I pulled up to Jazmin's house with my stomach in knots. I knew she wasn't there but the thought of seeing her made my heart skip a beat. I didn't want to go in just yet so I sat in the car for a few minutes. The men I brought with me waited by their cars as I pulled myself together. As I sat there I found myself thinking about the conversation I had with my dad before I left.
"Where are you going son?" Dad said as I put my coat on.
"Do I need to tell you everything I do?" I answered.
"If you need help finding Jazmin I'll be happy to assist you." Dad said with a smile. I'm going to kill whoever told him about her leaving. Couldn't I find people loyal to me and me alone. I didn't understand why everyone sucked up to my father. I was stronger than him for quite a while now. I was the one who was supposed to take over this pack yet they still turned to my father.
"I already told you in my room to mind your own business Dad. She's my mate and I'll do things my way. I tried your way and it only pushed her away. I'm done doing things your way." I growled at him to let him know I was serious.
"It is my business son. You're my son so that makes it my business. You'll thank me one day." Dad said, patting me on my back.
"Don't get ahead of yourself old man. Don't forget your place. I'm stronger than you and you're overstepping your bounds. Worry about your own mate. Your way of doing things has destroyed Mom. Do you think I'm going to let you do that to Jazmin? This is the last time I'm going to say this. If you do anything to her mates I'll destroy this pack and everything you've worked for. Do you hear me? You forget I'm an Alpha too. The strongest one in this pack at that. If I wanted to, all I have to do is use my aura to suppress everyone." I said looking my father in the eyes. I had stepped up to him and was now looking down at him only inches from his face. I could see his pulse quicken in the vein on his forehead. This was enough to satisfy me and I stepped away.
"Son please don't be like this. I just want what's best for you." Dad said in a low voice.
"What about what's best for Jazmin? You want what's best for this pack and yourself. You're not thinking of Jazmin or me at all." I said clenching my fists.
"That's not true at all, son." Dad exclaimed.
"Were you ever thinking about mom when you had two of her mates killed. Did you think about what that would do to her? No you only thought about them taking her from you so you were only thinking about yourself. Stay away from Jazmin's mates, got it?" I told him. "Enough, I need to go."
"Alright, call me if you need anything." Dad said walking away. As dad walked around the corner I followed him just far enough for him to not notice me. Dad pulled out his phone and made a call.
"It's me. If you find her, call me right away." Dad said into the phone. "Yeah I talked to him. Don't mind him. He'll thank me one day. No, if she's found her mates leave them alone. I don't want to push my luck with Tony right now. I'll find another way to deal with them. I don't think Tony's joking when he says he'll destroy everything if we have them killed. But locking them up for the rest of their lives is another option."
I sighed in relief. At least I don't have to worry about him killing them. Everything else can be dealt with in time. I waited for my father to take the elevator up to the ground floor before I moved. Our pack base was underground in my fathers main hotel. There was an elevator only accessible to our pack members. This base was five stories deep underground just for pack members and another three stories deeper for my father and I. We had everything from a kitchen to a workout room.
Sometimes I forget my room is eight stories underground. There were sections I didn't have access to in this base. I had access to my entire floor but the other floors were another story. My mother and father lived one floor above me. If I wanted to go see my mother I had to ask my father since I didn't have access to where she was. He didn't even trust me near his mate and she was my mother.
As soon as I had my first rut he moved me out of the seventh basement floor and into the eight basement floor. It was a lot of space and most of the rooms weren't even being used. I had asked dad why I needed so many rooms down here and he told me they were for my future cubs. How many cubs did he expect me to have?
I was an only child since mom kept having miscarriages. The stress of losing all of her mates except for my father was too much for her. She didn't eat well or sleep well unless dad was next to her. Since dad was the CEO of his own company he didn't have time to always come home for her. The hotel chain he started grew to the point where he was a millionaire within two years of starting his high class hotels.
All this before I was even born. He had drive, that was for sure. If he wanted something he didn't stop till he had it. He made the right connections with the right people and now was pretty much untouchable. He expected me to take all this over.
