Bound to My Mate Ch. 17

I smiled a little at Nate. This story must be driving him to distraction.

"We talked to June about werewolf stuff," Rick admitted sheepishly, "and if you know where to look there is good material on the internet. We were all curious about magic for a couple of years, so we learned all about it. We had to protect ourselves against everything. We know a lot of things we shouldn't know."

"Keep talking," Joel ordered Dia running a hand through his hair.

According to Dia, June never stopped watching the strange woman; it became a hobby. When the woman moved and built a new house, June had checked it out. Somehow, June even managed to steal plans and security information for the estate as they were building it. There was a large area in the basement that was equipped to be a huge freezer; June knew what that was for.

"She had me park the truck at the very back of the property, behind the tree line. I didn't think they'd notice it. I hoped they'd just assume I was a trucker pulling off to take some shut eye."

"Alarms don't deter me and the woman's security wasn't really designed to keep me out. I broke in and took the body from the freezer. June was supposed to wait in the truck," Dia said shaking her head. "I don't know whether she got out or if the guy beating her pulled her out. He was about to start chanting that fucking spell when I slit his throat."

"When did all this happen?" I asked.

"Early this morning or late last night, depending on your definition. I didn't know what to do and June wouldn't go to a doctor. She was supposed to arrange a meeting with you all, but she was so hurt. Since the guy had seen the truck I was afraid someone else might have also. I couldn't convince myself to stop anywhere. We've just been driving all day. I'm not sure what I expected to happen."

"That's all I know, Alpha Latro, you'd have to ask June if you want to know the woman's name," she finished defeated.

Dia sank into a chair that had been sitting beside her. Will pulled her head close to his hip and stroked the long black locks gently. I couldn't quite figure out his fascination with this girl.

He had nearly gotten himself killed for her twice. Once when he stood in front of her weapons and a second time with my mate. Will's good sense must have left him to have become so brazen.

Dia was pretty, in that tough as nails sort of way. She was dressed in all black, I assumed left over from her caper earlier, but it seemed she had been honest with us. She had come armed, so she was obviously good with weapons, but she didn't shoot Will when she had the chance. She was a mix of dichotomies.

"Of for the love of Luna," shot out of my mouth when I finally realized.

Dia was Will's mate.

"Problem, love?" Joel asked raising an eyebrow.

I sent the thought to Joel, 'She's his mate.'

'When we had our confrontation in the hall, I assumed as much,' Joel thought back to me. 'No man would risk my wrath over something less.'

'You believe her then?,' I asked, 'She's his mate, you believe she is being upfront with us?'

'I believe Will is going to protect her with his very life. Unless I wish to face repercussions from his father's pack, I must treat her well,' Joel sighed into my head.

Dia was watching us questioningly as we had our internal conversation. Unconsciously, she had woven a hand around Will's leg so it rested on his inner knee. He continued to stroke her hair and shoulders with a smile on his face.

"What is going on?" Dia finally asked.

"The Madam Alpha has just had a revelation," Will told Dia looking down at her.

"About?" she asked him, looking up.

"About how important it was you came to us today," Will told her. "The witches will be hunting you, but I will protect you."

Will knelt beside her and took her head in his hands, stroking her cheeks with his thumbs. Dia had her hands on his rib cage softly stroking him in return.

Will spoke, looking directly into her eyes, "You will not be harmed here, ever, but you must stay. I am begging you to stay. The witches will want your head on a pike for exposing them. It would kill me if you were harmed. Please, promise me you will stay. I know the Alpha has scared you."

Dia nodded and Will grinned at her, "I need to hear you say it, promise me you will stay and not be afraid."

"Perhaps I could offer my apologies for my actions, Dia," Joel interrupted, "I only wanted what was best for my pack. It is the first time in a long time I have gone back on my word. Luckily, I was stopped from irrevocable harm."

"The Madam Alpha would not have allowed me to hurt you," Joel gestured to me. "You don't need to be afraid here. I am ashamed, my actions were deplorable. My word has always been held in high regard, I wish to keep it that way. You are a friend here and will be protected, never harmed."

