FATED TO ALPHA HUNTER BY VENNEH LISAH

𝗛𝗨𝗡𝗧𝗘𝗥'𝗦 𝗣𝗢𝗩

I growled as Ania screamed through the link, and I raced to her. My heart was hammering in my chest. Joe and Stanley were chasing after me. I skidded across the floor as I smashed out of the cellar, my shoulder colliding with the doors, and into the pantry before rushing out of the kitchen. I lost my footing as I twisted to head for the stairs at the same time. I heard someone scream.

My heart felt like it stopped when I saw a figure pushed off the staircase, and I realized it was Ania. Her arms flailed about just as the entire banister railing came down after her. I tried to get traction on the floor just as Joe and Stanley burst out of the kitchen doors. I rushed to catch her when Lemmy jumped after her. Her body hit the stairs with a thud before I could reach her.

I froze and blinked in shock. I was too late. Ben tossed Willie into the wall, and his body fell limply on the steps. All I could do was stare in shock as Lemmy turned his head, screaming for help, his hands pressed down on the knife in her side. Ania choked, blood spurting out of her mouth and dribbling down her chin, ripping me from my shock. I saw Joe and Stanley trying to move, but both were unable to. I rushed to Lemmy's side as her eyes rolled back, and I moved to her then gripped her face.

"I cried out, 'Ania, my Luna!' as she passed out. 'Get a doctor!' I ordered, and Stanley and Joe rushed off to find one.

I turned to Ania, pleading with her, 'Stay with me. Stay with me, my love.' As I looked down, I saw her dress turning red, blood pooling and running down the steps from between her legs.

'No, no, no, NO!' I panicked, sliding my arms under her and taking off running towards the pack house hospital, which was different from the one humans use. Lemmy raced ahead, shoving doors open and screaming for the security men to open the gates.

Blood coated my arms from her head and from it gushing out between her legs. My clothes became drenched as I ran down the road, shifting while running. My ears picked up the sound of her heartbeat starting to slow, but she was still much too early for any life to be born and viable.

My legs faltered when I heard it stop, and I felt her pulse weakening. The theater was ahead, and Lycans looked around shocked as the doctor burst out of the doors with his gear before spotting us. His mouth fell open, and the next second, he raced back inside, forcing the doors open and screaming at his nurses to get a gurney.

As I moved through the building, the nurses rushed out, and I placed her down. The doctor set his bag on it before rushing off with her. I wanted to follow, but Lemmy's hand gripped my shoulder.

"You'll just get in the way," Lemmy said. But I could heal her. I was about to say that when Lemmy spoke again, seeming to know what I was going to say.

"Some things can't be healed, my alpha. Let Doctor work," Lemmy said. Moments later, Joe and Ben burst through the theater doors. He looked at me, his eyes then moving to Lemmy's hand holding my shoulder.

"Come on, let's wait outside. There is nothing you can do right now," Joe said, and I shook my head. Kim flitted through the mind link, panicking, and Lemmy told him where we were.

"Come on. Come have a smoke," Lemmy said, pushing me toward the doors. I was forced to take my eyes away from where the doctor took her through the double doors into the theater. Lemmy pushed me out the doors, nudging me, and I reluctantly stepped outside. He shoved his cigar packet in my hand, but I didn't light one. When he pulled two from the packet and lit them, he kept one for himself and passed me the other.

"Ania will be okay," Ben said while Lemmy blew smoke into the air. "She is tougher than she looks."

"The baby?" I asked him. Neither of them said anything. Even though I knew that if she was all right, the baby wasn't going to be. This made me wonder if my mate would be okay after all.

The doctor confirmed that when he stepped out of the doors twenty minutes later. He tugged his gloves off.

"Ania?" I asked.

"Alive. She is still unconscious. I stitched her up. The bleeding stopped, but you could probably help that healing process," the doctor said, and I nodded.

"Our baby?" I asked, grasping onto any form of hope.

"I'm sorry, my alpha. The fetus didn't make it," he told me. Fetus! I hated the way he said it, though I knew our pregnancy grew way too fast. My legs buckled under me, and I hit the ground hard at his words. My heart sank, and my stomach dropped at the information.

