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Both Ben and I froze. Ben closed his eyes and breathed in deeply. I wanted to kick myself. Not now. Not them.
“We were looking for you guys. Guess you were… busy,” Harry said with a frown. I had thought that he was too drunk to even care if we were still on planet earth, but I guess I was wrong. So very wrong. Corbin’s wide eyes were staring right into mine from next to Harry.
“Guys, I can explain. You see Ben-” I started, frantically searching for a lie.
“No. It’s alright, Finn,” Ben said, stepping into the light in the hallway. I follwed. “I have something to tell you two.”
Corbin snorted, “Yeah, I’d say.” Harry continued to frown.
“Finn… Finn is my mate. Now both of you know what that means and both of you know very well that I could never have stopped this.” I dropped my eyes to the floor. Ben clearly picked up on my disappointment, because he took my hand and pulled me to his side. He looked straight into my eyes and said, “And I wouldn’t have ever wanted to stop it.” I blushed, but refused to look down once more.
Corbin cleared his throat and asked Ben, “Oh, why didn’t you tell us sooner?”
Ben opened his mouth to answer, but Harry beat him to it. “You know full well why, Corbin. He knows what this will do to him; to us. The entire pack will suffer from this. And for what? A few nights of fun with your roommate. You should have your head checked, Benjamin.” Harry spat the name like venom before he turned and stormed away.
Corbin watched him go. “For what it’s worth,” Corbin said, “I think you two look great together. Just give him time. He’ll come around. He-” Corbin snapped his mouth shut, his eyes filled with bewilderment. “I’ll go talk to him. See you back at the dorm.”
I narrowed my eyes as I watched him follow Harry. What had he been about to say? Corbin knows something. Harry’s reaction wasn’t unexpected, but it was harsh towards one of his best friends. Something was very wrong.
“Let’s go. I don’t feel like this anymore,” Ben said. He still had a hold of my hand and I made a move to pull it back as we entered the main club. Ben gripped my hand tighter and brought it to his lips. “Nobody else matters tonight. It’s just you and me. I won’t let anyone ruin that.” He kissed the back of my hand and stepped into the loud music.
We worked our way through the press of people until we were through the front doors and the cool air hit our faces. We both sucked in a much needed breath of fresh air.
Ben was still holding my hand. People weren’t even paying us any attention. We weren’t in werewolf territory and most of these people had no idea who we were. Ben led me away from the club.
We were strolling back to Academy grounds when we both picked up on the feeling of eyes watching our every step. Neither of us stopped. We were trained enough to know at least that. Unfortunately, we also had no fricken clue what else to do. We couldn’t communicate through mind link and I didn’t know Ben’s fighting style well enough to be able to predict his next move without prior communication.
In other words: we were trapped.
I could feel the hatred radiating from the dark and scorching my skin. I risked a glance behind us. Something darted between two trees. I fought to keep my breath from hitching. This was ridiculous. We were two alphas who could take on whatever came our way, but tonight… Tonight something felt off.
Suddenly, a high pitched squeal filled my ears. Ben and I dropped to the ground simultaneously, clutching our ears and writhing on the ground. The sound was unbearable to werewolves. Dogs too, but I would never admit to that in public.
The sound lasted for a good ten seconds. It felt like a lifetime. My brain was ready to burst from my skull. Then, as suddenly as it had begun, it just stopped.
I couldn’t hear anything. The ringing in my ears continued. I was lying motionless on the ground with my hands pressed securely in place. The ringing started to subside and the quiet night around us came back to me. My eyes caught Ben’s and we slowly started to remove our hands. Not that it had done us any good in the first place.
We rose to our feet, constantly surveying the area. It was quiet now, though. The feeling of being watched was gone.
Ben glanced at me and his lips moved. I frowned. I couldn’t hear him at first. I lightly shook my head. “Are you alright?” Ben’s voice finally filled my ears.
“Think so. What was that?”
Ben started walking around the trees. We were nearly to the Academy borders and the forest was already starting to cover the area. “I don’t think that was meant for us,” Ben said, crouching down a few feet away.
I joined him and looked at what he had found. There were four different sets of footprints that could be clearly discerned in the mud. But that wasn’t what Ben was looking at. There was also a long line printed out in the wet earth following through the middle. I started feeling sick. Someone was being dragged in the middle, probably unconscious.
