The alarm was going off again, did this thief never sleep?

I banged my head down against my pillow. Chances are the alarm had been going off for ages already and she was already gone, escaped into the night.

That's when I realised,

The alarm was coming from my office.

I don't think I'd ever gotten up so quickly in my life.

The office was extremely close to my room, practically only two doors down. I ripped open the door, my eyes going straight to the window as if I was preparing myself to watch her jump out and disappear once more. Except that wasn't the case. This was the strongest her scent had ever been, and I felt a spark of hope within my chest.

Until I looked down.

The Nightstalker's body was bleeding out on my floor, a long, detailed dagger sticking out from her stomach. But the moment I laid my eyes on her, it was as if my whole world started to spin.

She was my mate.

I collapsed onto the floor, hanging over her as I slid my arms underneath her back, propping her up. She was still awake, her brown eyes watching me. I watched her lips move, mouthing the word mate as if it were a silent prayer. A slow rush of tingles ran up my arm, filling my body with an unfamiliar warmth.

I had found my mate,

And she was dying.

But not for long.

Have the Alpha's suite ready in three minutes, I linked to the hospital, not providing any more information than that.

I held my mate carefully in my arms before starting to run, leaving my office behind and running straight out of the house and in the direction of the hospital as fast as I possibly could, the tough ground underneath my feet only propelling me to move faster.

I could save her, I know I could.

She would stay alive, I told myself, she would make it through.

When I handed her over to the doctors, they didn't look so sure.

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I woke up in a hospital room, probably the nicest hospital room I had ever seen in my life.

Everything was white, with detailed cream accents all over the walls and edges.

There was also someone hanging onto my hand.

I opened my eyes fully, running my gaze up to his arm until I landed on his face. I couldn't stop staring at him, thick brown hair that looked as if it hadn't been brushed in days. Dark, eternal brown eyes that watched my every move carefully. Thick brows and a strong jaw, plump lips and a delicate splattering of freckles over his face that could only be seen up close.

As he stared at me, my whole body oozed into his touch, as if I had been waiting for this meeting for my entire life. And his scent, goddess, I could get drunk off it. Only then did I realise,

Mate.

Next to him were more people, though they stood considerably further back. A tall man with black hair, deep black eyes and a sharp jawline. His arm was wrapped around a considerably shorter woman, with a mess of blonde curls tied on top of her head and curious blue eyes that seemed to watch my every movement.

Then there was another couple, A girl with short, raggedly cut brown hair and cunning, dangerous brown eyes that were shooting daggers at me. Clinging onto her arm was another larger woman with mahogany skin and black, kinky spirals of hair falling to her shoulders. Something was off about her, along with the blonde girl. Completely different scents. I focused on it. A witch, and a human. What were the chances that this girl was the one I had stolen from?

"Are you alright?" The man holding onto my hand asked carefully as if trying not to set off a bomb.

I pulled my hand out of his grasp, that was when it hit me.

Waves of nausea hit me, almost like a bludgeon on the head. I leaned over the other side of the bed, vomit ejecting from my mouth as I coughed and spluttered. My whole body started to shake, every now and again I was hit with large spasms, my limbs curling in on themselves in sharp jagged movements.

"Time," I wailed, "What's the time, what's the date?"

"It's the 12th of May, around 4 in the afternoon, why, what's wrong?" The man answered, frantically grabbing onto my shoulders to pull me upright.

"Don't," I moaned, "Don't touch me, don't touch me!" It came out as a scream, mixed with a sob as tears started to fall down my face. "My duffel bag, where's my duffel bag?"

I was overdue by two days for my injection. My head was pounding as the man stood up and ran behind a curtain pulling it out from a closet of sorts and walking over to me with it in his hands,

"Why do you need it-" I ripped it out of his hands, bringing it onto my lap in one quick swift moment.

My fingers scrambled to get a hold of the zipper, still shaking. I managed to get it open, frantically digging through it before I found the bag full of the needles. I opened up the plastic bag and grabbed the needle, already full of the serum.

Before anyone could stop me, the needle was positioned in my hand, and I had shoved it into my arm. I pressed down as my entire body curled up into a fetus position. I kept pressing down until it had emptied itself completely. Slowly, I pulled it out, my entire body hunched over as I breathed heavily.

Just like that, the nausea left me, and my body slowly started to go still. I lifted myself up, leaning back against the bed head. Suddenly, it felt as if I had never been sick at all, completely back to normal.

"Why am I here?" I asked quietly,

I opened my eyes properly, staring harshly at the man whose face was now twisted into an expression of shock.

He gulped, "You were injured, we found you in my office."

I paused. I went into the Alpha's office... this man just said that it was his office...

"Are you the Alpha?"

"I am." He confirmed, "My name's Alexander, yours?"

I snorted, "I'm not playing a game of 20 questions. Tell me how badly I was injured so that I know when I can leave."

"If you think that you're leaving, you're even dumber than you look." The girl with choppy hair said. "After everything you've done, you're lucky Xander didn't just throw you out of his window to make the death swift-"

"Farren," Alexander hissed. He turned back to me, "You have another day or two here for healing, but Farren is correct in the fact that you won't be leaving this pack. Ever."

Mission accomplished, I was in.

He looked down at the duffel bag, quickly snatching it away, "What did you inject yourself with?"

"None of your business,"

His stare hardened, using his Alpha's command he repeated, "What did you inject yourself with?"

I leaned forward, "None of your business, need me to say it for the third time?"

"Fine then, what was wrong with you? Why did you need the injections?"

"You're saying I'll be staying here for a while? Then I guess you don't really need to know anytime soon." I sneered.

He remained unaffected, "So you have no problem in me destroying them then?"

