The Young Mate

Chapter 53

Lila

We practically sleep walked to this darker spot of the woods. I would have walked right into a stairwell if Landon didn't grab my arm. I tried to keep my composure but I heard him try not to laugh at me. But the second we went thought a heavy metal door all laughter dies along with any shred of hope. The scent of the air was a mixture of depression and blood. A long hall with metal bared doors made me want to curl up and cry. This place was made of pure dread.

"What is this place?" Goosebumps covered my arms. I wasn't cold.

"The cells. We keep offenders and evil rogues here." I almost stepped in a dark brown congealed substances. I didn't want to think what is was. More like who its from. We went to the end of the hall where two large guys stood. The top of my head reached their pecks. They could twist me into a pretzel if they wanted to. One opened the door and a few more people were around a person in a chair, one of them is Jayden. It smelled like unwashed bodies and vomit. It took everything in my body not to vomit.

"We've been questioning him because we have proof of him giving information to the enemy." Landon sounded like a different person. Not like Oliver but just cold. No emotion. 

"Where is the proof?" He handed me a folder donned with bloody finger prints. I pushed my feelings to the side and opened the folder to see pictures of Zachary talking to different people. Wait. Zachary? I walked around the side to look at what used to be Landons dad. His eyes were both swollen, lips bloody, bruised and sickly looking. "Can I talk to him alone?" I knew they had to obey. The people I didn't recognize looked around to each other nervously. 

"Are you sure?" Landon had his poker face on.

"Yes." I could tell that Jayden and Landon were mind linking. 

"I will stay in here with you." Jayden declared. I didn't fell like arguing so I just agreed so they would leave. As Landon left I told him a few things I need. Water, a rag, and hot soup. when the door creaked shut I kneeled in front of him. He lifted his head and looked at me. It looked like he tried to smile but his swollen lips restricted it. 

"What have they done to you?" I mumbled to myself. I could tell he was dehydrated because when he tried to answer the only sound that came out was a scratchy groan. Very quickly they came back with what I asked for. A small crate with two bottles and a jug of water, soft rags, and a covered bowl of vegetable soup with a small plastic spoon. Owen had to of prepared this. It's leftovers from what he made not long ago.

I first washed off his face and neck so he looked a little more normal. And so his cuts wouldn't get infected. Then I tried to get him to drink the water but had to take a swig because he wouldn't drink it. Then splash some on Jayden to check for wolfsbane. So after one bottle of water I had to take a bite of soup and so did Jayden so he'd eat it. After about 45 minutes he ate about half but then wouldn't eat anymore of it. 

"Are you ready to talk?" I asked softly. He just looked at me.

"Answer her!" Jayden exclaimed raising his hand to hit him. I stood up quickly to block his blow. He stopped his hand a centimeter from my face. 

"We are not doing that while I am here." I said strictly. He tried to argue and I pointed to the door. "Leave." He tried to say something again but I sad something first. "Now!" His face screwed up and he stomped out of the room. "And I only want the two burly dudes and Landon outside the door." He slammed the door without a response. I sat down on the chair and crossed my legs.

"You can't trust him." He rasped out. Confusion.

"Landon?" I asked. He shook his head.

"No-" He was interrupted by the door being slammed open.

"Let's go." Landon pulled me from the chair and dragged me through the cells. 

"Whats going on?" I kept tripping over myself. It was silent.

"We think that an attack is going to happen. Your going to go and keep everyone inside the house safe. So the rest of us can scope everything out and make sure there are less casualties." He stopped me and looked me in the eyes with pure intensity. "Can you do that?"

"Yes." I hugged him quickly and started to sprint towards the house. People were still gathering and bringing in blankets. "Don't worry about those I can get you some. Please just go to the second floor." Everyone complied and got up the stairs as quickly as the crowd would allow. As they did that I went o every door. I locked them and put some sort of piece of furniture in front of them. Then I had a few woman help brake down cardboard to cover every window on the first and second floor so they had no targets. 

After I had everyone safely upstairs and counted, I covered everything downstairs In wolfsbane. So at least we can stop them a little quicker. But the fumes can hurt the pack. I didn't think about that. I went upstairs and told the same few woman from earlier to get wet rags for as many people as possible. That should help. Now we wait. 

_-_

Landon

We split up into groups. Each one consisted of at least 20 and we all stood at the boarder and waited. The wind blew in our faces and nothing out of the ordinary came to us. The birds continued to chirp and sing. We heard nothing. We saw nothing. So continued waiting, all day. Then the sun began to set. Still nothing. I did rounds to check and see if anybody saw anything. Nothing was different or out of the ordinary. 

As I made my way back to my original group I came across something I did not see before on the first round. A small fire was build in a little clearing near the open field in front of the pack house. I crouched down to look at it. Just wood burning. Nothing too weird. Then a branch snapped behind me. I stood straight immediately. I looked around and narrowed my eyes. When I smelled the air I smelled nothing at all. No trees, grass, dirt, nothing. I went to turn around but someone grabbed me from behind. Before I could even react to the person, I reacted to the knife being dragged across my throat. Blood poured from ear to ear and I hit the ground like dead weight.