Chapter 89

It was now an hour later and everyone had finally left the room, leaving just Justin and I. Dr. Leigh had spent a great deal of time taking my vitals and she was trying to double check and make sure that the heat suppression pills had not had any lasting effect on me. I have had about twenty-five of those pills since the day that I took the first one. That was a lot.

The pills contained a high, concentrated dose of monkshood, belladonna, and liquid toxiflower. While using the potions in moderation is alright, the more the pills are used, the worse the lasting effects are. Currently, I am pretty well fucked.

She made Justin and everyone leave the room, much against Justin’s will, while she talked to me about the effects of what the pills could do to me. She did not know what our plans were for starting a family, but told me that it would not be wise to take any more for fear of it causing harm to my reproductive system. She, also, made a note to tell me that she had checked to see if I was pregnant when I was brought in, just to make sure. Luckily, I was not pregnant.

Don’t get me wrong. I eventually want to have a family with Justin, but it is too soon. We had just finished mating and we had barely had any time just to be with each other. Plus, Justin and I never discussed the possibility of children and whether he even wanted to be a father.

Once we had finished that conversation and she finished checking my reproductive organs, which, by the way, I really do not recommend. She had to get an ultrasound of my uterus to make sure that everything was intact as it should be. My problem was with `the wand that she shoved in me. It was not that it truly hurt, but it was fucking uncomfortable. She had allowed Justin to come back into the room and told Michael that he could come to say goodbye, but that I needed to get some rest after the recent “adventures” I had had. She even made him promise to not tell anyone that I had woken up yet. She reminded him that he should lie solely with me, whether he liked it or not.

I couldn’t stop myself from thinking about those rogues and the fact that they were in my pack…or the fact that I still don’t know who the traitors were. I know Dr. Leigh said that I should not be moving, or interrogating, or torturing anyone, but it would be just what I needed to keep my mind off the raging turmoil that is in my head.

Now I was lying on this uncomfortable hospital bed curled up in Justin’s arms as he stroked my back.

“How are you feeling, my queen? You seem as if you have a lot on your mind.” he whispered to me.

I smiled to myself. Of course, he has always been able to pick up on my mood, even when he barely knew me. I guess maybe that was why Selene paired me with him.

“I was just thinking about the rogues…and the traitors that we have yet to identify.”

He squeezed me a little tighter. “I don’t want you worrying about those bastards. I will handle them. They will never see the light of day again. The King has already given us permission to execute and he said that his Guardian will oversee the execution. Before they get executed, I will torture them and make them regret the day that they ever laid their greasy fucking hands on anyone.”

I closed my eyes as I felt the familiar sensation of my eyes welling with tears. As soon as I shut my eyes, I felt the first drop of wetness touch my cheek. Fuck, I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I should be happy they have been captured, right? I mean, I am. Don’t get me wrong. I want those bastards to burn in fucking hell.

Maybe it is just the fucking realization that this hell is almost over and then we can all move on with our lives. I can finally take my place as Alpha and live a happy life with my mate and pack…maybe we will even have a couple of kids running around.

I started picturing what it would be like to be parents and have a miniature Justin running around the packhouse. Those kids would be super cute.

Justin pulls my face up to his and swipes away the tears that managed to escape my eyes with the pad of his thumb. “Hey,” he gently whispers, “I won’t let anyone ever harm you again, even if that means that you are glued to my side until you are comfortable being on your own.”

I giggled. “Baby, I think that would be unnecessary.”

He shrugged his shoulders and simply stated, I would like you to be comfortable and if this is the only thing that I can do to make you comfortable, then so be it.” He looks down at me before continuing, “I much rather be by your side anyway, It is a win-win in my eyes.” he finishes nonchalantly, shrugging his shoulders.

I giggled at him. Of course, he would say something like that.

This was how our night continued…we lay on the lumpy hospital bed and we cuddled while talking about our hopes and dreams for the future…both of us making sure to stay clear of the topic at hand…neither one of us wanted to talk about the rogues, what I went through when they held me captive, or about the traitors that were in our pack…biding their time.

