I whimpered as Dylan emerged from behind the trees, two pack doctors following closely behind him.

His eyes were pitch black, his body shaking as he took in my bleeding form, making his way over to me and crumbling onto the floor by my side.

"Who did this to her?" he growled menacingly, turning to look at a pale faced Dean, who closed his eyes, sighing.

"Her own Alpha," muttered Dean, his head snapping to the two pack doctors who stood behind Dylan, too afraid to touch me, "are you going to help her or not?"

Through blurry eyes, I gazed up at my mate who shook from above me, his wolf itching to get out, and I panicked, unsure if he was going to be able to control himself.

"Alpha, we need you to move out of the way, so we can tend to her," mumbled one of the pack doctors, recoiling back when Dylan growled, grabbing me and pulling me onto his lap, cradling me.

Dean sighed, shaking his head, placing a hand on his cousin's broad shoulder. "Dyl, you have to let her go so the doctors can help her. You don't want to hurt her anymore, do you?"

"I would never hurt her!" roared Dylan, holding me tighter, causing Dean to curse to himself, standing up, gesturing for the doctors to get to work on me.

I watched as Dean dragged Dylan away from me, his wolf eventually giving up and allowing Dean to win, watching me intently from behind the doctors, chewing on his thumb nail, continuously shaking his head and swearing.

I cried, salty tears trickling down my face, attempting to breath as normally as I could, but I found it hard, and would splutter every couple of seconds.

"Where is he?" growled Dylan, peering through the trees, his eyes raging.

"He's dead, Dylan. I found him and your fighters followed me; but they rebelled against him. They would no longer fight with him once they discovered his intentions," said Dean, attempting to calm my mate down.

"I need to see his body for myself," replied Dylan.

Dean nodded towards the cabin. "He's in there, but you need to listen to me for a second Dylan, and remain calm," whispered Dean, turning around, his voice lower in an attempt to conceal his words, "when I found them, Clara was slipping in and out of consciousness, and Alpha Paul was..."

Dylan's eyes widened, his mouth set in a firm line, swallowing harshly. "What?"

"Control yourself when I tell you this; we need Clara to be as relaxed as possible, but, he was on top of her. I'm not sure if he did anything to her. I did try asking, but I didn't get much of a response."

I gasped quietly to myself, tears brimming my eyes yet again as my mind wandered back to Alpha Paul, and the way he had violated me before I had fallen unconscious. I wasn't too sure what had happened, I knew he had forcefully kissed me, but I didn't know how far he had taken it before Dean and the fighters found him.

The silence was deafening, causing my ears to ring, and my hands to shake, making it difficult for the pack doctors to hold me still whilst they worked on my injuries.

Would Dylan still want me if I had been touched by anyone that wasn't him? Would looking at me now just disgust him? Would he ever be able to forget that someone else had kissed the lips that were solely meant for him and him only?

Suddenly, I was brought out of my trance by a thundering crash echoing through the forest, my eyes flickering towards the cabin, noticing Dylan was no longer standing at Dean's side.

"You're fine," mouthed Dean to me once he noticed my anguish, coming to stand above my head in order to block my vision of the cabin.

"What-what is Dylan doing?" I whispered, the effort of talking causing me to pant heavily, gaining me a warning look from the doctors, who pulled a shirt over my head once they were certain they had stopped the bleeding, saving me at least a bit of modesty.

"Just focus on the doctors for now, Clara," mumbled Dean, chewing on his bottom lip.

"Your ribs are broken, and you've lost far too much blood," stated one of the doctors, pulling out a few things from their medical bag. "We're going to give you some blood now, Clara, and then we can move you, but right now, you're too weak and your body isn't healing itself."

I nodded faintly in understanding, watching as they brought the needle to my skin, inserting it quickly, causing me to sigh, closing my eyes, attempting to ignore the sounds of Dylan's roaring wolf.

I had looked up to Alpha Paul when I was younger, grateful that even without a mate, he still did whatever he could to care for his pack, staying up night after night on no sleep to form alliances and build houses for families, and areas for the fighters to train.

He had abused his power though, and I couldn't understand why I had to be the victim of this. I had been good all my life, always helping my Dad with Jared, just wanting the best for them both. I was unsure what I had done to deserve the pain and torment. To me, it seemed unfair.

"She appears stable," I heard a faint voice mumble from above me. "We need to get her to the pack hospital. Will Alpha Dylan be joining us?"

I scrunched up my eyes in annoyance when I heard Dean yell loudly for Dylan, just wanting to allow the darkness to take over for a little while so I no longer had to be alone with my own thoughts, and after a few moment, I did...

.........

I groaned to myself, frustrated at the constant beeping noise that was interrupting my slumber. Stirring, I flickered my eyes open, quickly shutting them again once I was greeted with a bright light, my retinas' searing.

"Did she just open her eyes?" mumbled a kind and caring voice, causing me to sigh happily, knowing exactly who it was.

Peeking through my lashes again, I allowed my eyes to adjust before opening them fully, gazing over at Jared who sat at the foot of my bed in his wheelchair, a beaming smile plastered onto his face.

"Holy shit! She's awake!" yelled my brother, wheeling over to me, taking hold of my hand, his eyes teary.

"Why are you crying, Jared?" I asked, giving his hand a soft squeeze, noticing how much effort it took and how weak I was.

"You're awake. You've been asleep for just over a week. Everyone has been going crazy!"

I furrowed my brows, snapping my head to the door as the doctor walked in, smiling at me, clutching a clipboard to her chest. "It really is good to see you awake, Clara. How are you feeling?"

I ran my hands through my hair, shaking my head, allowing it to flop back down on my elevated pillow. "My head is fuzzy."

The doctor nodded understandingly, scribbling down something on her clipboard. "That's completely understandable, you've been out of it for a little while."