Ben looked to me. My eyes must have conveyed that I understood what had happened, because he didn’t waste time explaining. We followed the tracks for a few more feet until we hit a patch of mud with tracks clearly indicating a fight. Ben had been right. The watchers hadn’t been here for us. They had come for someone else and we’d been in their way.
“We need to get back to the Academy,” Ben said, his voice tight, “This spells big trouble.”
We ran the rest of the way to the wall. We were still slightly disoriented and could’ve made it in half the time under normal circumstances. We scaled the wall quickly and soon the dorm room lights came into view. Everything looked fine. There weren’t any instructors standing around looking worried and there weren’t students running around in a panic. Maybe we had misread the situation. Maybe it hadn’t been someone from the academy.
Ben and I ran all the way up the stairs to our room. We ran righ passed the louge area in the middle of the hallway on our way to the end. Both of us stopped in our tracks. Ben backtracked and noise erupted as soon as he stepped into the small room. I was unwilling to follow him, but I had no choice.
The walls of the lounge was packed with all maner of things to sit on. The floor normally held a few pillows and beanbags for the people who couldn’t fit on the couches and chairs. I’d heard that friday night was usually the time for game-night in the lounge. Somehow, I doubted that was the reason for the countless people in there on that particular night. Everyone was on their feet, talking at once.
“Sit down and keep quiet!” Ben ordered. I realised as the figures sat down that the people in the room were all adult members from his pack. “One at a time.”
The room was as silent as the grave now. Nobody seemed willing to speak. Then, from out of the shadows way at the back, someone cleared his throat. Harry stepped into view. “Declan has disappeared from his room, Alpha,” Harry snarled. Ben closed his eyes and I could hear him let our a breath next to me. Like he’d been wishing it were something else, but had know it would be one of his own that were kidnapped.
I didn’t know all the members of his pack yet. Not even close. But Declan I knew. He was the head tracker. He was the big and silent type. I don’t think I’ve heard him say more than three words. I still liked him. He was one of the only ones that always smiled when he cought my eye.
It would explain the dragging tracks in the mud. And the fight right over the wall. They had probably sedated him, but underestimated the dosage for his size. He was too big to lift up and still move quickly to make an escape. If he was fighting them, they would have had to move fast with a plan. The high pitched noise was probably a last resort as no amount of ear plugging would have helped even for them. The sound would have been bearable for them for a short while if they had prepared for it, though.
Ben pulled himself together in an instant. He looked in control. He looked like an alpha. “Give me until morning to figure something out. I’ll speak with my father and get to the bottom of this. We will find him. I swear it. Go now. Sleep. Tomorrow won’t be easy.” The pack started dispersing. They seemed to have assumed and accepted that it was a kidnapping. Everyone under eighteen wasn’t in this dorm, so we were only working with the older members that knew what they were doing and wouldn’t try to be the hero. At least not for the night.
Harry left last, his eyes avoiding Ben’s but catching mine and giving me a look of hatred and a snarl. Ben sighed as he watched him go. I could see his fight for control to not snap at Harry for disrespecting me.
We walked to our room side by side and in silence. Our arms occasionally brused. I closed the door behind me. Ben immediately started pacing in front of the window. I watched him form the door. Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore. “This wasn’t your fault,” I said tentatively.
Ben gave a humourless laugh. He stopped pacing and stared out of the window instead. His back was facing me. “I shut it down for the night,” he whispered. I frowned. He must have picked up on my confusion because he clarified, “I shut down my mind link to them for the night. If I hadn’t, I would’ve been informed of the disappearance and I would’ve rushed back, intercepted them and saved him.”
I was silent for a long time. I didn’t know what to say. What he said was true. He had made a mistake and now everyone had to pay. “You can’t undo the past. But maybe we can work together to change the future,” I said. I kwew that it was a terrible cliché. I knew that it sounded like a fortune cookie. But I meant it.
Ben turned to me, the corners of his mouth turned up in a small smile. He didn’t say anything, but the look in his eyes made words unnecessary. He walked to me in a few short strides. We wrapped our arms around each other. Not talking. Not trying to figure anything out. Just providing emotional support where it was most needed.
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