cloud

Raiden and I are one of the first to leave the room once the meeting is over. With our hands interwoven, the two of us walk out of the building and back to our house. When we get there, we head to the couch and take a seat.

I can't help but worry about what was said at the meeting though. Raiden would be away fighting and after what happened with Maia, I was worried he'd get hurt in some way.

"Cloud?" Raiden calls out. "Are you okay?"

"Ye—" I start to say, but I stop. If we were actually going to try and change for the better then it meant being honest with each other. "I'm worried," I say instead.

Raiden's brows furrow. "About what?"

"You," I admit to him. "I'm worried about you being a part of the raid. There's still so much we don't know and he is after you. Wouldn't it make more sense for you to not be there?"

Raiden falls quiet at my words. When I glance over at him, I can see the gears turning in his head as he tries to plan out his next words.

"Maybe it technically would be," Raiden agrees. "But, I want to go with Team B. I need to be there when they find Beta Reo."

"You do know that Alpha Demos taking him isn't your fault, right, Raiden?" I ask carefully.

My mate looks over at me and sighs. "I need to do this, Cloud. Trust me when I say that I'll be okay and will be back before you even know it."

I want to try and convince him otherwise, but instead, I bite my tongue and nod. I knew that this was important to him and as much as it bothers me, I trusted him. Knowing Raiden, he's probably been thinking about the beta nonstop and now this is a chance to put those bottled-up feelings to rest.

"Okay," I tell him. "I trust you."

Raiden smiles over at me. He turns before leaning forward and placing his lips on mine.

"I love you," Raiden says.

"I love you too," I reply.

Raiden's smile grows and he begins to talk about something else, but his team placement was the only thing that was on my mind. I was also thinking about something else, or rather, someone else. With everything going on, I hadn't seen Alpha Tatum much recently outside of group settings. I wonder how he was taking everything. I knew that for the most part, he appeared as though he had everything put together, but I worried about what was going on underneath the mask he wore. I doubt that he's slept much or done anything else for that matter outside of planning and I was starting to worry about him.

"Hey, Rai?" I say. "I think I'm going to go speak with Alpha Tatum before it gets too dark."

Raiden's brows furrow. "What do you need to speak about?"

"Nothing much, but I just want to make sure he's okay. I mean, everyone else has someone they can talk to, but he's all alone. I just want to check up on him, that's all."

I stand up from my spot on the couch, but before I can take a step, Raiden grips my arm.

"You're funny if you think I'm letting you go on your own," he shakes his head. "Hold on, let me get the keys and I'll drive you."

"That's not—"

"It is," Raiden cuts me off, his voice firm. "With everything going on, the last thing I want is for you to be alone and for something to happen."

The way he stares at me tells me that this is nonnegotiable so I just nod. Raiden stands up to go grab his keys and I head out to the car. Once I'm strapped inside, I begin to think about where Alpha Tatum may be. I didn't have the liberty of using mind link like the others and I had a feeling he wouldn't answer even if I did. There was a chance that he'd be at his office or his home, but I had a strong suspicion that he'd be at the hospital right about now.

Raiden comes out of the house a few seconds later and climbs into the car before saying, "Alright, where are we heading to?"

"The hospital," I tell him.

His eyes linger on me for a minute. "I'm guessing he told you about his mate?"

I nod slowly. "Yeah, pretty recently."

Raiden says nothing else about the situation. I wonder just how many people knew. Did the whole pack or was it just a select few? It made sense that the whole pack may have known seeing as his mate is in the hospital. I couldn't have been the only one to have spotted them before. If that was the case though, I guess it was a sore topic amongst the others. Nobody ever really spoke about it.

Raiden begins to drive and I rest my head on the window. Soon we'd have to split up and while I wasn't looking forward to it, I was looking forward to putting this all behind us. I wanted to move on from the ferals, the lab, all of it once and for all. I knew I wasn't the only one thinking like this. We all had plans and wishes to see through after this was done.

It's almost funny how much changed in such a short amount of time. There was still so much left to do, but I was excited for once. I was excited to see where I ended up, to see what the future had in store.

