Chapter 34

Xaviers POV

It was about four o’clock by the time the small group of us were ready to leave. Anna took the longest to get ready, between dropping JJ off at her parents and stopping off at the hospital to check on Henry it was threatening to get dark before we had even left the pack lands.

Blaine had been jittery throughout the day, not being able to sit still and shaking her legs whenever she was sitting. I could understand how she was feeling though, if I had a chance to see my parents and sister again but was waiting on others to get ready I’d be feeling exactly the same way.

We were finally off though, with a small group of trackers and warriors, Will, Jax’s younger brother included. We were all following Anna who seemed to know where she was going better than any of our trackers. When I asked her how she knew where she was going she just replied with “I just do”. It was a good job she insisted on coming with us because without her we probably would have gotten lost long ago and forgotten where we were actually heading too.

Apparently she had some form of internal compass, when the Moon Goddess had shown her where the cave was originally in her dream walk her wolf had somehow logged the location and was now showing her the way. I asked if it was anything like google maps, where you can drop a pin in the map and save the location for future reference, but she just rolled her eyes at me and laughed before walking off to catch up with Jax.

“Is it weird that I’m nervous?” Blaine suddenly asked next to me as we hiked through the woods. We had decided to travel in our human forms, making it easier to both cover our scent and walk through unwolf populated towns if we needed to. The last thing humans needed to see was a pack of wolves running through their town centre. This also meant that we could travel by car for most of the journey, saving us both precious time and energy.

“It’s not weird at all” I reassured her as I took her hand in mine. “You haven’t seen them in a long time so I’m sure your nervous and adrenaline are shooting all over the place right now”. Now that our bond was sealed I could feel her emotions trickle into the back of my mind, making me aware of just how anxious she was about meeting back up with her family.

She remained silent after that, but her grip that she had on my hand became ever so slightly tighter. I wish there was something I could do to make her feel better, something I could say that would calm her down enough so she wouldn’t have to feel so anxious, but I knew their wasn’t. The only thing that would make her feel better right now would be to see her family back on our pack lands, safe and sound.

I wondered if I would get on with her family, my prejudice against rogues has significantly decreased since meeting my mate but a small part of me wondered what I would do when I came face to face with all five of them. The doctor said a long time ago that I could have been slightly suffering from post traumatic stress disorder . Whenever I saw a rogue I would just see red and before I knew it they were dead at my feet. I didn’t believe her of course, I just blamed it on my wolf wanting revenge for what happened to them, but the more I thought about it the more it kind of made sense. The only thing that ever snapped me out of that thought process was my mate. My Blaine. My saviour.

Then there was the issue of whether her family would even like or accept me. Her family had obviously gone through something horrible for them to willingly leave their pack and raise children out in no-man’s land. I knew why her parents did it, why they had such little faith in packs, but would it change their opinion of packs when they realised that their daughter was now happy in a pack, or would they decide to continue their life of being a rogue and leave. Would that mean Blaine would leave me to be with them?

My palms started to sweat at the mere thought of Blaine leaving me but thanks to the newly formed mate bond Blaine could feel my anxiety creeping in and reached up on her tiptoes to give me a kiss on the cheek. It was a small act, but it was enough to calm both me and my wolf down so that we could focus on the task at hand. Speaking of...

“It’s over there” Anna suddenly piped up from the front of the small group of people, pointing to a small mountain range that was out in front of us, about two miles away.

“Okay, stay close, stay hidden and stay silent. Any forms of communication from now on has to be through mind link only, understood?” Jax asked as we all flicked our eyes between him and our destination.

We all nodded in response before turning around and headed towards the mountain range, looking around and staying on guard to make sure there were no scouts or wolves on patrol.

By the time we made it to the mouth of the cave we were all a hot and sweaty mess, the hike hadn’t been an easy one and within one mile we all had to take a break so that we weren’t completely exhausted when we got there. There definitely would have been an easier way in, but seeing as we were trying to sneak in the last thing we needed to do was walk straight through the front door, especially when we knew at least one of the guys working here. We’d be recognised in a second.

‘Alright this is a straight forward in and out rescue mission’ Jax said over the mind link as we all tried to collect ourselves before walking into the man made cave. ‘Blaine, because you’re now connected to Xavier you’ll run everything through him and we’ll do the same, that way we can know which wolves are your family and which aren’t’.

‘But Jax what about the other wolves in there, we can’t just leave them in the state that they’re in’ Anna piped up. I had to agree with her on this, if what she had described was true then no wolf should be subject to this kind of treatment. To be locked in a cell and forced to fight other wolves, all for the enjoyment of onlookers who no doubt got drunk and bet obscene amounts of money on them winning or being defeated.

‘I know little mate but our main priority is to get everyone back safe, including Blaine’s family. I will not risk the safety of my pack for an unknown wolf. If it comes to it I will inform all the packs of who we saw here tonight and they can choose whether they want to rescue them or not’.

I didn’t agree with it but I understood it, our main priority above everything else was to not lose anyone tonight and if that meant leaving a few wolves here until we could regroup and get backup then so be it.

‘Alright, we’ll go in a few at a time so as not to raise suspicion, if we all walk in there now guns blazing we’ll draw to much attention and the rescue mission with be over before it’s even begun. Blaine and Xavier you go first and don’t forget to stick together, you’re our only connection to Blaine and if you two get separated we’re sunk.’

I nodded over at Jax to let him know I understood before I reached up and pulled my hood up and over my head. ‘I’ll let you know what we find, see you in a few’ I linked to Jax before turning around, taking Blaine’s hand in mine and proceeded to walk through the wall of ivy.

As we walked through the dark stone corridor there wasn’t anything that specifically stood out, the halls were empty and there wasn’t a lot going on. Apparently this was where Anna had found all the imprisoned wolves but right now I couldn’t see any, all the cells were empty and there wasn’t a single noise coming from any of them.

I frowned over at Blaine but she was looking straight ahead, at something I couldn’t see or smell.

‘What’s the matter?’ I asked her through the link, wanting to find out what she was seeing.

‘They’re this way, I can smell them’ she said as she started to slowly walk along the corridor.

We walked for a few minutes but as we went further and further into the cave my wolf was becoming more and more on edge. Something wasn’t right.

“Oi you two” we froze as we heard a gruff voice call out to us, “you aint allowed down here, if you’re here to watch the matches you’ve gone the wrong way” he said as he came into view.

Thank god we had put our hoods up otherwise he would definitely be able to tell that we weren’t supposed to be here, we were to clean to be seen as a rogue.

“Yeah sorry about that man, we got lost” I spoke up, making sure to cover Blaine slightly with my body so she doesn’t have any of this guys attention on her.

He wrinkled his forehead slightly as he looked us both over but seeing as we had just done a huge hike and we were kitted out with clothes that were covered in mud and sweat he must’ve thought we belonged because he grunted slightly before turning around and walking through the hallway. His presence made the hair on the back of my neck stand up but I held in my urge to punch his lights out long enough for him to lead us to a closed door.

“Betting is over next to the bar” the guy informed us before leaning forward and opening the door. What sat on the other side was something I knew I would never be able to unsee. This was obviously the place Anna had seen when she’d had her dream walk, the only difference was that when she’d been here it was empty, now though, it was packed.

Well there goes out plan of sneaking in and out undetected.

I start my new job tomorrow! I’m so nervous but also super excited to see where this new chapter in my life leads me.

Also thank you all for the birthday messages you gave me, I had an amazing day made even better by you lovely lot <3