Forgotten Wolf

34 Fine

Chris POV 

I watch sadly as my mate pulls away from me. I make sure to hear her close my door before addressing the idiots at the table. 

Why on earth after my hospital stay would they think now is a good time to tell her that the entire pack now views her as their Luna!? 

"Really!? You had to go over that now!?" I seethe as I start to tremble.

"She kinda knew man," Jace tries to defend. "She saw it and asked what was going on."

"Don't you think now was maybe a bad time!? Can't you see she already had enough on her plate? Fuck man, what's wrong with you!" I could just explode right now.

"Brother, she asked flat out, you would have us lie?" Derek asks, raising a brow.

"No, but fuck, did you have to lay it out like that!?" I say, pinching the bridge of my nose. "She was already upset, this will just make her panic more. With the rogue situation, I can't have her on her own, and I don't want her thinking I'm trying to force her into anything or trap her because she'll run."

"She's stronger than you think brother, just be honest with her," Derek reasons, giving me a knowing look.

"Right," I scoff. "Hey baby, I need to keep you here so I can protect you because something's going on. I don't know what but I think you're a target. Yeah, that'll go over well."

"Maybe don't rush it, and fix your tone but I think he's right," Jace chimes in. "You're right though, if you handle this wrong she'll run and it'll be harder to protect her."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," I say, glaring at him.

I get up and head upstairs to my room. Jess is curled up in bed, sweater still on. She's struggling, I can feel it. I carefully crawl in behind her, draping an arm around her, pulling her flush against my chest. She's tenser then she should be, and has her knees pulled up to her chest. Just her contact has me falling asleep in record time.

A few hours later her stirring wakes me up. "Sorry," she murmurs. "Go back to sleep." 

I stretch and sit up looking at her. She looks so far away. "What is it, baby?" I know she won't tell me but I have to try. She shakes her head. "You know you can tell me anything, right?" I say lifting her chin.

"It's just been a lot the last little bit, you know? I'll be fine, just feel wore out," she trails off.

I smile at her honesty. "It's okay, just go back to sleep."

"I can't, I already tried."

After a long pause I finally muster up the courage to broach the next topic.

"I need to talk to you about something," I start as her concerned eyes snap to mine. "It's not bad, I'm just worried it'll upset you." She frowns, looking away.

"Please don't, this is important," I say, taking her hands in mine. "I'm gonna be totally honest here and hope you understand it from my side." That got her attention.

"The other day, Ethan didn't run to your house when he was attacked. He ran into those rogues by your house." I wait for that to sink in, that the rogues were there already.

"Between that and the other attacks we know that they are after something, we just don't know what."

"But I thought rogues were solo, that they don't work as a pack?" The confusion is clear as she adds it all up.

"They don't normally but these ones are too numerous and coordinated to be typical nomadic rogues."

"What are you saying?" She asks, training her honey brown eyes on me suspiciously.