock. They stared at me wide eyed, then turned to each other, then back to me.
I simply crossed my arms and waited for the explanation to come. Alec recovered first and his expression soon became masked, something I presume he had done many times before. Will soon followed suit and his expression became similar to Alec's.
"How much of that did you hear?" Will asked.
"Enough." Was my curt reply.
Alec loudly exhaled and then made direct eye contact with me. "What do you want to know?"
"Everything."
"Ok, let's go sit down."
We all made are way back into the room. I sat on the bed and Alec and Will sat on the two chairs beside me.
"Chloe, I'm going tell you about our ancestors."






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Thoughts??