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“Ban. No! Stop!” Through the haze of my anger I heard Gabriel’s pleading voice. “Please calm down. I didn’t finish telling them everything they should know. That’s why Adans doesn’t understand why it’s so important to save the woman.”
He was taking the blame, trying to calm the situation. I realized a deep growl was coming from my chest. I stopped myself and released the tight grip I had on the man. He fell to the ground and landed on his butt.
Now that my gaze wasn’t obscured by the red haze of anger, I noticed Adans’ face. He was terrified of me. His cheek was swollen from my punch, his lip split.
Adans scrambled to his feet. “I’m sorry, Alpha! I didn’t mean to…!”
Even though he apologized so profoundly, probably scared that I would throw him out of the clan, I knew he wasn’t the one who should be sorry. I was the one to blame. I was a stoic man who only spoke when he had something important to say. But I had a terrible flaw; if someone angered me, I lost my temper and got violent easily. The people of the sleuth knew this habit well and relied on Gabriel’s abilities to calm me down but a leader shouldn’t be so reckless. Or rather, a reckless leader was not the kind I wanted to be. I wasn’t like Victor. I didn’t want to rule by fear. Yet, whenever I felt challenged, my bear instincts told me to squash all opposition. Then I would act without thinking.
I glanced over at Gabriel. I was glad he was here for me. He was the calming force to the heat of my anger. I would forever be grateful to him for his ability to keep me in check when I needed help the most.
“It’s okay, Adans. I’m sorry,” I apologized to the guard, but the damage had been done. I could be sure that the man would avoid me from now on. I let out a sigh. “We recognized the woman we want to rescue as our mate.”
“Y-Your mate?! Wait… plural? For both of you?” Adans mumbled, massaging his cheek.
“Yes, the woman belongs to the two of us. She will make us complete.” Gabriel smiled.
The people of Santuario whispered amongst each other with shocked expressions. This news was as big of a revelation to them as it had been to us. Soon the clan would welcome a new member, and a very important one indeed: the Alphas’ mate.
“I… understand now!” Adans exclaimed, and it seemed like he was no longer scared. He smiled then winced when his mouth tugged at his wound. “That explains your anger! And of course we will go to save your mate! It’s wonderful news that you’ve found her. And it’s terrible that she’s in Victor’s grasp.” His expression turned serious.
More voices followed his own in agreement. People congratulated us and confirmed that they were ready to fight to save our mate.
Adans seemed to have forgiven me for beating him up. A shifter having a short fuse about his mate wasn’t anything out of the ordinary, especially if she were in danger but even if Adans accepted this reasoning, I still couldn’t quite forgive myself. My short temper was a terrible flaw of mine; something I had never learned to control.
Maybe my rage would give me an upper hand against Victor though. Going berserk made me a stronger fighter. As long as I had Gabriel by my side, I could return to my senses eventually.
“Adans, go into the forest and call our hunters back. We will need the best fighters to come with us to Fort Torres,” Gabriel issued the command, “and Engel, you will go scouting around the castle. We need to know where exactly they are keeping our mate. Hopefully, she’s not in the Fort itself but the prison facilities nearby. Then she’ll be easier to rescue.”
The prison facilities weren’t easy to break into either, but they were nothing compared to Fort Torres which was an old castle able to withstand long sieges. In either case, we knew the layouts of the buildings, having worked and lived there as wardens most of our lives.
However, we couldn’t leave Santuario without defenses. We had to split our forces in half. If we left the women who didn’t fight and the children unguarded here, and Victor found out, we might come back to find our precious home razed to the ground.
To avoid such a risk, we could only take twenty of our best men with us. Most of them would be guards and hunters; people trained in handling firearms. Hopefully Adans would be able to tell the capable men out securing our food to return home soon so we could leave as soon as possible for the fight.
Adans and Engel confirmed receiving their orders and ran to do their tasks.
A woman who was standing in the front line spoke up. Her name was Yoselin. She was curvy with long wavy black hair, and she worked as a cook in our dining hall. “Victor has been stealing a lot of the newcomers recently.”
I nodded. “That’s why this time we decided to go retrieve whoever arrived and bring them back to our sleuth.”
“Victor shouldn’t be getting everyone who comes to the island to join him,” Gabriel interjected. “It feels as if he’s trying to grow his empire.”
“Like he doesn’t have enough people. The whole north of the island belongs to him. Can’t he just leave us in peace?” Yoselin’s tone sounded annoyed.
I growled. “Peace is not a word he understands, or else he wouldn’t have become the leader of the uprising three years ago. Ever since then he’s been trying to rule over the entirety of Isla Paraiso.”
“He will stop at nothing to get the whole island under the grip of his greedy claws.” Gabriel sighed. “We were going to have to butt heads with him sooner or later. Today he just sped up the process by capturing our mate.”
Yoselin gave us a concerned look. “From now on you two shouldn’t leave Santuario alone. Victor didn’t kill you this time, but what’s stopping him from doing so if you run into him again?”
I gave Yoselin a small smile. “I’m glad you worry about us, Yoselin.”
“Of course I do! You’re the best Alphas we could dream of! Without you Santuario wouldn’t be the same.” Her sincere tone left no doubt that she really believed what she said.
Others behind her murmured their agreement.
“Thank you for your belief in us.” Gabriel nodded. “That is all for our gathering today. When the hunters and Engel come back, we will prepare for our attack against Victor. For now, you all should return to your tasks, but don’t wander beyond the walls today.”
