Chapter 19:

"How is she?" Alek stood next to me, his hand on my shoulder as I sat next to Hope in a hard-wooden chair. She was in Michael's house, a spare room where a doctor looked her over. She said that Hope was in critical condition and needed healing, but since she was a human, she was healing slow. Too much blood-lost...

***

"Get me a doctor, now!" I held into the night. Hope's heartbeat was slowing down. She was covered in blood. I have seen bloodshed worst than this, but this sight made me squirm. I had not noticed her injuries before, my wolf too focused on the rogues and then her scent... it was all too much for us both.

"Get her to my house. Olive is already there with the doctor. They have prepared her a room." I jumped into action and started to run with her in my arms. She was unconscious, lying limp. Her hair swayed with her head as I moved. The wind drifting between her white streaks of hair. It felt as if she was getting lighter as she started to breathe out her last breaths. Her soul leaving in pieces and my heart shattering with every piece.

I burst through the house, the big oak door lying on the floor as step over it.

"This way!" Olive motioned me to a room. There was a doctor, an old-looking female. As I lied Hope down on the bed, she jumped into work. She ripped Hope's already ruined dress to see all her wounds. Then, what seemed to be a white dress floating to the floor. I bet she looked absolutely breath-taking when she had it on. I growled as Hope moaned when the doctor pressed on certain places, my wolf side did not like our mate in pain.

"Leave, my King." Olive pleaded as I stepped closer to the doctor, not liking how she hurt Hope. "You are only going to get in the way." Her soft and calm voice spoke.

"No. I am staying."

"Michael." She had a pity look in her eyes before I felt hands grab me. I shook them off as fast as they came to me. Michael and a few of his warriors was behind me, trying to get me out of the room. It took ten of them to get me down and out of that room, including Alek.

"Stop! I have to be there."

"No!" Alek shouted in my face as they restrained me with silver chains. "Do you wish her alive?" he asked, and I grunted. "Do you?"

"Yes."

"Good. Then control it, for you are only going to be in the way."

I sat and listened to the doctor ordering people around and the faint heartbeats of Hope. It sometimes stopped for a few seconds before the doctor yelled and pushed her away from death's grip. Every time that happened my beast would rip at the chains, with a few more tugs and he would have been free. I watched Alek calculating look at the chains, he too realized that they would not have held. Michael, on the other hand, looked shocked and a bit scared like his warriors. I do not blame him; my beast was one to be frightened of. He has not seen the potential of my beast nor used to it as Alek. As I sat there on the ground my mind would wander off to Hope. Hope was my mate. How strange it felt to call her that. How it felt to say mate again. How was it even possible? I had sacrificed it all for power, yet there she was lying on a bed upstairs fighting for her life.

"Dmitry." A soft voice spoke in front of me. I was on my knees with my head hanging low, my dark locks falling past my face like a curtain. Looking up I saw Olive rubbing her belly, "Realise him." She said the words that I had been burning to hear.

"You sure?" Michael asked her, taking a protective stance next to her.

"Michael," she breathed, "He needs to be with her, look at him. One more tug and he is free. And. He will no longer be in our way. The doctor did everything she could..."

"Is she going to survive?" I rasped out, looking her dead in the eye. Olive coward, her gaze away, not wanting to disrespect my authority.

"I don't know, but mates need one another to help heal." Alek stepped forward and realised me from the chains. Shaking them off I followed Hope upstairs. When we reached the door, she knocked and unsurely looked back at me. A voice noted us in.

I stood in the doorway for a while looking at the ground. It felt all unreal, a dream I was about to wake up from. How was I there in that situation? Taking slow steps inside, my eyes catch the bed Hope rested on. Her heartbeat was faint, but there. She looked pale, yet alive with pinkish plump lips. A white cotton blanket draped over her small body. Her beautiful hair spread out and combed on the pillow. I sat on the chair next to her, stroking her soft cheek. As my fingers trailed over her polished skin, sparks followed in great explosions. She was alive and all mine.

"She is critical for the next few hours." The doctor spoke from the opposite side. She was busy with packing away her medical stuff. "Maybe you being her mate could help the healing process. But there is something else..." she turned around and looked briefly at me. "Olive mentioned that she did not feel well, so I looked. I do not know what it was, but there was something that drained her. I don't know if it is gone, you'll need to look at her health closely." What was wrong with her? "She had flu symptoms but worsen."

"I will make sure she is fine. She is my mate." I warned her not to overstep and imply that I could not take care of her.

"Here is her medication. I leave it with Olive, she knows what to do. If you need me, my King, I'll be downstairs."

"She is a beautiful one." The tension was high in the room as I glared viciously at the doctors retreating form. "She has the heart of a goddess. Soft and delicate, you'll need to protect her from your harsh world." I knew my world was damned. I woman like Hope to be thrust into my world was cruel, any human thrust into the werewolf kingdom was hard, and her being my mate made it even harder and more dangerous. The werewolf kingdom was dangerous, were brute force and strength was essential. Our ranks were solely based on it. To be an Alpha you had to be harsh and strong, otherwise, you'll be challenged.

