27. Protective mate

Miliano’s POV

With a reluctant sigh, Kian and I leave the room. We don’t like to leave our mate alone in the hospital, but we have important matters to attend to. As alphas, we’re responsible for not only our mates but also our pack’s safety; that’s why we send invitations to every alpha in the area for a meeting, everyone except alpha Jonathan. We have spread the word about how he treats Aleida, and now not a single one of the other alphas in the city thinks that he even has the right to call himself alpha. We walk together in silence towards the big meeting room and use our alpha auras when we open the door and step inside. It may look childish because everyone in here is either betas or alphas. I can understand that you think this looks like a pissing contest, but our nature is to show others our power. This territory is now mine and Kian’s; we have the most authority in this part of the town, which means that we would have been fools not to use it. We’re both in suits and scream power without saying a word.

“Alpha Kian and alpha Miliano, it’s good to see the both of you,” Godfrey says.

“The same to you, alpha Godfrey. I’m afraid that we have to chit-chat later, this is an important business meeting, and it’s urgent,” Kian answers slowly.

“Very well.”

We all sit down in our respective chairs around the long table. Besides me, Kian, and our betas, there are twelve other men in the room. Six alphas and six betas. We’re not allies with everyone; that’s why the aura of the room is tense.

“As you all should have heard of by now, we have met our mate, Aleida. Miliano saved her from her old pack, which alpha Jonathan has authority over,” Kian says.

Loud growls echo all over the room; no one in here likes the Rose Moon pack. When Aleida’s parents were alive, the pack was strong, and everyone liked them. But now, Alpha Jonathan ruins the group with his disrespect towards others and constantly breaking our ancient laws.

“We have talked about this many times before, and it’s now time to take action against the Rose Moon pack. He shouldn’t be allowed to control that pack when it’s not his birthright, and it’s pretty obvious that he’s unfit for the job,” I say calmly.

“And who, alpha Miliano, do you suggest take over the pack?” Morris says in a mocking tone, and I growl loudly with my beta.

“Watch it, alpha; you don’t want to be on my bad side, not today when my mate is in the hospital,” I answer with a glare, and he looks ashamed.

“What happened to her?” Clark asks worriedly.

All the alphas are looking at us with sympathy. When an alphas mate, his luna, is in bad condition, that affects the whole pack. The luna is like the glue that holds everything and everyone together. Every alpha in the room can understand our distress.

“It’s kind of a long story...” Kian answers, defeated.

“Well, we have all day,” Godfrey replies.

So we tell them everything from the beginning to the end. We leave out the stuff about Aleida’s last name, heritage, parents, and other things that aren’t ours to tell. That choice is up to her.

“How can we help?” Morris asks.

“Well, I had an idea that...” Kian begins.

Suddenly the door flies open, and in walks a pissed Aleida. She’s using her aura without thinking about it. Let me tell you; she’s freaky when she’s mad! She’s walking towards us with brisk steps and slaps us both over our cheeks before turning around to leave.

“Please, baby, we didn’t even know you had woken up yet, I swear!” I exclaim with anxiety penetrated in my voice; when the hell did she wake up!?

“You have shown me exactly everything I needed to know about yours; I’m done with you now,” she answers with a cold voice that makes my blood freeze inside my veins.

Kian growls at her in frustration and tries to grab her shoulder; oh brother, he shouldn’t do that! She roars back with a force I’ve never seen before; great! Now he’s pissed off her wolf too...

“Please, Aleida, my luna ... Tell me what’s wrong so we can fix it!” Kian tries to reason with her, to no avail.

“The girl you guys slept with came to visit,” she answers with a cold sugary smile that makes my arm hairs rise.

Her brothers, Kian, and our betas are looking terrified. They know what damage this has done to her.

“I know everything and never want to see you again…” she continues, with a sad look upon her face; shit, we broke her!

“Aleida, please let us explain, we….” Kian tries, and then something happens that I never think I want to see in my lifetime again.

“It’s alpha Aleida to you; get on your knees!” Aleida screams at her mate, and he immediately obeys her; he knows that he has no choice; she’s our alpha, the whole werewolf population’s alpha.

