Chapter 46

Xander

“AURORA!”

I snap out of focus, the shrill scream of that damn mutt making my blood boil. Commoners are better off not being seen or heard. That little stray can’t help but do both. It’s starting to make me want to kill him just to save myself the trouble of dealing with his constant horrible attitude. I try to ignore him the first time, speaking with a few of my warriors in my office, but the second time is where I draw the line.

“No, Aurora!”

I practically toss my desk aside as I storm out of the office and down the hall of my packhouse. I easily sniff out their stench; commoners smell like weakness, but there’s one thing I do notice now that has me perplexed.

Only one of them smells deceased.

I rush down to the cellar and throw the mutt of a male out of the way, seeing my brother’s mate laid out on her cot, her features devoid of color and of life. My anger ripples, grabbing her by the shirt and trying to shake her awake but even then, her breathing is stifled.

“Fuck!” I growl, shaking so bad that my wolf dares come out. That wouldn’t help the situation, he hates commoners more than I do, but I can’t let her die yet. I still need to use her, the whole purpose of my meeting upstairs, and what am I supposed to do now with a dead bitch as bait? “Come here, dammit,” I say, pulling her off the cot.

“Don’t touch her!” her little commoner friend grumbles. I’d kill him if I weren’t busy. “You’ve done enough, asshole.”

“I need her alive,” I snap in reply. “Otherwise, I would have killed her earlier. Now get out of my way, I will fix this!”

I take her from the cellar, any sign of a pulse missing, pushing through my pack until I get to the healer’s office. I practically kick in his door, seeing his gray, aged face bent over a vial of herbs and chemicals that swarm my nostrils instantly. It makes me gag.

I push her body onto the desk, catching my breath while trying to calm my wolf. He is gnawing to be set lose in wrath. Without my bate, my consort, I won’t get my brother to step down and without that moment of weakness, I’ll have to face him and my father both.

There’s no winning that fight. Even I know that.

“I need her alive,” I blurt, unsure what else to say in this moment. “Make it happen!”

The herbalist looks down at the small, pathetic commoner, and I can examine in depth that she is covered in purple and black marks along with a few pinkish scratches still fresh on her cheek when I slapped her last night. She can be unruly, but I don’t dare dip into details with the healer. He is here as a drifter, a rogue without a pack, and I took him in knowing he is skilled with potions unlike any healer I’ve ever seen.

Potions may be illegal to my father’s pack, but when I run things, they’ll come in handy.

Herschel, my healer, leans over the mutt on his desk, her friend wearily lingering in the doorway to watch on. I’ll deal with him later. For now, I watch Herschel prod at the commoner, trying to adjust her head that falls to the side lazily.

He eyes the mark on her throat.

“She’s mated?” he asks, curiously running a touch down my brother’s old impression of a mating mark. “Well, hold on. She’s rejected?”

“She rejected my half-brother,” I growl. “Can you just get to making her breathe again? If she’s dead, it ruins my plans to take the royal pack.”

“Filthy scoundrel,” Luke murmurs.

“When she’s alive, you’re dead,” I bark to the mutt.

Herschel straightens up and shrugs his shoulders. “It can’t be done.”

“The fuck it can’t,” I snarl.

“Her body is too far exhausted to recover without her mate,” he says simply. “If her mate was here to fix the rejection and mark her again, it might help. Marking a mate is powerful, sometimes even lifesaving. I can’t do anything useful at this point. Her pulse is gone.”

“She needs her mate?” I growl, “or any mate.”

Herschel raises his brow, shrugging again, the notion so lazy and heavy with his aged body. “I suppose any mate will do. I just need them to mark her.”

“Fuck,” I snarl.

I look to the mutt in the doorway, eyes wet and blush red in grief. He gives me a knowing look, already shaking his head.

“I’m already mated,” he groans.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I say, looking back to Herschel. The longer she lays dead on his desk, the more I see my plans to take over the royal pack through my half-wit brother wither away. “I’m rejecting her the moment she wakes up.”

“That’s dangerous, alpha,” Herschel says simply. “Rejecting a mate is painful. If you mark her as a mate, she will be too fragile to reject so soon. I would suggest you worry about that later, though. If we wait any longer she may not be able to be revived.”

I suck up my frustrations and level myself near the mutt’s shoulder. If I didn’t need her so bad, I’d enjoy the fact I don’t have to hear her whine and cry over my mongrel brother but that’s how I know he hasn’t rejected her. He is too weak. I refuse to be the same and I will do what I need to get me the throne of the royal pack.

My fangs extend and I bite wildly into her neck, damn near the spot my brother made. I wait, not sure what a mating link will feel like but I watch as she lays unresponsive still, now with just a few little teeth marks bleeding down her throat.

My wolf is impatient and I’m in the same spot.

I extend my fangs again, marking her in a different spot, lining her whole damn neck and shoulders with bite marks that flush with blood. I count six, then seven when I bite her back shoulder, seeing the trail of my bites tie around her body and now to her upper back.

I need her alive, dammit. It’s the one way to take my brother out of the running. He may be stronger in some ways but he is weak with a mate like this. He is nothing without his commoner whore and if she doesn’t wake up soon, I’ll be damned facing both Jaxson and my father. If I have killed her for good, it will only fuel Jaxson more in his quest to kill me.

I can’t let this happen. I bite her again, right over the lines where my brother had done it and focus every ounce of attention I can on making her wake up. She has to live. I will be the Alpha.

Her body twitches, Herschel grabbing a small vile and pink liquid when her breath catches. He shoves it down her throat and she chokes harder, some sign of life back into her once grayish complexion.

Luke shoves past me, tending to her carefully as she groans in ache, slowly blinking back to life.

I feel every rush of energy hit me at once. Memories, thoughts, and simple moments of her life all cloud my mind and I stumble back, needing to take a seat. I catch a glimpse of her collapsed on the desk, trembling as she invades my head, my memories, and soon I feel the pit in my stomach grow wider.

She gasps, overwhelmed, and I hold my breath until the flood of flashbacks finally cease.

I only hope Jaxson feels the pain of his slut mated to his brother.

If it hurts him, it helps me.