Chapter 8 - Malachi

         Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. She saw one of them change. Fuck. Outsiders weren’t supposed to find out about us. Werewolves lived in secret amongst the humans. Sure, there were some tell-tale signs of what we were, but humans were too self-absorbed to notice. But of course, she did. She noticed a red blinking sign in front of her face when one of the intruders started to change.

         The men in the office just stared at her. We all waited for her to respond to what Joe said, but she didn’t. She sat in silence while Joe finished stitching her up. She really should have gone to the hospital. I wish it were me, helping her and stitching up her body. Touching her. Feeling the heat coming from her.

         She glanced at us; we were still staring. “Back to it,” I said through the mind link. If these were normal cops, this would have been a bigger issue. But all of the cops around Jackson were from the pack, so we didn’t have very many issues when these types of things happened.

         We all looked back at the computer screen at once. “Great, guys let’s all act completely odd so she gets even more suspicious of us.  

          “Sorry, Alpha.” Brett, one of the cops, said in return.

         The other cop, Harry said out loud, “This girl kicked the asses of four very large men?”

         “Yeah.” I nodded and glanced back at her. She looked at me. I smiled at her; she averted her gaze back to the cement floor. It shouldn’t have bothered me, but my stomach dropped.

         “Remind me not to try to fight against her,” Brett said.

         “Same,” Alec said from behind me.

         “Can you two bring these guys back to the pack house?” I said in a whisper, so Harlow didn’t hear.

         “Yes, sir,” Harry said. The men sat near the office as they recovered from their gunshot wounds and were still tied up.

         The officers left the office, grabbed the two men roughly, and pulled them to a standing position.

         “You’ll get what’s coming to you.” One of the men said, the one that Harlow shot in the leg over and over again.

         “I’m sure we will. But you will first.” Brett said as he pushed him forward. He limped, still not fully recovered. Harry pushed the other one out after. Within a minute, they drove off.

         “All done,” Joe said and patted Harlow’s shoulder. A twinge of jealousy and anger ran through me. I wanted to yell at him not to touch her. But I couldn’t. He didn’t know that I had finally found my mate. And she was one of his old partners in that agency he was a part of. There would be no logical way I could play that off. I just clenched my hands and dug my nails into my palms.

         “Thanks.” She said quickly and stood up. She went over to a bag that was on the far wall, picked it up and made for the door.

         “Where are you going?” Joe asked.

         “Going back to the house.” She said not turning around.

         “Maybe you should let me drive you. You lost a lot of blood.” Joe said. I let out a low growl. Joe looked at me and then lowered his eyes.

         Harlow turned around at my growl. “What just happened?” She looked at Joe, who had his eyes on the floor.

         No one said anything.

         “Answer her,” I said to Joe.

         “Nothing.” He shook his head and looked at her.

         She glared at each of us, eyes into slits, and evaluated us. “Hmm.” Without another word, she turned around and went out to her SUV and drove off. My heart dropped.

         “What was that about?” Alec turned to me. I normally wouldn’t growl at them unless what they were doing was unwarranted.

         I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I just found my mate.”

         “Oh shit,” Alec said. “Her?”

         “Yeah.” Was all I responded.

         Joe started to laugh. He bent over.

         “What?” I said to him, as I watched her taillights fade off into the night.

         “You probably got the most lethal mate in the entire existence of fated mates,” he said as he continued to laugh. “She may not be werewolf, but she’s a fucking beast.”

         “Congratulations,” Alec said sarcastically as he slapped a hand on my shoulder. “At least she’s pretty.”

         I let out a breath. “You both are assholes.”

         “You didn’t recruit us because we were sweethearts,” Joe said as he tried to maintain composure.

         I rolled my eyes. “Let’s get something over the door and clean this up so we can leave.”

         They both nodded. Within thirty minutes, we were able to put a piece of wood over the door, sweep up the glass, and mopped up the blood. If it weren’t for the wood piece, you wouldn’t have known anything happened here.

         “I have to leave a note for the other members in case they come by,” Joe said. He wrote down something and taped it to the wooden piece. “Tomorrow I’ll call someone to get the door replaced.”

         We left the gym and made our way back to the pack house. My thoughts were swirling around on what just happened. In the process of capturing two intruders, I found my mate. And as Joe put it, she was lethal. I could see it. But when she looked at me and said I had nice eyes, I could see the kindness there. There was something more to her than being lethal.