I paused, "Don't."

"Tell me what they are,"

"I won't."

In a clipped tone, "Vance, take these to the incinerator," He pulled out the whole bag of needles. "I'll let you keep the bag."

The tall man, Vance, took the needles. I remembered his name, from the other day.

"Don't, please you can't take them," I started to plead, "They're nothing bad, please, I promise you Alpha let me keep them," I looked at his eyes with the most desperate expression I could, hoping I could guilt this mate of mine into letting me keep my injections.

Alexander hesitated, just for a moment, until giving Vance a nod as he then headed out the room.

I jumped up, ready to make a run for him to get them back, but the Farren girl was too quick, pulling me back and restraining me with her arms. I thrashed around, trying to get out, but it was no use.

"You," I snarled at Alexander, "Get your little friends out of this room so we can have a proper... chat."

"Help me restrain your mate to the bed then trust me, Harmony, Myra and I will be happy to get out of your hair," Farren said, handing over a pair of cuffs to Alexander as she started circling another around my wrist.

"You just carry those around, do you?" I asked rudely,

Farren rolled her eyes, "Wouldn't you like to know."

Once I had been completely restrained to the bed, the three other women left, all rather eager to leave my company. Alexander, however, sat down on the bed right next to me.

"The bond," He started, "You... Do you feel it too?"

I Gulped, "Yes." How on earth could I deny it? If I hadn't been in my right senses I would have leaned forward, kissed him and pinned him to the bed. But I was in the right senses, and I knew there was no way I could do that.

"And you're the Nightstalker?" He asked again.

I almost didn't say it, "Yes. That's me."

"You have quite a reputation, Nightstalker. I've heard you're the best."

I shrugged, "I've heard that too,"

"So why were you caught?"

I opened my mouth, "I... I don't know. I don't remember too much, only entering your office and all of a sudden, there was a dagger in my stomach. That's it."

He leaned over and grabbed my hand again. "That's fine, that's alright, I didn't expect you to remember." I stared at his hand, almost finding comfort in his holding. "You do know when I said you couldn't leave... I was completely honest about that. You won't be going anywhere."

I didn't respond. At least that way I would look defiant, no one could know that I actually needed to be here.

Alexander waited for me to say something, but when I said nothing he continued to talk. "I've been waiting for my mate for a while, though I don't want to push it onto you. We'll share a room, but nothing more. We can do this relationship at your pace-"

"And if I don't want this relationship?" I said sharply.

His entire face fell as if I had taken his little heart in my hand and crushed it.

"I would say letting you go is a death wish. But, let's compromise, say, three months? If you still are adamant that you don't want this relationship, well then, you can leave. I'll let you go without another word." He finally said, his shoulders sagging as he forced out the words.

I hid my glee well, this was perfect.

"Three months is fine. As long as you swear I can leave after that."

"I promise," He stated, "If you don't want to stay, after three months you can leave."

I leaned my head back against the board. "Your friends, I'm assuming your Beta and Gamma, do they all know of our relationship?"

"Yeah, though I will admit, some aren't too happy about it," Alexander admitted. "Good thing I'm the Alpha, not them."

I snorted, "Farren seems like a bitch,"

"Well starters, that's my sister." I opened my mouth to apologise but he kept going. "Her mate Myra was the one you stole from. She's a witch and you certainly took some important items. She didn't cope with it too well, and for Farren, her mates' emotions and feelings come first."

"And the blonde one? What's her name?"

"Harmony, she's human and probably the nicest person here."

I ran their names over my tongue, "Vance and Harmony, Farren and Myra and then Alexander Cain. Wolf and human, wolf and witch, and then the Alpha. What an interesting bunch."

He raised an eyebrow, "And what about your name? I would think that I deserve at least that."

I shook my head with a smile, "Come back early in the morning. I detest hospitals, and I certainly won't be staying here for another two days. But if you don't mind, I'd like to get some sleep."

I closed my eyes, showing him that this conversation was well and truly over. I heard him sigh and then ever so lightly, press a kiss to my cheek.

"Sleep well then, Nightstalker," He whispered before all I heard was the careful closing of the door.

Regardless of being chained to the bed, it was one of the nicest sleeps I've ever had.

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We had been called in for a meeting.

We were rarely called to a meeting, so when the announcement came out, I was immediately worried.

I met Ti halfway, since I was coming from the training room and she was coming from the labs, we were both on the same pathway.

"What do you think it's about?" She whispered.

"I have no idea," I replied back, "Hopefully nothing too bad."

We took our seats at the front of the hall, watching as everyone else slowly started to file in. I heard the loud click of the doors. We were locked in.

Madame Beaudeline, Master Skotus and Mistress Hemlock walked onto the stage, standing in one, clean row.

Madame Beaudeline, as always, stepped forward to the microphone. "Thank you, all, for taking the time to attend this meeting. As many of us are aware, our most dangerous, difficult and important missions within her field are assigned to Nightstalker, whom we can always count on to carry out these missions to success."

Ti and I shared a look.

"Currently, the Nightstalker is on a three-month mission in the Bloodlust pack, collecting information and destroying any leads that they may have on us. This mission is extremely important, and its results may or may not bring on the change our organisation has been waiting for-"

She continued to blab on about a million other things.

"Three-month deployment?" Ti whispered, "Why wouldn't she tell us?"

"Knowing the leaders, it wouldn't surprise me if she didn't know," I murmured back. "I think that Cas is in a very, very dangerous place right now."

Ti nodded, "Agreed. I suppose we'll just need to hope that she comes back safely."

We could hope all we wanted I supposed.

But Cas was stuck in the Bloodlust pack. If by some miracle, she was still alive, It certainly won't stay that way for long.

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