Chapter 5

ENZO

“You know her?”

He moved in for a closer look and lifted her arm up, looking for something. He sucked in a sharp breath when he saw a deep bruise on her arm.

“I met her today. The altercation that I mentioned earlier happened when we stopped at a diner for lunch. No idea what in the fuck had happened, but her boss was already holding her arm tightly, as can be seen for it to bruise that deeply, and had his other hand poised to strike her. I intervened and promised that I’d break his wrist if he tried striking her. He ran away like a pussy. She thanked me and told me her name.”

The growl this time wasn’t from Titan but me. Niccolò looked at me in surprise at my reaction. Yeah, get in line because I was just as surprised. He just cleared his throat and continued.

“This morning, I had gotten the feeling that something big was going to happen today. That’s why I had the guys with me today. I think that I was led to that diner for more than just protecting her from her boss but because this was going to happen tonight. I have no idea why they came to suburbia. I highly doubt that they just randomly came across her.”

My eyes were drawn back down to this woman. I was thankful that he was there on both accounts. I could tell that Titan was too.

I cleared my throat and focused on the task at hand. We needed to get going and needed to get her checked out. There was no telling what all she had been through, but she had just been in a serious accident and was currently unconscious.

“We need to get her checked out. You should come with us on the off-chance that she wakes up and freaks out. Her seeing you might help in that case,” I told him.

He nodded and went to give everyone instructions before opening the backseat of his car for me. It wasn’t as fast as my car, but I doubted that Violet would want to wake up on his lap. I could already imagine how big of a disaster that would be.

“Joshua, I’m trusting you with my car. Keep in mind that I will defenestrate you from the executive floor of Vittori Enterprises if any harm comes to it.”

He caught my key fob and swallowed hard. His Adam’s apple bobbed before bowing his head in understanding, knowing that it wasn’t a threat of throwing him off of the fifteenth floor of my building but a promise to do it if he fucked up the perfect work of art that was my car.

Niccolò snickered and waited for me to get her situated before he took a seat next to her so that he could keep an eye on how she was doing.

I was taking her to the pack because we had no idea about the circumstances surrounding why they had her. Therefore, affording her more protection. Our pack’s medical professionals were some of the best around. Midnight pack also had a few additional healers that could help fix her up depending on what all was wrong.

I kept looking at her through the rearview mirror as I pushed this car to its limits, worried that she was so still and hadn’t moved or woken up.

My thoughts confused the shit out of me because I never really had this reaction to anyone, stranger or not, even if they needed help. Perhaps it was just the long day and circumstances in which we found her. Yes, that was probably it.

I made a call to Dr. Sutton, explaining the circumstances the best that I could. I told her to have everything set up in one of the empty rooms on the Alpha floor. It was the most secured area of the packhouse.

“What do you think Dad’s going to say when he hears you want to put an outsider not only in the packhouse but on the Alpha floor?” Niccolò asked me curiously.

There was no humor or sarcasm behind his question. Niccolò was the type who knew when and where joking around was appropriate, a quality that our other two siblings lacked entirely.

Dad’s reaction was unpredictable. He was a damn good Alpha. That meant he considered every angle and potentiality that he could. Therefore, he would consider what risks would be associated with Violet’s presence, especially because she was a stranger. All we knew about her was that she nearly got attacked by her boss and had been in the custody of hunters.

“Don’t know and don’t really care. Regardless of everything else, she clearly needs help,” I told him.

A look of contemplation fell over his face when he looked at her. There was a softness in his eyes, something that I didn’t see often with him.

Niccolò was a lot like me. We were both hardasses that many people would consider to be cold and calculating. We weren’t the soft type at all, so it took me by surprise to see that look in his eyes.

“Dion and I both feel protective of her. It’s not just because she needs help, but we almost feel like it’s our duty. I know that makes no sense. It’s hard to explain, but it feels like she’s important. We wouldn’t have been led to her twice if that was not the case.”

His wolf, Dion, was an extremely calculating individual. He could look at a situation and almost immediately see it from ten different angles. He had the most strategic mind I’d ever encountered before. So, it was a serious thing for him to admit all of this.

