RAIDEN ||

My pups said he loved me!!

I love his stupid butt too!

It was beyond overwhelming to experience what my father told me about our contentment purr, it's never happened to me before, so I wasn't fully prepared for what was going to happen, but to say the least, I purred continuously for 5 hours straight after he told me that he loved me and I wanted to hide my face from the sheer embarrassment that threatened to take over.

Dylan thought it was the most funniest thing he's ever witnessed.

Like seriously, I've seen my father purr for hours on end with my mother, but I never thought it would actually happen to me and my father was correct in saying, it's not something that we can control.

There was no way to stop my incessant purring, until the pain in my back showed it's ugly head once again, completely shifting my thought process from that of pure bliss to that of pure distress.

I spent a total of 10 days in the hospital before Onyx came back to me and thank Goddess because I was finally able to heal.

I was discharged 3 days ago with 4 different meds, including 2 for pain and the other 2 were antibiotics that of course my pups fussed over, completely forgetting the first time we went through this and that all the directions would be on my discharge paperwork.

Dylan had demanded to know a specific time for each medication, even a location because apparently if I'm in the kitchen and it's time for my meds before bedtime, I should be laying down. So he wanted to know if I needed to be in the bedroom when it's time for the night time meds and if it's ok if I'm in the livingroom for the daytime meds.

He's an idiot, but he's my idiot.

Avery wasn't there this time to make fun of him and point out the fact that he should just look at the discharge forms, so I kept my mouth shut and enjoyed watching him sweat before Kyle finally told him to just check the forms that again, we're in his pocket.

I haven't forgotten about our talk after all these days either. I've tried so hard to get the information out of him after our talk about the messages that's been left for him. You would think with him almost losing me, telling me he loves me, cuddling in my hospital bed and kissing my face so much until I couldn't breath, that he would be willing to share the most important info about who's behind this shit, but nope.

He's chosen to stay completely quiet about it, the only thing he has told me is that he has a plan.

• • •

When we got back to the packhouse, Dylan helped me upstairs to his room. I decided that I would move back in with him due to the fact that we both said I love you now and who am I kidding, I'm overjoyed to be back with my beautiful mate.

These past 3 days, my back has been extremely sore the whole time even with the meds and although Onyx has been helping out with the healing process, I was still having trouble with things like getting dressed or putting my shoes on.

Even brushing my teeth or pulling my hair into a bun proved difficult. I didn't realize how much you actually use your back muscles for.

Of course Dylan has been helping me and I think he's been loving every minute of it too. There was one point yesterday when I needed help washing and combing my hair and he was all too eager to assist.

Probably because I'm so ridiculous about my hair, there's not one soul on this Earth that I would allow to touch it, but now with my back as bad as it is, Dylan has clearly seen this as his moment of glory.

"Stop moving so much!" Pups laughed as his fingers continued to massage my scalp. I close my eyes as an attempt to keep calm.

"I'm not moving!" I growled as he gently dunked my head under the water for like the fifth time.

"Yes you are babe, now be still or I can't get all the shampoo out." If I could roll my eyes with them closed already, I totally would.

"Are you done yet? The water is getting in my eyes." I snarled as I felt him ringing out my hair underneath the water.

"No I'm not done yet, you have a lot of stupid hair babe, you need to cut some of this shit off."

"My hair is not stupid! It's fabulous and if you ever tell me to cut it again, I will spank your ass pups."

"No you won't." He chuckled.

"I will if you keep it up."

"Yeah ok." I could almost see the way he was rolling his eyes right now.

He better hurry the hell up and rinse this shampoo out of my hair because I'm about a toenail away from snapping.

"Ok all done crybaby leopard."

Oh man! As soon as my back is better, I'm kicking his ass or fucking him in it! Yeah... I like the second option a lot better.

Slowly standing upright, Dylan wrapped a towel around my head and started to dry my hair. I appreciated the gesture, but the rough movements he was doing was causing my back muscles to painfully spasm.

"Ow, ow, ow Pups.... my back, gentle." I breathed out trying to move his hands from my head.

"Fuck, I'm sorry babe.. shit I'm sorry." He kissed the back of my neck a few times, sending a shiver up my spine.

I can't wait for the day I can take my mate in a way that I'm sure only I could.

I allowed him to finish drying my hair, his movements were a lot better this time before we finally walked out of the bathroom.

Grabbing a shirt from the closet, I put my arms up slightly, so Dylan could help me pull it on. Usually he went painfully slow with this, but right now, he seemed to be in a hurry. He was still gentle with the way he helped me though.

"Pups, can we please talk about who's behind these attacks?" I ask, climbing into bed in front of him.

Dylan carefully wrapped his arms around me and nuzzled his face into the back of my neck.

"No babe, I don't want to stress you out any further. I told you I have-"

"A plan. I know you have a plan, but that doesn't make me feel any better pups. What is your plan?"

