Another Half

Rex took no pleasure in watching people suffer. Well, at least not unless they deserved it. That is why he didn’t like visiting the dungeons. He couldn’t think of a sadder, more miserable place. Old Reginald, the prisoner who had killed his grandmother’s sister, continued to holler something that didn’t even sound like coherent speech while one of the oldest female prisoners cackled. Rex sometimes wondered if his dungeons were more of an insane asylum than a prison for criminals. There were many other prisoners that previous Alphas had collected through the years, of course, but most of them kept quiet because they were either too weak, too sick, too insane, dying, or already dead.

Rex distracted himself from the despair that hunted the dark reaches of the dungeons by watching his mate, the she-wolf who had brought sunshine back into his life. Today she wore yet another set of black jeans and a black tee with the boots he had retrieved from Blue Ponderosa’s forest. He was also dressed in black, but he wore slacks with a belt and a black dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up halfway up his forearms. They had been getting dressed that morning in the large dressing room they shared when she had commented how much she liked his wardrobe’s color palette.

“But I wear the same color every day,” he had said, pointing to his wardrobe made up of different styles of black pants and black shirts.

“And I love it,” she had said, glancing at her own monochromatic wardrobe. They had laughed.

Likely sensing his sight and thoughts on her, Blade turned to look up into his eyes with so much love and affection that it caught his breath. He didn’t have to see her love for him as much as he felt it.

Do you love me, Rex?

The preposterous question that floated into his mind from his mate startled him.

With all of my heart, mind, and soul. He waggled his eyebrows at her. And my body, too.

Blade smirked back.

You’re so greedy, Alpha.

When it comes to you, always. He slid his arms around her waist, pulling her roughly towards him. I can’t wait to have you in my bed again, he said infusing their bond with the lust he had pent up for her.

Will you always feel this way? No matter what? She stared up at him.

Rex inhaled suddenly when he felt her doubts.

Always. Never doubt that again.

She nodded and hugged him tightly. He had no doubt he would soon find out why his mate would ask him such questions.

They entered another chamber like the one where they had left the girl prisoner. She carried with her a basket with the rucksack they found by the lake plus a few additional items she had collected into a basket, including a thermos of tea.

Unlike the previous chamber, this one had Jonson chained to the wall.

Blade began to set everything on the small wooden table that she had moved from the corner along with a chair. Jonson looked on.

“Why am I here? What’s happening?”

Blade ignored him, so Rex thought he should, too. Sergio and Ax soon entered the roon and stood by the entrance.

“Are you about to play house with me, Girly-girl? I like my meat raw—just like I like my fema—”

Maybe it was because he had just professed his love to her, but Rex lost it more quickly than he usually would have. He punched Jonson twice in the gut. Jonson started to cough hard.

Fuck. I wasn’t supposed to do that, was I? Rex said to Blade. He rolled and cracked his neck to release some of the tension in his back and shoulders he was already feeling.

It’s okay. He’s not going to be as cooperative as Iracema. I already know that. Whatever he says cannot hurt me, but I know it affects you. Someday soon I will teach you how to protect yourself, for now, remember that no matter what you hear him say, please don’t kill him. We need to find out who’s been doing this. That’s our priority.

Rex nodded as he felt his mate flood their bond with an assurance that soothed him, and it was gone. He looked for her feelings again, but there was a cold void where they had been. He looked at his mate, but her face was a mask of nothing that belied what came out of her mouth next.

“Why, hello, Jonson,” Blade’s voice was coy, almost flirtatious—and Rex didn’t like it. “I hear you’ve got quite the history with the wolves that invaded Cobalt Lake and Azure Falls. Be a good boy and make things easier for us all and just tell me about them, would you?”

Jonson spat blood. “Alfredo and his little whore know nothing about me, and neither do you, Girly-girl, so fuck you. Or let me fuck you–”

He didn’t finish his sentence because Rex’s fist again made contact with his gut once. And then twice. At the third punch, Rex stopped.

You didn’t want me to stop hitting him?

Rex looked over at his mate, but she was looking passively at her subject. She glanced at Rex with alarming indifference and shrugged.

“You stupid, bitch! Uf!” Rex punched Jonson’s in the jaw. “Aren’t you going to stop him from pummeling me?! You’re just going to fucking stand there?”

Blade smiled as she pulled a chair several feet from where Jonson stood chained to the wall by all four extremities and sat down. If she saw Sergio’s and Ax’s worried looks, she ignored them.

Something about his mate was off. Rex couldn’t put a finger on it, but outwardly she no longer seemed the Blade he knew. When he inspected their bond, it was intact, but her mind was elsewhere, detached. He felt like she had descended somewhere he could not follow, and it alarmed him that the place where her feelings usually resided was cold and empty. Inhospitable. Her usual stream of emotions about her surroundings, concerns about Andy, and the deep love she felt for him were gone. Just as worrisome was the fact that Blade usually addressed any anxiety he felt right away, soothing him, but right now she felt nothing for him.

Blade’s snort brought Rex back.

“You’re more out of your fucking mind than I thought if you think I’m going to step in front of a six-foot-six-inch wall of muscle and strength. Didn’t your mother ever tell you that the dumbest thing any male can do is piss off an Alpha by hitting on his mate?” she said. She removed her thick braid from where it rested along the left side of her neck, revealing Rex’s mark.

Jonson widened his eyes, but whatever fear he might have felt quickly vanished and was replaced by defiance again.

“And here you go and piss off a powerful Alpha of four packs. Fuck, you’re stupid. But maybe you’re right. Maybe he shouldn’t hit you so hard. I mean, I want to have fun, too.”

Before Rex could track her movements, she pulled one of her kunai knives from her boot and threw it at Jonson’s right thigh.

Jonson screamed.