Resisting the Alpha Triplets by Cara Anderson

Ch. 90 Murder And Mayhem

Mallory’s POV

“Everything is going to be okay, little wolf.” Clay reassured me again, pulling me into his lap and nuzzling my neck to soothe me.

I suspected my leg nervously bouncing so fast it could have taken flight was the real motive behind him trapping me in his arms but I couldn’t help myself. The closer we got to Hazelwood, to the place I knew Quade was, the more anxious I became. It was maddening to let him have this power over me but I felt helpless against it.

“Sure. I’ll believe that when that monster is behind bars for good.” I muttered.

“Hey,” He tipped my chin up and pressed a soft kiss to my lips. “Do you trust me?”

I nodded, earning a lopsided grin from him that made my stomach do somersaults.

“Good. Then trust me when I promise you I won’t let anything or anyone hurt you again.”

“I trust you. All of you.” I sighed, leaning my head against his chest and letting him rub comforting strokes up and down my arm.

It was the truth. I did trust them. And suddenly that struck me as odd. When had I gone from this girl that wanted nothing to do with them, wouldn’t trust them with a houseplant let alone my heart. I even trusted Colton when it came to believing he wanted the best for me.

The only problem was, not everything was under their control. Bad things happened that they were powerless to stop. When we pulled up to the Hazelwood packhouse to find Nathan pacing on the front porch, looking shot to pieces, I had a feeling we were about to face one of those problems.

“Thank fucking Goddess! I’ve been calling you for the last hour. Do none of you answer your phones?” Nathan barked the second the car door opened.

“We turned them off,” Cary snarled, not liking Nathan’s tone. “Our mate is pregnant and already stressed enough. We wanted her to have some peace and quiet on the trip over.”

“Well I hope you enjoyed it, because it’s the last you’ll have for a while.”

Nathan turned his back on us, striding into the house and expecting us to follow.

“What the fuck is going on?” Colton demanded once we’d all crowded into the room he was using as his makeshift office.

He fixed us with an assessing gaze, as if he was trying to determine whether he was safe to divulge his secret or one wrong word might trigger an explosion. Finally he sighed and scrubbed one large hand over his face, looking more careworn than I’d ever seen him.

“Quade is dead.” He rushed out. “Darcy killed him.” 2

“What?” All the air whooshed from my lungs and my knees buckled.

Cary latched an arm around my waist and pulled me into the nearest chair with him. We all sat in stunned silence while we waited for Nathan to finish the story. Because there had to be more.

“One of my men assigned to guard Quade was coming on duty this morning. He found her in his cell, covered in blood, with the murder weapon on the ground by her feet. She stabbed him to death.” Nathan related.

“How is that possible? Where was the guard?” Cary questioned, his tone hard with worry.

This was not good. This was not good at all. A prisoner in our care was murdered before he could stand trial for a complaint we’d lodged against him. The council would have a field day with that.

“She attacked the guard, in wolf form if the huge chunk of missing flesh in his side is anything to go by. Thankfully he’ll recover.” Nathan answered.

“Where is she now? Has anybody questioned her?” I remembered what a fragile state Darcy had been in when we left. She would shut down if they went at her too hard.

“Not yet. Can’t get close to her.” Nathan told us. “You see, there’s more to this story I haven’t gotten to yet.”

“More than murder and mayhem on our watch. I can’t wait to hear the rest.” Clay replied sardonically.

“The warrior I sent to guard Quade,” Nathan continued, pointedly ignoring Clay’s remark, “turns out he was Darcy’s second chance mate. He walked in to find her covered in blood and subsequently lost his shit.

“Darcy swears she has no memory of murdering Quade, almost like she blocked it out. But between the shock of what she’d done, immediately finding her second chance after brutally murdering her first mate, and her new mate freaking the fuck out, she’s totally shut down.

“He’s with her now. Refuses to leave her side or let anyone get near her. But he has tried asking her what happened. The most she’ll say is she doesn’t know.”

“I want to see his body!” I blurted out.

Four pairs of concerned eyes looked at me like I’d lost my everloving mind. And maybe I had. But I needed to see him before I could believe he was really gone.

“No way!” Cary automatically tightened his hold on me. “I don’t want you anywhere near the fucker, dead or alive.”

“It’s really not a good idea, Mal.”

Nathan backed him up. “She didn’t just stab him once or twice. She mutilated him. It’s a gruesome sight.”

“I slumped against Cary in defeat. One glance at Clay and Colton told me they agreed with their brother. It wasn’t a fight I was going to win but it didn’t mean I wouldn’t find another way.

“You know this doesn’t make the council problem go away.” Nathan pointed out. “If anything, it’s worse. She’s going to go away for this if we can’t prove what he did to her.”

“No!” I shouted so loud even Cary flinched. “That’s not going to happen. I won’t let it. I saw what he did to her. It was unspeakable. What he did to me was nothing compared to her and even I wanted him dead. We’ll figure something out. I’m going to talk to her.”

I slipped out of cary’s lap and headed for the door without looking back. I had no idea where Darcy was but I would find her. Before I could make it too far, Nathan called out to me.

“Mallory, wait! Let me go with you. Her mate, Braden, his wolf is on edge. Let me talk to him before you try to go barging in there.” He advised.

“We’re coming too.” Clay announced and all three of my mates stood to follow us, none of them wanting me near a feral wolf.

“Fine.” I huffed. “But you’re all waiting outside.”