“Baby girl...” I speak to her in a soft tone, careful not to upset her more, and she turns her cerulean blue eyes, full of tears toward me.

“You have no idea what you’ve done, Milo...” she says with a broken voice full of sorrow; her beautiful eyes let the tears fall down her tan cheeks freely.

“What are you talking about?” I ask, now I’m confused. Have we hurt her in any way?

“She put a curse upon you, and you fulfilled it.”

Okay, now she’s starting to freak me out. She can’t be talking about Hailey... Can she?

“But how? I don’t understand.”

“You can’t mark anyone but her if you do it anyway then...” her voice sounds so small and broken that I want to hug her close.

“We never wanted to hurt you...” Kian says sadly.

“It doesn’t matter anymore.”

“What do you mean it doesn’t matter?” I ask.

“You were the ones who killed me.”

“What?”

“The moment you marked me, you started the clock for the countdown of my life. My body reacts negatively to what you tried to do, and now I’m going to die. Because you fucked an easy pickup whore many years ago who didn’t learn to stick her legs together!” she roars, wiping her tears that persistently continue to drain down those beautiful cheeks no matter how much she wipes them off. “My own mates kill me, absolutely unbelievable.”

She turns and walks out the door with a slam. Oh, moon goddess, what have we done?! Everyone is quiet for a long time after that, probably trying to process what they’ve heard. A devastating howl echoes; we all know that it must be Aleida or at least her wolf. Not long after, she screams. She sounds completely heartbroken, which I guess she is. How could we do this?! Kian and I excuse ourselves to find our mate in the hope of talking to her. We have the betas and Aleida’s brothers closely behind us. When we see her crumbled on the ground, my heart breaks, she’s so sad, and we’re the reasons behind it. She raises her gaze towards us and what I see scares me; she looks dead inside. We all take a step back; she obviously doesn’t want us all to be close to her. Kian gives me a look, and I nod my head. We walk carefully up to her. I want to touch her and try to do it. But she growls loudly and shows her canines in a warning. I take my hand back and feel sad that she doesn’t want me to touch her.

“Aleida, honey... We wanted to tell you, we just-” Kian says.

“You wanted what!?” she growls and glares at us before continuing. “I’m going to die because of you! I’m seventeen years old, and I’m going to fucking die because you were reckless; where’s the fucking justice in that!? And you, how many of you knew about this?”

No one dares to answer Aleida’s question that she asks us all. We all look down on the ground in shame.

“We didn’t mean to...” Kian says with a low voice.

“What? Break my heart? Well, guess what? You did! This pain is so much worse than what my pack exposed me to! I trusted you with my life, and look what a fucking good idea that was!” she lets out a humorless laugh; she can’t even look at us anymore. “Why didn’t either one of you let me die when I was ready and wanted to? I was so fucking done... And now, when I don’t want to die, I have no choice. Do you see the curriculum? I’m going to die, and no one can do anything about it!”

Her words break my heart over and over again. She lays down on the grass, crying like never before.

“Mommy, please, help me!” she yell to the sky.

That girl misses her mom so much, and I want to help her, but I can’t. Now she’s hyperventilating, and her brothers walk up to her. They hug her closely.

“We’re sorry, baby sis... Shh, everything is going to be okay. Breath, your big brothers are here,” Nathan coos and wipes away her tears.

“What am I supposed to do, Nathan?” she ask with a sad voice.

“I don’t know, darling.”

“Give me your knife,” she says to Henry, every one of us tense when we hear her words; what’s she going to do!?

“No, that isn’t the answer,” he answers with a scared voice.

“Give. Me. The. Knife,” she says with my alpha voice and glares at him, making him sprint up to her and give her the knife without hesitating.

We all know that he can’t refuse her command; she slit her palms before taking Nathan’s hands in hers.

“What are you doing, Aleida?” Nathan asks with a worried face.

“Do you trust me?” she counters.

“Of course, but-”

“No buts, just trust me.”

Nathan doesn’t say a thing, and when their palms bleed, she takes them in her hands, and a big wind flows around us. She falls back to the ground, panting.

“What did you do, Aleida!?” Nathan exclaims, terrified.

