Chapter 7 – Restless

Elijah's POV

I was going insane. I was a bundle of nerves, ready to explode. Jack was trying to soothe me, but neither I nor Lucius had our mental efficiency at its best.

"I need to get out of here!"

I shouted right in Jack's face, my voice dripping with resentment and frustration. Right after I marked my mate I had to let her go. I had to watch her parents take her away from me and it was my pack's fault, my Beta's fault.

"You shouldn't have intruded and you know it, Jack. You disobeyed me, your brother, but also your ALPHA!"

I couldn't help my anger. My voice boomed in the room, my fangs struggling to come out, Lucius' voice mixing with mine, making the last word sound halfway between a growl and a human voice.

Jack grimaced but didn't take a single step back. Instead, he lowered his head and started talking quietly, as he had done in the past two days.

"I will always be sorry for that, Alpha. - I could feel the bitterness in his voice - but your safety, the safety of the pack was my first concern at that moment. You went all commando, which is understandable since you found your mate, and I had to evaluate the pros and cons of the situation, being the one not biased."

I scoffed. I already knew that.

*Flashback*

When she entered the room I had to recall all my strength not to howl to the moon victoriously and not to jump over the goddess who was standing right in front of me.

The peach dress was tight on her chest and fell smoothly along her legs. Her long brown hair was intricately braided on the top of her head, leaving her neck completely exposed. It took me some moments before I was able to act, but as soon I saw the pills in her hands, I knew that they were things out of tune with her scent. The sweet magnolia scent had something rancid and wrong and now I was more than sure it came from those pills.

Lora's words boomed in my head. I had to prevent her from taking those pills again. As soon as the thought started in my brain, I found myself surrounding her with my arms, while she almost immediately started squirming trying to get away.

She surely knew what she wanted, but she was only risking hurting herself. Her scent and her proximity were driving me mad. Lucius was growling ferociously at me for not marking her right on the spot, but I knew better.

I tried to soothe her with my voice, letting her smell my scent, but it seemed pointless. I kept looking at the clock, I had to wait until midnight before I could know if my guess was true or not.

I needed her to be eighteen to confirm her as my mate. The time was so close, but I could hear footstep approaching. Somebody was coming. It was at the stroke of midnight that I could finally perceive her wolf, her wholeness and I was sure. She was mine.

Images and memories flood into my mind.

I was dumbstruck by all the information, one above all. She was in danger. The people who claimed to be her parents weren't her real ones and the pills that they were giving her managed to keep her wolf at peace for all that time. She was weak and clueless.

Her wolf immediately recognized us, begging for us to do something, to save them, to save her. My mind went blank and I did the only thing I knew for sure would make her stronger: marking her.

It was a matter of seconds. I found myself being dragged out of the window I came in, landing in the backyard of the house, my Beta Jack and Paul, a warrior I put my trust in, holding me back. I was going to put on a fight but the last thing I could see was a syringe being stick in my neck. Her green eyes closed the picture following me into sleep.

*End of Flashback*

And here I was. Held captive by my own pack. They injected me with a powerful tranquillizer and took me to the safe room of the pack house, the one where newly became werewolves or particularly unmanageable ones were held. Jack explained to me that he had seen almost every image I could collect from my mate's wolf and he had to take me away from there. The situation was way more complicated than we thought, but the only remarkable result we had achieved in two days was me being increasingly restless and my mate was missing somewhere.

I needed to get a grip on reality and calm down if I wanted to get out. As soon as I woke up I trashed everything I could put my hands on, the not-so-little bruise on Jack's cheek was evidence of my wrath.

The pack's tech guy was trying to gather information about her fake parents, but it seemed like there were no data before seventeen years ago. They almost appeared out of nowhere, carrying a one-year-old child with them. The only record preceding those years regarded Elizabeth's father, who appeared in a photo in front of a new hospital building in which construction he invested in. Yliu tried to find other information about the hospital but it closed a month after it opened. There was nothing about the mother, or Elizabeth herself.

They then successfully established in the town of Falton, building solid connections with the influent people of the city. Something about them was definitely off.

"Were you able to track her? Or someone related?"

Jack shook his head.

"Lora tried asking her best friends, but they were clueless as well. They only told her she had some heart disease and wasn't feeling good, so she had to be taken to the clinic for some tests. But they seemed oddly suspicious of all the questions about Elizabeth."

"Just keep an eye on them."

I sat on the bed in the room, taking my head in my hands. I needed to find her. My wolf was going nuts and I was following behind. After one of us marked his or her mate, our need to be close to each other overcame anything else. I had to do something, or I'll become completely crazy. I had to find her, but I was at a loss.

I was ready to scoff again in frustration when an incredibly dangerous and stupid idea crossed my mind. I slowly raised my head, a sinister smile on my face.

"Jack, call the elder. I want to try the Blood Call."