Hannah POV
It's been ten days now.
10 days till Mikkeli and our pack warriors will leave to fight the common enemy of the werewolf's world. The funny thing is, I think our pack warriors. I wonder, since when I started to think about this place as my home, since when I started to feel connected with people living here, since when I started to worry about the future of children who are growing up here?
Since all our allies and their warriors went home to make the final preparation, we live under the illusion of peace and quiet.
Kyle's wounds get healed, unfortunately, only those physical ones. He still spends most of his time in his room, still sad, still hurt. Even though we are most of the time together, and I can see that he is slightly better, I become painfully aware that something in him is broken, something he may never be able to mend back together.
I still don't know what he thinks about gaining two older brothers so unexpectedly. Both Hayden and Mikkeli are extremely busy lately but still manage to find some time to have at least small talk with Kyle once a day. Watching from a distance how they slowly try to build a relationship with their younger brother makes me extremely angry at their father.
How cruel can you be to treat your own children as objects, to assess their value with their physical strength and with the strength of their wolves, making them believe that parental love is something you should earn, not something that is your birthright and should be unconditional? How cruel you can be to deny your child, to abandon him, knowing very well that he would be vulnerable, neglected, and abused.
Even though Hayden is guilty of a big crime, he still managed to become a father and be a good one. The relationship between him and my brothers is slowly improving; the boys are slowly warming up to him again, letting him closer.
The only one who doesn't seem to be bothered by family problems is Rosie. She's happy here; her joyful personality keeps this family together. She got attached to Rose, Hayden, Kyle, and, lately, also, Mikkeli. She keeps asking less and less about our parents, and she called me mommy a couple of times.
Even though when we all were first dragged here against our will, I could only see threats surrounding us, now I see people caring about us and the place we call home.
And that's why I'm worried; I'm scared when I think about the upcoming battle. I look at our warriors, I look at Mikkeli, and I cannot stop worrying about their safety. I cannot stop thinking that some of them, or maybe all of them, won't come back. I doubt that Mikkeli would ever decide to attack if he wasn't sure of his victory if he wasn't sure of his plan, but when I look at him, I cannot stop worrying that something may happen to him. And I know that he's worried too. I see it in the way he speaks lately, in the way he is tensed lately, and then in the fact that he decided to trust Hank.
Right now, I'm sitting in the car with Mikkeli; we are on our way to the city, it's the last Friday of the month, and I'm squeezing in my hand the business card which Hank gave me some time ago. Hayden knows about that, and he's not happy with it, but even he had to agree with the fact that the Blackwood pack must confirm that they can trust the Full Moon pack in the face of the upcoming fight.
"You've got 10 minutes," says Mikkeli when he stops the car, I look at the bar on the other side of the road.
"I'm not kidding, Hannah. You won't be back in 10 minutes, and I will go there and probably kill someone. Do we have it clear?" I can hear the tension in his voice; he's definitely nervous.
"Yes, Mikkeli, I know you're worried, but I'm a grown-up girl. I can take care of myself."
"I know you are, I know you can; I still give you 10 minutes before I raise a hell."
"I'll be careful, I promise," I say and get out of the car.
I am sure he is looking at me with concern in his eyes as I cross the road and go inside.
The place looks normal, a typical bar in this part of the country, but quite crowded. I should have expected that because today is a Friday night and we are quite far away from any big cities. Nevertheless, I have no problem with spotting Hank, or should I rather say him spotting me. He comes out of nowhere and grabs me by my hand, and motions me toward a table in the corner.
"I'm rather surprised you came," he says, offering me a drink, but I decline.
"Mikkeli is worried about your pack's devotion to the upcoming fight; he asks if he can trust you?"
Hank smirks and takes a sip of his drink.
"I think my wolves need this fight; as a pack, we need to have the occasion to feel united again because right now, we are focusing too much on things that divide us. Don't worry about my Alpha; if he tries anything during the attack, he will be seen as a collaborator with hunters, and that is a death wish for any Alpha and his pack. But I cannot promise you that he won't do something stupid or unnecessary during the fight just to show off himself."
"That's why Mikkeli asked me to give you this," I say and give him a small pen drive "additional frequencies for communication, some codes, additional protocols, and of course, code words you should use if you want to tell him something. Share with who you trust and only them".
"And, of course, keep it away from my Alpha," Hank finishes in a sarcastic voice.
For a moment, we just sit in silence, Hank seems lost in his thoughts, and I don't want to disturb him.
