The Four Beta Brothers
Chapter 84

AXEL

"What are you doing to her?" I demanded.

Juniper cried out and hunched over. Remy still held onto her hand, and even though it was clear that Juniper was in a lot of pain, the sorceress didn't let go of her.

Remy ignored my question. She whispered under her breath so low I couldn't hear her. Juniper's face twisted in pain again, and I felt my own heart cracking as I heard her anguish.

"You're hurting her," I said, unable to keep the growl out of my voice. The need to protect Juniper became overwhelming, and I started walking forward. "You need to stop this."

A split second later, I was slammed against the wall. Blade had his forearm pressed against my throat. It was hard enough to restrict my movement, but I could still mostly breathe. "Don't move," he cautioned. "Juniper's in pain! Do you expect me to just stand by and do nothing?"

"Let go of him," Asher growled, even more on edge now.

Blade looked back and forth between Asher and myself. "Remy warned you that you can't interrupt the process. You said you could handle it, but clearly you can't. If I need to drag you out of this room by the skin of your neck, then I'll do just that." Asher placed his hand on Blade's arm. "Let him go. We won't interfere."

"What the hell are you talking about?" I snapped, this time at my brother. I tried to fight against Blade's grip, but he pushed harder on my neck.

"Juniper wanted to do this. She needed to do this," Asher said. "I don't like this any more than you do, but you are the one who made me realize that I needed to trust Juniper. She wanted to do this, so we have to let this happen."

"I trust Juniper. I don't trust them." I flicked my eyes at Remy. She was still entranced in whatever she was doing to Juniper, and now tears were streaming down Juniper's face.

"Juniper trusts them. We have to give them that same trust. Remy warned us this wouldn't be an easy process. They have been open and honest with us. Let them do what they need to in order to help Juniper." Asher locked eyes with me.

And the moment it feels like they've lied about anything or they have taken things too far, we will get Juniper out of here, he added through our link.

I still didn't like anything about the situation, but Asher was right. They warned us it would be dangerous to interrupt the process. The last thing I wanted to do was cause Juniper any more harm.

"Okay," I said out loud. My body relaxed, and Blade stepped back, releasing me from his restraint.

I took a step towards Remy, and Blade tensed.

I put my hands up and said, "I'm not going to interrupt the process. I just want to be by her side so she knows she's not alone. Maybe it'll make it easier."

Blade frowned, glancing over at Remy and Juniper. With hesitancy, he said, "Fine, but the moment you try anything, I won't hold back."

"Same to you," I said. I pushed past Blade and knelt next to Juniper. Asher followed my lead, kneeling on the other side of her.

I touched her shoulder, and at first, she flinched. Then she melted into my touch. "It'll be okay," I whispered into her ear. "Whatever you're seeing, we'll be here for you when it's over."

Asher touched her other arm, and she visibly relaxed even more. "We love you, June. Don't forget that."

***

JUNIPER

"Hurry!" James shouted, running outside.

"Where are we going?" I asked, running as fast as I could to keep up with him.

I had been in bed when James suddenly grabbed my arm and started tugging me out of my room. He didn't even give me time to change or put shoes on as he hurried us outside. He didn't tell me where we were going or what was going on. He had a bag tucked in his other arm, and he seemed almost panicked.

I followed him, knowing I'd follow him anywhere.

It was strange seeing James alive after seeing his death. I felt numb inside, not knowing how else to feel. Remembering James and then losing him all in a flash was like getting into a car accident where the car rolled over and over. I couldn't control any of it, and I couldn't stop it.

James didn't stop until we were at the tree house. He made me climb up the steps before him. Once we were both inside, he slammed the door shut behind us, clicking the little metal lock into place.

"Will you tell me what's going on now?" I demanded. My heart wouldn't stop racing after the drastic way James woke me up, followed by the run to the tree house.

"It's bad, Juniper. It's so bad." James dumped the contents of the bag onto the floor, and then he started pacing back and forth, unable to sit down.

I sat on the floor on my knees looking at all of the stuff on the floor. It looked like a bunch of official papers with a bag of some sort of powder. "I don't understand. What's bad?"

"I overheard something my dad was saying earlier, and it didn't make sense. He wouldn't do something like that. He's the beta, and he takes his job very seriously. I tried to ignore it, thinking I had just misheard what he said, but I couldn't just forget about it. So, after everyone went to bed, I broke into his office to find proof." James was speaking too quickly, and none of it made much sense.

I grabbed his hand and forced him to stop pacing. I needed him to explain in more detail what was going on. "What did you overhear?"