I failed her! Willie was a child, and the last person I would have suspected. I failed her, and it cost us our baby and nearly her life! How do I tell her that?

"Ania needs you, Hunter. Get up," Joe said.

"I murmured, 'We lost the baby,' trying to wrap my head around everything.

"I know, but if you don't get up and get in there, you may lose her, too. Now up," Joe said, gripping my arm, and Lemmy grabbed the other, hauling me to my feet.

"One foot in front of the other. Come on, big fella. Your Luna needs you. Break later, not in front of her," Ben said, pushing me towards the doors.

It took hours for her to wake up. Joe went back to the pack house to get us some clothes, so I wasn't walking around in just a hospital gown. I walked back into the ward to find that she was sitting up. I felt nothing through the bond to tell me she had woken, and I had only stepped out a minute to change quickly.

She pinched the front of her gown, looking inside before rubbing her thighs. Her lips quivered, and she looked at her hands. Doc and I had cleaned her up, so she wasn't soaked in blood, but the way she looked at her hands was like that was all she saw.

Moving closer, her head lifted, and she looked at me. Her voice held no emotion, and I felt nothing through the bond at all, as if the bond no longer existed.

"Did you feel it?" she asked. My hand stopped beside her face as it reached toward her. I swallowed and stepped closer, cupping the back of her neck and massaging my fingers through her hair. Still, no reaction through the bond.

"I could feel it, feel it leaving me," she whispered, staring vacantly at my chest.

"I know, love," I whispered back, and she remained frozen, staring off into space.

"How about we get you home?" I asked her. Once again, she said nothing and didn't move, not even to blink. She was an empty shell, and I fought the urge to growl. I would kill him, but first, I needed to take care of her. But he would die for doing this to her once I found out why.

Ania had no reaction when I picked her up. I took her home and set her in her nest, and she lay down.

Three days later, she still hadn't gotten out of bed, slept, or eaten. The doctor came and checked on her, saying it was to be expected. I was too frightened to leave her side since I still felt nothing through our bond. It was like she wasn't there at all, yet she was because I was staring at her.

I brushed her hair back before trying to move her up the bed so she could rest on me, but she slid straight back down into her nest, burrowing back beneath the blankets as if they would somehow protect her from the world.

Sighing, I put down the book I was reading and wandered off into the bathroom. I ran a bath for her. She needed to get moving, to do something. I would take anything at that point. Even my calling didn't rouse any reaction from her. Even the mind link was blocked.

I filled the bath with bubbles and lavender, even though the smell made me crinkle my nose, I knew she liked it. Walking back out, I took one of my shirts from the closet. She was still in the hospital gown, but I was determined to get her into something else, hopefully to get her to eat or speak.

After I had gathered towels and a shirt for her, I checked the water and waited for it to fill before shutting it off. When I entered the room, she was still in the same spot, tangled up in blankets. I gently untangled her and helped her out of her gown as she sat on the edge of the bed. Goosebumps covered her skin, so I stripped off my clothes and climbed into the bath with her. I positioned her between my legs, and she remained motionless as I washed her hair and cleaned her. We stayed in the water until it went cold, and then I helped her out, dried her off, and put my shirt on her. But I felt angry when she just rolled back into her nest.

Valentine had sent up soup to encourage her to eat, but she just rolled over. I reached for my whiskey and took a swig from the bottle; it was the only thing that kept me from losing my mind. The silence was killing me, and not feeling anything through the bond was lonely. I just wanted a reaction from her, any reaction, so that I knew she was still with me.

As I eyed the nest, I became more and more frustrated with how it obscured her from me while she hid under the blankets. Then the bottle slipped from my hands and shattered on the floor. I snarled at the mess I had made. My anger became too much, and I shifted involuntarily. I stormed over to the bed and began tearing at her nest, trying to fix it, but I only succeeded in tearing apart the mattress. With a growl, I collapsed onto the bed, ready to mind-link Joe to call the Doc again, when I felt movement. Suddenly, I felt her hand running across my fur to my chest before she laid her head on my chest.

Astonished, I stared at her. It was the first time she had moved towards me, and, of course, it had to be when I wasn't in human form. I was tempted to change back, but I didn't want her to slide away in case she didn't move back into place.