"Tell Mikkeli that I accept the gift, and we have a deal for now, at least. I'll also make sure to leave in Full Moon pack territory warriors I can trust in case of another rogue's incident."
"Thank you," I say and smile at him; he gives me a tiny smile back and takes another sip of his drink.
"How's the kid?" he suddenly asks.
"Sad, broken, in pain," I reply.
Hank doesn't look at me, but I can see the sadness and shame on his face.
"I know that they're dead, but things like that shouldn't happen; my warriors shouldn't behave like that," he says, clenching his teeth, and I can see that his wolf is agitated.
"What was your pack reaction? I mean, those people still had families?" no matter how guilty you are or how big your crime is, it is always that your family has to pay for your crimes too.
"The morals are not good in my pack right now. I can see a conflict between those who want changes and those who don't. I'm sure the same was in the Blackwood pack once Mikkeli became an Alpha."
"Do you think the death sentence was a too harsh punishment for them?"
"No, it didn't happen in a battle; they were not under the influence of adrenaline of their wolves; the kid wasn't in heat, so they weren't under the influence of his pheromones. They were bored, and they decided to use somebody else pain for their entertainment. To make it worse, it was an underage kid, an omega, against a bunch of maybe inexperienced but still trained warriors. You saw him, Hannah. It manifested in every way possible that he didn't want to have sex with them."
"I wasn't there when they explained themselves. Did they say it was consensual?"
"They said he had offered; they said he had asked them to be rough. They also said that some omega slut shouldn't have been such a big problem."
"The same Ryan said," I whisper and tighten my fists; anger shoots through me.
"That's what my Alpha is; he believes in ranks; he believes that trackers and omegas are less worthy than warriors. He just doesn't understand that if omegas didn't cook for all his warriors, there would be no warriors because they all would be dead because of starvation."
"Wolves live in the pack, all have their roles, and the pack survives only if all those roles are fulfilled," I see, and Hank looks at me and smiles again.
"You will be a good Luna," he says "don't look so surprised; it was so obvious after our talk in the office that day. I'm also pretty sure if you weren't in there, Mikkeli would have lost it."
"And he will probably lose it now if I won't leave here immediately," I say, taking a quick look at the clock" goodbye, Hank. I hope I can see you again."
"You don't want me to be dead?" he jokes, but I can feel the seriousness of this conversation.
The next time we meet, if we meet, it will be after the fight. We both don't know who will come back home and who will not.
"I'm grateful for everything, you are a good person Hank, and for sure, it would be a pity if you die."
With that, I leave the bar, Mikkeli is in the car, and I can see an immediate relief on his face when he sees me coming closer to him. I give him a quick brief into my and Hank's conversation. He nods and starts the car.
We ride in silence, but I can see that something is wrong.
Mikkeli is getting extremely tense, his jaw is clenched, and he is sweating a lot. His nostrils are moving as if he was sniffing something very intensively, and I can sense Byron very close to the surface. By the time we park in front of the packhouse, I have a feeling that he will break the driving wheel. He keeps ignoring my questions about what is wrong and goes quickly in the direction of the house.
I go after him trying to stop him and learn what is wrong, but when I touch his arm when we're on the porch, he snarls and slams me into the wall crushing our lips together. I have no time for a reaction when I feel his hand gripping my butt, pulling me towards him closer. I try to wiggle out of his hold, but he holds me even tighter.
"Stop, it hurts!" I manage to scream when his lips let go of mine.
That makes him look me straight in the eyes, and I see that they are black. He snarls again and jumps away from me, pressing himself as far away as he can, and next, he bites his hand, and I can see the blood dripping.
"Mikkeli, what..." I try to get closer even though he's scaring me.
"Don't move," he manages to say, but it's obvious he's struggling to get control.
I look around to seek help, but the present pack members seem to be scared of seeing their Alpha like that. The front door gets open, and Rose is suddenly next to me.
"Come, Hannah, slowly with me," she says, gently touching my arm and pulling me towards the entrance to the house.
Honestly, I'm in the mood for arguing with her. I don't want to listen; I want to stay with Mikkeli.
"Please go" Mikkeli's voice is raspy; I can barely hear him.
I follow Rose; I'm too scared to ask any questions now. I don't know what happened, but I can notice that Rose seems very nervous. She takes me to Kyle's room, but I also see that suddenly all the omegas are also coming to their rooms, which makes this part of the house quite crowded.
