Chapter 4 Corrupted

• OLEANDER
• He had dry blood on him, but I couldn’t see any open wounds. “Sage?! Wake up?! Wake up!” I called out to him, tapping his cheeks and shaking him, but he wasn’t responding, and I realized I had to get him out of there as this feeling of unease settled over me.
• I dragged him to the car, loaded him into the back passenger seats, and then dashed to the driver’s side, where I drove the remaining distance home in a state of complete panic.
• “How is he here? How did he survive? Was he not at home during the attack?”
• Stopping in front of my house, I dragged him out, still unresponsive. “Mom! Dad!” I called out to my parents without bothering to switch on the lights, and after a couple more calls, my parents came rushing down the staircase.
• “Goddess!” My mother exclaimed as my dad hurried over to assist me in placing him on the couch and checking his pulse.
• “He’s alive,” he said, getting up and running upstairs while I took Sage’s hand, whispering it was going to be okay.
• “Where the hell were you?!” My mother yelled, scowling at me while clutching her nightgown like she was going to poke holes in it as she moved to Sage’s side.
• She had called me many times, asking when I was coming home. She didn’t even want me to stay behind with the guys after the meeting.
• The incident left everyone shaken, but how long were we going to hide? Plus, if I had been home and listened to her, I wouldn’t have seen Sage.
• “It’s alright, Sage. You are safe now,” my dad said before saying he should have gone to his aid, earning a wild look from Mom. “Rhaegar was our alpha. I was supposed to have gone to his aid!” My father repeated now looking at my mother.
• “And get us all killed?!” She choked but flinched at my father’s loud tone as he turned to look at her.
• “If that’s what it took, yes! It was my duty to die beside him! He wasn’t just my Alpha; he was my friend, and I was supposed to have his back, but I didn’t! I listened to you and did nothing. I stayed locked up in here like some spineless coward while his family screamed for help. I failed him, and I will not fail his son!” My father bellowed, clenching his fists, and my mother flinched again as his aura darkened the room.
• When Sage’s family was attacked, my father wanted to go help them, but my mother stopped him, clinging to him, crying, and saying he was going to get us all killed. My father ended up not going, but he hasn’t been himself since.
• He struggled with feelings of guilt and shame, believing he had let his Alpha, his friend, down. The attackers were wearing masks and carrying hunter weapons. We were shocked since it was the first hunter incident in this town in decades.
• We had heard rumors of hunters, but nothing was ever proven. The incident left everyone on edge, as no one knew the identity of these hunters or how much they knew. However, my mother was worse. She hadn’t stepped out of the house since the incident.
• Putting our lives on hold for something we weren’t sure of was impossible. Plus, we’d be so busy hiding that we wouldn’t even see them coming. I also hadn’t been able to get hold of Inga, Sage’s girlfriend, since the incident and wondered if she knew what had happened.
• Inga was a human, and she and Sage had just begun dating after Sage discovered she was his mate. Still, since she was with Sage, I was afraid that if hunters had done this, they might have taken her to question her.
• “Turn those bloody lights off! Are you out of your mind?! What if they are after him?! Do you want them to come here?! Are you so eager to get us killed?” Mom screamed at me as I turned the lights on, and I quickly turned them off again while my father asked me to hold Sage’s arm while he attached an IV to it.
• My mother was not a bad person; she was just terrified. For years, we had thrived in this community with our secret, and the thought of it being out spooked everyone, especially the thought that hunters might have been behind what had happened.
• My father was a doctor by profession, as was my mother, but she stopped working when she had me and never went back. She entered the business world, and she and Sage’s parents owned a couple of establishments together. My dad and I knew she was freaking out like this because she was heartbroken. She was never good at dealing with pain.
• My father finished with Sage and told me to go to bed, saying he would check on him again in the morning. I asked him if Sage was going to be alright and he said he didn’t know but hoped so. With one last look at Sage, I headed to my room, my heart bleeding and my veins simmering with resentment for the people who did it. We needed to take action to exact revenge on those responsible. We had to do whatever it took to make them pay.
• ....
• RAYNE
• We arrived at Sage’s former residence, now merely a collection of small piles of rubble, and found no trace of him anywhere on the property. We looked around but quickly concluded that he was not there because there was no place for him to hide. Just then, their neighbors’ lights came on, causing us to step back into the shadows, but they quickly went off again.
• Orm was furious, prompting me to swallow hard and glance at Aaron, who was engrossed in a conversation. Aaron was right; what I did was selfish. If Orm discovered what I had done, he would murder not only me but also Aaron and anyone else who was aware of our identity; this was the established protocol.
• If you brought someone in, you were bound to that person, and their wrongdoings also became yours. They aimed to prevent any potential resentment that could arise from punishing someone. So, they decided it was better to rip out the problem from root to stem.
• Orm’s voice snapped my attention back to him as he told us to go back. It was morning, we had been up all night, and we were tired, so we wasted no time getting to the cars. Aaron and I rode with Orm again, and he asked if Aaron saw anyone when they were chasing after Inga, who might have let Sage out. Aaron said no, his voice bitter as he glared at me. I looked away, unable to withstand his gaze.
• Eventually, we arrived at the compound, and we made our way to the cells. I swallowed hard, looking at a bleeding Inga as she hung by her arms, her wounds not healing since she had the silver collar on.
• Orm roughly grabbed her jaw, asking where Sage was, but she didn’t speak. She continued crying, looking broken, and tears slipped from my eyes, causing me to look away, not wanting to be seen.
• My mind was racing, as I was still struggling to comprehend how she was a beast. She was the one who told us that Sage and his family were beasts. A week prior, Sage admitted to her that he was a beast and that she was his mate, a revelation Inga then relayed to Orm.
• That’s how Orm learned about Sage’s family, but why did she do that if she was a wolf herself? And how could she be Orm’s daughter? How didn’t he know? Was his wife and beast and he never knew?
• “We will finish this tomorrow,” Orm said, his voice slicing through the air as he let go of her. Inga fell back on her knees while Orm looked at her in disgust. We headed out of the cell, the steel clinging shut behind us as we walked away.
• I had always thought I was strong enough to do this job and until now, I had never questioned anything and never hesitated.
• When we joined, they asked us questions, such as what we would do if someone we loved turned out to be a beast. We were asked to swear that we would never stray and that we would do our duty, and I swore.
• I swore I would never betray Orm, but now there I was, standing before him and feeling myself break sliver by sliver. Looking at Inga like that was breaking me, regardless of what she was, and I had turned into a traitor because someone I cared for turned out to be a beast.
• Did I still have the right to call myself a huntress? Had I been corrupted?