Chapter 119

Helen POV

I could feel my heart rattling in my chest, seizing in pain over what was happening to me again. The first time it happened, it hurt so bad that I went to the bar to get drunk, but then I ended up finding Justin soon after.

Hearing it now ached me more now than before.

I shuffled off Justin’s lap, heaving to breathe, the rejection my first mate lead onto me so long ago was being played through speakers somewhere, but it was as though Scott was standing there, saying the words again verbatim.

“Find the source and eradicate it,” Justin barked to his warriors.

I doubled over on the ground, weak and shivering. The rejection in my mind was the best thing for me, and I was happy when I found Justin because he was such a better mate anyways. Before I betrayed him, he loved me more than anything in the world.

But this was a different kind of pain.

Hearing that rejection brought back the chills and heat and shock of being betrayed by my mate. The man I loved who married my sister, and his voice struck me down harder than before.

Justin stood over me for a moment, seeing my weeping, pitiful state. “Shh, Helen. Relax. I’m going to make it stop. It’s just William trying to get under your skin.”

I ached and shuddered. “It’s working, Justin. It hurts.”

He finally knelt beside me, pulling my head into his firm, warm lap. “Why does it still hurt you like this?” he asked, growling the words like I offended him in my old pains. “Do you care for him after death? Is that why you betrayed me?”

I gave him a puzzled look, my throat closing slowly and suffocating my lungs at once. I reached for Justin’s face but he shot a glance up around the pack, the voice howling through the words over and over about my rejection had finally been cut off.

Randy returned with wires in hand and he threw them to the ground beside me.

“He tapped into the security cameras and the announcement system as well. Somehow he played that audio through the village and I had to pull the connection from the main system to shut it off,” Randy snarled.

“I can’t believe that,” I sniffled. “Why would he do that? How could he get that audio?”

“I don’t know, Luna,” Randy said.

“Pick her up and take her to my room,” Justin purred quietly. Take her there so she can rest for the night.”

Justin left me on the ground and I reached for him, missing him by a longshot. The kind beta pulled me to his chest and I whimpered, his movements gentle and slow.

“I didn’t even get to eat,” I whined. “I’m hungry, Randy.”

“I will bring you a plate soon, Luna. Let me drop you off in his room for the night so you can lay down. I am sure that rejection hurt quite a bit.”

“It did,” I admitted. “It felt like the first time. It felt so raw and real.”

Randy shook his head. “William is turning out to be just as bad as your first fated mate.”

I couldn’t agree more, even if I wanted to verbalize so. I only waited patiently while Randy maneuvered me back in the lavish, large room in the main estate. I covered myself up and watched the beta leave to fetch some dinner for me.

Looking around the room before, I admired how beautiful it was, but now I could see the disparity in it all. there were light claw marks over the wallpaper and some tearing of the carpet.

Justin obviously had a meltdown in this room at some point. I just wanted to know why and when, just so maybe I could help him heal. I hated seeing him in pain.

He watched me in pain tonight with such a torn face.

On one hand he wanted to dote over me and love on me. On the other hand, he acted wounded, as though hearing Scott’s rejection hurt me because I loved my first mate or something—which was far, so very far, from the truth.

I peeled myself out of bed in effort to get comfortable. Slipping out of my clothes I looked over my healing back and my worn, scratched shoulders, feeling eyes on my exterior at once.

Randy couldn’t have gotten back so quickly.

Turning to look in the doorway, I wondered and hoped that Justin had came to my aid now, and that seeing me naked would spark something magical between us, but he wasn’t there either.

Instead, a brooding, watching rogue stool in the hallway, staring at me with drool dripping down his chin. He was unfamiliar, but hungry and here with a purpose.

Only now was it clear that whatever he was sent to do to me was stopped short by my unknowing striptease. I grabbed a blanket and covered up quickly, my naked and cold body drenched in his thirsty eyes.

“No, don’t cover yourself,” he snarled, stalking into the room now. “I want to see more of the Luna everyone can’t seem to kill.”

My breath hitched and I shook all over, feeling vulnerable in this state, cowering behind a blanket when even he can admit to having seen me naked already.

“Who sent you?” I breathed calmly. “Was it William?”

The rogue chuckled. “No, of course not. I have no Alpha and if I did, it wouldn’t be that guy. Instead, I have a deal with a friend of mine to bring him the Lycan’s mate. He never mentioned how delicious you looked naked, though. I think I want to see it a little bit—”

[I’ll handle this asshole!]

Joy sprung alive inside of me and shifted, bringing her paws and claws down his face and chest. The rogue eventually shifted as well and charged forward, teeth sinking into my shoulder blade but not deep enough to slow Joy down.

She scrapped and fought like our lives depended on it, and they really did!

If this rogue was talking about being sent from the huntsman, then there’s more problems we need to worry about than revisiting Scott’s rejection of me from forever ago.

“LUNA!” Randy gasped.

He shifted stealthily and helped me tame the rogue under our teeth and our claws. He bled on the floor and I could feel the same warm and crimson liquid coming down my back and shoulders as well.

When I was sure that the rogue was perfectly subdued, I shifted into my mortal form and fell trying to catch my balance. Joy sent so much fuming adrenaline through my body that it sent me straight to the floor.

I knocked over a lamp and slumped against the nightstand beside bed, blood dripping off my body in slow, oozing fashion.

My mate rushed into the room next and looked over the situation. The rogue had finally passed out and was still breathing, but certainly unmoving under the beta’s powerful grip.

“Take him to the barracks,” Justin ordered. He looked frantically around the room until he found my eyes and came to my aid. “Dammit, Helen. You’ve been bitten by that rogue.”

“I’m fine,” I mumbled—a lie. “He was in the estate and he must have seen Randy leave.”

Justin flicked a look over his shoulder as his beta drug the rogue out of the room, and out of sight. “Where did Randy go? Why did he leave you alone in the first place?”

I sat back in moderate surprise. “Do you not trust Randy? He only went to go get me some food because I was hungry, Alpha. He didn’t have anything to do—”

“Don’t,” he growled. I bowed my head in submission. Justin found my plate of food outside in the hallway on a piece of tabletop furniture and brought it over me. “Let’s get you in bed so you can eat and gain your strength. Then I will heal your back.”

“Calling Guinevere, the healer?”

He only shook his head, planted me in bed, and then walked off to trail the beta and most likely find out who the rogue was and what he wanted.

I ate my dinner in glee and in anticipation. We would be lovers again tonight.