Chapter 4: Found

~Adriana POV~

I can feel Liam through the bond. His distress oozing over the barrier has up. I know he has been blocking me the entire time, true to Liam form he disappears when shit gets a little screwed up so he can think. He always comes back, and he never goes far. Until today. I’m such an idiot, and I know it. Just thinking about the things going through his head right now is enough to make me want to tear my hair out. 

“LIAM!” I scream out, sprinting through the woods, following the faint scent. Axel told me to stop and give him his space, but when I told him what Liam overheard, the terrible thing I had said as if it were some joke, he went pale and called Billy and Jacob for backup. Thank heavens Billy and Bea are back from their most recent mission. He has a way of being able to find people quickly.

The further we go into the woods, the more anxious I grow. We left almost immediately after him, give or take maybe five minutes in total. How the hell could he get so far away so fast? I trip over a root, cursing as I go down hard on my knees, jolting through my body. With a growl, I push myself back up and then I hear it, a whisper on the breeze and the scent of my mate. 

“Here!”

My eyes widen and my feet move before my mind as I crash through the brambles and vegetation surrounding me.

“He is here!” A feminine voice screams. 

My lungs burn and my chest is tight as I push myself and my wolf to the brink of exhaustion. A small opening in the darkness is bathed in moonlight in front of me.

-Breathe Adriana-

-Would you breathe if it were Maggie?- I shoot back at Axel through the mind link.

-Point taken- he says, pushing his wolf further as he surges past me.

The smell of blood hits me like an anvil on my chest, and my eyes prick with tears. What the hell happened? I gasp as I break into the opening, a small stream babbling and heavy breathing to my right as I swing my head around, looking for Liam. The world stops when I see him leaning against a tree, his head lulling from side to side as he clings to consciousness, but barely.

“Liam,” I breathe, spurring forward toward him.

I slip and slide around in the grass on what I assume is mud falling to my hands and knees again. I choose to crawl toward him, coming up to him and pressing my hands to his cheeks, trying to get him to focus on me. He gasps out as the tingles of our bond spark through him and he visibly relaxes. 

“Adri baby,” He murmurs, and tears run down my cheeks. 

“Liam” I press my forehead to his, breathing him in, needing to feel him, see him, just inhale him into me. “What the hell were you thinking?” I hiss.

“Adriana…” Axel says, drawing my attention.

I look at him as he glances around the space, half his face shrouded in the moon's shadow. I stand and look around, my mouth falling open and my eyes wide. There is blood everywhere. Three muscular male bodies lay on the ground and I move toward them. Bending down, I roll the first guy over, gagging when his intestines peek through the slashes in his gut. He is laying in a pool of his blood, eyes wide and empty. 

“Holy shit, Liam… what did you do?” I whisper to myself.

“This one has a slashed throat,” Jacob says, looking down at another body. 

“Pretty sure this guy’s neck is snapped,” Axel concludes, walking over to me and offering me a hand to stand up. I turn and look at Billy, who is inspecting Liam. 

“Liam did a real number on these guys,” Axel says. 

I can only nod in complete shock. I can’t believe Liam did this. My Liam? My sweet, loving, overprotective Liam? I can admit that death bothers me. And the thought that Liam so violently killed these men makes my stomach crawl. Though looking at him, it’s clear to see it was self-defense. 

“They attacked him,” the small redheaded woman says. "They were chasing me and then they were attacking him. “

“And who are you?” I ask, raising a brow, not loving the idea of a woman being around my mate, or my mate killing to protect her. Though she looks young and shaken up. Maybe Liam felt a protective urge, and that’s why he intervened?

“I am Gwen.” She says, shrinking a little into herself when all three of the men with me look at her and size her up.

“What are you doing out here in the middle of the night?” Jacob asks. 

“I told you–I was running from the group of guys.”

“Axel,” Jacob calls Axel over for a quick chat, and my eyes meet Billy’s. 

Billy is insanely huge. When I first met him, I admit he scared the shit out of me, but in my defense, I didn’t know bear shifters existed. Shit, I had only just learned werewolves were a thing, but Billy is kind and his mate is equally caring and sweet. Even if she has a little of a tougher exterior. Bea may be a werewolf, but she carries the bravado of a werebear.

