Chapter 11

*Sean’s POV*

"He tried to kill her..." Joe whispered in realisation. "Carlos –” he began.

"Look for him, I got it, Alpha." Carlos immediately began to leave.

"I'll come with. Come, Wayne. Sean, get her to bed and if she doesn't remember any of this when she wakes up, don't tell her about it." Joe said.

I looked at him about to ask why but they had all vanished. I took a second to stare in awe. They moved so fast… I knelt back down at Izabella's side as Nathaniel threw the bullet into a container. He hadn't touched it. I watched the wound on her arm waiting for it to heal but it did not so I looked at the doctor.

“It’s going to take a day or so because of the bullet.” He answered my silent question as he reached for the bandages. I clenched my fists. I wanted to find Ben too, I wanted to kill him myself but I did not want to leave her alone.

"You’re going to wrap her arm up?" Kaden asked looking at her blood.

“Just a second.” I watched as Nathaniel ran his finger through the blood on her arm.

"What are you doing?" I asked as he lifted his finger to his mouth and licked her blood from it before he moved to cover her wound. What the hell? That was gross. “What – why did you do that?” I asked.

"You Galaxy wolves sense power on contact, right?” He asked once he had her arm cleaned up and partially covered. My pack could do a lot of sorcery since our Luna was a witch. Because we could hide our power, no one ever expected us to be able to beat them and their assumptions that we were weak usually gave us the upper hand. I nodded, “Well, Sean, Izabella's blood is very special." He said as he placed his hand on my wrist and I furrowed my brows feeling his power lift immensely. Amarelos could not hide their power… I was sure Inferno did not have any witches. "Her blood," he said looking at her as he finished wrapping her wound, "Somehow makes other wolves stronger. Massively stronger. You know why her birth parents were killed?" He asked looking at me.

"You can't be serious," I muttered even though I had felt his strength increase immensely in seconds.

"I am, Sean. It's the reason they killed her parents: to get to her. It's why Joe never told anyone that he found her, that she was alive." He said packing up the medical kit.

“So... if anyone found out she was here..." Kaden drifted.

"We would be a huge target... Her blood doesn't work for her though." Nathaniel said.

"But they can't take her blood if she's not the same blood type, Right?" I asked, “Fuck, she’s O negative.” I hissed.

“That doesn’t even matter, it’s not being transfused, it’s being consumed.”

"How do you know her blood type? I thought you guys did not get along?" Kaden asked me.

"Long story but it ends with her in hospital because she was being fucking stupid and we needed to find her a blood donor," I said. I shook my head at the memory. Corey and Izabella were being stupid when we were twelve. Only they could manage to screw up so badly a wolf like Izabella would be losing blood faster than she was healing.

"And you are a match?" Kaden asked.

"No, my Dad is." I said.

"She does seem like the type to do stupid things..." Kaden mumbled. I chuckled sliding my arms in under Izabella and lifting her from the floor to hold her against my chest, she made no move in her sleep and I was quite disappointed that she did not cuddle closer to me. I had to take what I could get, right? While she was still angry about our pairing and angry at me.

"I blame her friend, Corey. His stupidity is contagious.” Kaden chuckled, “Thank you, Nate. Just… before you eat someone's blood next time, know that it's creepy as shit." I said. Nathaniel and Kaden laughed.

"I'll remember that." Nathaniel replied as I left.

I carried Izabella upstairs carefully and felt a smile grown on my face when she began to move slightly and ended up sliding her arm around my neck to pull herself closer to me. I was way too happy about it and had to hold back making a sound so that she would not wake up. Once I made upstairs, I stopped as I looked at the door to her room before smirking. She was probably going to kill me, but oh well. I chuckled.

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*Izabella’s POV*

I opened my eyes slowly to a mostly dark room which I figured was my own. I sucked in a breath slowly but froze when a scent that wasn't my own hit my nose and my eyes widened. Wasn’t this my room? I tried to get up but something stopped me. I was tied down! Why was I tied down?! Why was there a rope around my waist?!

I reached down to try to push the rope off me but I screamed when my hand touched warm skin.

"Ah – what is –?" The confused voice made anger-fuelled adrenalin rush through me and I shoved their arm away before kicking him wherever my foot landed. I heard a grunt before he cried out and cursed as he fell onto the floor with a loud thud.

