5. Helping Her Cool Down

Stefan’s POV

I knew something was off, from the moment I saw her at the club.

I didn’t feel that pull I hear other werewolves talking about. Apparently, when you meet your soulmate for the first time, you’re supposed to feel some crazy pull, as if some otherworldly power is pulling your souls together.

And unless they die, or you reject them and mate with someone else, you’ll always feel that connection.

But maybe that’s because this is not the first time I’m meeting her. I felt that pull back then. That’s how I knew she was my destiny, and why I haven’t been able to rest easy until I found her.

That itself was crazy—feeling the pull when I did. I was fifteen, she was ten. I hadn’t shifted for the first time yet. That happened when I was eighteen. And that’s when I was supposed to be able to feel my mate, had they been around. But I recognised her as my destiny long before my wolf showed up.

But then again, my wolf isn’t your everyday wolf. So, while it might seem odd to many of my kind, it doesn’t frazzle me. I’ve never worked like other werewolves, and it appears that I’m not about to start.

“Alpha?”

I snap my head up to find Levi, my Beta, looking at me expectantly. What was it that we were talking about, again?

Levi exchanges a look with Andreas, then glances back at me. “Will you go to suppress them?”

I blink and look between my two subordinates. Suppress who again?

It’s Hanna who sighs, catching on to my absentmindedness. “The Ravenwood Pack, boss. There has been some activity down there. We suspect some remnants are organising a revenge attack.”

A revenge attack?

How ridiculous.

I’m half tempted to let them go ahead with their plans. That way, we’ll show every werewolf out here what happens when you mess with me.

I lift my hand and wave it dismissively. “Levi, take a few of the guys and go deal with them.”

There’s silence, and I look up at my second in command.

He clears his throat and shifts on his feet. For a big guy like him, he sure knows how to look unsettled. “You’re not coming with us?”

I shake my head, almost automatically, and the three exchange glances.

Damn, nothing lets you know you’re out of your element better than three people who really know you exchanging glances that seem to suggest, ‘Is he out of his mind?’

“I’m not going anywhere until she wakes up,” I tell them out loud.

I wouldn’t bother explaining myself to anybody else. But these three aren’t just anybody. These three are my most trusted aides. They were there before I had everything I have today. When I had nobody. I trust them with my life, and that’s saying a lot.

“Of course,” Hanna says, nodding.

“Right, boss, I’ll get right to it,” Levi reports.

“I would like to accompany him,” Hanna tells me.

Andreas looks at her, frowning. “If you go, I go.”

Hanna adopts an annoyed expression. “I’m not a kid anymore, Andreas. You don’t have to follow me wherever I go. I can hold my own.”

Andreas doesn’t look any less worried. “I know, but—”

“But nothing,” she tells him, then turns to me. “Can I go, Alpha?”

I look between the siblings. Andreas has always been protective of his little sister. But she’s right, she isn’t a kid anymore, and she can hold her own. Hanna can hunt and fight better than most of the werewolves under my command. And that’s a hell lot of them.

I get where Andreas is coming from, but maybe he needs a little help realising his sister is a twenty-five-year-old she-wolf who can kick anyone’s ass across the room. Besides, he needs to get used to the idea of being separated from her during missions. These three are my best warriors, and I might need them in different places at some point.

I turn to him. “Are you really worried, when she’s with Levi?”

Andreas shifts on his feet. “It isn’t that,” he grumbles.

“You can go,” I tell Hanna. “Andreas, I need you here at the compound.”

Andreas turns to Levi, knowing there’s no way to change my mind. “If anything happens to her, I’ll skin your ass alive,” he threatens.

Levi approaches him and slaps him on his shoulder. “Yeah, buddy, got that,” he says, then turns to me. “We’ll leave now, boss.”

I nod at him and he turns, his heavy boots making steady thuds on the wooden floor as he goes.

“Thanks, boss,” Hanna tells me, then turns to her brother. She gives him a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek. “See you later, bro.”

Then she’s gone, hurrying after Levi.

Andreas grunts and rubs his beard as he watches her go. I can feel how much he wants to go after her. But he knows he can’t unless I take back my command.

“What’s the time?” I ask him, rubbing my hand across my eyes. I’ve been awake for almost twenty-four hours now. Until she awakes, I cannot calm down enough to fall asleep.

“Half-past five,” he replies.

Almost sundown. By the time Levi and Hanna get to the Ravenwood Pack, it’ll be around eight o’clock at night.

I rise to my feet. “I’ll go check on Mari. Keep an eye on things.”

He nods. “Sure, boss.”

I walk down the platform and cross the room to the door.

“Open,” Andreas calls out, and the guards outside push the door open before I can reach them. They bow their heads as I walk past, and so does everyone I come across as I make my way through the main part of the house and up the stairs.

She better be awake.

My hypnosis isn’t supposed to knock her out for an entire night and day.

The thought that I could have hurt her in some way slithers into my mind, and it makes my stomach sick.

I shake my head.

No, she’s alright.

The hypnosis probably worked on her differently because she’s human.

“Is she awake?” I ask the guard stationed outside her door when I get there.

He shakes his head. “Not yet, Alpha.”

Fucking hell.

Then he opens the door, and I walk right through. A woman is sitting beside her bed, a healer. She shoots to her feet when she sees me and bows. “Alpha.”

“How’s she?” I ask, walking over to her bedside.

“Alpha, she’s—”

“What the fuck happened to her face?” I demand, my eyes making out the dark marks on her skin. I lean in and inspect her closely. There are dark bruises on her brow, cheeks, chin, neck… My blood freezes in my veins. Did somebody try to strangle my mate?

I don’t realise I’m growling until I notice the healer, whimpering and shivering in the corner of the room. Hands held in front of her face, she stutters, “She…she was sweating a lot, and I wiped her face, and…and…she was…. She was like that.”

My hands curl into fists at my side. “Leave us.”

She doesn’t hesitate. Grabbing a bowl from the bedside cabin, she bows before rushing for the door. She’s gone in an instant, as if afraid I’ll tear her head off. I would if I thought she had anything to do with Mari’s bruises.

Relaxing my hands, I sit down beside her and inspect her closely. Somebody beat her up, that’s for sure. I’ve had my own share of beatings to know how one looks afterwards.

But she looked okay last night…

The healer mentioned wiping her face. Right. She had been wearing a lot of makeup last night.

My frozen blood turns to boiling as I connect the dots. It has to be that asshole from the club. The one who had the guts to point a gun at her. Why in the seven hells did I leave him breathing?

I’m not going to make that mistake again when I go looking for him. But for now, I need her to wake up.

Her skin is too hot beneath my touch. Maybe if I help her cool down, she’ll wake up.

Getting to my feet, I shrug out of my jacket and hang it on the chair the healer just vacated. My shirt follows, then my shoes, socks, and pants.

Done, I pull the sheet away from her body and lie down next to her. Then I wrap my arms around her and hold her close.

This had better work.