Ruby had told us she sensed Ronald was in trouble. Out of fear that Roxy's pack had found them we rushed over to the house. We flew the whole way here in the dark. It wasn't smart to fly in the city but we didn't have time. Now standing outside the house putting our clothes on we were stunted by the amount of rage we could sense from the house.
"Let's go!" Jesse told us. A nod from all of us was all we needed to prepare for a fight as we walked into the house.
As soon as we opened the door we saw Roxy's body on the floor covered in blood. Her limbs were twisted in odd directions with a couple of bones sticking out of the skin in a few places. Her face was unrecognizable. I only knew it was her from her scent.
"James, look after Roxy." Jesse said. Turning to go up the stairs.
"Wait Alpha, that rage is coming from upstairs. We should figure out what is going on before you rush up there." I said putting my hand on his shoulder.
"It's fine. I don't smell anyone else in the house. That rage is coming from Jazmin or Ronald, one of the two." Jesse replied, giving my hand a pat before continuing up the stairs.
"How many years have you used her as a punching bag? How many years did I have to sit there and listen to you beat on her? How many tears did my mother spill? How many times have you told her I'm sorry? How many bruises did she cover up? She's going to die here today but so are you, you bastard." Jazmin's voice screamed from upstairs. A sudden realization came over all of us as we realized what was going on. Ronald had been abusing these women for years. Why didn't Roxy ever tell us anything? We didn't know any of this was happening.
"Jazmin?" Jesse called out softly from the top of the stairs.
Jazmin head flipped around to look at Jesse. Pure rage filled her eyes. Her eyes were an eerie red color. I've seen her eyes change color depending on her mood before but I've never seen them red until now. Blood covered her hands and face, all of it Ronald's. There was no getting through to her right now. Jesse would have to hold her down until she calmed down. Jesse was at full strength where Ronald had neglected his dragon making him weaker. So I wasn't worried she would hurt Jesse.
"Ok honey calm down, we're here to help. We're Ronald's pack." Jesse said, putting his hands in the air as if he was surrendering. Just the mention of Ronald caused Jazmin's rage to flare again. She climbed off Ronald and turned toward Jesse. Jesse stiffened and planted his feet into the carpet to ready himself if she attacked.
"You're his pack? Then you're just as much to blame. Looks like I get to play some more. I'd felt like beating him wasn't enough to make up for all these years. Guess you get to fill the cup don't you." Jazmin growled, her voice sending shivers down my spine. A sinister smile formed on her lips.
Was this really Jazmin? The sweet cute girl I had seen grow up was gone. Replaced with a crazed bloodthirsty killer. Though she hasn't killed anyone yet, if we left her as she is right now it's only a matter of time. There's a saying that popped into my head looking at her. Hit a dog enough times that dog will eventually bite back. Ronald had pushed this girl over the edge and it filled me with anger for not protecting her.
We knew Ronald had a mean streak. He had even hit our mate Ruby. That was one of the reasons Ruby chose to make him protect Roxy and her daughter. The other reason was because Ronald's ability allowed him to erase someone's scent completely. His own scent would cover the person erasing their scent and replacing it with his own. Standing here now I could smell Roxy and Jazmin's scent clearly. Their scents were all through this house meaning he hasn't covered their scents for a long time. I had brought this up with Jesse every time we came to visit to check on them. He always said he would talk to Ronald which he did but Ronald just shrugged it off. He had no intention of protecting them did he? I was so concerned I had asked Jesse to bring Ruby to check the memories of the house.
That was one of Ruby's abilities. Alphas could look into the memories of people just by touching them but Ruby could only look into the memories of an object. Her other ability was healing. She could create a light that could heal the person she covered with the light..
All of us had abilities since we were all dragons. Ruby had two which was rare. I could harden my skin which made it look like my dragon scales. James could stop time around a person and object. Alex could generate electricity from his fingers using it as an attack or defense by stunning the person or my favorite charging my phone. Jesse our Alpha could generate fire from anywhere on his body as well as hone in on someone's scent and know exactly where they were. As long as he knew what the person looked like and had something with their scent on it he could picture them in his mind. As long as the person he was trying to find was within a thousand miles from him he could see their location on a map. That's how we knew where Ronald was. Elemental abilities like lightning and fire are the strongest abilities since they would be invaluable in a battle.
There was a creak on the floor as Jazmin inched closer to the bathroom doorway. She reached out and put a hand on either side of the doorframe. Blood trickled down from the two hand prints left behind. She licked the blood off one finger then spit it out making a disgusted face.
"His blood tastes just like he smells. I wonder what your blood will taste like." Jazmin said with a giggle.
"Wait, we didn't know this was happening. If we did, we would have stopped it." Jesse pleaded. For a moment I thought I saw fear in his eyes.