James grabbed my hands, and his eyes were unusually wide. Normally, the only thing that bothered him was his brothers and how much time they wanted to spend with me, but this was different. He wasn't irritated. He was scared.

"My dad is planning on poisoning the alpha and his family, so he can take over his position," James whispered.

I furrowed my eyebrows. James was crystal clear this time, but it still didn't make sense. "Your dad wouldn't do that, would he?"

James tore away from my grip and dropped to his knees. He started frantically searching through the papers. "I didn't think he would, but he's ruthless. You know that."

I did know that. I had seen Beta Burrell tear into every one of the brothers for things that were normal for children to do. My parents had never spoken to me like that before, even when I made mistakes, and every time I heard Beta Burrell scolding my friends, it made me sick.

"But all of this is proof that it's true. This bag is full of wolfsbane. It's what he was going to use to poison the alpha."

I jumped back after hearing that the bag was filled with wolfsbane. Since we were too young to have our wolves, it wasn't as lethal as it was to adults, but it was still harmful, since we still had werewolf DNA, even if our wolves hadn't emerged. "Why do you have that?" I shouted. My stomach twisted knowing I was in the presence of a known wolf-killer.

"It was in my dad's office!" James put the wolfsbane to the side and continued looking through the papers. When he found what he was looking for, he held it up for me to see. "I found this letter, too. My dad was planning on sending this to some sort of assassin that he hired to kill Alpha Williams. See here? It says, 'CC, I paid you half, and here is the wolfsbane requested. You'll get the rest of the money once the job is done.' It even has his signature. This is proof of what he plans on doing."

I looked at all of the papers in front of me, and slowly, the pieces started to click together. There were correspondence and plans. There was even a blueprint of the alpha's pack house. I shook my head as I stared at everything. I knew what everything meant, but it all felt like too much.

"We have to tell someone about this," I said. We were too young to handle something of this magnitude on our own.

"Who would we possibly tell that could do something against my dad?" James asked. He was still frantic, unable to sit still. He got up and started pacing again. "He's planning on overthrowing the alpha. What would stop him from taking out someone less than him that tried to confront him?"

"Then we should tell Alpha Williams," I said. "He'll be able to stop him." I had met Alpha Williams' sons before, and they were nice people. We didn't interact with them very often, though. Usually, I wasn't invited to events for the alpha, since my family was just omegas.

"There isn't time for that. Besides, there's no way we will be able to get to him before he tries anything. It's not like we can drive," James said.

"We have to do something," I said.

"We do. That's why I took all of this," James said. He stopped moving, and his eyes cleared. "We're going to get rid of the wolfsbane. The stuff is hard to come by, so it'll buy us time."

"Time to do what?" I asked. I didn't like any of this. It felt like it was too far above my head.

"To confront my dad and stop him. We can tell him we know what he was trying to do and force him to stop," James said.

I shook my head, jumping to my feet. "That sounds like a bad idea. We should just tell someone else and let them handle it. Maybe Ethan would know what to do. He could help us get in contact with Alpha Williams. We just need to show him the proof." "But we can stop him. We can be the heroes." James grabbed my hands. "My dad is always saying the Burrells are meant to grow up to be great. He's always putting so much pressure on Ethan. Even little Nathan can't just be a kid. We can save all of my brothers from him. We can stop him."

James always told me he hated how his dad treated his brothers, and while I agreed, I had never realized he held this much contempt for his father. "We will stop him, but I don't think it's a good idea to do it alone. We need help. Please. Can we just tell Ethan?" I asked.

He hesitated to answer. I could tell he wanted to do this on his own. He didn't want to have to rely on his brother. I was the one person who could talk sense into him, and it was working. "You're right. We shouldn't confront my dad, just us. He wouldn't listen to me, even if I threatened him with all of this. But I don't want to tell Ethan either. We'll figure out how to take the bus and go to the alpha ourselves."

I bit my lip and looked away. I still didn't like James' plan, but it was a compromise. It was better than him confronting his father by himself.

"Fine. I'll get rid of the wolfsbane for you then. If you get caught with it, who knows what your father would do," I said, picking up the bag carefully.

James tried to grab the bag from me. "That's exactly why I should do it. He would go easy on his own son."

"Would he?" I challenged. I had seen the way Beta Burrell talked to his sons compared to others. He held his sons to a higher standard than the rest of the world.

James pursed his lips and looked at the ground. "Maybe not, but I can't let you take this risk."

"Either I get rid of the wolfsbane and we go with your plan, or I tell Ethan everything," I said, already knowing which one James would choose.

James rolled his eyes. "Fine. Just promise me you'll be careful."

I kissed him on the cheek, instantly making him blush. "I promise."