Gunner's POV
I was still in the shower when I heard people running down the hallway towards the room I was in. I hurried up and shut the water off and grabbed a towel and dried off. I was reaching for my clothes when I heard my name being shouted from the hall. I hurried to get dressed and as I was coming out of the bathroom, the door to the room was flung open. Chelsea was barely standing and was probably only standing because Ben was holding her up. I shouldn't have let her do that spell.
"Gunner!" Chelsea said breathlessly. I rushed over to her to help Ben get her to the bed.
"Chels are you ok? What's wrong?" I asked.
"I'm fine. Witchcraft uses a lot of energy and when you haven't used it in forever it can take a lot out of you." She said.
"Do you need anything?" My dad asked her.
"A glass of water?" My dad nodded his head and took off for the kitchen. "Gunner, I saw her. At least I think I did. I saw a girl they were calling Alida. She had a huge bite mark on her neck. Someone named Alex got the bleeding to stop but she's still unconscious. Someone named Jax is supposed to be looking over her until she wakes up."
"So she's still alive?!" I asked as I felt Maddox coming forward to listen as well.
"For right now anyways. It didn't look good." She lowered her head and spoke softly, "I'm sorry."
"Don't be sorry Chelsea. I'm going over there. She will heal faster with her mate by her side." I said as I stood up.
"Dude don't be stupid. You can't go over there. If the King or any of his men see you, they will kill you." Ben said.
"I have to. Maybe Charlie can put some kind of protection spell on me or something. Yeah, that's it. I need to find Charlie!" I said as I started walking out of the room before I heard someone clear their throat and I stopped and looked back.
Becka was standing there with her arms folded across her chest just staring at me. "You know I have my orders right? You are not to leave this room."
"Listen Doc, I can't just sit around here and do nothing. I have to get to her!" I pleaded.
"Gunner it's late already. Why don't you try to get some sleep tonight and I will talk to dad about getting Charlie here first thing tomorrow. Deal?" Ben was now pleading with me.
"Ugh! FINE!" I threw my arms up in surrender. I knew I wasn't getting out of this room tonight, not with everybody under the Alpha command. "Ben you should get Chelsea to her bed also, she doesn't look so good." Ben nodded his head in agreement and then scoped her up in his arms and left the room. I mind linked dad to let him know that Ben took Chelsea to his room and to take the water there.
I laid down on the bed thinking of my poor mate all alone thousands of miles away. What happened over there? Did she get blitz attacked? I knew she had a good level of training, at least enough to defend herself, but Chelsea didn't say if she had any defensive wounds or not. I have to know what happened. Whoever did this to her would pay with their life. I didn't care who it was, even if it was the King himself.
I'm not sure when it happened, but I drifted off to sleep. Next thing I knew there was a bright light and then I was back at that same place I had met my mate before. I looked all around for her but didn't see her.
"Cheyenne?!" I called out but no answer. "Alida?!" Still no answer. I started wondering around searching for her. I got to the tree line when I thought I caught some movement out of the side of my eye. I stopped and started looking and heading towards where I saw movement.
"Gunner. Nice to finally meet you." A lady appeared not 20 feet in front of me.
"What the hell is going on!? Who the hell are you?" I growled.
The lady just giggled, "Gunner, I am Selene. I brought you here to speak with you."
After I picked my jaw up off the ground and wrapped my head around the thought that I was actually standing in front of the Moon Goddess herself and gathered my thoughts I bowed slightly, "My apologies Moon Goddess. I didn't know…"
"Oh it's alright child. I know these are very stressful times, for all of us actually." She said as she took a few steps closer to me. "I know you have questions and are wanting answers. I will do my best to give you the answers that I can. You have to understand that even if I know the answer, I might not be able to tell you."
"I understand. Cheyenne…or Alida…ugh my mate told me about her meetings with you. The only thing I want to know is if my mate is going to make it? And I guess I would like to know what happened to her."
"I can show you the past because what's done is done and there's nothing you can do to change it. As for the future, that's completely different. Come my child." She waved me over towards her. She then waved her arm in the air and a fountain appeared out of nowhere. "Come take a look." She pointed towards the water.
I took a few steps closer and looked down at the water in the fountain. The water started to ripple and then I saw my mate and another man come to the surface. I watched as they ate breakfast and then made the fake announcement. That triggered the memory of our conversation about faking Jax being her mate to draw out the bitch leaving the threatening notes. Once I realized that I started watching more intently.
