Bad Love: An Alpha's Regret

Chapter 344

As we approach Roberts pack lands, there’s an orange glow in the

sky.

Jessica and I are sitting in the backseat of an SUV and we share a

worried look.

It turns out to be the Roberts mansion burning, although fire trucks dispatched by the Council and manned by volunteer wolves from several different packs are there bringing the fire

under control.

Driving up to the Roberts mansion and other main buildings is like

entering a war zone.

It brings back hazy memories from a decade ago, around the time my parents were killed, when I would arrive after a battle to help with the clean up and assist wounded pack members.

I remember being a teenager, being impatient to join the fight and battle our enemies, how I’d been angry that I felt like my parents had been sheltering me and holding me back.

But now I understand that they loved me and were simply trying to protect me from the horrific realities.

To safeguard me from being changed by the devastating cost of

war.

Yet, in the end they had been killed and I paid that price dearly

when the old Roberts Alpha had abducted me and kept me

hostage for ten years.

However, now seeing the Roberts mansion going up in flames,

seeing the broken, bloodied pack members who had fought against what must have been a vicious attack by vampires, I can

only feel sad for them.

I even feel bad for Leah, that she’s going to come home from

Romania to find her childhood home burned to the ground.

Jessica and I are silent, taking in the awful sight as we climb out of

the SUV.

However, we get straight to work, handing out supplies and helping the doctors set up a triage tent to sort patients before sending them on to the medical annex–which luckily seems to have escaped any damage or monitor them shifting and healing for less serious wounds, before allowing them to leave and help

with the clean–up.

Not much time has passed when some kind of awareness shivers down my spine.

I glance up, and somehow, I know exactly where to look.

Axel appears out of the darkness, stalking through the members

of the combined packs who part like the seas as he emerges.

He’s carrying a huge, wicked looking knife that’s dripping in blood.

He looks fierce and formidable, like a warrior of old, returning

victorious from the battlefield, anointed in the blood of his

enemies.

More blood is splashed across his body and my heart drops as I

realize it’s so much blood, he must be injured.

I rush over to him, already fearing the worst, wondering how I’ll

survive it if he actually dies.

He’s not my mate, but in that second, I honestly feel like my heart

is going to fail at the mere thought that Axel might not survive

whatever injuries he sustained.

“Where are you hurt?” I demand in a rush as I stop in front of him.

I reach out, but he catches my wrist, stopping me from physically searching his body for the tell–tale wound.

“Quick! We need to get you into the triage tent,” I say, confused about why he’s just standing there.

Isn’t he in pain?

“Emily, none of it is my blood,” he says in a low, calm voice.

I take another look at him and wonder how many vampires he

beheaded to end up covered in this much blood.

“What are you doing here?” he asks when I don’t reply to his

statement.

For a second, my mind is blank as I try to reconcile this new, brutal

yet protective side of Axel.

He put his life on the line, rushed here to defend Roberts pack, all

in the name of allegiance to my brother.

I realize I have never met a wolf as honorable or righteous as Axel.

There’s something about him–maybe because he was born in ancient times, a world long lost–that is different from anyone else

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“Emily?” he prompts when the silence stretches between us.

“I came here to help,” I eventually say when my brain gets with the

program.

“Jessic and I,” I clarify. “We knew that Roberts pack members would need supplies and as much medical help as they could get after the attack, so we came to help.”

I feel like I’m not making any sense whatsoever, but it’s suddenly like I’m seeing Axel in a whole new light.

Or maybe I’m simply seeing him properly for the first time.

“I told you to stay home and rest,” Axel says in a low rumble, and it seems as if there’s actually a hint of worry in his tone. “After what you went through today–seeing this–it’s too much for you,

Emily.”

Any time before now, I would have immediately got angry and defensive, telling him that I can look after myself and I’ll be the one to judge what is or isn’t too much for me.

But now, I can see his words and gruff demeanor for what it

actually is.

He cares about me–even if he doesn’t want to or claims he doesn’t feel anything–and this is his way of trying to look after

1. me.

“I’m fine, Axel,” I tell him, and my calm behavior seems to surprise him. “This is where I’m needed right now. As acting Luna, it’s the

least I can do.”

Axel stares at me for a long moment, as if trying to gauge how

sincere I am.

However, then he nods and shifts back from me.

“I’m going to head over to the medical annex to get cleaned up,” Axel says. “Then I’ll give you and Jessica a hand with those

supplies.”

I nod in agreement as he steps back from me, then turns to head

toward the medical annex, since it’s the easiest place to get

cleaned up now that the mansion is gone.

For a second, I watch him go, and then my feet are moving to

follow him, almost of their own accord.

It’s my wolf, I think. For some reason, she doesn’t want to be away

from him.

In fact, after what we just witnessed, she now wants him more

than ever.

So do I for that matter.

Maybe I don’t hate Axel as much as I’ve been telling myself that I

1. do.

But realizing this is dangerous.

Because the opposite emotion to hate is…