Dia's eyes flicked around the room and I could see she was taking it all in. Joel's Betas no longer held their threatening stances and even Joel looked remorseful. It would take more than that to really convince her, but it was a good start.

"I'll stay," she said watching Will.

Will grinned triumphantly and pulled her closer kissing her forehead. She seemed a little taken aback by the gesture, but she didn't fight him.

"I should go check on June," I told Joel, "Sarah is good with human injuries, but only to a point."

"Go," Joel instructed, "come back to the security suite when you are done. I think this night is far from over."

"I would like to come with you, ma'm," Dia said rising from her chair. "I'd also like to see how June is doing."

Dia and I headed quickly down the hall to where the infirmary was. It was an off shoot of the secure room, so it had much of the same protection. One of Sarah's assistants buzzed us in when we made it to the door.

We walked into the room Sarah directed us to. June was laying in a bed surrounded by her brothers and Lucas. They all looked concerned. I took my time examining June before talking to them.

June was resting, attached to a monitor on the wall above her. She had a chest tube keeping the air from building up in her chest again. Sarah had cleaned the spell off of her and bound her broken arm. Judging from the splint on her lower leg, that was broken also. Her face did look better, I assumed Sarah had healed what she could.

"Her vitals are stable," I told the brothers quietly, "she's resting comfortably and right now that's the best we can do. She will take time to heal and we'll do our best to control her pain."

I looked around at the boys and asked them if June had said anything to them.

"All she could say was that Dia had taken something from the witches. She kept saying we could use it to bribe the Alpha to let us go. She begged us to run," Joseph said holding June's hand.

"You should let her sleep now," I told them. "Just one of you needs to stay with her."

Since Lucas had been elected June's guardian the other boys left without complaining. The boys wanted Dia to tell them what happened. We stepped into the central area and Dia repeated her story for them, while Lucas sat with June.

I stepped away and talked to Sarah, but kept my ears open. The story Dia told the boys was the same one she had told us.

Sarah wanted to know what had happened upstairs and I told her.

"Ahh," she said, "that explains why Alpha Latro wanted Lucas down here."

"Why?" I asked.

"Catching his old mate's scent might have been confusing for him and seeing her again may have agitated him. I understand Alpha Latro not taking the risk."

"I thought you all burned the bodies of the dead," I told Sarah. "How did Linda end up in the witch's hands?"

"I don't know, Madam, but Lucas may. He trusts you more than anyone else here," Sarah told me. "If someone was going to ask what he knew, it should be you. Perhaps you could call him out and ask him. I'm sure Alpha Latro will want to know, too. I was young then, but it was my understanding that Linda was destroyed in a private pyre."

It was difficult to get Lucas to leave June. The oldest of the four boys, Joseph, had to swear he would look after her before Lucas would leave. I pulled him into an unused room in the infirmary and closed the door.

I started slowly and repeated Dia's tale to him. When I got the part about Joel being in her truck and what he found, Lucas's eyes lit gold. I stopped talking and waited for him to calm down.

"They have had Linda all this time," he choked out with ragged breath.

"Yes," I told him, "do you know how that happened?"

Lucas sat heavily on the bed in the room and interlaced his fingers behind his neck.

"June is my mate now. Is that right, Madam?" he asked me looking up. "May I keep her? Should I keep her? I have already had one mate. Most wolves don't get a second mate. Perhaps this is a sign I should be loyal to Linda."

I sat in a chair in the room before I spoke. "June is a good girl. She is strong and loving. She is your mate. Linda destroyed your life in this pack. She did nothing for you and you paid a heavy price for her. Don't let her continue to exact that price from you. Accept that we found her body, but that June is yours now."

"What did you do with the remains?" Lucas asked.

I told him we burned what we had found in a pyre. He seemed relieved and nodded.

"The old Alpha told me he would not burn Linda's body," Lucas said as a fat tear rolled down his cheek. "He told me her remains would rot in the ground and her soul would never be reborn. Even knowing what I did about her, it devastated me."