"You're lying! You're all the same!" Jazmin screamed. Then she rushed out of the bathroom. For a second my eyes lost track of her. She reappeared at Jesse's side. He too didn't see that coming cause all he could do was put his arms up to protect himself but he wasn't fast enough as her fists came up under his chin.
"Did she just use an ability?" Alex asked next to me. So it wasn't just me who lost track of her.
Jesse's body was lifted in the air by her blow. While he was still in the air she raised her leg and sent a hard kick into his stomach sending him flying through the wall and into the bedroom. Jazmin was about to step through the hole when she caught sight of Alex and I standing in the front room.
"What the, how did a wolf over power a dragon?" James said still working on Roxy.
"Shut up James, don't get her attention. I don't think she's noticed you yet. If her mother dies we may be next. It's clear she's not any wolf." I hissed at James not taking my eyes off of Jazmin. I didn't want to lose track of her again. The hair on the back of my neck stood as she made eye contact with me. It was like a predator watching its prey. Any movement would cause the predator to pounce.
"I thought her mom was suppressing her wolf. How is it this strong?" Alex asked, taking a step back.
"Alex don't move-" I yelled, turning to look at him. Out of the corner of my eyes Jazmin had appeared behind us. She grabbed both of our necks and smashed us into the tile floor. I hardened my skin into scales before my face smashed into the tile. The force of the impact caused all the tile around us to smash into pieces flying into the air. The wind was knocked out of me while Alex's eyes rolled into the back of his head. In less than five minutes Jazmin had taken two of us out of the fight.
James was up and rushing toward us. He was our last hope. If he could pause time around her stopping her movements, we were all done for. Jazmin released my neck and turned to dive at James. He dropped to his knees and slid under her letting his fingers graze her thigh. She froze in mid air.
"Thank the Goddess you stopped her. What about her mom?" I asked, pushing myself off the ground and dusting myself off.
"She's out of danger for now. I paused most of the time around her allowing for only a trickle of time to pass through. With her healing it should be enough to help her start to heal." James said looking at his cut up knees which he had cut on the shards of tile as he slid. "Don't struggle Jazmin, you're only going to hurt yourself."
"Let me down NOW!" came a growl from Jazmin.
"Oh, no beautiful. Not till you calm down. I like my life, thank you very much." I laughed. "You heard him right? Your mothers out of danger. She's not going to die."
A look of realization entered her eyes as she took in what I was saying and tears began to spill down her face. Her eyes were flickering between red and hazel, finally deciding to stay hazel. I watch as all the tension seems to drain from her. It killed me that we let this happen. Our pack did this to her and Ronald was going to pay one way or another.
"Don't cry sweetie, I'm not good with crying women." I said as I pulled out a handkerchief from my pocket and wiped her face. The blood filled my handkerchief as her beautiful face came back to normal. I walked into the kitchen and washed out the blood. I walked back over to Jazmin and removed the last of the blood on her face. "That's better."
"Ugh my head." Alex said as he came to. He looked up to find Jazmin frozen above him. He quickly scooted away from her. "Holy fuck."
The front door suddenly flew open. Ruby rushed in and looked around the scent of fear washed over us. "Where's Jesse?" She yelled. I pointed to the hole in the wall on the stairs. She rushed up the stairs without a word entering the bedroom.
Alex, James, and I followed her in a hurry. Jesse was slumped over against the side nightstand. He was gasping for air. He was the strongest in the pack and our Alpha. Jazmin had done some real damage to him with only two hits. Is this the power of a female Alpha? Ruby wasted no time dropping to her knees beside Jesse raising her hands above him. A bright pink light left her hands covering Jesse's entire body. Within a few minutes his breathing had gone back to normal.
"I'm ok now Ruby. Please since you're here please go work on Jazmin's mother." Jesse said, placing a reassuring hand on Ruby's shoulder. Ruby nodded, wiping tears from her face and stood going down stairs. Ruby was a perfect name for her since it matched her ruby red hair. My entire pack looked like they could be brothers except for me, Ronald and Ruby. Everyone had dark hair with dark eyes. Ruby had red hair and green eyes. Ronald with his blond hair and blue eyes. Then there was me. I was half black and half white giving me a lighter shade of brown skin with black eyes. The only black guy with a bunch of white people. At first I didn't want to join the pack because I felt out of place but they never treated me any different. Well Ronald always had some stupid remark but since he had been gone so long I'd forgotten he was even a member of this pack.
"I want to know what happened here." Ruby said, pausing at the doorway.
"We're going to figure that out right now. Where's Jazmin?" Jesse said walking out of the room. I pointed to downstairs where Jazmin still stayed frozen in mid air. Jesse sighed. "Does she still need to be frozen?"