I jumped off the bed as the light flickered on and stumbled further away from the body on the floor.

"What's going on? You alright, Izzy?" He asked, his eyes darting around like he was looking for someone he would have to fight.

"She's fine! My fucking nuts aren't. Shit, Izabella! Why the fuck?" Sean groaned from the floor.

Joe looked at him and grimaced, he disappeared before coming back with an ice pack and tossing it at Sean who just barely caught it.

"What happened, Izabella?" Joe looked at me.

"This isn't my room! I –” I did not even know how I ended up in his room, on his bed asleep with him! “He-he –” Joe burst out laughing and I glared at him as Sean just groaned with his ice pack on his 'business'.

"You didn't seem to mind when I put you here, you wouldn’t even let me go." Sean glared at me as he sat up against his bed. I narrowed my eyes at him.

"Stay. Away. From. Me." I said though grit teeth before turning and walking out. Why couldn’t he take a hint?

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My fist hurt and I was beginning to realise that training with Joe was more of a pain than it was with my brothers and father. We had been at it for two hours straight already and he hasn't even given me time to breath despite basically everything aching.

"Izabella, focus!" I gasped as all the air my lungs contained got knocked out of me when his foot met the back of my chest. The force sent me stumbling forward and I fell onto my knees coughing as I dropped my head to try to get some air.

"Alpha, maybe you should tone it down." It was Wayne speaking.

Joe had told Kaden and Tyler to get Sean out of the gym when his growling and anger got to the point where he attacked Joe. It was weird… seeing him get upset that I was getting hurt… but he got very angry.

"Tone it down? Is that what you want? So when you're with your family and someone threatens you all you'll be able to do is stand there because you can't shift because you're not strong enough to?" Joe asked glaring down at me. No.

Earlier he gave me a few points as to why I passed out after I had shifted. One of them being that my human form was a lot weaker than my wolf so it couldn't handle my wolf's power and strength, it was also why she could control us so easily when she wanted to.

I put my hand on the mat and kicked my right foot forward but before it could hit Joe's ankle he just jumped so my foot went under him.

"You said Ian trained you? Were you lying? That all you g –” I smirked at his distraction and brought my leg back so it hit the back of his knees. He fell back onto the mat with a hard smack and I grabbed his leg locking it with mine before I twisted us and locked my arms around his neck to pull him back. He tried to get out and I smirked.

"Ready to –” I stopped when I felt myself begin to shift and immediately let him go as I rolled to the side, shutting my eyes as I tried to control my wolf.

"Tell her you will shift if she calms down." I heard Joe.

"She doesn’t ever calm down!" I hissed back feeling annoyed.

"You've never asked her to." I heard Sean. Where had he even come from?

"Shut up." I snapped at him opening my eyes so I could glare at him. He frowned at me giving me a pointed look and I clenched my teeth. I shut my eyes accepting the fact that he was right as I sighed.

'Sean says calm down.' I thought. I knew she would listen if I mentioned his name. She whined and I almost snickered. Stupid wolf. 'Please? We'll shift later and we'll run with him, but that will only happen if you let me keep control… Or we could get shot at again because of you,' she growled. 'Sorry,' I thought.

She must have agreed because suddenly I wasn't shifting anymore. I smiled. I did it.

"I told you." Well, there goes my smile. I stood up turning to look at Sean and smiled as I stepped close to him. He raised his eyebrows questioningly, looking quite surprised while Tyler and Kaden looked at us shocked. “What…?” Sean whispered but he stopped and his eyes widened when I placed my hand on his chest gently.

"Sean," I ignored the sparks running through my hand while I touched him as my heart unintentionally began to race, "Why don't you..." I smiled stepping incredibly close to him so I could feel his unsteady breathing and hear his racing heart, my smile dropped and I glared up at him, "Get some of Ben's platinum bullets and put them through your brain and then try to tell me what to say to MY wolf." I said.

His wide eyes narrowed to slits through which he was glaring at me as Tyler, Kaden and Wayne laughed while Alexis gave me a disapproving look and Joe tried not to laugh but ended up chuckling lightly.

‘One day you'll regret this...’ He linked to me shoving me away from him lightly and I smiled back at him sweetly before turning to Joe.

