DYLAN ||

"I-I have to talk about it." Raiden rasps out.

"No, not right now baby. You need to rest. Kyle said you can't talk too much."

"P-pups, I h-have to tell y-you."

I groaned before rolling my eyes. This man of mine has been trying for 2 days now, to tell me about what happened that night in the forest, but Kyle said he shouldn't be talking too much.

Of course he refuses to listen though. Getting Raiden to listen to medical advice was as hard as watching someone else drink my apple juice.

"You're not going to stop fighting me until I listen, are you?" I sigh as he shakes his head.

"N-no."

"Fine, I'll listen, but take it slow ok." Babe nods so I allow myself to sink into my chair next to his hospital bed and listen to what he has to say.

"I followed T-Taj that n-night." He starts before adjusting his upper body.

"I g-got lost and e-eventually got to t-the eastern s-side of the b-border.. I-I seen a man p-pulling a dead w-wolf through t-the gate, I thought it w-was Taj, so I w-walked up to him, b-but then somebody s-stabbed me from behind and s-said now you'll know real pain."

I frown as I listened to what my man just said. So there were two men there that night?

"I-I fell af-after I w-was stabbed, t-then the men t-turned my body over and t-they were con-confused who I w-was."

"Wait what?" I ask, he nods.

"Y-yes pups, t-they were con-confused. I-I couldn't r-really see their f-faces, but t-they were sc-scared. One asked m-my name and w-was panicking w-when I told him. H-he told the other one t-to call f-for help because h-he said I wasn't the intended t-target."

So dad and uncle Jake didn't have anything to do with the attack on my mate then. There were two other men there and they attacked my mate, but were scared because they attacked the wrong man?

None of this shit makes sense!

"Th-they said t-to tell my current alpha t-that they are c-coming for you sooner t-than you th-think."

Fuck...

I'm the current Alpha, so I am the target, but what does that mean? They're coming sooner than I think? When are they coming for me? What the fuck do they want? Who have I pissed off this much?

"P-pups, b-before I p-passed out, I h-heard someone c-call my name.... W-was that you?" He asks, but I didn't have a clear answer for that.

I did call his name when we found him, but he was already passed out and minutes away from death when we showed up. So there's no way that he could have heard me.

"Baby, when I showed up, you were already passed out. There was so much blood and you were so cold, I don't think it was me that you heard."

As soon as the words leave my minds, my mind snaps back to the fact that dad and uncle Jake were there. Maybe they were the ones Raiden heard, maybe they did try to help him!

"Babe, my dad and uncle Jake were there when I showed up, they said they were scouting the area after they checked on you. They said you were cold to the touch too and that they couldn't find a pulse, you didn't respond when they called out to you."

"Y-yes I d-did pups... I t-told the m-man who I h-heard to help me."

What the fuck...

Dad and uncle Jake never told me Raiden said anything to them when they got there. They said he was unresponsive, they said he was cold to the touch and they couldn't find a pulse.

They said they thought he was dead.

How? How could they have thought that if he asked for help?

"Unless they weren't the ones to find him first." Maddox whispers.

FUCK!

I knew someone in my pack falsified the reports on my mate, but who would be right under my nose attacking our pack, just to help my mate?

Why would they leave him there to die then?

Why call out to him and leave him??

"P-pups, the first m-message said w-what?"

I thought back to the day I spent with my mate, the run we went on together, yelling at Maddox because he was being a little slut for Onyx, then Gabe yelled through the link.

We ran back to the packhouse, there was a dead rogue wolf with a message that Gabe handed to me.

"Your alpha took everything from me, now I'm going to return the favor." I tell my mate as I recalled the words on the first message.

"T-then the second m-message came 5 days later." He says, making me think back to that day.

I was in the office, Raiden was sitting across from me. That was right after I found out he didn't cause the rogue attacks, we argued because I wanted to punish myself and my family. I wanted to lock us away like I did him, but he didn't want that.

Eventually he called me ridiculous or tried to, but Gabe and Hunter busted into the office and told us there was another incident.

We rushed out the packhouse and ran to the... eastern side of the border. The same side where Raiden was attacked, the same side that we had just built the gate on.

There was a dead rogue wolf hanging by its neck in a tree. I was in shock at the sight in front of me. Gabe walked up to the wolf and grabbed the note on its body and handed it to Raiden.

He showed me the message the next day after I woke up because I needed to sleep off the horrors that flooded my mind.

"I will never forget." I whisper, recalling the words of the second message.

"And now, t-the third m-message." Babe says, narrowing his eyes at me.

7 days ago now, that's when the attack on my mate happened. He said he was on the eastern side of the border, he seen a man pulling a dead rogue wolf through the huge hole in the gate.

Raiden thought it was Taj and he tried to confront the man, but another stabbed him in the back and said...