"I don't want to tell you because I know if I do, you won't let me do it."

"I might, but you'll never know unless you tell me and then I can give you my opinion." I frowned.

"Which I don't want babe." He tells me as he turns me in his arms, making me face him. "I don't want you stressing out about this. You're injured and still healing, so let me handle this and trust me when I say, I won't get hurt in the process."

My frown deepens as I shake my head.

"I don't believe that, if it's one thing I've learned about you, it's that you will put yourself in harms way to get something done."

"Say the man who literally ran off into the woods by himself and got hurt." He growls. "You could have died, you almost did, so you don't really have the right to lecture me about putting myself in harms way when you've done with same thing."

I hate it when he makes sense. Where was the irrational, silly alpha wolf I've grown to love?

"Fine, that's fair." I tell him quietly. "But you not telling me about your plans and then going off to do something when I can't protect you, makes me nervous pups."

He smiled softy before leaning in to place a gentle kiss on my lips.

"Stop worrying baby, I will be fine... I'll have Gabe and Hunter and Taj with me." He whispers against my lips before leaning back to look into my eyes. "Not to mention, I'll have 10 other warriors with me. Everything will be fine and I won't do anything to put myself in danger."

I frown again before letting my hardened expression falter as I sighed in defeat.

"Promise?" I ask quietly.

"Promise." He reassures, so I nod.

Falling asleep in my mates arms seemed like an action done so long ago, but I was so happy with his body cuddled into mine.

I woke up a few hours later, feeling the loss of my mates body warmth.

Looking around our dark bedroom, I couldn't see him and his scent wasn't as strong as it was with his presence, so I figured he left the room.

I get up the best I could with the pain in my back and make my way out the room, walking down the hall, following his scent until I stopped outside of the office.

"Tomorrow or the next day, yes." Pups says.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" I'm sure that was Gabe's voice.

"The pack has to know who their Luna is sometime Gabe."

"But I thought he didn't want to be the Luna." I know that was Hunter's voice.

"Hunter, just because my mate doesn't want to be called Luna, doesn't mean that he's not the Luna."

"But he can't run the pack while we're gone Dylan, give it over to your dad or Jake for the time being." Gabe says.

"No, I'm not doing that." My mate tells him.

"Why not?" Gabe asks.

"Because I don't trust them right now. They know something and they're not telling me what it is so until they do, I won't be giving them any sort of power over my pack."

"Why don't you just command the answer out of them?" Hunter asks.

"Because I don't know what answer I'm looking for. I can't just command them to tell me the truth when I don't know what truth I'm searching for."

"Ok, so then what about tomorrow? We're just going to leave and pray to Goddess that Raiden can run the pack by himself?" Hunter asks, making me freeze as I listen on the other side of the door.

Wait a fucking minute!

I can't run this pack by myself, what is my pups thinking? No, I can't do that.

"No, I'm not going to just leave him alone to do everything. Gabe is going to stay here with my mate and help him through all of this."

"Wait what? Why do I have to stay?"

"Because you're my Beta and that's your job."

"Then who's going to go with you and act as your Beta?"

"Taj."

Oh fuck no... that little weasel. I still don't trust that guy.

"Fine, I can trust that he will watch your back and you'll have Hunter too." Gabe whines.

"And the rest of the warriors from the shadow pack as well." Hunter says.

"Agreed." Dylan said.

Their conversation had come to a halt when I heard someone else in the office with them.

"I hope to do the best job I can to serve you Alpha."

Taj, that fucking little shit.

"So where's the first stop tomorrow then?" Hunter asks.

"The nearest rogue camp, behind the stone waterfall, if we can't locate Nicholas and Evan there, then we move to next one."

"And which one would that be?" Hunter asks.

"The one I sent you and Gabe to scout, the area where you met Roman."

"Where is this second rogue camp Alpha?" Taj asks.

"About a 4 day trip from here, on the other side of the mountain, near the raging rapids of the Silver River." Hunter explains.

"That's a great place to start!" Taj practically yells his excitement.

"Do you know the land?" Dylan asks.

"Yes Alpha, very well... I would never forget the way of the Silver River... I found someone very important to me there." Taj says.

"Oh yeah, who was that?"

"My mate."

I thought that little shit said his mate was back in the Shadow Pack? How is it that Taj met his mate at a river if he belonged to a pack?

Is that normal for wolves? To go searching for their mates at rivers? What the hell...

"Well that's perfect then. Taj, you can lead the way alongside Hunter. Now that we will all have an idea of what's going to happen, let's get some sleep, big day tomorrow."

With that, I rushed back to our room, the fastest my feet would take me before opening the door and climbing onto the bed.

As soon as my mate walked in, I locked eyes with him and snarled.

"You lied, little one."

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