When we pull up at the hospital, I quickly hop out of the car and go inside. Raiden doesn't come with me which was probably for the best. I quickly check with the lady at the front desk and while she was a little hesitant to let me pass, I ultimately made it through. I walk down the familiar hall (not attempting this time) and stop when I arrive at the room. As expected, Alpha Tatum sits inside, his arms crossed over his chest as he stares blankly at the wall in front of him. I raise my fist and knock quietly on the door causing his eyes to turn to me.

I slowly open it and step inside. Alpha Tatum says nothing, likely waiting for me to explain why I was here.

"Hi," I greeted quietly. "I just wanted to see how you were with everything happening. I haven't really seen you that much besides in the meetings."

Alpha Tatum doesn't reply immediately. His head drops to the floor and I can see a small, bitter smile break out on his face.

"How am I?" He repeats the question before letting out a dry laugh. "How well can I really be with all the sit going on?"

Though I didn't know how close they truly were, I had a feeling that Alpha Tatum was going to take Beta Reo's kidnapping the hardest. I mean, it hurt Raiden deeply, but for someone who spent as much time with the beta as Alpha Tatum did, this must've been eating him up. Not to mention what happened to Maia as well.

"How do you take finding out that your beta, someone you see as a brother, disappeared into thin air then learn that he might be being fucking subjected to rape? How do you take finding out that your gamma nearly died because of some sick bastard who can't take no for an answer?" He scowls. "How do you take finding out that there was a fucking traitor among your pack members?"

The last one causes my eyebrows to raise. "Traitor?"

He briefly glances over at me and then back at his mate before sighing. "Hopper," he explains. "Reo linked Hopper right before Raiden and Maia left. I was talking with Maia, trying to find out why I wasn't aware that Demos was even on the pack lands. How he managed to get so close to the warriors and knock them out without them noticing that he was there. He was covering his scent. He knew when would be a good time to come because he was told beforehand. Hopper was supposed to link me so I could help and the piece of shit waited until Demos had already taken Reo before doing so. Demos sent rogues after he left and Hopper tried to use those to act as if the beta was already gone when he got there. I would've been more likely to believe it had Raiden not told me that Reo had already linked Hopper before everything happened and if I hadn't been alerted of the rogues getting close before they showed up. His timeline doesn't make sense. The rogues haven't covered nearly as well as Demos and they weren't that strong either — especially for a head warrior. He had time even if they were already there when he showed up."

"So that's why he wasn't at the meetings or there when Maia was in the hospital. But what did he gain from doing all of this?"

"Power," Alpha Tatum doesn't miss a beat. "Demos' pack is bigger than ours like I said before, but his head warrior is nearly on his death bed and he had no children making the spot up for grabs. Hopper would've transferred there and taken the role had everything gone smoothly. Now, he's on his deathbed and soon to be awaiting trial."

"You can't continue to blame yourself—"

"I should've known," Alpha Tatum cuts me off. "That's my job for fucks sake. I should've paid more attention, but I didn't think Hopper was capable of doing this and I wanted to give Alpha Tatum the benefit of the doubt seeing as we were allies for so long before everything happened."

"Maybe you should've, but what good is sitting here being mad about what you change do?" I ask him. "Sure, you want to blame yourself. Alright, do it once and move on. Beta Reo wouldn't want you sitting here sulking, not when you're needed the most. You haven't been taking care of yourself, but if we want this to go smoothly then you need to be in your best form. If not for yourself then for Beta Reo, your mate, the rescues, and the pack."

Alpha Tatum's eyes remain glued on the dark-skinned man laying in the bed. Seeing the man made a shiver run through my body. Is this what it was like when Gray found me? I force the thought away and stare at Alpha Tatum. The frown was still evident on his face, but he didn't disagree with my words.

"I'll leave you be with your mate, but please do take care of yourself. The last thing anybody wants is for something to happen to you because you were tired, hungry, and ultimately just not feeling well. Take care of yourself, Tatum."

I drop the 'alpha' title and Tatum's eyes shoot to me briefly, but he doesn't point it out. Instead, I see his head barely tilt in a nodding gesture. Knowing that he'll take better care of himself manages to calm me down and I turn and slip back out the door. As I walk down the hall, I take one last glance back through the windows and I see his mouth moving before he squeezes his mate's hand. He'll be okay. I was sure of it.