“These are all alphas,” Axel says, looking over at me and Billy.

“What? Really?” I say, stunned yet again. It seems to be a recurring theme tonight. 

“But they have no pack marks, which means they are rogue alphas. They no longer have packs.”

“Ok, so they are just rogues who are attacking at random, then?” I ask. 

Billy hums in thought before shaking his head. “I don’t know. Alphas—even if they are rogue — are still pretty full of themselves. It seems weird that they would travel together.”

“There is power in numbers,” Jacob says with a shrug. “And the rogue life can be a pretty lonely one. I don’t think it’s as out of the ordinary as you do. “

“Shouldn’t we get Liam out of here?” I ask, my eyes glued to him while they try to make sense of the scene in front of us.

“Relax, Adriana,” Axel says, walking over to me and wrapping his arms around my shoulder in a side hug. “Liam is healing as we speak.”

I lean into him, accepting his comfort. Aside from Liam, Axel and his mate Maggie are the most important people in my life. Being held captives together brought out a lot of things in Axel and me while we waited for our mates to try to get to us.

At first, I didn’t want to be friendly with Axel, but the amount of torture they put him through made me realize maybe he needed a reason to live. A friend in a dark place, I sure as hell needed one. And in the end, when I was dying, he was the one who bit me and saved my life. That’s right. I was handpicked to join the one and only Ultima pack of humans turned werewolves.

“Would you be relaxing if it was Maggie?” I toss him a glare and he sighs heavily. 

“Fair point.” He removes himself from my side. “Let’s get him out of here.”

Billy strides over to Liam and, with a big heave, he pulls him up onto his shoulders. Liam grunts in pain but remains out of it as Billy walks. 

“We are walking now. I need to keep my momentum carrying someone this big.”

“What? Has the big bad bear finally met his match in size?” Jacobs grins.

“Shut up Jacob, your scrawny ass would be crushed, so unless that’s the future you want you—Start moving.”

“Always so damn grumpy,” Jacob mutters with a smile following along. 

“C-can I come with you?” Gwen asks Axel as I move to be closer to Liam. I don’t blame the girl for what happened, but I have to admit if it went down how it sounds, that maybe Liam is more of a hero than he likes to let on. He is always claiming he is the villain and woe is he, he was so bad and he can’t ever be redeemed. I roll my eyes, thinking about it. 

He can’t seem to see that who he is now is what matters to me. There is no need for me to know or care about his past. He is blind if he can’t see that I love him now. I’m not foolish enough to think that knowing his horrible past might alter my feelings. I just don’t see the point when we are destined to be together, anyway. Why push me away when I’m already jumping in your arms?

“Okay,” Axel says, “but any problems and you are gone. “

Gwen puts her hands up defensively. “I won’t cause problems. I’m just trying not to get killed while I look for somewhere to go.”

She sidles up next to me as we walk and I try to hold my tongue. Really I do, but my curiosity and jealousy get the better of me. 

“Why were they chasing you?” I ask. “And don’t bullshit me. My mate is all sorts of messed up because he was protecting you.”

Gwen drops her gaze to the ground, tucking a strand of her wild red hair behind her ear.

“They thought I would be a fun catch. Or that’s what they said. I didn’t think it was smart to stick around and learn their meaning. But they stopped chasing me when they found your mate. It was like I did not exist anymore. They wanted to hurt him more than catch me.”

I frown at her.

“And if I’m being honest, maybe you should ask yourself why he was even out there in the first place. I didn’t lead those guys to him. They found your mate because he was running from something of his own.” She snarks, finding a little sass within herself. I growl at her and she cowers slightly before speeding up her steps and leaving me behind. 

I know full well that the reason he was running is me and it’s eating me up inside. Hell, I’m not even sure he is going to want to see me or allow me to explain the stupidity of my thought process when I said the fucking lie I did. Now it’s all a waiting game of when we get back and when Liam wakes up so we can talk. A talk that I’m really not looking forward to.