I stood there and watched the whole thing unfold before my eyes. Just when I was about to ask where the fast forward button was, I saw her. Kira! Maddox was growling in my head and I could feel his anger rising. We watched as Kira challenged my mate and their whole fight. To say we weren't a little proud of our mate handling herself very well would be an understatement. The vision cut off after showing my mate in a room unconscious. We saw everything that Chelsea had told us too.
"So what now? Is she going to be ok?" I asked spinning to look at the Moon Goddess.
"She is going to be just fine." She said with a smile.
"I need to talk to her. I need to be with her." I started pacing back a forth trying to come up with ideas on how to get to her.
"Gunner listen to me and listen carefully. She is going to be just fine. She is of the royal bloodline, remember? She would want you to focus on continuing to get the refugees out and safe. I can also tell you that the first round went very well and everybody is safe." Selene said excitedly.
"I just want my mate back." I tried to hide the sound of defeat in my voice but she heard it.
"In due time my child. I wouldn't have paired you two together if I didn't think you couldn't handle this. Your kind, not just your pack, all wolves need you to be strong right now. Please trust that things will work out." Selene now had my hands in hers.
I gave her a look as to say, "I don't know about that." She then smirked and said, "Here, maybe this will help ease some of your unsureness." Selene raised her hand and snapped her fingers. I heard twigs snapping and leaves rattling in the woods and I turned just in time to see a she-wolf emerge from the tree line.
"It can't be…" I dropped Selene's hands and took a couple slow steps towards the wolf. The wolf continued towards me and stopped only feet in front of me. "Mom?"
The wolf nuzzled my hand until I was petting her head, then I heard it. It was my mother's voice in my head.
"My son! I've missed you so much. We don't have much time, so listen to me. You have to trust and believe in Selene. She is doing what is best for all of us. She told me this moment would come and I would need to be prepared. Though I didn't believe it at first, the more time went on the more I saw the truth. You are strong my son. I have to go now. Tell your dad I love him and miss him dearly. I love you Gunner."
"Mom! Wait! Don't go!" I pleaded but the wolf just turned and walked back into the woods. I turned back around to face Selene but she had gone too. What do I do now? I started walking towards the beach just thinking about my mate.
I'm not sure how long I sat there on the beach just thinking about everything. My mate's fight replaying in my mind over and over again. I wish I could've seen the figure on top of the building that she called the King so I knew who I was looking for when I got over there.
Next thing I knew I was waking up back in the room at the pack house. I looked around for Doc. and when I didn't see her I got up and ran to the Alpha's office. The sun was already high in the morning sky so I knew he would be in there.
I could hear a couple of voices coming from his office as I approached the door. They were all talking too low to make out what they were saying. I knocked on the door and everyone inside fell silent.
"Come in." Alpha hollered out.
When I opened the door I saw my dad sitting in his usual spot and Charlie was standing next to the desk. All 3 of them were staring at me as I entered and closed the door behind me. Now to try to explain my "dream".
"What's on your mind son?" My dad asked.
"I had a dream and I need to tell you about it. All of you." I said nodding towards Charlie. Charlie then took a seat and I went on to explain what Selene had shown me and what she said.
"It wasn't a dream was it?" Charlie asked me with a knowing smirk on his face. I looked back to my dad and the Alpha and then shook my head.
"How did you know?" I asked him.
Charlie chuckled "you're not the only one to get a visit you know."
"Well since the cat is out of the bag, dad, mom said to tell you that she loves you dearly and misses you." I scrambled out quickly. Dad looked at me in pure shock.
"Your mother was there too?" dad asked.
"Only for a few minutes. Just long enough to tell me that and to trust and believe in the Moon Goddess' plan." I shrugged.
"Ok so what's the plan then?" Alpha asked looking between all of us.
"We continue as normal. Just keep getting the people out and to safety. That's what Cheyenne would want us to do." I said as I looked over to Charlie.
"Consider it done. I am in contact with Alex over there and we are coordinating for the next pick up. She thinks there should only be two more rounds, with the ships we have." Charlie nodded.
"You know Alex?" I asked.
"Yes. Of course I do, she's my sister." He laughed.
"Well, talk about a small world. Anyways, tell her I said thank you for saving my mate's life." I said.
