Chapter 45: Chapter 45

Isabel kept breaking any and everything she laid her hands on, screaming in rage. She blamed herself for her mate’s misfortune. If only she had pressed harder, he wouldn’t have fallen into the hands of her enemy.

Why didn’t she stop him? Why did she let him have his way? Why did she disobey her instinct? Why?

Thirty minutes earlier, Xavi had reported to Isabel that Dylan was nowhere in the pack, but his car was found parked by the side of the road on the way to the border and Ignacio’s scent was in the car.

She was infuriated by the news and vented her anger on the house furniture. Her cousin did nothing but watch his alpha express her emotions, making him feel incompetent and unreliable, because if he had paid utmost attention to the task he was given, Isabel’s mate wouldn’t be missing.

Fernando had taken the kids upstairs when Xavi arrived to give the older werewolves privacy, so it was just Isabel, her parents and Xavi in the living room.

Rodrigo was holding his sobbing mate tightly, preventing her from going close to the raging werewolf. This wasn’t their daughter, but her wolf, and in her current state, it takes only the effort of a mate to calm the wolf. So, there was nothing they could do to help Isabel.

Isabel on the other hand, was one second away from shifting into her wolf and running deep into the woods in search of her mate when suddenly she heard Dylan’s voice through mind link.

“Is-Isabel”

Her wolf instantly became calm on hearing its mate’s voice. Dylan sounded too weak for Isabel’s liking. This made her imagine the worse.

“God damnit! Dylan, say something!” She yelled at no one in particular, surprising her family present.

He sounded like someone groaning in pains, making her wolf angry. She won’t spare Ignacio even a second when she gets a hold of him, Isabel made that promise to herself.

“I- I’m in a w-ware.. house.” Dylan’s weak voice managed to stutter before going silent.

“Dylan? Are you hurt? Talk to me, please.” Isabel pleaded as she was already close to tears.

She hated herself now more than ever for depriving her mate of his right because she thought she was protecting him. If only she had his imprint, communication wouldn’t be an issue in a situation like this. She would’ve been aware of what was happening to him from the very beginning, but now she’s lost. It was a good thing he still managed to reach her despite what he must be going through in the hands of those scoundrels.

Xavi watched in surprise as Isabel slumped on the floor, crying silently. This is the first time he’s witnessing his cousin cry and he felt partly responsible for it. To reduce his guilt, he immediately reached the seer of the Pride pack through the mind link, hoping he would be able to help their alpha.

The pack seer arrived twenty minutes later just as Isabel was about to leave the house, in search of her mate since she now has a clue as regards to his location.

“Who invited him over?” She glanced at her parents, who looked as confused as she was to see the seer on their doorstep.

“It doesn’t matter who invited me. What matters right now is what lies ahead.” The seer said, staring directly at Isabel.

That was enough to keep the dominant werewolf silent, as the members of the Pride pack, no matter how important they may be, all respected their seer.

Rodrigo turned to look at his nephew, who had his head low when Isabel sat down on the couch, waiting for the seer to begin his divination.

“You did the right thing.” He said to Xavi encouragingly, causing a small smile to replace the guilty look on the face of the younger werewolf.

By the time the seer was done with his divination, Isabel was restlessly pacing the living room. In reality, it took the seer some minutes, but to Isabel, it took forever, as she didn’t have all the time in the world to spare.

“So?” She asked with a questioning brow.

“Alpha, your mate is still alive, although he’s going through a crisis at the moment-“ the seer replied, but wasn’t able to finish his explanation, as a worried Isabel interrupted him.

“What kind of crisis?”

“You need not to worry, alpha. It’s a personal crisis.”

“What do you mean by that? Do you have the slightest idea who he is to me?”

“Isabel contain yourself!” Rodrigo cautioned his daughter with an authoritative voice because he couldn’t risk anything happening to their pack seer.

Isabel inhaled deeply and asked the seer to continue.

“This mission is a difficult one, alpha, because, your opponent is of equal strength as you, and he may be more prepared…”

She was filled with disappointment and fear from this piece of information. Her fear came from the fact that she had no idea what her half brother had in store for her while her disappointment came from her inability to be the best even after several years of rigorous practice.

“Go on.”

“I dare not, alpha.” The seer replied out of fear and respect.

“It’s an order.” She demanded, eager to hear what more he had to say.

“I’m afraid you may not return from this mission.”

