40 Liar

(Alaric's POV)

"Can you run through the story one more time," Don asks Chris in a soft voice. I know he doesn't want to be pushy or stress her. She still looks a bit shaken from the events.

The dead pack of werewolves are being moved out of the mansion. Gio called a clean up crew to clean up the bodies and blood. His father was placed in a casket to be buried. Hanna and Jaisley left to see if they could find Anne back in her apartment.

"I told you guys already. Anne and I came to do a stake out because this was one of the bases for the group of rogues that attacked us back in New Orleans. They have bases all around the world and this was only about 5 percent of their full pack. Someone was controlling Markus and sent him and this pack of rogues to kill us. Markus died in the cross fires and Anne ran away."

"Why would she run? Do you know where she is," I ask Chris. She looks up at me, but turns away quickly.

"No. I don't know where she is."

"But she's not hurt, right?" My wolf tells me that I should be out there looking for her, but I tell him we need to know where to start looking first. He tries to take over my decisions, but I push him back, knowing that he needs to clear his head and think reasonably.

"I think she's okay."

The picture in my back pocket feels like it's burning through my pants. I can't help, but still worry about if they're okay or not. Anne and the baby.

Our baby.

Will I ever see them? Lay my eyes on Anne again and breathe in her sweet scent? Will I ever meet our baby?

I can envision our perfect lives together, but it's far out of reach. Now we have another mourning friend and I don't know how to help them. I'm stuck marrying a woman I don't love and I have to care for a child with her as well. My patients towards Arsenio seems to be wearing thin.

I think things might have been better when I wasn't brave and I stayed quiet.

I'm snapped out of my thoughts.

Chris is pulled up onto her feet in surprise and Don and I stand up to see what's going on. We see two werewolves roughly handling Chris and Don goes crazy.

He takes the two and throws them to the ground, growling in anger. He stands in a protective stance over Chris, hiding her behind him and away from the unknown wolves. He looked about ready to kill the two of them.

Gio pulls Don away from them, but when Don tries to attack him, Gio slams him to the ground and keeps him down by stepping on his chest with one foot.

"Get the hell up and take her," Gio yells to the wolves that mishandled Chris.

"What are you doing," I ask Gio. I watch as the two put magic restraining cuffs on Chris and she doesn't resist. She's too shocked to stop them.

"I'm arresting her. She's a liar and a murderer. If there were rouges here, we would have smelt it. There was innocent blood spilt all over these walls, but no trace sent of rouges' blood. We would have smelt it from miles away," Gio states.

He is right. When we got here, I didn't smell any rouges blood. If there were rouges, we would've smelt the strong, fishy scent. It would have been hard to miss with all the blood surrounding us.

But Anne and Chris wouldn't just kill a bunch of innocent people. There's something wrong about this situation, but Gio won't listen to reason.

"She wanted revenge for her dead mother and she picked the first pack of wolves she found. They're obviously guilty. Anne fled the scene after she massacred these wolves. She even threw her own cousin under the bus to save herself." The harsh words coming from Gio shocks me.

A dangerous flare runs through his eyes and I'm afraid to what lengths he will actually go. He's angry at his father's death and I understand, but he's already taking steps in the wrong direction. He's turning his back on his friends and he won't listen to what their saying.

"I'm telling you, Gio. They were rogues. The witch that was controlling your dad must've -"

"SILENCE!" Chris' explanation is cut off by Gio's growls. I watch as Don tries to claw at Gio's feet. I go to push Gio off of my beta when he pushes me with a force I didn't know existed, and I slam into a wall in the mansion.

My head aches and I reach my hand behind my head and feel blood dripping out of it. I feel dizzy and I have to shake my head to try and focus on what's happening at the moment.

"I am above you now, Alaric. I am above all of you. I may not have a pack to rule as alpha because of these two witches, but I have now taken my father's position on the higher court. You will obey me!"

Don whines from under Gio because he's been put in his place by someone of higher ranking than him and the wolves restraining Chris bow their heads.

"Go put her in a van and make sure she doesn't go anywhere. Send a search party to find Anne," Gio demands his wolf servants.

"Please don't hurt her," Don tells Gio. He crouches down in Don's face.

"I appreciate the begging, but I'm only returning her the favor," Gio whispers to Don, but he knows I can hear.

This is a new Gio and if I'm being honest, it scares me shitless.