“I gave you my powers.”

“Why did you do that!?”

“Someone needs to be the big alpha when I’m gone,” she answers with a sad smile and wipes the tears from his cheeks.

“Don’t talk like that; we don’t know-”

“Yes, Nathan. I know. My wolf has left me and wants nothing to do with me as long as they both are here,” she says and points at us; I give Kian a look, and he looks like he’s going to die. “Nathan?”

“Yeah?”

“I want you to make me a promise.”

“Anything!”

“I gave you my life force, and I want you to follow my mother’s wishes.”

“What was it?” he asks, and her face lits up the like fourth of July.

“Only use them for good. Help others and be compassionate. But most importantly, never forget where you come from and who you are. You are one of the two diamonds in my eye.”

My heart clenches inside me; Aleida is just a broken girl who needs her mommy... She smiles, and tears are slowly descending her cheeks; my mate caresses her big brother’s cheek, and his eyes are full of tears. She rises from the ground and gives us a sad smile.

“I’m sorry. You’re always going to be my boys, but this isn’t going to work. I’ll go out into the world and find my second chance, mate,” she says and kisses us both on our cheeks while everyone gasps; What? No! She can’t leave us! We need her! “Maybe he won’t lie to me.”

We open our mouths to answer Aleida when the sky turns dark, and the ground starts to shake underneath us.

“Well, well, well, little Aleida. I was astonished that you actually thought that you had the right to kiss them just now.”

Hailey. We all growl at her.

“It was a goodbye kiss, and we had an unspoken deal,” Aleida growl at her.

“What!? Aleida, how can you make a deal with her!?” I scream, my voice full of fear.

“I can take away all the pain; the only thing you need to do is to give me your power and make a blood deal to leave my mates alone.”

She makes a terrible growl that echoes through the forest; now, Aleida is angrier than I’ve ever seen her before. Hailey starts laughing. Other members now begin to walk out of the packhouse, even the visiting alphas. Everyone’s ready to start fighting, but we have to stop it!

“No one moves or interfere!” Kian and I scream simultaneously; everyone stops and just looks at the sight before them.

“If you want my powers, then you have to fight for it!” Aleida says, smirking.

“I, Hailey Ebenezer, challenge you, Aleida Mendez, luna, and the big alpha of the whole world. To fight for the power until death.”

“I accept.”

“Aleida, no!” Kian screams at her.

“I have to do this, Kian!”

They get in fighting positions, and my heart nearly stops in my chest for a second when Hailey charges at my mate. But she easily dodges and actually makes me amazed by how well she knows her body. Aleida moves graciously and fights like a warrior. She manages to bite down into Hailey’s shoulder, and her mouth is dripping from the blood. They continue to fight until Hailey uses her powers to lock Aleida to the ground. She screams in pain, and she’s not moving; why isn’t she moving!?

“Aleida! Get up!” I yell at her, feeling the despair inside of me.

Hailey’s eyes land on us; betrayal is written all over her face. She walks towards us. A loud growl comes, and then Aleida shifts, probably for the first time, to jump over everyone to stand in front of us to protect. The sight before me is something sent from the moon goddess herself. Aleida’s wolf is white as snow, with a big red crescent moon on her left side. Hailey looks afraid, and it’s obvious now that she’s going to lose.

“I-i,” she starts speaking, but Aleida is faster.

She jumps at her with a roar and bites down Hailey’s throat. The blood squirts out of the witch and lands all over Aleida. Her white fur is red from all the blood.

“You’re beautiful, Aleida,” Kian says, astonished, just like me from how she looks, but she only snorts at us before walking away, leaving us all to stand there, looking after her.

“Wow,” Jason says.

“Wow indeed,” I answer.

“Her wolf is beautiful, Milo,” Kian says, and I know that if this were a cartoon movie, he would have hearts instead of pupils.

Suddenly, someone is clearing their throat behind us. We turn around.

“Well, alphas, it seems that we have business to attend to,” Godfrey says. “And don’t worry, we’ll protect her with a blood alliance.”

A blood alliance!? That’s something that can’t break until death! I smile, happy knowing that Aleida will be safe, no matter where she goes.