Warrior Robbie "You fucking what!" I bellow unable to rein in my anger. I don't mean to blurt the words out, but Nick gave me the reins of control here, so I'm just going to go with it. "They have my mate." Alberto huffs out as his body appears to relax. Is he relieved that he told us? My reaction to his words is to call bullshit but something inside of me holds me back. I think Nick was right to want to listen to him before acting because, while I'm not sure if he's 100% telling me the truth, I'm also not sure that he isn't. There's something in his voice and a look in his eyes that leads me to believe that he could be telling me the truth, but if he is, then how the fuck have they managed to get their hands on her? How did any of this happen? "I don't understand… you'd better start explaining this, Alberto. And by explain I mean from beginning to end and not missing out on anything. I want every single detail." Nick grunts. I'm pretty sure we're on the same wavelength here and after looking around I think all the men here are right there with us, as not one person objects to what's being said. Of course, most wolves won't argue a word against their Alpha and, while Nick holds all the authority and fear that any good Alpha does, what makes him an even better Alpha is the fact that he's always open to hearing his pack members thoughts or feelings on a situation. He won't take outbursts of disrespect in this room, but he will always listen to someone's opinion or thoughts when it comes to dealing with someone. "Fuck, where do I start!" Alberto grunts. "At the beginning and nothing but the truth, or I won't hesitate to end your ass!" I growl, getting impatient. While I don't like ending another wolf's life, I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't hoping that this would be over quickly so that I could get back to Aria. While I know that she has no idea about us and that she's safe with Bonnie, it doesn't stop me from wanting to be close to her while I figure out what's going to happen. "Ok, so when we first arrived at the campsite, I was stationed to the west side. We immediately started searching the area for any wolves and, as expected, we came across several of them and ended them, but what I wasn't expecting was to find any she-wolves. We assumed that they would be locked away somewhere and not in the line of fire, aside from the ones that were fighting, of course. Anyway, as we stumbled across a large bush, I swore I saw movement, but after doing a double take and seeing nothing, I assumed that it had been my mind playing tricks, and we carried on with our allocated route. Only I couldn't shake the feeling that something was amiss and once we had cleared that section and were on our way back to meet the others, I decided to go and check out the bush one more time. Of course, I had assumed that with the amount of time that had passed that even if there had been anyone there, that they would have been gone by the time I had gotten back there, so you can imagine my surprise when I not only found three she-wolves there but that one of them was also my mate." "Fucking hell," Shane grunts, taking the words out of my mouth. "Yeah, you can't imagine the insane mixed feelings that comes from meeting your mate on enemy ground." Alberto grunts looking tortured, and I get it, I really do. "I can't but Robbie can." Alberto quickly pulls his attention from Shane and places it on me. "How do you know how it feels?" He asks, looking confused. Maybe I should tell him, but right now I just want to know how he got to betraying his pack. If I'm happy with his answer, then maybe... just maybe I will tell him my story, but right now, I'm in no mood to compare fucking notes with him. "Never mind that. How about you get back to telling us what we want to know?" Nick grunts knowingly saving my ass for a little longer. Alberto gives Nick a strange look properly trying to figure out why he's backtracking but still, he nods and takes a deep breath. "So, as I was saying, when I went back to the bush I found three she-wolves hiding there. At first, they tried to run, but I managed to grab hold of two of them, which in turn made the third one stop running." "You said one of them was your mate. "Why would your mate run?" Will asks taking the words right out of my mouth and earning an approving look from Nick. "At first I didn't know why. I could only assume that she was either too scared to realize that she was my mate or that she knew and was just too scared to hang around... scared of me, but then I quickly realized that she... fuck..." "She is underage, isn't she?" I ask him but it is more of a statement. I can see the same devastation in his eyes that I know I had in mine when I found out that my mate was underage. He nods at me looking gutted. "She is which made things even harder. Figuring out how to stop her running without telling her that she's my mate and doesn't need to fear me seemed almost impossible." Fuck, the more he talks the more I feel sorry for him which is killing me when a part of me still wants to tear him apart for his hand in helping Talon in trying to kidnap my mate. "Hear him out, Robbie. "There's more to this story and you know it." My wolf grumbles in my head. "What do you think I'm doing here? Just passing the time of day because I'm bored or what?" I grunt acting way more pissy with him than I need to or that he deserves. He's just trying to help me. "Bitchy much?" He grunts his tone amused. "Yeah, yeah, I'm sorry." It's a half-hearted apology because, while I shouldn't be a dick to him, at the same time, he's also goading me into it and he knows it. Nick's voice brings my attention back to the room just in time to hear the next part of Alberto's story. "So what happened next?" Alberto shifts in his seat and I watch as his body slowly starts to tense up. "Well, I managed to get them to stay still while assuring them once more that I wasn't a danger to them. They all huddled together in front of me as I asked them why they were hiding in the bushes and that's when they told me that they were a part of the women who were forced to bear children and that when we arrived they decided to try and escape the place. So, of course, I offered them our help. I didn't mean to be disrespectful by offering our help before speaking with you, Alpha but I already knew it was the right thing to do and that you would agree." He looks at Nick as he speaks and slightly relaxes when Nick nods his head. "Of course, I would have agreed. You did the right thing, Alberto. Did they agree to our help?""Yes, which was a massive relief. I don't like the idea of any woman being at risk and I figured that if we helped them then it would give me some time to try and figure out how I could handle the whole underage mate situation." "I'm guessing you didn't get very far?" I ask getting impatient to hear the rest of the story. "No, no, I didn't. The women agreed to our help, and I was in the process of looking for help when Tristan, Shaun and Scott showed up and, once they knew the situation, they offered to help. Only before we could do anything we were surrounded by Talon and his men, seriously outnumbered and there was no way of us fighting our way out of there and keeping the women safe." By the time he's finished talking, his body is wound up so tightly that I'm surprised that his spine hasn't snapped yet. "So how did you go from offering to help women to safely like the good warriors that you were to helping the enemy? Did your mate sway you? "Was she just pretending to need help to get up to switch sides?" Shane starts firing off questions so fast I can barely keep up but they are all valid questions and ones I want the answers to. "No, she wasn't on their side!" Alberto growls, instantly getting pissed. "Rein your temper in, Warrior!" Nick growls and instantly Alberto's anger deflates to defeated, and I'm not sure how I feel about it. "Answer your Beta. Explain this to us. Help us to understand why we should believe you and not end you right here, right now." "As I said, we were seriously outnumbered, but we were prepared to fight our way out or die trying, but then somehow, Talon figured out that Jenny was my mate and instantly used that against me." "How did he figure that out?" Shane asks still not any calmer than he was just a few minutes ago. "I honestly don't know. As I said before, Jenny is underage, so I hadn't said anything to her. Maybe he saw me look at her or something. I don't know, but somehow he did and so, instead of attacking us, he used that to offer us another way out." "He holds your mate hostage, you kidnap his mate, and then he gives her back to you?" Nick asks although it's more of a statement. Alberto nods his head. "Yep. He said if we didn't help he would kill my mate and the other she-wolves with her. I didn't know who his mate was, but I later heard that she wasn't his goddess-given mate but his chosen mate. I was about to come and talk to you, Alpha, but then they cornered me before I could make it to your office. They must have been watching me and I didn't know what to do." "Who cornered you"? Nick asks him. He goes slightly white before swelling hard and staring hard at Nick. "Tristian and Shaun. Alpha, they were already on Talon's side before any of this happened.""Are you telling me that they were moles for Talon... for the campground?"