Chapter Eleven

JASON

I slammed the car's door open and pulled Devin out of it. He was calm and collected. It was the only way he had been able to keep his secret a secret for so long.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Devin demanded, shoving my hands off. His perfectly starched shirt was wrinkled and that seemed to piss him off more than the thought of me discovering his well-kept secret. Had he even realized that I had figured it out? Of course, he had. Devin wasn't stupid. He was trying to play me off and I refused to be put off so easily.

"Valentine!" I rattled into his ear. "You did not seem it fit to inform me that she was your mate?"

The mere mention of Valentine made Devin's eyes dart in my direction. It almost made me rethink my brother's intellect. Contrary to what I had believed, Devin had truly not realized that he had exposed himself.

"Fuck." That phrase had barely settled when Devin decided to come clean. "So, it does not change anything. I also think you should set your priorities right Jason. Your mate is in your home defenseless against a very angry Alpha and here you are confronting me about something as trivial as my mate."

Sofiane could wait. The witch trap encircling the house had not been activated which meant no one with terrible intentions had walked through. Plus if the elders of the Monarch thought ensnaring me would be that easy, they were very wrong. Those clueless cronies had sought the assistance of Sofiane once they learned of my mate. That was all my Intel could gather but now, the last piece of the puzzle could be easily fit to understand their trashy grand plan. They wanted to find my weakness and with the arrival of my mate, those bastards were certain I had an Achilles heel. If Olamide had to die to send the message across that not even the mortal danger of my true mate was enough to stop me, then so be it.

"This is far from trivial Devin. I need to know how in the fresh hell this even happened?"

Devin suppressed a growl. He hated that this was out. I could tell he was bothered that this was sure to get out if he could not even keep it from me and honestly, it made me want to hit him. Who the fuck kept secrets from family?

"The night we killed Valentine's parents," He began, his gaze suddenly tilting in the direction of the Monarch packhouse. I followed his gaze and sighted Satake running to catch up to me.

"Well?" I probed Devin but the fucker would not budge. Not until Satake caught up to us, breathlessly panting.

"Jason, Are you good?" Satake managed to say in-between heavy pants.

"No. He isn't. Sofiane plans to intrude on enemy's territory with the sole aim of killing the Crow's Luna." Devin answered for me.

"Alpha Jason, this means war." Satake's eyes popped open like he had just been told a horror story. His heavy breathing seemed to pause and that cherry smile he always kept on vanished. He could be a thorn when he wanted to be but there was a reason Satake was my beta. He was a foreign taste one needed to be conditioned to. Ruthless when the need be and he could rip throats out with a smile on his face. I could not refuse him when he was like this.

"It has always been war." I supported.

Without a second to spare, Satake took hold of the wheels and revved his engines. I jumped in and left the door open for Devin who just stood like a massive log of wood.

"ehm...Devin, You coming?"

"No," Devin replied, shutting the open door. "I will finish the meeting. You should go."

I was going to refuse. I was about to when Satake stepped on the brakes, a beta lusting for blood and zoomed off.

***

OLAMIDE

I was too bothered about Axel's revelation to even enjoy the egg sandwich he had made for me. I did eat it but it was bland. As if I was not confused about my feelings with Jason before. Now I had to concede to the fact that I had no choice in this and sooner or later, Jason would be the only thing dominating my mind. I wondered if I would want to run away then. Would I just be a mindless zombie who wanted to be by my captor's side 24/7 and even fancied being fucked by him? How was that not Stockholm syndrome? If anything, Axel's revelation only strengthened my resolve to escape as soon as I could. I could not wait and I sure as hell could not trust Jason would not mark me. The smirk he had when he promised he would mark me physically. He intended to keep good on his word. I distracted myself by gulping down the orange juice and creating timelines in my head on how to get rid of Axel and run for my life. I was going to say something to Axel who stood motionless by my door when his cell vibrated. I watched him look into his phone and almost immediately picked.

"Hello Alpha Jason," He whispered into the phone, listening intently to what he had to say. Axel's eyes darted in my direction as he continued to listen and mumbled the unintelligent 'hmmm'. Once the call ended, I noticed he locked the door and went into a fighting stance.

"What is happening?" I had to ask.

Axel did not want to answer at first but if he was worried about it, I could only guess how truly worrying the problem must be.

"Answer me, Axel." I demanded. My words seemed to have the weirdest effect on him. His stance was changing albeit barely noticeable but from the way I saw it, it was like Axel was fighting himself and failing miserably at it. Soon he was gasping for air and his body was contorting in ways a human or anything with bones shouldn't.

"Alpha Sofiane is here," Axel confessed, writhing in pain as he fell to the floor. "Alpha Jason believes he is here to kill you and asked me to protect you with my life."

Once he had babbled it all out, his body seemed to gain release and he collapsed to the floor breathless. I did not even have time to dwell on whether I had something to do with Axel's torture. Someone wanted me dead. Better put, one of Jason's enemies wanted me dead. Axel got to his feet soon enough and I was going to ask him who this Sofiane guy was when screams erupted from outside my room. People were begging for their lives and their screams went silent after slashes followed. A howl vibrated through the air next and it made my blood curdle. I remembered Jason's brother had done the same thing when he slashed that man's throat by the tracks. It only meant... A second howl followed and I noticed blood pouring into my room. Axel growled and like magic toppled three times in size. His eyes were crimson red and fur covered his body from head to toe.

I heard footsteps approach my door and the fellow knocked. I was shivering when he knocked the second time. Good things come in threes they say. How wrong they were because the door flew off its hinges the third time and flew straight into Axel's face a second later. I watched Axel tear at the flying door, his claws splitting the woodwork in threes. A dark form suddenly slammed into Axel, knocking him down with a vicious swipe of teeth that dug into his shoulder. Axel threw his arms up instinctively and scratched but even that seemed to fail as the opponent's fangs sunk deeply into his forearm.

"Run!" Axel growled at me.

As the world tilted and spun, I took to my heels, not knowing if I would live to be a free woman or die the very same way it had been preordained to be.