The Four Beta Brothers
Chapter 99

ETHAN

My heart leapt in my chest, and I knew something was wrong with Juniper. There was no obvious indication she was in trouble. She was supposed to just be in the hallway grabbing rope, but I felt it in my soul before anything else told me. "Juniper?" I called out, hoping my instincts were wrong. They rarely were, but I prayed to the Moon Goddess that was the case this time.

There was no response, and then Principal Clandestine started laughing. My stomach twisted, and I knew we had been played.

"Did you honestly think I'd come here alone to deal with that brat, especially knowing you were here to protect her?" Charles sneered. "Your father was right. You would be much easier to fool with that girl around. You've gone soft for her. He didn't say anything about her being your mate, though."

I punched him in the face, splitting his lip and sending his blood spattering in the process. "Shut up." I got off of Charles and rolled him over, pinning his arms behind his back. I grabbed one of my ties and tied it around his wrists as tightly as I could. It wasn't the most secure knot, but it would do as a temporary fix.

I ran out of my room, and Juniper was nowhere to be found. I followed her scent out the front door, but then it disappeared, leaving no trace behind. I knew Juniper wouldn't have gone anywhere without me, especially after being attacked. Someone took her. Even without a scent to follow, I ran out of the apartment building, hoping to catch even the smallest glimpse of her or pick up any scent. I made it all of the way to the street, still stark naked from my transformation, but there was nothing. Juniper was gone, and I had no leads to go off. Rage tore through me at such a speed that it made me want to tear Charles to pieces for assisting someone with taking my mate. Even though I hadn't marked Juniper yet, after mating, my pull towards her had grown to an intensity I didn't know was possible. She was my mate, and I knew I would destroy anyone who harmed a single hair on her head.

***

JUNIPER

I felt my body being carried out of Ethan's apartment, slung over someone's shoulder like a sack of potatoes. I tried to scream for help, but I couldn't find my voice. If Ethan knew what was happening, he would have been with me in seconds, taking me in his arms and protecting me in whatever way he could.

I willed my body to listen to me. If I could just say anything, Ethan would hear it. When that didn't work, I tried to transform into my wolf form. The sudden transformation would cause some sort of noise and potentially throw off my assailant. However, when I reached for my wolf, I couldn't feel the presence that was normally there, lying in wait for me to call upon her.

It was a strange, empty feeling I had never experienced before, and it unsettled my bones.

"Don't try to fight it. It'll only make it worse," my assailant said. I recognized that voice from the day in the woods. He was the hunter that came after Axel and me. When he spoke to me then, he acted as if he didn't know me, as if I wasn't his target all along. It was a clever move on his part. He didn't give away his hand before the time was right.

Ethan, I tried to link. I knew we didn't share a link connection, and my linking abilities came from my werewolf, which was likely being suppressed by wolfbane, but I hoped the mate bond with Ethan was strong enough that he would feel that I needed him. Ethan, help.

I had no way of knowing if it did any good, and if it had, it was too late.

The hunter opened a car door and chucked me into the back seat like I didn't matter. I probably didn't matter to him. He was going to kill me in the end. I was just surprised he didn't kill me on the spot in Ethan's apartment. "Just close your eyes and let the drugs take over. All of this will be over soon enough," the hunter said, shutting the car door before climbing into the driver's seat.

I refused to listen to his advice. I fought against the drugs, knowing that the moment I gave into them, I'd be giving up. I forced my eyes to crack open, hoping to see where we were going. From this position, I could only see lights flickering through the dark windows. Moira, I tried to link next. If she was close enough to me, she might be able to hear me. She was the only one from my pack at the school, so she was my only chance to call for help-if I could fight past the wolfsbane to make a connection. Moira, if you can hear me, get Ethan. Tell him I need help.

I couldn't tell if the connection was working or not, but I kept trying to reach out, knowing this might be my only chance to get help.

The car stopped moving sooner than I had expected, and then the hunter dragged me out of the car. It felt like mere minutes had passed since he first put me in the car. I had expected at least a half hour of driving. I couldn't tell if the drugs had messed with my sense of time, or if I was being taken somewhere much closer than I had anticipated.

The hunter threw me over his shoulder again and started carrying me with light footsteps. I couldn't even hear his feet hit the ground, despite being right above them. For someone of his massive size, I was impressed by his level of stealth. It was a wonder he was able to get into Ethan's apartment without either of us noticing him, but his fine-tuned stealth explained it. That didn't explain the lack of scent though.