Paulina’s heartbreaking sobs was the only noise that could be heard in the room after the seer’s last statement.

Isabel closed her eyes to avoid her family’s sad and embarrassed eyes, and muffle her mom’s sobs. This was her fight and if she has to die while protecting her mate and pack, she would do it over and over again.

“I just want to know one thing…” She said, breaking the awkward silence.

“Will this in anyway affect the peace and image of my pack?”

“Not at all, alpha… The Pride pack will remain as strong as always.”

With that reply, Isabel jumped from the couch and started her way towards the front door.

“Isabel, honey. Don’t do this to your family. You still have your pack to protect.” Her mom’s sobs made her halt in her steps.

“Didn’t you hear what he said? The pack will be okay without me, mama… But I… I won’t be without him.” She confessed the last part in a whisper.

“Guard our family with every fibre of your being and make sure warriors are at alert so that nothing goes wrong at the border.” This order was directed at her cousin, who was still wearing a sad face.

He had wanted to accompany Isabel as always, knowing this could be her last mission, but she wanted none of that. So, he reluctantly nodded to her order.

Isabel took a backward glance at her parents one last time and smiled at them before jogging out of the house. She drove towards the pack border because that was the only place in the Pride pack that had an abandoned warehouse. She only hopes her guess is right because at this rate, her mind is slowly going blank.

Isabel was driving at full speed so she could get there sooner, and luckily there were no other cars on the road that would cause a delay or become victims of her excessive speed, which meant she had nothing to worry about besides getting to her destination.

Some distance away from the border stood the abandoned warehouse. Isabel sensed the eeriness around the warehouse as she climbed out of her car. This could only mean one thing. She was at the right place. She took long strides towards the entrance of the warehouse, wondering with every step she took why there were no rogues guarding the place like she had imagined. She drew the door open and to her surprise it wasn’t locked, so she took careful steps inside the warehouse. There was nothing odd about the place aside from the damaged and outdated stones and completely shattered windows.

Isabel paid close attention to her surrounding, in order to avoid getting a surprise attack from her half brother or Ignacio. As she walked deeper into the warehouse, she caught a hint of her mate’s scent mixed with the foul smell of blood. Isabel quickly traced the smell until she found Dylan cuffed to a chair in the middle of the warehouse. He was badly beaten.

The sight of her bloody mate made Isabel’s blood boil. She rushed to him, to check if he was still alive. Lucky enough, he was still breathing and his wounds were healing, although it was healing slower than normal. She slapped his cheeks lightly so that he would wake up, and after several attempts, his eyelids opened slowly.

“You heard.” This were the words that came out of Dylan’s lips when he realized that his mate was actually in front of him.

His words were slurred as a result of the weak state he was in.

Isabel nodded her head in reply.

“You scared me.” She said, wiping the blood stain from Dylan’s busted lips and eyebrows while holding back her tears.

“I’m sorry.” He continued, feeling ashamed of himself for letting his mate down.

“Shh. You have no reason to be sorry. I’m the one who let you down. I’m the one who should be apologizing.” She pecked him on the lips, and pressed her forehead against his, whispering her apologies.

Her eyes suddenly turned yellow as she perceived Ignacio’s irritating scent, but she didn’t react quick enough, as she felt a sharp pain on her back. Ignacio had injected her with something.

Isabel didn’t have the time to remove the syringe from her back and find out what substance she had been injected with, as the side effects was already kicking in. But it didn’t take long for her to guess what it was.

“Wolfsbane” she murmured, giving Ignacio a hostile glare.

The older werewolf was also glaring at his former alpha, his son’s murderer, waiting for the wolfs bane to take its full effect. He injected her with two dose because she was stronger than normal werewolves.

Dylan watched in horror as his mate struggled to keep herself standing. No matter how hard he tried, the handcuffs weren’t going off, and his wolf was still yet to regain consciousness.

“You have no idea how long I’ve waited to do this.” Ignacio said through gritted teeth as he watched with satisfaction, the one time mighty alpha fall to her knees.

As Isabel tried to stand on her feet, Ignacio gave her a kick on the shin, causing her knees to hit the floor once again. The amount of wolfsbane in her body was too much, as it burned her entire system. Without warning, Ignacio launched himself forward and kicked Isabel in the head, causing blood to trickle down her face as a result of the impact. He didn’t stop there as he kicked her violently in the stomach each time she tried to get up.