         Why in the fuck did I have to find her now? I’m in the middle of all this bullshit with Roan and his pack, why did a mate need to be brought into this? I was fine alone, at least until I figured this shit out.

         I ran a hand through my hair.

         “You ok, Mal?” Alec asked from behind me. He, no doubt, could feel the trepidation I felt.

         “Just thinking.” I let out a sigh.

         “About?” Joe said from the driver’s seat.

         “How it’s a cruel joke that I’m going through this bullshit with the Night Bane Pack and all of a sudden my mate pops into the picture.”

         “Not going to lie,” Joe said, then paused. “If you were going to have any mate during this time of tension, you couldn’t have asked for a better one.” He pulled his eyes from the road and looked at me. “She could be a blessing in disguise.”

         “Yeah.” Was all I could say. I stared out the window and thought about Harlow. The way she looked at us as she left. That wasn’t normal. We needed to figure out what she was thinking, and I needed to figure out a way to tell her she was my mate without sounding completely insane.

         Joe pulled up to the house.

         “Let’s talk for a second, in my office.” I tilted my head to the front of the house.

         Alec and Joe followed me to my office. The light was still on from when we were here earlier. We left in such a hurry that I didn’t think to turn off the light. I sat down at my desk, and they sat across from me.

         “We need to know what she is thinking.” Our world thrived separately from that of the human world. It wouldn’t do us any good for her to know about us and then tell the world. “We need to make sure that she doesn’t tell anyone.”

         “Do you think she would say anything?” Alec looked at Joe.

         He took a moment; it stretched out before us before he said, “She’s not the type.” He shook his head. “If it doesn’t affect her, she doesn’t care.” Joe rubbed a hand over his mouth. “Since this directly affected her, she may be curious as to what she was up against, since she asked me.”

         “That’s what I’m afraid of.” I was being honest. Roan was the type to go after her now, since she took out two of his pack members. The other two left and were more than likely reporting back to Roan. “We may need to have someone guard her. In case Roan decides to investigate her.”

         Joe laughed. Alec and I just looked at him. We waited for him to regain his composure. “First, no one can get one hundred yards from that house without the people inside knowing about it. Fuck, even a butterfly cannot land on a flower without some sort of alarm going off. Second, she will raise hell if she knows someone is guarding her and she doesn’t know why. When I say hell, I mean she will beat the living shit out of them until they confess. Third, she probably has more weapons in that house than the United States armory, and she won’t hesitate to shoot first and ask questions later.”

         I nodded at what he said. My mate was this badass who could take care of herself. It was weird that she was my mate and not a wolf. That didn’t happen very often, but when it did, it was for a reason. “What do you suggest?” I leaned back in the chair.

         “We have to talk to her. See what she’s thinking and then go from there.” Joe nodded. “Or else we can make a sticky situation even stickier by leaving her in the dark. Like I said in the truck, she’s a good ally. She could help with the Night Bane Pack situation.”

         “Should I bring her in?” Alec looked from Joe to me.

         “I think I should bring her in. She knows me.”

         A growl formed at the back of my throat. Alec and Joe looked at me and then averted their eyes. This jealousy thing was something new. Anytime anyone mentioned her name or doing something with her, it set me on edge. She was my mate, she was mine. And I didn’t want anyone else doing anything with her.

         “Sorry, Alpha.” They both said in unison.

         I let out a breath. “I have to get used to this mate thing. Joe, tomorrow, go and bring her in so we can chat.”

         “You got it, Mal.”

         “We can have a conversation here and see where she stands. Then, if anything comes up, we can address it then.”

         “Sounds like a plan.” Alec said.

         “Let’s go get some rest, I don’t know about you, but I’m exhausted.”

         “Same.” Joe said. “What time did you want me to go get Harlow?”

         “Late morning. Let’s give her some time to sleep in. She did get injured today, and she was probably going to sleep it off.”

          “Sounds good.”

         We made our way to our rooms. I was so tired that I didn’t want to change or brush my teeth, but I found the energy to make it through my nightly routine. I laid down and looked up at the ceiling. Tomorrow I was going to see my mate again. She was going to be here, and I was going to talk to her. A smile grew on my face as my lids slowly closed.