Braden, Darcy’s second chance mate, was a mountain of a man whose hulking presence could easily be intimidating. I listened as Nathan explained who I was and calmly asked him to let me see Darcy. He eyed me warily, his mouth set in a hard line that seemed permanently fixed in place.

Finally, he nodded and stepped aside, letting me squeeze into the room. He shut the door behind me but didn’t leave. Instead, he stood sentinel at the door with his arms crossed over his chest, tracking my every move.

Deciding to ignore him, I sidled over to the bed where Darcy laid curled in the fetal position, a bundle of blankets burying her small frame. I sat beside her and ever so slowly pulled the covers back to reveal her head.

“Darcy, it’s Mallory.” I announced my identity since her swollen eyes were firmly closed. “It’s okay if you don’t want to talk to me. But if you could, it would really help to know what happened.”

Her breathing became labored, the pile of blankets rising and falling more rapidly as her respirations increased. I stroked her arm to calm her. At least I thought it was her arm. It was hard to tell under all the layers. But it seemed to help as her breathing normalized again.

“Can you tell me what you remember?” Darcy let out a strangled sob in response.

I risked a glance over my shoulder to see Braden leaning in our direction. He looked like he might leap on me at any second if I kept making his mate cry. I renewed my resolve to pretend he wasn’t there.

“It’s okay, Darcy. I know what he did to you. I know he deserved it. I’m not judging you. I want to help you, but I can only do that if I know the facts.” I continued.

To my surprise, she turned her body to face me, only her head poking out above the blankets. She opened and closed her mouth several times but no sound came out. Then her gaze wandered over my shoulder to the man who;d become her self-appointed bodyguard.

“I don’t want him to hear.” She squeaked out.

I turned to find him looking at her with a mix of worry and pain on his face. Did I dare ask him to leave?

“Could you please step outside? You can wait just outside the door. We’ll only be a minute.” I tried to make my voice sound firm, uncowered.

He stared at me unblinking for a full minute before he finally nodded.

“I’ll go down to the kitchen and get her some food.” His soft voice was a total contradiction to his gruff outward manner. “I’ll be back in a few minutes, princess.”

Darcy gifted him a watery smile and seemingly satisfied with that acknowledgment, he left us alone. As soon as he closed the door behind him, Darcy let out a gut-wrenching sob.

“She did it.” Darcy choked out. “My wolf. She took over, blocked me out.

She refuses to share the memory with me. I can’t tell you anything because I don’t know.”

I pulled her into my arms and held her while she cried, stroking her hair as her body shuddered.

“Shh. That’s okay. We’ll figure this out,” I cooed.

We just sat together in silence, finding comfort just being in the presence of another who understood our pain. Soon the door snicked open and my head snapped up, expecting to see Braden returning, but instead it was Cotlon peeking in.

“Um, could I have a minute with Darcy?” He asked sheepishly.

“Of course.” I slipped off the bed and made my way to the door.

I stepped aside to move past Colton but he stopped me, pulling me against him and kissing me hard before letting me go again. It was his way of reassuring me that his request to talk to his ex had nothing to do with our relationship and I appreciated the gesture.

But as I stepped outside the room, old insecurities flared up inside me. Memories of everytime Colton had gone back to Darcy after insisting he wanted me flooded my mind. I knew it was childish, but as the door closed, I chose to indulge that insecurity one more time, eavesdropping on their conversation.

I’ve heard it said, “if you listen at doors, you hear what you deserve.” I took a deep breath, hoping I didn’t deserve another heartbreak.

“What are you doing here?” Darcy bit out. “Come to gloat, to tell me I got what I deserved?”

“No.” Colton disagreed softly. “Though I could see why you would expect that of me. I’ve actually come to apologize.”

Apologize? My heart rate kicked up. Colton has insisted time and time again that he wanted nothing to do with her. Has he had another change of heart? Did hearing she had a mate make him jealous and now he wants to win her back?

My wolf snarled in my head at my stupidity, completely confident in her mate’s love for us. But I still had old demons to purge.

“What do you mean? Apologize for what?” Darcy asked him.

“For being a coward.” He sighed heavily. “All of this is my fault. I should have just been honest with you. Everything you accused me of was true but I didn’t want to admit it because it would mean I’d made a huge mistake and I thought I had to be perfect.

“I’ve always loved Mallory, wanted her, even before the mate bond. I’m not saying this to hurt you, Darcy, just to illustrate how wrong I was for what I did to you. I should have been brave enough to admit my feelings and deal with the consequences rather than drag you into a relationship that was always doomed to fail.

“I won’t apologize for leaving you with Quade. You were conspiring to hurt my mate with the man and I couldn’t have foreseen what would happen. I am very sorry for what you went through and want you to know we’ll do everything in our power to help you out of this mess.

“That’s really all I came to say. I’ll go now..” Colton moved towards the door and I started to walk away, but Darcy stopped him.

“Colton!” She called to him. “Thank you. For finally admitting the truth. It doesn’t make it hurt any less. But it helps to hear you say it. And for what it’s worth, I hope you find happiness together.”

“Me too.” His voice was hushed but I heard the hope in it.

I hurried away from the door, my heart swelling in my chest from what I’d heard Cotlon say. He really did love me. He wasn’t ever going back to her. I couldn’t stop the huge smile spilling across my face.Belonging © NôvelDram/a.Org.

But in the next moment, a searing pain ripped through my abdomen. A scream tore from my lips and I fell to the floor, writhing in pain.

“Mallory!” I heard Colton’s thundering yell, but I was already being swallowed under by the agony coursing through me.