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It was now midmorning and the doctor had just finished doing her check on me. She officially gave us the all clear to allow my heat to come on. She told me that they have alerted everyone that is normally in the packhouse that it will be off limits the minute that I enter. The whole place was going to go into lock down, complete with the roller shutters. My father learned really young when my mother went into her heat, he did not really have a safe place for them where they would not be attacked by various pack members that were not able to resist the heat. The thing that makes the heat worse for the women or even the unmated pack members is the rank of the females. If the female has rank, then their heat is horrifying. It can attract anyone, even from miles away. It has been said that one time a female that was born from an Alpha heat was so bad that it was attracting rogues from several miles outside of their pack borders. It was after my mother’s first heat, my father decided to have a remodel done on the pack. Every pack member’s house came with roller shutters that allowed us to trap everything, including scents inside. The roller shutters even come in handy during severe weather or attacks/invasions. He then equipped the packhouse with the same equipment, especially for any of the newly mated warriors, or in my case, Alpha, that had their heats. The only thing was usually to let the Alpha or Luna know, even if it was a quick mind-link to inform them, so they could make sure that the packhouse was cleared up to a certain area. The only difference is that in the packhouse, the equipment that we used can be blocked off by floors. The doors that lead to each floor are equipped with metal grates and roller shutters that allow us to block everyone off by floor, rather than shutting the entire packhouse down, since there are many pack members that rely on the packhouse for a variety of functions.

Currently, we were waiting for the discharge papers from the doctor and my father was on his way to speak to me. He wanted to talk before I locked myself away, essentially, as Michael put it, “to get fucked.”

The door to the room opened and my family walked in with the King and the Beta’s family.

“I guess it is a good thing we were decent, Justin.” I said sarcastically. “None of you know how to knock anymore?”

My mother and father had at least the common decency to look bashful. Oliver, on the other hand, said, “At least then we would have a free peep show. We need something to liven everything up around here.”

Michael and Elijah started laughing, the King was trying to hide his laugh, Beta Damien smacked Oliver in the head and told him to knock it off, and my mother scowled at him.

Instead of being upset or shocked by what Oliver had said, Justin said unapologetically, “If you wanted a free peep show, all you had to do was ask. I am sure Kataleya and I could have come up with something for you.”

I felt my face heating up and everyone laughed at my reaction. Fucking men.

My father cleared his throat, “Anyway, the reason we are here. I know this is the last thing you wanted to talk about before your heat began, but we need to get the topic out of the way. Do you remember anything the rogues said about the traitors? Did they give you anything that could have been used to identify them? We have tried interrogating the rogues and King Lucas has tried using his authority, but because they are rogues, his authority and aura are not as powerful to them…they have one demand before they talk, but we have refused them so far…” my father finished quietly.

I got the feeling I knew what they had wanted…”What was it the rogues were demanding for their cooperation?”

My father was looking uncomfortable and had tried to change the topic back to his original question, “About the traitors—”

The King cut him off, “Alpha Michael, she has a right to know about what they are demanding. It advertently affects her.”

My father sighed and looked at me and then Justin. “Justin, you need to keep your head when I say this. Remember that we have already turned down their pleas and their bargains…” he paused for a moment, as if he was contemplating how to word it. “Well, the first demand was from what we have gathered is the youngest. He said they will only speak to us if you agree to…have intercourse with the two of them.” I could feel my face blanching and Justin’s rising anger. If this was a cartoon and he was a cartoon character, then he would have steam billowing from his ears.

Justin growled loudly, his arms tightening around my torso. “Absolutely fucking not. Not in a million fucking years. Finding out who a goddess damn traitor is, isn’t worth her sanity, mental health, or my mate’s body. She is not some cheap whore you can sell out for fucking answers. I will get the fucking answers my own fucking self.”

I turned on the bed, pulling myself into his lap, wrapping my arms around his neck. His arms instinctively wrapped around my waist, holding me to him. I could feel he was shaking with anger, to the point I could feel his body temperature increasing as if he was about to shift. That does not even take into account everything that I can hear Ares saying through our link. I leaned my forehead against his. ‘Calm down. You and I both know they turned down their offers. They would never have considered doing something that would put me in harms’ way. Let’s hear the rest of what he has to say. And, you know, that no one is ever allowed to touch me again, besides you.’

He took a deep breath and I could tell he was starting to calm down. I motioned for my father to continue.

“The other demand since we would not allow him to sleep with you is that you come and talk to them…alone. And they want all the cameras off, so no one can ‘spy’ on what was being said in the room.”

“No. Absolutely not,” Justin stated with finality. “I will not allow them to be alone with my mate. It is not safe.”

“We know, son. We understand where you are coming from. We had already told them no on both counts. We knew that neither of you would agree to that…Now, Kat, to the original question…did they release anything that could help us identify the traitors?”

I sat there, thinking for a moment. There was one thing, but I thought I was dreaming it. Maybe it would be worth mentioning. “Well, not really. They tried to avoid talking about the traitors in the room with me. However, there were a few times they would slip up when they thought that I was still knocked out. At one point, I heard them talking about two traitors. One of them they had identified as a woman and the other was a man who was in a position of power. Since I had heard that, when I spoke to Justin, that was why I told him to be careful who he trusted and not to allow anyone he did not trust explicitly into the meetings.”

As I finished talking, a jarring pain shot through my abdomen….

Fuck, here we go again.