“Just die, you bitch!..” he said with each kick.

He burst out laughing as he stopped his assault, to catch his breath because Isabel couldn’t even dodge any of his kicks. How pathetic!

Isabel can never and will never let a loser like Ignacio have the last laugh. She mustered some of her strength and turned into a half shift, charging at Ignacio who had his back towards her while he laughed to his heart’s content. She abruptly turned him around and dug her claws deep into his chest, ripping out his heart in an instant. His dead body then dropped to the ground with a loud thud.

“Loser.” she spat on the older werewolf’s lifeless body, dropping his heart on the floor, when all of a sudden she began to cough out blood, a consequence of her earlier action.

She shouldn’t have tried to fight off the effect of the wolfsbane, now her wolf is badly hurt and barely conscious.

“I can’t believe you guys are having fun without me.” Rodrigo said with a trace of sarcasm in his deep voice.

Isabel’s eyes almost bulged out of their sockets as she stared at the younger version of her dad.

“Didn’t think you’d come. I guess I underestimated the power of love.” He gave a mocking smile, stretching out his hand for a handshake.

“Nice to meet you, little sister.”

Isabel scoffed, staring at his outstretched hand with disdain.

“I’ll have to skip with the formalities, then.” He clapped his hands together and started rolling up his sleeves.

While at it, he glanced at Ignacio’s lifeless body, shaking his head in disappointment.

“You know… I warned him about making hasty decisions. If only he listened.”

“That’s what happens to fools who blindly follow a loser like you.”

Rodrigo jerked his head up at Isabel’s remark, his eyes were blazing with fury, but he drew in a sharp intake of breath to keep his emotions in check. Isabel was trying to provoke him into striking first, knowing quite well that the first one to strike always lose, but he isn’t going to fall for her petty tricks.

“It wouldn’t have come to this if our father had done the right thing.” He was staring directly at Dylan, who he intends to kill first in order to provoke Isabel.

“By the right thing, you mean not getting involved with your whore of a mother.” She hastily replied, pushing his buttons.

Rodrigo angrily charged towards Dylan, who was helplessly trying to free himself, but Isabel’s quick reflex enabled her to push him with force before he could get to her mate, sending him flying. No one is allowed to mess with her mate, not when she’s present.

“Let’s face the truth…” She took menacing steps forward, trying her hardest to conceal any sign of weakness.

“… In this life, and even the next, you’ll always be no match for me. You know why?... Cos you’re a bastard.”

That was the final straw.

Rodrigo turned into a half shift and lunged towards Isabel. His fist flew at a furious speed as he landed a punch on Isabel’s nose, causing her to stumble backwards. She looked at her bleeding nose with a satisfied smirk on her face. Now she has him where she wants him.

Isabel forced her wolf back into consciousness and also turned into half shift as she couldn’t trigger her beast, and swiftly stood in front of Rodrigo, punching him several times on the head with her fist.

The two werewolves exchanged blows until they were both covered in blood and out of breath. A sharp pain rippled through Isabel’s chest and she slumped to the ground, coughing up more blood as she shifted back to her human form.

“You should know better than to try to suppress the wolfsbane in your body.” Rodrigo chuckled, spitting out blood as he stood straight, staring at his opponent.

“I wanted us to have a fair fight, but I’m done playing around.”

As soon as those words left Rodrigo’s lips, the sound of bones cracking could be heard in the warehouse and right before Isabel’s eyes, her half brother shifted into a lycan. His red orbs burned with rage as he looked in her direction, and in a flash, his hand was around her neck, lifting her off the ground.

Isabel slapped his hand, to get him to let go of her neck as his claws were already digging into her skin and her windpipe was slowly shutting off.

“Thought you were the only special one, huh?” Rodrigo’s voice was no longer his. His present voice was very deep and raspy as he spoke.

Isabel instinctively stabbed her fingers into his eyes, causing him to release her instantly. The lycan groaned in pain, holding onto its eyes as it stumbled across the warehouse. Isabel coughed profusely while catching her breath, but didn’t get the chance to gather some strength as the lycan kicked her in the ribs, causing her body to slam against one of the shelves in the warehouse. It appeared in front of her in no time and hit her again, causing her to cough up large amount of blood.