"Hell yeah she does. You were out for the count so you didn't see what happened. She can use abilities like us. One second she was up here on the stairs the next she was behind us. I've never seen a wolf with that kind of power." Alex replied. A little irritation in his voice as he remembered being taken out by a wolf. If anyone learned about this we all would be a laughing stock.
"Abilities? Only dragons can use abilities." Jesse said, reaching the bottom of the stairs. "Are you sure?"
"Yes I'm sure you saw for yourself where she disappeared from your sight. I think it's some kind of teleportation ability." I said looking at Jazmin.
"I didn't teleport." Jazmin said. "Please let me down, I'm calm now."
"Okay if you didn't teleport what did you do?" Jesse asked, snapping his fingers at James and pointing at Jazmin. James hesitated for a moment then walked over to Jazmin touching her arm. He caught her as she fell from her frozen spot.
"Time seemed to slow down, that's all. I'm not sure how I did it." Jazmin said, pulling out of James's arms. All of us were stunned.
"That's all she says." Alex laughed. "Do you know how rare time abilities are?"
"No I don't. Sorry for not knowing asshole." Jazmin growled at Alex causing him to flinch.
"Jazmin there have only been four people who have been recorded as a time user." James said as Jazmin walked over to the couch where James had put her mother. "I'm number four that would make you number five."
"Now hold on we don't even know if it was an ability. Maybe it's something else since we don't know anything about female Alphas." Jesse said while keeping a close eye on Jazmin. She had gotten a washcloth from the kitchen and was wiping her mothers face. Her hand stilled when she heard Jesse.
"What? What are you talking about? There's no such thing as a female Alpha." Jazmin said, looking up at us.
"Didn't your mom tell you anything?" Jesse asked with irritation clearly in his voice. "What the hell is wrong with these two? Why didn't they tell her anything?"
"Your mom is the first Female Alpha ever to be born. That's why her pack wants her. They were going to sell her to some lab where they were going to study her. When she found out she was pregnant with you she ran away. As soon as you were born she realized you were an Alpha as well. Your mother was suppressing both your wolf and her own so her pack could find you two." I said, sitting down next to Jazmin I began to help wash the blood from Roxy. Alex walked over and placed a bowl of warm water in between Jazmin and I before quickly stepping away.
"My wolf is asleep. It's not going to wake up. What's the point of suppressing it? I have too much human blood running through me." Jazmin said. Ruby had made her way to the foot of the couch and raised her hands above Roxy. Jazmin let out a growl of warning.
"Relax, I'm just going to heal her." Ruby said with a gentle smile. With that a pink light shone over Roxy.
"Who told you that you have human blood? You're a pure blood wolf my dear." Jesse told Jazmin. Shock spread across Jazmin's face.
"I don't believe you." Jazmin exclaimed.
"You wont need to believe me. Without your mom to suppress your wolf she's going to start waking up in the next few weeks. You'll know then." Jesse said. A noise from upstairs caused everyone to look up as Ronald came into view standing at the top of the stairs. A growl left everyone's lips causing Ronald to back up in shock. Jazmin looked at everyone, shocked herself at their growling.
Ruby stood up and walked out into view looking up at Ronald. Hate filled her eyes. "Want to tell me what you've done Ronald?" she growled.
"Ruby, what are you doing here?" Ronald asked breathing through his mouth since his nose was still mangled.
"I know everything. I saw the memories of this house. I know what you were making Roxy do to you. Did you forget you had a mate or did you not care?" Ruby hissed glaring at Ronald.
"What did you want me to do? You wouldn't see me and I have needs!" Ronald growled back at her.
"Grab him." Ruby said, flipping her long red hair over her shoulder. Jesse and I both rushed up the stairs grabbing Ronald arms. We dragged him down and pushed him to his knees in front of Ruby.
"Jazmin dear, pay attention. This is how you deal with an ungrateful mate." Ruby said, raising her hand and placing it above Ronald.
"Ruby stop! Please let me make it up to you." Ronald yelled trying to get out of our grasp.
"You protecting these two was your way to make it up to me for striking me yet look how you made it up to me." Ruby raised her other hand extending one finger nail. In a quick motion she cut her palm. "By this blood I Ruby McCutter here by reject you Ronald King as my mate."
Ronald howled in pain as he clutched his chest when Ruby's blood dripped on his still bloody face. His eyes rolled into the back of his head as he passed out again.
"Stop time around him. I'll figure out how to deal with him later." Ruby said, looking at James. He did as she asked, bending to one knee he touched each of his limbs. He finished by touching each one of his ears.
"I stopped his hearing as well my lady." James said with a bow.
"Wait, I thought the only way to break a mate bond was for one of them to die." Jazmin said standing to her feet.
"That is one way, this is the other way. My dear I'm truly sorry that my choice to have Ronald protect you has caused you so much pain. I hope this at least can be a beginning to me righting the wrongs that choice brought." Ruby said in a soft voice.