Chapter 4—Trauma

Cassius

The moment she collapsed something inside me snapped. I caught her before she hit the ground. Her body was too light, too cold.

“Lianne.” I called gently.

No response.

My wolf snarled violently inside my head. Mate.

“I know she’s our mate!” I barked back.

Darius stepped closer, his aura suffocating the air around us. Lucian looked like he was about to lose his mind.

Blood stained Lianne’s lips. “She's biting her tongue” I muttered, earning a growl from the other two.

I lifted her in my arms and took her to her room through the back door. The last thing I wanted right now, was curious gazes trailing behind us.

No one noticed the figure staring from the other side of the house.

My brothers followed closely behind. This was our first time in her room in two years. It looked different now, smelled different.

The scent made me uncomfortable.

As I laid her down on the bed, my stomach twisted. Her face was pale, she looked so weak.

Rejecting an Alpha hurts. Rejecting three? That kind of pain could kill a weaker wolf.

“Cassius,” Lucian said hoarsely, “I can't open her mouth”

Of course he can't, he was probably scared of hurting her. But what we needed to do now was pry her mouth open and stop her from biting her tongue.

I looked down at her again and pressed her cheeks with my fingers, but it didn't work. At this point she would bite her tongue off.

I wrapped my hand around hers.Her hand twitched weakly in mine.

The same small hand that used to steal cookies from the kitchen and blame it on me.

“Call the pack doctor” Darius said.

Lucian picked his phone. “ Be at the pack house in five minute, or disappear” he growled.

I couldn't wait for the doctor to get here. I looked around the room for anything that could help. That was when I smelled it properly.

That scent that made me uncomfortable, it was hers and Kai's scent mixed together.

His clothes were all over her closet, his coat, his hoodie, his shirt…

My jaw clenched. This isn't the time. I told myself, but I still couldn't shake off the urge to commit murder.

“I have an idea” Lucian broke the tension.

“What idea” I demanded

He grabbed one of Kai's coat hiding the disgust on his face, and brought it closer to Lianne.

I knew at that moment what he was going to do. I hoped that it would work and wouldn't all at once.

It didn’t take up to a minute, before her clenched jaw relaxed and her breathing became even.

My vision went red. The growl that tore from my chest didn't sound human anymore. Darius wasn't doing any better.

I could see his wolf coming to the surface. Only Lucian seemed relatively calm.

“Guys, calm the f*ck down. Our mate is still unconscious” he said.

I couldn't stay in the room. I went to the door to wait for the pack doctor even though I didn't need to.

Darius walked past me, his breath uneven, claws out.

“Where are you going?”

“To find him” Darius’ voice was ice cold. “ I'm going to kill”

“And then what?” I asked

“I don't know, I'll think about it after he's dead”

Before I could respond, a voice came from the room, “You'll go nowhere Darius. I won't lose her because of your rashness”

Lucian came to stand resolutely in front of Darius. He was hardly like this. He was the most quiet of us three. The most easy going one.

My eyes dimmed. Lucian was right, if anything happened to Kai, if Darius hurt Kai, she would hate us more.

But that didn't mean I would let him be. Anyway we would meet at the academy soon. And Lianne wouldn't be there.

I went to stand on Lucian's side. “Calm down, brother”

Seeing that we were both trying to stop him, he gave in and went back inside the room. He opened her closet and picked out anything that smelled remotely like Kai.

We didn't stop him, we didn't ask what he wanted to do with the clothes either. As long as the clothes disappeared from her room.

Within minutes, the pack doctor, Mr Alaric arrived. Looking at his disheveled look, he must have ran here after all Lucian didn't give him much of a choice.

The doctor examined her, while we stood on the side making sure he didn't do anything other than necessary.

His brow furrowed and unfurrowed several times. “Think before you speak” I muttered.

He wiped his non existent sweat before saying. “May I ask what happened to her, alphas.”

“You're the doctor, don't you know?” Darius gritted out.

Alaric’s shifty eyes told me that he knew exactly what happened, but why did he ask?

“What's going on?” I demanded and he swallowed.

“Rejecting three alphas was bound to make her extremely weak, but right now it seems like she's in a coma.”

Lucian jumped to his feet. “What do you mean?”

“Does she have any traumatic experience?”

I and my brothers exchanged a look. We didn't know of any.

“The body sometimes shuts down when a wolf faces a trigger tied to severe trauma. Rejecting three alphas would have forced the mate bond open… and whatever memory is tied to it.” Alaric added.

“None that we know of” my voice dripped with worry.

“We have to find out what it is about” Alaric said gravely.

Crash! A loud sound came from the door, turning our attention to the half closed door.

The figures at the door made my jaw tighten and I let out a low warning growl.