"When's lunch, Uncle Joe?" I asked. He smiled at me before he looked at his wrist watch.

"Right about now, actually. But –” He was saying.

"I’ll see you later," I said running to take a shower before I would be heading to the kitchen.

"Izabella! You have to clean up!" Joe called.

"No, you're the one that decided to throw out mats and balls and stuff we didn't even use." I called back before running upstairs. I could picture him frowning at me but did not go back.

My phone buzzed and I checked it, smiling when I saw the word 'Mom' on the screen with a picture of her in the background. I answered it as I walked into my room.

"Mommy," I said.

"Didn't I tell you to call?" Oh. Yeah… “Izabella.” He voice sounded slightly edged like she was upset with me.

"I've been really busy… sleeping. I've been sleeping a lot. I’m perfectly fine. Besides, Sean's here. If there's anything you should be worried about it has to be me hurting him." I said.

"You really have not accepted him as your mate yet?" Mom asked.

"Of course not. He's a good Alpha prodigy, a cool friend, but he'll be a crappy ass life partner." I laughed at Adan's words while our mother scowled at him and he yelled a greeting at me.

"It's true, Ma!" I heard Gray agree, “Hey, Izzy!” He called.

“Guys.” I laughed.

"Be quiet and go set the table. Have you eaten, Sweetie?" Our mother asked.

"I'm about to, Ma." I rolled my eyes.

"It better not just be junk food, Izabella. You know how nauseous you get when you eat junk and also..." I zoned out as she went on about everything she could possibly think of. I was sure she had made a list just for the phone call.

'Are you warm at night?'

‘Has Sean been nice to you?’

'Have you been eating?'

'Are you happy?'

'Did you get hurt?'

'Remember to floss your teeth.' To which I replied that I was old enough to remember that. She worried about way too much.

"Don't talk to strangers –” That sentence caught my attention.

"Don't talk to strangers? Ma, I'm eighteen! I'm pretty sure I can handle 'strangers' by now. Just a week ago, Joe was a stranger to me," I sighed, "Stop worrying. I'm fine. I have to go, I was just about to have lunch. Say hi to Dad and the others for me and –” I stopped and looked around suddenly feeling a little sick as my wrist began to burn.

I lifted my wrist to stare at it… I felt like something was wrong...

"Izzy, Sweetie?" Mom's voice came.

"Um... Yeah," I shook my head to clear my thoughts as I dropped my arm, "Like I said; I'm fine. I love you, I'll see you next week." I said.

"I love you took, Sweetie. See you then. Be careful." She said.

I agreed before I hung up and looked around. I was just being paranoid, right? This was an irrational feeling of fear and worry without reason. It was stupid, but it was strong enough to make me physically feel bad. What the heck was up with me?

I sighed dropping my phone on my bed but looked down as my wrist began to glow slightly green. That was new. I ran downstairs to find Joe but I bumped into Wayne instead as soon as I stepped off the last stair. He caught my shoulders as I stumbled.

"Hey, slow down before you hurt yourself. What's got you in such a rush anyway?" I glanced at Wayne's left wrist and saw that he had symbols too, different to mine but at least he had them.

"My wrist is glowing, why's it glowing?" I showed him. He took my wrist and frowned.

"Green... Usually means danger. There’s probably something dangerous you need to watch out for.” He said.

"Really?" I looked at it, "Is there any way I can get rid of this thing?" I asked waving my wrist. He chuckled.

"No, it's permanent. Cut off your arm and it will probably appear on your other arm." Was he serious? He chuckled.

"Yes, I'm serious. Your concern shouldn't be the mark though Izabella, it should be why it's glowing." He said. I looked down at my still-growing wrist.

Why WAS it glowing? My wolf growled softly in my head and I bit my lip, that bad feeling was back and my wolf was feeling it too. Danger… What danger?

"Sean..." I mumbled. His name is the only one that came to my mind. Why? Did it have something to do with him? Probably... But did I really care if anything bad happened to him?

My wolf growled, yes. I was thinking no despite my chest tightening at the thought that he could be in trouble. The mate bond was beginning to get to me, making me want to care about him. I had to get him to reject me soon before I began actually feeling something other than annoyance toward him. The thought made me cringe.