Dylan stared in rage and sorrow as his mate was brutally assaulted by the large creature. He struggled harder to remove his hands from the handcuffs, not caring that they may get broken in the process. He needed to help his mate fight off this beast, even if it’s the last thing they do together. In a fit of rage, he broke the cuffs on his hands and feet and stood up from the chair he was previously detained in, but unfortunately he didn’t get the chance to take one step further as his knees gave out and he fell to the ground, moaning and crying out in pain. His entire body was on fire and his bones were feeling out of place.

‘This isn’t his wolf, so what the hell is happening?’ he wondered as he curled himself into a ball, on the ground.

“C’mon. Still too stared to kill me?... I thought you could do better than this? Isabel’s voice was faintly mocking.

She could barely stand on her feet because her vision was distort, but she doesn’t intend to give up. She would rather die with her head up high than beg this pig for her life.

The lycan grabbed her by the head, its claws dug into her scalp and it lifted her until her feet was dangling above the ground.

When she thought he was going to throw her across the room like he had done several times, he stabbed her instead with a knife made out of silver, surprising her.

The creature was about pulling the knife out of her stomach when a cracking sound was suddenly heard from behind it. It was the sound of its spinal cord being separated from its place. It let go of Isabel’s hair and dropped to the ground on its knees.

Isabel blinked a couple of times, to try to clear her blurry vision and understand what was going on. What she didn’t expect to see was another lycan standing above her brother. Although it looked dangerous, she could recognize those eyes any day and anywhere in the world. She chuckled at the insane situation, totally forgetting about her stab wound and her burning skin.

“I told you, you can never beat me.” She said to the dying creature, whose eyes still held surprise in them.

In that moment, the other lycan ripped her brother’s head off his body.

On seeing that her opponent was finally defeated, Isabel winced in pain, placing her hand over her wounded side after removing the silver knife. She closed her eyes to savor her victory and at the same time endure the excruciating pain she was going through. The moon goddess must really be on her side, to have blessed her with such an incredible mate.

In the history of the Pride pack, there hasn’t been any alpha whose mate was able to acquire their strength to its highest and final stage. Dylan was the first to equal his alpha mate in strength. This is the best thing that could ever happen to the Pride pack.

By the time Isabel opened her eyes, the giant creature was on its knees, groaning as it shifted back to human. She was too weak to do anything to help reduce his pain, so she only watched him shift in silence.

Dylan crawled towards Isabel when he had fully shifted and held her in his arms, crying silently as he watched her fight to stay alive.

Isabel reached out her hand to touch Dylan’s cheek.

“I always knew you had something in you…” She said, picking her words slowly.

“Now, I have nothing to worry about.”

Dylan placed his hand on Isabel’s side, pressing her stab wound to control her bleeding.

“You have me to worry about, Isabel. I’m nothing without you.” He sobbed, tapping her cheek to keep her conscious as her eyelids were beginning to droop.

“I want you to mark me.”

“Is that what you should be bothered about right now?” Dylan sounded quite angry as he countered his mate, who was already giving up.

“I should’ve asked you to do it a long time ago, but I was too proud to do it.” She struggled for breath after saying those words, making Dylan sob harder.

“Stop talking, already!” He cried, looking around him to see if any object could be of help, but there was absolutely nothing.

“This is my last order as your alpha.” Isabel still managed to speak, ignoring her mate’s pleas.

Dylan shook his head earnestly as he sobbed. He couldn’t do what his mate was asking of him because it would only hasten her death, but how could he disobey an alpha’s order? He wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he refuse to grant Isabel her last wish. So, he reluctantly leaned in towards his mate’s neck, shutting his eyelids as he extended his canines.

A moan escaped Isabel’s lips as her mate sank his canines into her skin. Even though she could already feel little sign of life within her, she was proud to belong to Dylan.

When Dylan pulled away, he noticed Isabel’s eyes were closed, but she had a smile of content on her face.

“Take care of the Pride pack.” Her weak, yet mesmerizing voice suddenly said through mind link for the very first time, shocking Dylan.

He looked at her beautiful face once again, too speechless to even complain, but there was no change, only this time a stray tear escaped her closed eyelids.

“I… love you.” She breathed, with her last breath.

“No, no, no!” Dylan sobbed, hugging her body to himself.

He tried several times to make her open her eyes, but all of his efforts and attempts were fruitless. The moment he realized nothing was working, he let out an agonizing cry that echoed throughout the warehouse. His mate was dead because of him.