I turned my face and sniffed her hair. I let my calling wash over her. She snuggled closer, and I sighed. Well, it was something; I guess.

When she woke a few hours later, I shifted back, and immediately she burrowed back down under the blankets. Over the next few weeks, I came to notice that she only came to me if I was shifted and not in human form, so I spent the majority of my time in this state.

Hearing a knock on the door, I moved off the bed. Ania had helped me fix her nest; we changed the sheets and fixed it up, but she didn't rebuild it like I had hoped, which saddened me. I had gotten used to the thing, such a bizarre thing for she-wolves to do, but still, I hated not curling up in it with her. Joe entered with strips of raw meat and cubed cheese and crackers that Valentine had sent up.

"Is she still the same?" Joe asked, and I nodded in response. She was losing weight rapidly from not eating, and this time, I struggled as I attempted to make her eat while in my Lycan form. It was difficult with my claws, but she seemed more at ease with me in that form.

"I was thinking," Joe said as I turned away from him. I stopped and looked back at him, curious about what he wanted to say.

"About what?" I didn't want to hear about Willie or any theories at that moment. All I cared about was Ania. Willie was already locked up in the cells, and I would deal with him when I could.

"About why she won't go near you when you're not shifted," he continued. My brows furrowed as I felt him open up the mind link.

"You can't mate with her," Joe stated, causing me to growl as I looked back at the bed before turning to face him again.

"It's something to think about," he added, and I nodded, wondering if he was right. I couldn't live in that form forever. I missed wearing clothes and using my hands properly. Claws and buttons don't mix. He left shortly after.

I walked over to the bed and sat on it before propping her up on pillows so she was sitting up. I accidentally nicked her arm with my claws when I grabbed her, causing me to sigh. Leaning down, I licked the spot where I broke the skin and watched as it healed.

"I'm sorry," I told her. She just stared at me without flinching. I pinched a beef strip between my claws, but ended up dropping it. Frustrated, I growled and tried to pick it up again, only to drop it once more when she moved to retrieve it herself.

Her movements were robotic, and it was clear she was on autopilot. While excitement bloomed within me, she only managed to eat half of what was on the plate, and despite my insistence that she eat more, she refused. I set the plate aside and lay down with her again, eventually falling asleep. It felt like all we did was sleep, and it felt wrong. I wanted to hear her voice.

It was Ben speaking to Rina outside the doors that woke me. I jumped to my feet and saw that it was late in the afternoon, with the sun slowly setting outside the windows. I could see the kids playing on the hill as I stood, and I moved toward the door. Maybe Rina could help wake her up. Rina asked Ben about her condition, but Kim was nowhere to be seen.

"May I please come in? I just came from school, and we have all missed her," Rina said, looking at me warily. "Yeah, sure, but Ben must come in with you!" She nodded, stepped outside, and excused myself.

𝗔𝗡𝗜𝗔'𝗦 𝗣𝗢𝗩

"Shh, babe. You don't have to say anything. I'll just sit here with you," Rina said as she climbed onto the bed with me, holding me as I mourned something I never did. I cried my heart out, and I didn't know at what time I fell asleep.

I wasn't sure how long I had slept, but I woke up to my mate sleeping soundly beside me. He stirred and rolled closer, burying his nose in my hair, his breath warm on my neck. Worry resided in our bond even while he slept, as he sought to comfort me. However, I knew that no comfort would come until I had answers. I needed to understand, needed to move on. I needed to know what I did to deserve it, I needed to know it wasn't my fault, though some part of me did know that. Doubt still nagged at me, like I was to blame for the whole thing.

Reluctantly, I forced myself out from under Hunter's heavy arm that was draped over my waist. Moving across the room, I grabbed his robe. I needed the comfort of his scent, and his robe gave me that as I tiptoed to the door. Peering back at him, he remained asleep.

He would be mad, or maybe he wouldn't. I wasn't sure. So much had changed, yet remained the same. Although I had seen another side of Hunter, infact multiple sides of him, over the last few weeks.