He was currently trying to turn this pack into a clan protected by the government. He was tired of hiding and wanted the protection provided by becoming recognized by the government. He didn't want to be labeled a Rogue anymore. Most clans didn't take in rogues so the only way in was to create a clan yourself. The whole pack wanted to become a clan and believed my father could do it. They would do anything he asked since he had kicked out a couple of wolves who told him no. If they were kicked out then they wouldn't be able to become part of the clan when my father finally pulled it off. Because of this it was hard finding anyone to side with me and go against what my father wanted.
My father didn't think about what I wanted. I didn't want to take over. Yes I was strong enough to become High Alpha of a clan but that didn't mean I wanted to. I just wanted to stay by Jazmin's side. Wherever she went I wanted to follow. But first I needed to make things right with her. For that to happen I needed to find her before my father did. If he pulled his crap again it would make it worse between Jazmin and I.
I looked at the house she was in just hours ago and pulled myself together. I won't find her sitting in the car. Time to get things done. I opened my car door and stepped out. All the men I brought with me stood up waiting for orders.
"Let's go." I told them. I walked up to the front door and could smell the blood from outside. The men with me all covered their noses. I pulled my copy of Jazmin's house key from my pocket and unlocked the door. As soon as I opened the door the first thing I noticed was the tile was shattered all the way back to the kitchen behind the stairs. To my right there was a large puddle of blood at the foot of the stairs. My eyes traveled up the stairs to the large hole in the wall at the top. I could see Jazmin's room through the hole. The scent of more blood was coming from upstairs as well.
"What the hell happened here boss?" One of the men asked.
"I don't know. I only smell one person's scent I'm not used to. It's another woman. A dragon. The blood here is Roxy's and the blood I smell upstairs is Ronald's. If I had to guess Ronald beat up Roxy and someone beat up Ronald. I can't tell who though." I replied.
"Ronald is a dragon right? Who would be strong enough to take him out?" Another man asked.
"Maybe the other scent I smell. She's a dragon too. The last time I was here Ronald's dragon smelled weak. If she was at full strength she could do it. Enough guessing just search everywhere. Look for anything to tell me where they went. I'll look in Jazmin's room." I said heading up the stairs.
"Yes sir." They all said at once. They went in pairs to different rooms and started opening drawers. They were well trained. If there was a clue they would find it.
I stepped into Jazmin's room and looked around. The nightstand next to her bed was broken other than that it didn't look like anything was wrong. Someone must have gone through the wall and landed here. I sniffed the area next to the bed. It smelled like one of the dragons who came over to see Ronald all the time. I was becoming more confused. Were they fighting among themselves?
I went to the closet and was looking through things when I noticed Jazmin's scent was strong on a box in the corner of the closet. I pulled it out and opened it. It was a shoe box. My breath caught in my chest when I opened it. Inside there were pictures of me she had taken in secret. There were receipts of places we had gone to. Movie ticket stubs and notes I had written to her in class. Most of this stuff was from before we had started dating. She had liked me all along.
Was there any reason to use her mom against her? If she liked me from the beginning, did I have to destroy everything? I dropped to my knees and put my head in my hands. What have I done? Is it too late to fix things between us? Her scent was strong on all of these items. She must have pulled them out and looked at them a lot. There's still time. There has to be, I thought to myself.
"Sir we've checked everywhere we haven't found anything. If they planned where they were going they did it by word of mouth. There's nothing here. Did you find anything?" One of the men asked as he came into the room.
"No, let's go. We'll find them another way." I said standing up. I took the box with me. Having something with her scent on it made me feel close to her. I turned around and picked up her pillow and brought it with me as well.
"Cute sir." One of the men laughed.
"Shut up." I growled.
"No, I get it, see." He said as he pulled out a handkerchief from his pocket. "It has my mates scent on it. I have her keep one with her all week then I take it. I take it everywhere with me. I don't like being away from her and I know where she is. You must really be going through a ruff time right now being away from Jazmin and not knowing where she is. I'm sorry you're going through this. You should take her blanket as well. It will help you at night so you don't have nightmares. I'll help all I can, sir."
"Where is your mate now?" I asked as I turned around and folded up Jazmin's blanket like he said.
"She's back at the base taking care of our cubs." He said with a smile.
