Chapter 344
As we approach Roberts packnds, there’s an orange glow in the
sky.
Jessica and I are sitting in the backseat of an SUV and we share a
worried look.
It turns out to be the Roberts mansion burning, although fire trucks dispatched by the Council and
manned by volunteer wolves from several different packs are there bringing the fire
under control.
Driving up to the Roberts mansion and other main buildings is like
entering a war zone.
It brings back hazy memories from a decade ago, around the time my parents were killed, when I
would arrive after a battle to help with the clean up and assist wounded pack members.
I remember being a teenager, being impatient to join the fight and battle our enemies, how I’d been
angry that I felt like my parents had been sheltering me and holding me back.
But now I understand that they loved me and were simply trying to protect me from the horrific realities.
To safeguard me from being changed by the devastating cost of
war.
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Yet, in the end they had been killed and I paid that price dearly
when the old Roberts Alpha had abducted me and kept me
hostage for ten years.
However, now seeing the Roberts mansion going up in mes,
seeing the broken, bloodied pack members who had fought against what must have been a vicious
attack by vampires, I can
only feel sad for them.
I even feel bad for Leah, that she’s going toe home from
Romania to find her childhood home burned to the ground.
Jessica and I are silent, taking in the awful sight as we climb out of
the SUV.
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However, we get straight to work, handing out supplies and helping the doctors set up a triage tent to
sort patients before sending them on to the medical annex–which luckily seems to have escaped any
damage or monitor them shifting and healing for less serious wounds, before allowing them to leave
and help
with the clean–up.
Not much time has passed when some kind of awareness shivers down my spine.
I nce up, and somehow, I know exactly where to look.
Axel appears out of the darkness, stalking through the members
of thebined packs who part like the seas as he emerges.
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He’s carrying a huge, wicked looking knife that’s dripping in blood.
He looks fierce and formidable, like a warrior of old, returning
victorious from the battlefield, anointed in the blood of his
enemies.
More blood is sshed across his body and my heart drops as I
realize it’s so much blood, he must be injured.
I rush over to him, already fearing the worst, wondering how I’ll
survive it if he actually dies.
He’s not my mate, but in that second, I honestly feel like my heart
is going to fail at the mere thought that Axel might not survive
whatever injuries he sustained.
“Where are you hurt?” I demand in a rush as I stop in front of him.
I reach out, but he catches my wrist, stopping me from physically searching his body for the tell–tale
wound.
“Quick! We need to get you into the triage tent,” I say, confused about why he’s just standing there.
Isn’t he in pain?
“Emily, none of it is my blood,” he says in a low, calm voice.
I take another look at him and wonder how many vampires he
beheaded to end up covered in this much blood.
“What are you doing here?” he asks when I don’t reply to his
statement.
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For a second, my mind is nk as I try to reconcile this new, brutal
yet protective side of Axel.
He put his life on the line, rushed here to defend Roberts pack, all
in the name of allegiance to my brother.
I realize I have never met a wolf as honorable or righteous as Axel.
There’s something about him–maybe because he was born in ancient times, a world long lost–that is
different from anyone else
I’ve ever encountered.
“Emily?” he prompts when the silence stretches between us.
“I came here to help,” I eventually say when my brain gets with the
program.
“Jessic and I,” I rify. “We knew that Roberts pack members would need supplies and as much
medical help as they could get after the attack, so we came to help.”
I feel like I’m not making any sense whatsoever, but it’s suddenly like I’m seeing Axel in a whole new
light.
Or maybe I’m simply seeing him properly for the first time.
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“I told you to stay home and rest,” Axel says in a low rumble, and it seems as if there’s actually a hint of
worry in his tone. “After what you went through today–seeing this–it’s too much for you,
Emily.”
Any time before now, I would have immediately got angry and defensive, telling him that I can look after
myself and I’ll be the one to judge what is or isn’t too much for me.
But now, I can see his words and gruff demeanor for what it
actually is.
He cares about me–even if he doesn’t want to or ims he doesn’t feel anything–and this is his way of
trying to look after
1. me.
“I’m fine, Axel,” I tell him, and my calm behavior seems to surprise him. “This is where I’m needed right
now. As acting Luna, it’s the
least I can do.”
Axel stares at me for a long moment, as if trying to gauge how
sincere I am.
However, then he nods and shifts back from me.
“I’m going to head over to the medical annex to get cleaned up,” Axel says. “Then I’ll give you and
Jessica a hand with those
supplies.”
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I nod in agreement as he steps back from me, then turns to head
toward the medical annex, since it’s the easiest ce to get
cleaned up now that the mansion is gone.
For a second, I watch him go, and then my feet are moving to
follow him, almost of their own ord.
It’s my wolf, I think. For some reason, she doesn’t want to be away
from him.
In fact, after what we just witnessed, she now wants him more
than ever.
So do I for that matter.
Maybe I don’t hate Axel as much as I’ve been telling myself that I
1. do.
But realizing this is dangerous.
Because the opposite emotion to hate is…
B