MATE!" yelled Barin with an audible growl in his voice.
"Let me go to mate, she needs me!" he continued not knowing that he was the reason she was in that position. Reagan was right behind me was quicker than me to act. He rushed to aid Leone in holding Barin, who kept pushing against Leone to get to Rani.
I snapped out of it when I heard a sob come from Rani, I acted as quick as I could and stood in front of Rani facing away from her and directly into Barin's glowing red eyes.
I said to him in a calm and collected tone, "calm down," But he just growled at me earning himself a growl from Reagan. My wolf was not too happy with the direct sign of disrespect from the Beta, even if I were to deny it, my wolf knew and accepted her position as the future Luna of the Silphium pack.
"Calm down, you are making it worse," I paused a bit before saying, "you are scaring her."
At this, he stopped his struggles and looked at his mate, in a second his face of anger and frustration shifted to one of regret and pain as he closely watched a tear roll down her face. As the tear reached her chin and dropped to her knees, Barin run out of the packhouse through the backdoor and into the forest turning into his wolf before he could reach the forest line.
Our focus was brought back to Rani as Rhiannon was trying to get to her. The closer she got to Rani, the louder Rani cried. I took a deep breath and took a cautious step closer to Rani, as soon as I reached her she threw herself onto me and held on tight using her wolf strength, damn she is quite the strong wolf.
We stayed on the kitchen floor until she fell asleep, Leone waited with me, Reagan went after Barin and Rhiannon went to do some pack work that she was assigned by Alpha even though she seemed a bit irritated that Rani was more than comfortable in Leone. Reagan carried her to an empty room in the house while I had a strong debate to decide if I should stay the night with her or not and ended up staying the night with her as I knew that she would wake up scared out of her mind.
Mourning came by fast as the gentle morning sunrays danced on my face pulling me from my dreamless sleep in a foreign room. I couldn't recall the events of yesterday until the memories poured out on me as I turn only to find a sleeping Rani clinching onto the cover.
"Rani," my voice came out so soft it was almost as if it wasn't my own, "Rani," I repeat this time shaking her body a bit. Rani shot from the bed and sat up turning to me.
I smiled at her and told her to get ready as I rushed out of the room and raced to our room that was on the fourth floor to get her some clothes to wear. As I returned she was done with her mourning routine. I gave her the change of clothes asking her to change, she turned around and let her towel drop to the ground letting me have a clear view of all her scars, her whip marks, and claw marks, I turned away not being able to take the sight in front of me. Who would want to hurt such a pure soul? When she was done I asked her the one question I wanted to ask from the beginning.
"What happened to you?" Rani looked at me and took a deep breath before beginning her tragic story that had me shedding tears.
"After the attack, you guys found me in my room with a broken leg surrounded by fierce flames that threatened to end my life, I was only six at the time and you were only seven. We run out together witnessing the horrific scenes we did as kids, bodies lying around, men, women, children were all murdered on the spot and there was nothing we kids could do about it, we were just starting combat lessons as it was and couldn't fight," a single tear slid down her face and her eyes were not focused as if she could see the scene right in front her as if she were reliving that painful memory,
"But before we could get to the safe house, we met my brother, August, he took me away saying he could carry me to the safe house to get the pack doctor to look at my broken leg, as soon as I was on his back he runs from you guys saying that there was no time to waste, that I was losing way too much blood, that was the first time I ever saw my brother lie to me, he did take me to the safe house fast but not because of my broken leg, it was to get rid of you two."
"The truth of that day was that that attack had been in preparation for six years, that was not a rouge attack as the Rafe council reported, but nobody even cared the find out the truth about that day because people were terrified of our pack, they all thought it would be better to let the truth remain in the ashes of our pack's brunt bodies," then it hit me how did she all this and why did she say anything all this time.
"But how do you know all this? Why didn't you say anything, better yet why didn't you find us sooner?" I voice out my questions as my impatience gets the better of me but Rani carried on as if she could not hear my voice.
"After he took me, he run towards the North-West border, to the North-West entrance of the safe house, I asked him why we could use the entrance in the packhouse as it was closest to our location and all he could do was let tears run down his face as he told me that he had left you there to die, he told me that the attack was planned and all they wanted were the members of the Alpha family and the current Beta, our Father, as we reached the entrance, there were no guards only Alpha Jax, the leader of the Marcel pack, one of our protectorate territories, he clawed August's face and stabbed him with a dagger laced with wolfsbane and left him to die." she paused.
"He took me into his pack and we become his toys, he abused, tortured and made us into his pack warriors and used us to conquer weaker packs, we were forced to fight each other and the loser was always killed, that had been living for the past thirteen years of my life, until a few months ago. My wolf became very agitated with everything around and was talking of an awakening," an awakening was what we used to refer to unleashing a war wolf Alpha's full power, just a few months ago Lionel had his but he can suppress the alpha aura so people don't know he is one.
"So I escaped and run the direction my wolf told me until I passed out at the border of this pack and here I am," as she finished, I slowly processed everything, from our family's murder to the fact that someone actually killed my pack mates and still roams free, how Rani had suffered to bring the truth to me and Leone. I wipe away the tears from my eyes as I get up with a newfound determination to make Alpha Jax pay for all he had done to Rani and to give her all she had missed out in the thirteen years she was in prison.
I walk out the door as I pull Rani along with me to get her the best breakfast I could fit on a plate. As we get to the kitchen no one was there but the cook, Lily. Perfect now she won't get uncomfortable with the Alpha and Beta families, despite being a member of the Beta family, being a prisoner and slave does a number on you.
I sweet talk Lily to give us an early meal but as soon as we sat down to eat Reagan walked in as Rani stiffened, Reagan let out a sigh as he address me.
"She has to talk to Barin, I put him in a cellar last night but that was not enough, we had to inject him with wolfsbane to get his wolf to calm down but will wear off soon, I can't have my Beta like that."
"Fine, I will talk to him," a small determined voice spoke up from beside me.