"Cubs? How many did she have?" I asked.
"Two sir. Want to see?" He said already pulling out his phone.
"Two? But I thought three or four was the normal size of a litter." I asked, looking at the picture of the two small babies in a woman's arms.
"That's true for full-bloods but she's part human. Have you heard of the story of the Goddess having kids with humans?" He asked, flipping to another picture to show me.
"You mean the story of how shifters came about?" I said as he showed me yet another picture of his kids. He had shown me at least twenty pictures already. He must have at least a hundred pictures on his phone.
"Yeah that one. Well her grandfather is human and he says that her grandmother was a goddess. Her mother was born a wolf because of the goddess. He says she was one of the last ones to go to sleep." He said putting his phone away.
"To go to sleep? I don't think I've heard anything about the goddesses going to sleep." I told him as we made our way down the stairs.
"Her grandfather said the Goddess would sleep until their mates were reborn. Something about a curse put on the goddess by the gods for choosing to have children with the humans. He said the goddess told him that they couldn't have children with the gods. Some goddesses wanted kids so they chose to have children with the humans this angered the gods since their mates were choosing the humans. So as a punishment the gods split up their souls into five men since their souls wouldn't fit in one man and caused the goddesses to have human mates. The goddess would have to watch their mates die over and over and it could take hundreds of years for all of the soul pieces to be reborn so they would sleep until their mates were back." He said.
"This grandfather has some interesting stories. I want to hear more rides with me." I told him. I locked the house back up and went to my car. After putting the shoe box, pillow and blanket in the trunk I got in the driver seat. The man got into the passenger seat. I might be able to get him to be loyal to me so I wanted to get closer to him. He seemed to only care about his mate and his cubs. I might be able to use this to bring him to my side. "What's your name?"
"Malone sir." Malone said as he put his seat belt on.
"You can drop the sir Malone. Look, I need people I can trust. My problem is everyone I work with runs off and tells my dad everything. If Jazmin finds her other mates my father plans to have them killed." I said, looking closely at Malone.
"What?! That's horrible! Doesn't he know what that will do to Jazmin?" Malone said in shock.
"Oh yeah he knows. He had two of my mothers mates killed so he has seen first hand the damage it will cause. He doesn't care about Jazmin. He only cares about the pack and what he's worked so hard to achieve. He wants to turn this pack into a clan and in order for that to happen he'll need a strong alpha to become high alpha. I'm the only one who is strong enough to become a High Alpha. If Jazmin's mates are already in a clan she will go with them and I'll go with her. My dad can't have that happen no matter what." I said looking over to Malone.
"What do you need from me?" Malone said, looking over at me. He had such a serious look on his face that it almost made me laugh.
"I need someone who I can trust to do things for me that wont run and tell my dad." I replied.
"Yes sir I can do that. My lips are sealed." Malone said, running his fingers across his lips like he was zipping them up.
"Good I will have my friend Nick get in contact with you. You two will be working together to help me find Jazmin and you will answer to me and me alone. Put your number in my phone." I said handing him my phone. I had already unlocked it so he could add the number. He held the phone and just looked at it. A light blush spread across his cheeks. "What's wrong?"
"Oh I'm sorry. Is this Jazmin? She's beautiful." he said as he opened the contacts app. "Sorry I felt some weird pull when I looked at her. Not like a mate pull but something else. Whatever it was, it made me want to protect her."
"Yes, that's Jazmin. Yes she is beautiful thank you." I said. Malone was looking uncomfortable now. "Don't worry I'm not mad. You said it wasn't a mate pull. If you feel like protecting her then that works for me. I want to protect her and her heart which means protecting her mates as well. If you already feel like doing that then that works out in my favor."
"Okay," Malone replied. He relaxed as he looked at the screen saver of Jazmin on my phone again. "I want to protect her and her heart too. I'll do whatever you need me to. Just promise me my mate and cubs will be protected as well."
"I promise Malone." I told him as we pulled up to the hotel. "I still want to hear more about your mate's grandfather. Once this is all over tell me more okay."
"Yes sir. Her grandfather may be crazy but he has some great stories." Malone laughed.