"I know." I could leave her here, but I was selfish. I wanted her by my side, I shall not make the same mistakes as before. My little hope. "It is weird. Seeing her..."

"I bet, it is not every day you get a second chance." She left me and Hope alone and went downstairs to Michael. I sat there next to Hope listening to her rhythmic heartbeats, taking her small hand into mine. I lied my head on the bed next to her and drifted off to sleep, knowing that she was safe and near me.

"Hope!" a shrill awoke me. It was so high-pitched that I thought my ears would bleed. I listened carefully to the thumping footsteps coming up the stairs. There was a commotion downstairs. I heard Michael warning a woman who just ignored him. Many footsteps came rushing upstairs when the doors burst open to reveal an old looking lady. She was tall with grey hair, a worried face, and tears in her eyes. "Who are you?"

"Who are you?"

"Gina, this is King Volcov," Olive spoke and placed her hands on the woman's shoulders.

"I do not care, why is here?"

"He saved her."

"Thank you, sir, but could you please retreat away so I could be with Hope."

"I don't care who you are or that you're human, but you shall respect me." I threatened and stood to my full height. Gazing down at the woman, she gulped. I had to hand it to her she kept her stance, she was brave.

"Olive. When she is better, we can move her to my house." The woman ignored me, and Olive started to look scared for her.

"No."

"No? I am responsible for her."

"She is my mate." I gave a sarcastic laugh. This woman was responsible for her? "You clearly did not do a good job." The lady turned red from anger. Olive was trying to soothe her temper as Alek watched from the corner bored and Michael trying to reason with her. She was started to get on my nerves.

"She is but just a human. Small and fragile... she does not even know of your kind, much less be the queen of them." The lady noted the latter to me.

"That I know. I do have eyes. She is to come with me, where I can protect her."

"Back to Russia? You cannot be serious. You are going to throw her whole life upside down, she just decided to stay here to find herself and now you are just going to take her? What about her parents? How are you going to explain this to them? You are going to take her away from everything she knows and place her in a situation where everything she thought was fictional... to be true."

"I know and when she wakes, I'll tell her. She knows more than she thinks, she just needs the piece that connects all the others. I am not willing to risk her life anymore. Yesterday she was so close to death, hell it is a miracle she is alive and that I found her in time. Tell me, woman. How are YOU...going to protect her against all my enemies. Witches? Rogues. You too are only a mere mortal. You did not even notice her leaving into the woods."

"I don't know why she has done that. She went to sleep her sickness off, while I made her some tea."

"I do not care anymore, what happened is past us. The kingdom needs a queen, I... need my queen."

"Come Gina. We will talk about this later... let us get some tea." Olive grabbed the lady, Gina, by the shoulders and dragged her out of the room. My temper was flaring with each passing moment.

"My King has to excuse Gina; she has a mouth." Michael stands at the door. "We all are rather protective of Hope. For the small-time she has been here, she has crept into all our hearts. I know you'll do everything to protect her as I would for Olive but remember who we are speaking about here. Hope may be our Queen, but to those ladies down there, she is family. She too is a human. I have heard about her little... nosey expeditions, I guess it was her soul trying to connect to our world, but she is still human. She has choices."

"Not in this matter."

"Alpha." He sighed and retreated out the room too.

"I hear what you say. I will try to make it easier for her." He looked at me in surprise. I had great respect for him, he was a great Alpha and mate. "You have my respect and friendship, Alpha Michael." He gaped at me in the doorway, not believing his own ears. I rarely acknowledge any Alpha's title nor greeted them on it either, only when it was necessary. Bowing one last time he left for his mate.

***

"Alright. She has been healing more, I just want her to wake up."

"We all wish for that and... she will. I know that." Alek was like a son too me. He was my Beta and closes companion. Family. My best friend. He was the only one that knew of my troubling secrets and darkest demons. He knew both the King and Me. "When we traveling back?" my lip twitched to a smile. He wanted to get back to his mate and I do not blame him. It is hard to leave your mate's side.

"When she is healthy enough."

"Have you noted the council yet?" ah! The council. They will be thrilled to hear this news and that she is human. That sadly would have to wait.

"No. I will deal with them when the time comes. For now, I am just dealing with her health. Alek, I want you to get me those witches. I want answers..."

"They're downstairs." He was always smart and knew what I wanted. That was what made him the best Beta. I nodded to him and followed him to them when I heard the slightest of sound. Hope's breathing quickened and the bed sheets moved.

"Tri." That soft voice was like a cold bucket of ice. She was awake. I moved like light to her bedside., grabbing her body and cradling it to my chest. Her arms wrapped around me as she pushed her face to my chest.

"I am here, YA nadeyus''." (my hope)

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