One reason was that he loved me fiercely, not leaving me alone despite his own anguish. The other reason was that he had developed or picked up a really bad alcohol problem; he drank all the time. On a few occasions, he drank himself to oblivion. I could feel the tremors of his hands as he touched me when he went without it. I felt the frustration as he fought the urge to find himself at the bottom of another bottle, yet the bottle always won in the end. That was something we would have to address later, For now, I needed to move before I decided to crawl back into bed and wallow in my own misery. I twisted the handle and stepped out of the doors to find Ben. He looked at me as if he was seeing a ghost as I slipped out the door and closed it gently. He appeared hesitant when I moved toward him before he grabbed me, crushing me against his chest.

"Thank the moon goddess, my niece, you are okay," he whispered before holding me at arm's length.

"Where's your alpha?" He glanced at the door behind me before leaning down to look at my face. His eyes sparkled with sadness, endless hazel depths of worry staring back at me.

"I said, 'Sleeping,' though my throat hurt and my voice came out raspy.

'Allow me to wake him for you,' he offered, but I shook my head. I knew Hunter needed sleep; I knew how little he had and how exhausted he was. Plus, he had drunk too much last night before finally succumbing to slumber.

'Let him sleep, but I do have a favor to ask of you,' I told Ben.

'Yes, whatever you need,' he replied promptly, standing straight again.

'I want to see Willie,' I confessed. He opened his mouth, no doubt to deny me, but I held up my hand, silencing him.

'You won't, will you?' Ben sighed and rubbed his eyes.

'At the very least, let me wake Kim to come with us, just to be extra safe,' I agreed. One could never be too careful.

'What about Lemmy? If Kim is sleeping, it must mean he needs the rest,' I asked.

'He's running an errand for the alpha,' he simply said, and I nodded."

We encountered Kim in the kitchen, where he was still wearing his pajamas. They sat low on his hips, leaving his chest bare, revealing a tattoo of a beast clawing out of his skin.

As he walked in, he quickly pulled on a tank top, prompting me to wonder how close his room was to the kitchen.However, I quickly dismissed the thought as he placed a hand on my shoulder.

"Lass, perhaps you should let Hunter handle Willie," Kim suggested, but I shook my head. I needed answers first, and then Hunter could deal with him.

The memory of Rina's words made me shudder. She had told me that Hunter had ordered the murders of Mylar, Sky, and Fabian. I feared the same fate awaited Willie, so I asked for clarification.

"I wondered how it would be possible. Would Hunter break the very laws he swore to uphold, especially when it comes to children?" I asked.

Kim responded, "Not when it comes to treason, there is an exception to every rule."

I wasn't sure how to feel about that, and his words left me conflicted. Ben walked ahead and opened the door to the stairs under the pack house. I felt a chill rush through me as we descended the stairs, and I stayed close to Ben and Kim, using them as shields. They were more than happy to oblige as we navigated the winding tunnels before stopping at the dungeons. The dim lighting made it difficult to see, and two security guards stood on either side of the cell in the dungeon.

Ben snarled, and Kim placed his hand on my side as if he was ready to rip me from the place. Yet my eyes were fixed on the boy who sat huddled in the corner, looking like the weight of the world rested solely on his shoulders.

Willie was a boy I trusted, and despite what he had done, some part of me clung to the hope that he would tell me it was all a joke and that he hadn't taken my child from me. He was just a child, but he had killed mine. Seeing him so broken only made it more obvious that he was a child too.

Willie looked up, and I moved to the bars. His head snapped up to look at me, and he hung his head. His knees were pressed to his chest, and he looked small and meek. Though looks could be deceiving, I learned that the hard way. Was it all a lie? Everything? I liked him - I liked his energy, his carefree personality, his bubbliness - but then I saw a monster in a child's body. Although monsters hurt too. That became abundantly clear when he looked up, tears in his eyes that etched down his face and dripped off his chin.

"I'm sorry, I… I didn't mean… I panicked," he sobbed, and I looked at Kim, who was glaring at him.

"Panicked? You drove a knife into her. That isn't panicking; that is calculated," Ben snarled, hitting the bars and making him jump. I placed my hand on his arm, and he calmed, glancing down at me.

Turning to a security man, I asked for the keys. Kim quickly grabbed my hand to stop me, and Ben pressed closer to me, as if he would toss me over his shoulder for even thinking of going near Willie. But he was detained, shackled with chains around his neck, ankles, and wrists; he wasn't going anywhere.