"I left when I was told to, but stole back onto the grounds to find Linda's body. I had planned to take and burn it. There was a hole in the woods. I could tell Linda's body had been there, but it was gone. I assumed the Alpha had decided to burn her after all. I never came back after that, until you came along."

I moved to sit beside Lucas and held him while he cried silently. From what Joel had told me, mourning the loss of a rogue would be treason, so I didn't ask why Lucas was upset. Eventually, he calmed some and asked to return to June. I thought that would be the best thing to do and encouraged him to go to her.

I left the infirmary a short time later with Dia right beside me. She told me she was determined not to be killed by the witches.

"I will share with you all everything I know about the security they have," she said. "It's daunting and meant to keep you all out, but I can help you."

We walked back to the security center where Joel was dividing everyone into teams. I also saw several of the talented computer hackers hard at work.

"The house is owned by a corporation," Joel told me, "we're trying to find out who the individuals involved are. Is the human downstairs able to give us any information?"

"I doubt it," I said shaking my head, "Sarah's got June sedated heavily. We could use drugs to bring her around, but she'd be in enormous pain. I'm not sure she would be lucid enough at that point to tell you anything of use."

"Doesn't really matter who it is anyway," Joel said his eyes glowing eerily. "No one in that house will survive the night. We are going on the offensive for once in this damned battle. We'll find the rest of Linda and then we can destroy that."

I quickly told Joel what Lucas had told me and he ran a hand through his hair.

"Dad was devastated by his loss. His judgement was impaired when it came to Linda. We will fix it tonight," Joel stated.

Dia spoke up from beside us and offered her knowledge of the house's security, but Joel brushed her off.

"I don't care if they know we are coming. I am bringing an army, their petty security will not withstand my force," Joel said with confidence.

Dia argued with him, hotly. She told him there was security there to specifically weaken a wolf. Will came to stand silently beside her and appraised his mate. She was a ball of fire when she got worked up, that was obvious.

"You told me you would protect me," Dia said pointing at Joel, "you can't do that dead. You need to take a tactical approach to this. Force will only get you so far. They are prepared for force."

"Odds are they know you are coming. They are probably waiting for you to bring your so called army. They will cut you down in an instant," she ranted her voice raising.

The room had gone strangely quiet as the warriors tried to pretend they weren't watching and listening.

Joel growled and towered over Dia. "I will have you removed from my security center and placed downstairs if you can't control yourself. This is my territory you are in. I will protect it and I will protect you. The witches are not prepared for the full weight of my attack. We will destroy them before they are able to mount any resistance."

"Joel, just listen to her," I argued softly. "What harm could more information do? Maybe there is a better way to do this. Perhaps charging in is a bad idea. Let's look at other options."

The whole of the security team was staring at our confrontation now. I heard several gasp when I disagreed with Joel. He noted it too and his beast rose further to the surface. I had inadvertently and openly challenged him in front of his men.

"Mate," Joel said loudly, "I will not allow your lack of knowledge in this area to be a hinder. Your skills will be needed later in the infirmary. If you cannot conduct yourself appropriately in my war room I will put you in the secure room myself. There you will be safe and out of the way."

I couldn't continue to fight with him here; it was just adding fuel to the fire. If I kept arguing with him, he probably would stick me in the secure room. I was loathe to do it, but determined to help my errant mate. In an effort to stay out of lockdown I lowered my eyes and stepped back.

Joel accepted the submission with a grunt and went back to his planning.

So much for being there for one another in a time of crisis, I thought. Joel was set in how he was gong to handle this. Just like his father, when it came to Linda and magic he was blind with rage. If I was going to help him, it would have to be without his consent.

Taking Dia's hand I pulled her to stand with me along a wall. She tried to tell me this was foolhardy, but I shushed her and motioned for her to listen. I had already made up my mind, I would help the pack whether Joel appreciated it or not. We stood and listened to the plans silently.

The idea was fairly simple. The area around the house was uninhabited. Joel planned place his wolves around the house and attack it as a single unit. The witch's defenses would be overrun.

The room was a mass of energy as the wolves organized to make Joel's plan a reality. He stood in the middle of it all watching them. His gold eyes seemed to be taking it all in with pride. This was a battle he believed he could win.