"Will do." Charlie nodded.
"Ok then. It's settled. We continue as planned. Have we heard from the other Alpha's on their warriors and when they will be available to join us in Iceland?" Alpha Nik asked.
"Some of them are already there helping with the relocation of the refugees." Charlie stated.
"Others are waiting on our command." Dad added.
"Great. Charlie, let us know when the last boat sets out to pick up the final round. That's when we will head over to Iceland and gather all the warriors and head over to Scotland ourselves." Alpha Nik said.
"Sounds great Alpha. I will call you with that information. Should give you about 3 days or so to get word out and get the warriors to Iceland." Charlie said.
Alpha just nodded and with that everybody left the office. Charlie was heading over to check on my mate's family to make sure everything was going ok and to give them the latest update. I did ask him to keep out the detail of her almost dying, to which he agreed.
I made my way to Ben's room after that. I needed to check on Chelsea. She did so much for me and I needed to thank her properly. Once I got there, I knocked on his door softly. I didn't want to wake her up if she was still sleeping.
"Come in." I heard Ben say from the other side of the door. I opened the door slowly and poked my head in.
"She still sleeping?" I asked softly.
"No I'm awake. Come in." She giggled.
I stood straight up now feeling ridiculous for being so cautious. "I just came by to check on you guys and see if you needed anything."
"I'm feeling much better. Thank you though." Chelsea said with a smile. "Have you learned anything on Cheyenne? I figured you'd be halfway there by now."
"Actually, I had a visit from the Moon Goddess." I said and while Chelsea smiled, Ben's jaw hit the floor.
"Are you serious?!" He asked.
"No dude. I'm fuckin with ya! Yes I'm serious!" I said sarcastically, making Chelsea just full-blown laugh so hard she was grabbing her stomach.
"Asshole." Was all he said back which made me chuckle myself.
"Anyways, she did show me what happened to my mate and now I'm mixed with pride and rage." I said.
"What? Why?" Chelsea asked now fully invested in my story with Selene. She sat straight up on the bed and just had this intense 'tell me all' look in her eye.
So I grabbed a chair and sat down and retold the story about what Selene had shown me in the fountain and what she said about my mate being just fine. When I was done Chelsea and Ben looked at each other and then back at me.
"I don't know how I would feel if Chelsea went through that man." Ben said.
"Good thing I won't be fighting any time soon. I have no training anyways." She shrugged.
"Well that's going to change real quick! You have to know how to at least defend yourself babe." Ben said.
"Ok ok ok no mushy shit in front of me please." I held my hands up in the stop position, causing Chelsea and Ben to both start laughing.
"So what's the plan then?" Ben asked.
"We continue as planned originally. I already talked to both of our dad's and Charlie. Charlie is going to let us know when the last boat is to set out to pick up the last round of people and that's when all the warriors will head to Iceland. We will have 3 days to get all the warriors there and debrief them all on the plan of attack." I said.
Ben and Chelsea just nodded their heads in agreement.
"Wait a minute, what about Chels? She doesn't know anybody here." Ben suddenly blurting out.
"Well she can't go with us. It'll be too risky." I stated. "Do you have family anywhere in the states Chels?" I asked.
"I don't know. I'm sure I do somewhere." She said shrugging.
"What are you thinking?" Ben asked.
"If things go sideways, and they find out we're coming, they could send people here to attack here. Maybe it would be safe, since she has no training, for her to go stay with family until we get back." I suggested.
"That's a good point. I didn't even think about that." Ben said looking at Chelsea. "But how are we going to find any family of hers if she doesn't even know?"
"Well Becka found out who my mate is, I'm sure she would be a breeze." I said pointing to Chelsea. "Would you be willing to have your blood drawn to do a DNA scan?" I asked her.
"Sure." She said shrugging her shoulders.
"Ok then. That's settled…for now anyways. Ben get her to Becka and get that started. We don't know exactly how long we have. Could be weeks or could only be days so tell Becka to put a rush on it so we have time to track any family down." I said.
"Wait a minute. I'm the alpha, you're the beta. You don't give me orders." Ben said.
"Really dude? Gunna play that card now?" I laughed.
"No not really. I will take care of it." He chuckled.
We talked for a little bit longer until my stomach let out a growl and I headed to the kitchen to get something to eat. After I was done, I decided to go to the gym to work off some stress and then let Maddox out to go for a run.