I felt my mind wandering to topics that didn't matter. I needed to find a way to get away from the hunter or call for help before it was too late. I stretched my neck up, and it felt like my skull was made of lead. My head pounded from the drugs surging into my system, and for a moment, I thought about giving up and giving into the sleep my body was screaming for.

I bit my lip as hard as I could to jolt those thoughts out of my system. The pain cleared my head enough to get me to focus for a few more seconds. I lifted my head again, and when my eyes focused, I swore I saw the campus library, but that didn't make any sense. I had to have been hallucinating from whatever cocktail had been injected into my bloodstream.

But what if I wasn't?

Moira, tell Ethan I'm on campus. Tell him I'm by the library. Please. If you have ever cared about me in the slightest, please, please tell Ethan. Go to his apartment now. Don't wait.

With the little remaining energy I had left, I took my nail and dug it into the skin of my other wrist. I cut the skin over my vein, and then I felt the warm blood drip down my fingers. I watched as drops of blood landed on the ground beneath me, creating a small trail behind us. If Moira, by some miracle, heard me and contacted Ethan, then maybe it'd give him a better chance to find me. He could follow my blood to wherever I was being taken.

I tried to stay awake to see exactly where I was being taken, but the drugs had fully infiltrated my system, and I couldn't fight off the drowsiness that overcame me completely.

***

ASHER

"Your father can offer you any kind of position you want once he's the alpha," the woman said.

I tried to link Axel to ask him what the hell he was thinking, but he had blocked me out. He couldn't be serious about asking what kind of power our father could offer. Axel had never followed our father's instructions before. While he was considered the black sheep, and anyone outside of the family might think of him as the first to betray the werewolf pack, I knew it wasn't true.

Axel had a plan of some sort, and it involved me believing he was actually betraying me. Even though I had no idea where he was going with this plan, I trusted him enough to follow his lead.

"You can't be seriously thinking about this," I said, staring at Axel with as much disbelief as I could muster.

"Of course I'm thinking about this. I have always been cast in the shadows. Ethan has always been the one chosen to take over as beta when Father retires, and you were next in line. I don't have any skills, like Nathan, either. I was just the forgotten brother, but maybe that could change."

"What about Juniper?" I asked. I knew this question would push Axel, but I needed to sound believable. "If you join our father, you'll be betraying her, too."

Axel's eyes darkened. "What about her? I was her second choice, too. I have never been and never will be anyone's first choice. I could ask Father to make me his beta, though. Then I wouldn't be anyone's second choice."

It hurt to hear Axel's words. Despite the uncertain state Juniper and I were in, I still wanted to protect her. I knew if she heard what Axel had said, it would break her. That was how I knew Axel wasn't serious. When Juniper came into Axel's life, it changed him. Even when she picked someone else, even when me, his own brother, hurt her, Axel still put Juniper ahead of him. She had become the light in his life that made him into the brother I once knew, and he would never say such things and mean them. "Enough of this," the woman said. "If you are truly on our side, then prove it. Hand over that box of evidence and then kill your brother."

"Fine," Axel said. He pulled a knife out from his belt and stepped towards me.

I stepped back automatically, shocked Axel had actually pointed his knife at me. He was doing what he needed to prove he was going to join our father's side. If it was any other brother in this room, I might have been worried that my initial judgment was wrong. However, this was Axel. He was my womb to tomb brother. No matter how bad things got between us, I knew Axel's true heart.

Axel kicked the box of evidence towards the woman, keeping the knife pointed at me to make sure I didn't stop him. "Do what you have to to get rid of those documents."

The woman watched Axel, and the way she narrowed her eyes showed me that she was still unsure about Axel's intentions. She wouldn't believe him until I was lying lifeless on the floor. Despite her hesitation with Axel, she wasted no time in moving towards the box. After making sure the papers inside were what she wanted, she lit a match and set the entire box in flames.

"Go on. What are you waiting for?" she said as the flames grew bigger and bigger. There was no way we'd be able to redeem any of the documents from that box now.

"It's my brother. Forgive me for hesitating for a moment," Axel said, not bothering to hide the snarkiness in his voice.

"Fine. Maybe this will give you the motivation to speed things up." The woman pulled out a gun and aimed it at Nathan. She pulled the trigger before either of us could react, and the echo of the gunshot made my heart stop beating.