Chapter 35

Axton

I clutch her body, stopping her from falling to the ground. From what I can see, Elena is riddled with bruises, mostly on her back and legs. I can see marks surrounding her ankles and wrists.

Eli found chains on the bed in the room he had kept her in, and the evidence she was strapped down covered her wrists and ankles. Eli reported Alisha’s body was riddled with bite marks, and it looked as if she was starved, in addition to the many bruises from that bloodsucker’s torture. There was also a cage down in the basement that we suspect he had kept Alisha locked in. How could Derrick, of all people, not know he was a vampire for all those years?

I remain in the back of the car with her, meeting the pack doctor at the packhouse before setting her up in the infirmary. We watch as the doctor goes over her and does his tests and ultrasound, while I also email the investors to set up a new appointment.

Khan is restless and angry at the condition Elena is in. “You should have never leaked that video. You shouldn’t have taken it in the first place. Once you knew she was our mate, your plan should have gone out the window. I told you not to take those pictures of her or make that video. You just don’t listen, and I thought I had issues. After finding her the way we did, you just couldn’t help yourself being an even bigger asshole and rejected her out of spite.”

Before I can defend myself, Khan recedes to the back of my mind, blocking me out. The mangy bastard has some nerve.

Our pack doctor said she had multiple welts over her body in different stages of healing. He also said it was a miracle she survived such savage beatings and didn’t lose our pups. I might have had it wrong, but she willingly ran from me all the same.

“Alpha, if you mark her, she will heal faster, and it could help the pups after such high stress on the Luna.”

I pop my head up to what he’s just said. “That is completely out of the question. She is not my Luna. Do whatever you need to heal her outside of me marking her, and make sure my pups are okay.”

I feel Khan come forward when the doctor talks to us about how badly Elena was beaten over weeks, her oldest bruise being over a month old. For it to linger so long just reinforces how savagely Jake had beaten her. He says she only has one bite mark, which is fresh, and no evidence of any others.

If I hadn’t arrived when I did, I would have been burying her and my unborn pups. Derrick just left her there for a week, knowing exactly where she was, just to use it as leverage against me. Elena could have died in that time. He clearly doesn’t love his daughter, especially after he mercilessly beat her three months ago. I wish I had killed him in that council meeting when I had the chance.

Khan pushes forward, only to berate me again. “You have no room to talk. You don’t love her either with what you did. You are no better than Derrick using Elena to get what you wanted. Let that sink in before you pass judgment on her father.”

Just as I am about to say something back to that mutt of a wolf, he blocks me out again.

Fuck this shit. All she had to do was come back. It was that simple. She betrayed me first, and I had every right to reject her back.

Khan barges in on my thoughts again. “No, she didn’t. You did, you big dummy.”

That bastard won’t let me get a word in edgewise, throwing a wall up in between us. Elena wakes a couple of times during the doctor’s examinations. He asks her questions, but she just stares at him vacantly, either ignoring him to piss me off, or she just doesn’t care for our babies, which only angers me more.

Eli wanders in, stopping at the door. I look up at him, and he motions for me to follow him out. Sighing, I tell the doctor I will be back and follow Eli to my office. Stepping inside, he takes a seat at the desk while I take mine.

“What’s up? Did you find out who he was?” I ask Eli.

“He was a newbie vampire. He also wasn’t listed with the councils. After speaking with a few locals, they thought the woman who owned the cafe went into a nursing home. We found her body in a freezer downstairs. Her head, however, was missing,” Eli tells me.

I sigh, leaning back in my chair.

“Your mate?” Eli asks.

I growl at the term. She was not and will never be my mate.

“You’re about to have kids together,” Eli snaps at me angrily.

“She had her chance. Once they are born, she won’t be needed.”

“You’re going to banish her?” he scoffs before shaking his head.

I fold my arms across my chest and glare at him. “Issue?”

“Yeah, you’re a fucking idiot. Months, I have put up with you pining over her, and now you’re going to throw it all away because you can’t see past your fucking ego.”

“She left me for him,” I retort.

“You’re an even bigger idiot if you truly believe that. You clearly haven’t listened to anything the doc told you,” Eli snaps angrily as he stands up, then turns on his heel and walks out of the room.

Khan pops in. “Told you so, you fucking imbecile. After riding in your meat suit for weeks, it is clear that despite your good looks, that brain is doing nothing, and once you open that mouth, it goes even further downhill from there. No wonder she rejected you. She is in fucking shock, you asshole. She was abused in more ways than one. Elena’s best friend was killed in front of her. You, then her father, that vampire, and now you, yet again. You don’t deserve her or our pups.”

I can’t find a point to win this argument no matter how much I try. Khan is right.

“Thought so, dummy.”

Then, the fucker blocks me out again. I swear, if I could get another wolf, I would.

“Feeling’s mutual, dickhead.”

And there he goes again on radio silence. I just slump back in my chair, marinating in my misery.