At least it wasn’t just me that was feeling out of sorts when it came to her.

Niccolò’s intuition always occurred for a reason. As he pointed out, it led him to her twice. His gift was one thing that he didn’t bullshit about. So, if he said that he felt this way then it was honest and sincere.

We lapsed into silence for the rest of the trip. The guards saw me and dipped their heads in acknowledgement once we got to the pack’s entrance. The gate opened, allowing us to pass. We took security seriously in the Midnight pack.

There had been a time when rogues and other packs would attack us, aiming to take our natural resources and absorbing a pack this size. We had over eight hundred pack members, making this a large pack. People saw us as threats and prizes, wanting what we had without working for it. Therefore, we implemented many security protocols that would protect us.

I mindlinked Dr. Sutton to let her know that we were a few minutes away. She was waiting outside of the packhouse when I pulled up.

Hopping out, I opened the door for him. He got out of the car, being as gentle as possible. Unfortunately, neither of us had been equipped to assess her at the scene.

Had something serious been wrong with her? It was possible with the crash and all. The same one that we caused. Had we known that there was someone other than hunters there, we would’ve changed how we went about things. Plus, the blame was not solely on us. The idiot had slammed on his breaks when he shouldn’t have.

I linked one of the warriors, asking him to park the car properly while I followed Dr. Sutton and my brother.

“Right in here,” she said, opening the door between mine and Niccolò’s rooms.

While I didn’t live here, I did still have a room here for whenever I needed to stay over. That way, I wouldn’t have to take a random room each time.

We filled her in on what little we knew. I had no idea who hurt her, but those hunters would have hell to pay for anything they had done. It appeared that Niccolò wasn’t the only one feeling protective.

She had us leave the room so that she could examine her in private. While we were waiting, Diego called to check in and let us know that everything was taken care of at the scene.

After a while, Dr. Sutton beckoned us back inside. Violet just looked as if she was sleeping. She already looked a little bit better thanks to Dr. Sutton’s healing ability.

“She didn’t sustain any life-threatening injuries. I have someone bringing over a specialized antibiotic cream that we use with our human patients.”

I cocked a brow at that. My feet brought me closer to her so that I could scent her properly. I had been so focused that I hadn’t scented her to see what type of supernatural she was. Confusion rocked through me.

“What in the hell were they doing with a human? I found no evidence of a shifter counterpart, so she’s not a werewolf,” Dr. Sutton mentioned.

‘She’s not human,’ Titan said adamantly. ‘I don’t know what she is or why she appears human, but she’s not, well not fully. Maybe she’s a hybrid. I can sense power inside of her, but I have no idea what it is or what it does.’

You could color me even more confused right now. She did appear human for all intents and purposes, but Titan had always been sensitive to energies. So, if he said that he could feel that power, then I believed him.

I shared with them what he said, making them just as confused and curious as me.

Hybrids were often ostracized because they were not fully one species or another. It wasn’t like that was their fault. Some people were really fucking stupid and held fast to purist ideology. Our pack offered sanctuary for multiple hybrids who were cast out of their own packs or were able to escape tyrannical Alphas who only desired to taunt and torture them because of their genetics.

One thing we had found out was that many hybrids were capable of becoming stronger and more powerful than those who were full-blooded. It all depended on their training and dedication though. Our rigorous training programs here in the pack really pushed them to their limits and helped them venture beyond them.

“It appears that Miss Violet’s body has gone through quite a shock, which is why she’s out. My ability didn’t pick up on anything that we should worry about. We’ll know more once she wakes up,” Dr. Sutton told us.

I went to speak but was cut off when Dad mindlinked me, demanding to know what was going on.

Niccolò frowned and was also being mindlinked. I would put money on he fact that we were speaking with the same person.

Dr. Sutton offered to stay here with her while we went to explain shit to Dad. A little quirk of her lips showed me that she wished to be a fly on the wall to see how that conversation was going to go.

‘We’re off to see the Alpha, that cranky sonofabitch,’ Niccolò mindlinked me as he sang it to the tune of ‘Follow the Yellow Brick Road,’ making me snicker.