Now you will know real pain..

Babe said he collapsed, the men turned his body and didn't recognize him, they panicked and called for help, but who would they call? I would know if they used the pack link, I left it wide open.

So who the fuck attacked my mate? Who the fuck was behind these attacks?

Babe said one of the men told him to tell his current alpha that are coming for me sooner than I think.

Uncle Jake had the message this time, he said dad didn't want me to have it.

The message from that night said..

"I never stopped loving you." I say as more of a question because it didn't make much sense to me right now.

"T-think pups... t-the first m-message said you t-took everything from someone, the second said t-they would n-never forget and the third m-message said they w-would never stop loving y-you."

I shake my head as I pondered my mates words, there's nobody out there I could think of that all those messages would connect with.

"D-did you or your dad or m-maybe Bennett hurt anyone in t-the past? Take something from t-them? Something th-they feel like they need to repay you for?"

I can't think of anything or anyone.

Bennett wasn't even the Alpha yet when he died, so he couldn't have taken anything from anyone, he couldn't have made any harsh decisions or pissed someone off to the point to where they wanted to hurt me.

I've only been Alpha for 3 years and I haven't made a single decision without my dad or uncle Jake's influence, but I've never punished anyone except my mate. I've never hurt anyone except rogues, I've never pissed another Alpha off enough for them to want revenge on me.

I look back at my mate.

"I haven't taken anything from anyone babe, I haven't punished anyone besides you, I haven't done anything bad enough to make someone hold onto it and take revenge against me."

"B-Bennett?" He asks, I shake my head.

"No, my brother didn't become Alpha before he died, he couldn't have made decisions. My dad was still the Alpha, so...."

I pause as soon as the words left my lips.

My dad was still the Alpha.

Could he have done something to someone this bad to make them want revenge? Could he have taken something from someone to make them want it back? Could he have hurt someone to the point to where they would want to hurt me?

I rack my brain as hard as I could, thinking of the past issues that involved me and him.

There was something in elementary when he fired my 3rd grade teacher then banished her family because her son hit me.

There was a time in middle school where Bennett beat up an older kid when I was in sixth grade because he was picking on me because of my height. I hit puberty a lot later than other wolves my age. Dad got involved and demoted his family from beta rank to omega rank.

There was this kid in gym class in high school that beat me to a pulp during training lessons because I hadn't gotten my wolf yet, so I wasn't a strong as he was. Usually our wolves come to us at the age of 13, but Maddox came to me when I was 15. Dad got involved in that too and made that same kid fight him, which definitely wasn't a fair fight, but he said it was same thing when the kid fought me because I wasn't a fair match to him.

Then there was after Bennett died, I was 16 and my hearing had gotten a lot worse, I was picked on a lot for it especially because I was going to be the next Alpha with Bennett gone.

A lot of kids picked on me because of it, but the worse was..

Oh fuck...

Nicholas and Evan..

They were Goddess awful to me, constantly picking on me, making fun of my hearing aids, threatening to tell the entire school and pack that I was partially deaf and not fit to be Alpha. They loved Bennett, but always thought I was his annoying, pathetic little brother.

Dad got involved in that too..

He kicked their entire families out the pack..

Oh fuck...

Everything fits.

The first message said "Your alpha took everything from me, now I'm going to return the favor."

That message could have been for me or my dad because they never specified which Alpha and if I was kicked out of my birth pack, forced to become rogue, that would definitely be something that qualified as something being taken from you.

The second message said "I will never forget."

That message could have been for me or my dad as well, if I was Nicholas or Evan, I would never forget the man who banished my family or the man's son that was the reason behind it.

One of the men that attacked my mate said "tell your current alpha that we're coming for him sooner than he thinks"

That threat was definitely for me, making it clear that they meant me because they said current alpha.

The last message said "I never stopped loving you"

If I was Nicholas or Evan, that could mean the pack. They never stopped loving the pack they were born and raised into. They never stopped loving the land they know, the wolves they know.

Shit...

Babe always said they didn't recognize him when they saw him after they stabbed him. That makes complete sense because they wouldn't know him. Only pack members would.

It has to be them, there's nobody else it could be that would hold this much animosity towards me. I was the reason they lost everything, including themselves.

Wolves know once you lose the link to your pack, you eventually become more animal than human, more beast than man. If a wolf doesn't find a pack, eventually they become a full blown rogue, a vicious, bloodthirsty monster with no humanity left.

Nicholas and Evan were kicked out the pack 7 years ago, the same year Bennett died.

The only question now is why wait so long??

If they wanted revenge on me or my dad, why wait 7 years to get it?

"P-pups." I focused back on my mate when he called out to me. I stare into his eyes as he tilts his head to the side.

Minutes tick by without either one of us uttering a single word before I break the deafening silence.

"I know who's behind this babe...."

_____________________________