"The last thing I remember was being at the cabin in the woods and-"

"You remember some things, well, that's a good sign," mumbled the doctor, fiddling with a few of the buttons on the noisy monitor next to me.

"Where's Dylan?" I asked Jared, my mind and body yearning for the comfort of my mate, feeling incomplete without him.

"He's in a meeting right now, sweetie, but we will let him know that you're awake as soon as he gets out of it," replied the doctor, causing Jared to look at me, rolling his eyes.

"Don't you think we should let him know now? He specifically said that he wants to be told the second she wakes up and not a moment later."

"We wouldn't want to disturb the Alpha during a meeting." said the doctor as she shot me an overbearing smile, excusing herself, exiting the room, shutting the door gently behind her.

"Bitch," muttered Jared, chuckling to himself.

"It's so good to see you Jared," I said, a few tears leaking out of my eyes, causing me to laugh, wiping them away quickly.

"You really scared us all, Clara," replied my brother, his expression holding not an ounce of humour, his mouth set in a firm line.

"I'm here now."

"You could have not been. You could be dead because of Alpha Paul. How could he do this to one of his own pack members? It's the lowest thing an Alpha could do. I just don't understand why he-"

"Shh, Jared," I said, cupping his face, offering him a small smile, "I'm here now and I'm okay. We don't have to worry about him anymore."

"Dylan tore him to pieces, Clara. His body is unrecognisable."

I nodded, trying to steady my breathing, the flashbacks of what my own Alpha had done to me coming back in full force, causing me to shake. My anxiety rose, and I clutched at my chest, shaking my head and squeezing my eyes shut, just wanting the horrible memories to disappear.

"Clara? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you. Oh god, I-um- I'll get someone!"

I heard Jared quickly wheel out of the room, yelling for someone to come and help, but his voice was faint, my body shutting out the outside world in order to try and protect itself.

"Just stop...please..." I mumbled to myself in anger, furious at the face of Paul in my head; his sneering face appearing larger and larger in my mind. "Stop! Leave me alone!"

Leaping out of the bed, I attempted to run towards the door, feeling like the walls of the hospital room were gradually getting smaller and smaller, trapping me, but I stumbled due to my wobbly legs, collapsing against the wall, crying out as my shoulder hit the floor.

"Just go away!" I sobbed into the floor, screaming out in mental agony as the chilling sound of Alpha Paul's laughs bounced off my eardrums.

Suddenly, my arms were grabbed and I flailed away from them, kicking out in fear, afraid that Alpha Paul was back and ready to torment me all over again.

"Clara! Clara, it's me!"

Get off!" I cried, fighting against the person who held my arms tightly in their hands, their breathing laboured.

"Clara, look at me! Just look at me, you're okay!"

I snapped my eyes open to see the face of my distressed mate kneeled down in front of me, his brows furrowed in fear.

"Shh, relax, you're okay," he spoke, pulling me into his chest gently, stroking my hair as I clung to him, crying into his chest.

"I saw him," I hiccupped, burying my face into Dylan's neck, causing him to sigh, shaking his head.

"He's gone, baby. I promise you, he's dead."

My breath hitched at the sound of the hospital room door opening, causing Dylan to growl, quickly hoisting me up and placing me back on the hospital bed, glaring at the doctor that stood in the doorway, her face pale as a ghost.

"Did you know she was awake?" growled my mate, standing in front of me protectively.

"Um, I-"

"Do not lie," ordered Dylan, his eyes turning pitch black.

"Yes, Alpha."

"How long has she been awake?"

The doctor hung her head in shame, avoiding eye contact with my mate. "A few minutes or so."

Dylan growled, stalking towards the doctor, who swallowed nervously. "So why wasn't I told the second she woke up? Instead, I had to hear it from Jared who was yelling for help because she was having a fucking panic attack!"

"I'm sorry, you were in your meeting, I didn't want to disturb you. I know how important pack sign offs are, so I didn't want to interrupt."

"Dylan," I mumbled, feeling bad for the doctor who was standing in front of my mate, scared stiff.

"You are dismissed," he grumbled, watching her scurry out of the room, before turning his attention back to me.

I gazed up at him with a tear stained face, wiping at the wetness, furrowing my brows. "What is she talking about? What's a pack sign off?"

Dylan sighed, perching on the side of my hospital bed, cupping my face and gazing into my eyes. "I am so sorry I wasn't there, Clara. I should have stopped all of this."

"You didn't know, Dylan," I whispered, my voice still shaky as I tried to push the disgusting images of Alpha Paul to the back of my mind.

"He never left for the Alpha meeting. It was all a set up. He wanted me to train his fighters so that they could destroy my pack, but when he found out you were my mate, his plan changed and he decided he was going to kill you to get back at them instead, so they would suffer without a Luna just like his pack did."

I sighed, fiddling with my hands in my lap, attempting to remain clam.

"Dean told me a lot of what Alpha Paul had said before he killed him while you were unconscious. It was my father that ordered for the fighters to ambush them when they were on their run. We knew that my father was going to do something one day that would cause a war; we should have forced him to step down sooner, I'm so sorry," mumbled my mate, hanging his head lowly.

"Stop, it's not your fault," I whispered, wrapping my arms around Dylan's neck, engulfing him in a hug, tingles erupting throughout my body, my wolf experiencing pure bliss from his touch.

"Alpha Paul was an idiot to think I would teach his fighters' everything I knew though. My fighters were always and will always be stronger."

I nodded, pulling back from the hug, gazing into Dylan's shining ocean blue orbs.

"I guess you won't be getting paid then," I laughed quietly, causing my mate to crack a smile, shaking his head at me, kissing me softly on the forehead, causing me to sigh happily.

...........................................................................................

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