"Kyle," Rose opens the door to his room, and he looks at us in surprise. "Hannah must stay here with you; your scent is now the strongest; it will be able to mask her scent. I also asked everybody else to go to their rooms; they will shift and release their scents. It should cover Hannah's perfectly. She stays here with you. You do not open the door unless it is me."
"What's wrong?" asks Kyle.
"Mikkeli has started his rut," she says, and I can see Kyle getting tense.
"What does it mean?" I ask when Rose leaves.
Kyle sighs and sits on his bed, and invites me to join him.
"Do you know what the heat is?" he asks.
"Kind of, like a time when omegas, both males and females get fertile, and they release the special smell which attracts other wolves, and during the time they're in pain unless they are copulating. Maddie got it regularly, and my dad always had sex with her to make it calm as quickly as possible. She couldn't leave the house because it could attract some lone wolves."
"Pretty much that's it, but there is also something like getting into heat because of finding your mate. After some time, when you don't complete the mating after finding your mate, you go into the heat because your wolf's instincts are pushing you to complete the bond. The difference is that females and omegas go into heat, and male wolves go into rut."
"Is that what is now happening with Mikkeli?"
"Yes, his wolf is under the control of his hormones, and he will try to force Mikkeli to mate with you. You are safe here. All these omegas scents should be enough not to allow Byron to smell you. And this part of the house is pretty solid because my brother made it reconstructed for security reasons. When we omegas go into the heat, we can lock ourselves here, and the quarters are difficult to be barged into."
"How long will it last?" I ask in worry. I don't want Mikkeli to suffer, and I remember my mother's heats were very painful.
"I don't know. It doesn't often happen, especially to the Alphas, because female mates go into heat before the males have a chance to go into a rut, but you don't have a wolf Hannah, and it's why you have never gone into heat, and never will."
"And because Mikkeli didn't reject me or we didn't consume our relationship, he's now in a rut," I say, finishing Kyle's explanation.
"We have to wait, I'm sure Mikkeli foresaw this, and all necessary precautions are taken care of. I'm sure you are safe."
For a while, we just sit and do nothing, I have time to study Kyle, and I notice that his eyes are red and puffy, and he seems to be in a very bad mood.
"Kyle, is everything OK? You look concerned about something?" I finally decide to ask, making him gulp.
He looks the other way and starts shivering a little bit.
"Rose said that my scent now is the strongest to hide yours. Do you remember that?"
I nod and see his lips trembling as if he was about to burst into a cry.
"I'm pregnant," he finally says after a long while of keeping quiet. "I am a male omega; we are the most fertile among our kind."
My heart drops at his statement, he has already been through so much, and there is no end to it.
"Do you know what you will do?" I ask.
"Not yet, but I have to decide soon. Pregnancy for the Omega is very short, so I only have a couple more days to decide because, after that, Gideon will go to fight hunters. I don't know; I don't know what to do."
I sit next to him and take him into my arms; he puts his head on my shoulders, wrapping his arms around me and snuggling into me as a little child seeking some warmth.
"No matter what you would do, remember Kyle, there is no good or bad decision in it," I say, holding him close "And you are the one who matters the most here."
We stay like that for a very long time, and I start to feel impatient. I worry about Mikkeli, I don't know if he's OK, and I want him to be okay.
"Kyle, it's been two hours. Can you mindlink Rose and ask her to tell me at least how the situation is?"
Kyle does what I ask, and 15 minutes later, Rose is knocking on the door, which I open.
"So?" I almost scream at her.
"Mikkeli is restrained in one of the safe rooms; per orders, he will stay there until the rut will be over. I think you can go back to your room in the evening. We need to wait for additional precautions to start working."
"What additional precautions?" I still almost yell, but her words don't calm me down, and I'm getting even more nervous.
"Hannah, you don't have to..."
"What additional precautions?" I interrupt her immediately. I'm not interested in her calming bullshit.
"He gets shots with the silver to make his wolf weaker."
I gasp. I feel like crying. Silver means much more pain in his rut state. It means he locked himself and get himself tortured so that he wouldn't hurt me.
"How long before it's over? Is it dangerous for him?" I ask, praying that it will be short, but I remember that Maddie's heats took at least a couple of days if my parents didn't have sex.
"I don't know, honey. Byron is very strong and difficult to control, this rut will be very intensive, but I have no idea how long it will last. I just don't know. I hope it will be short. The longer the Alpha stays in that state, the more dangerous it gets. The pressure on the body because of a conflict with his decision not to mate and Byron's need to mate carries a huge risk."
The weight of what she says hits me like a ton of bricks.
"Are you telling me that he can die 'cause we haven't had sex?"