Dia shook her head and looked at me. I moved a finger to my lips and approached Joel in the middle of the melee.

"I'm going back to the infirmary to help Sarah with the girl. I'll take Dia with me. Do well tonight, mate. I love you," I told him and kissed his lips.

Joel kissed me back and went back to his planning. He was all business right now.

"Stay in the secure room," he ordered me. "The den stays on lockdown until we return."

I walked out of the security center with Dia. Her motions were jerky and she kept clenching her fists. She was incensed.

"That house is ideally located for defense. It sits on a hill and looks over the surrounding area," she fumed. "The witches will take out half his force before they even reach the main property."

Dia paused for a moment and then continued to rant.

"They will inflict as much damage as they can in the shortest amount of time possible. From the way their security is set up it looks like it calls the human police if there is a problem. The wolves will have to get out of there fast once that happens. The next time the wolves strike it will have to be with a smaller force. The witches will decimate your numbers and then run with the police as an escort."

"How," I asked standing outside the secure room, "how are they planning to take out that many wolves?"

"Fucking spells, they've got those sensors rigged all over the outside of the property. They don't pick up humans, we don't put of the right 'frequency', but they'll pick up wolves. The witches will coat your forces in 'the destroyer' and then stand back and chant with loudspeakers."

Dia continued to speak, becoming more animated, "It looked like they had heavy weapons inside, too. Anyone not hit with the spell will get hit with metal. Once the gun fire starts the cops will show up fast. Unless Alpha Latro wants to kill the town's entire police force, he will have to get his dead and wounded and get the hell out of there."

"There won't be any time to get what he needs inside," I mused walking briskly away from the secure room.

"Yeah, then the witches can run or stay. It won't matter. They will sit on their hill and watch it all play out. Hey, where the hell are you going?" she asked running to catch up with me.

"Go back to the secure room and hang out with June," I told her. "I'm going to go interrupt my mate's plans. I can't let him send our pack on a suicide run."

"By yourself?" she asked incredulously. "Think you might need some help?"

I considered the Dia for a moment. She was a virtual stranger to me. All I knew about her was that she was a thief and a killer. She was hardly trustworthy, but I didn't have many options right now.

"You up for more excitement today?" I asked her. "If you're not, go back to the secure room and hang out until I leave."

"Madam Alpha," she said sauntering forward, "this is exactly the kind of excitement I was built for."

Joel and his Betas didn't notice as Dia and I loaded up an old pickup truck with enough weapons to supply a small army. Somehow I managed to pull the truck out of the den without anyone at all noticing. They were too wrapped up in what they were doing to see us slide out the delivery entrance with the lights off.

The night was dark and I sped through the forest. The moon was only a sliver in the sky above me. I drove with the headlights off to keep us hidden as long as I could. With my werewolf senses I could see just fine at night. Dia, unfortunately, could not and she held onto the truck's interior for dear life.

"Motherfucker," she cursed, "you drive like a god damned maniac. I'd like to get there in one piece."

"Might I ask why you volunteered to come with me?" I asked ignoring her. "Not that the company isn't charming, but what exactly is your motivation."

"Will is part of the first wave of attack. That was what I gathered during the planning stage," she said simply.

"What's that mean to you?" I asked knowing full well; I just wondered how much she understood.

"He's special and he saved my ass," she said quietly. "It feels like some freaky magic shit, but I don't want to see him hurt."

That was the most accurate way I could have hoped for a human to describe it.

"Plan," said taking a curve much too fast, "we need a plan to make them stop. At least they need to pause before they hit the estate's security. Maybe if they see what's in front of them they'll stop."

Dia laughed at me. She'd been hanging out on the fringes of society her entire life. She knew werewolves. According to her they would only stop if the Alpha said stop.

"They'd run into my semi going full speed if the Alpha told them to," she said. "You're different. I don't know if it's because of your rank or what. You don't feel the pull to follow his lead like the others do. For them the compulsion is non negotiable."

"Can you get us inside the house?" I asked her. "Do you know enough about the security systems to shut some of them down before they get there?"