Alpha Markus
Chapter 88

Markus P.O.V.

“NOOOO!” Atlas and I roared as we watched our mate disappear, waking up the entire Pack as our scream pushed through the Pack link. My fear and heartbreak flowing through it. My knees gave out and my knees hit the ground as we shifted back. Howls could be heard from every direction as people realized who had linked them.

‘Markus, what’s wrong?’ Gillian said as he added Danny and my father to the mind link.

‘He took her,’ was all I could say as I looked up at the sky as if she would jump back down to me. I heard running to my right.

“He’s over here!” I heard Danny scream and I looked over to see as they all ran out to me half dressed. Atlas was howling in my head, but I felt nothing. There was no life without Celeste. She’s gone and with her my heart.

I stood up and walked towards the Packhouse. My friends, my family reached me but I just pushed through them all. They tried to talk to me but I had nothing to give. I walked all the way up to our floor. Danny and Gillian and dad were still behind me, asking me what happened, over and over and I had no answer to give because I didn’t know what had just happened either. I went into the room and didn’t even bother to shut the door behind me. They would just break it down. I walked into the bathroom where I knew her clothes from today were in the hamper. I pulled out the red blouse she had worn and clutched it as if it was my safety blanket. I went into the bed and closed my eyes. Inhaling her scent on the shirt. I heard them talking to me for goddess knows how long before they finally left. We stayed this way, replaying what happened in my head over and over, trying to figure out how it could all go so wrong. Just a few hours ago, my life had been near perfect and now it was just gone. Atlas howled for hours before we finally passed out.

We slept a dead, dreamless sleep. Atlas was still sleeping when I woke up. I could hear him whining in his sleep as the pain of everything that happened rushed to me. I started breathing hard. I couldn’t catch my breath.

“Alpha!” I heard a voice but I couldn’t pin point who it was. My chest was seizing, my heart was racing, I couldn’t catch my breath. My eyes couldn’t focus on anything. She left me. Kara left us. She knew it would happen and told no one. Why? Why would she leave us? Did she not trust us to protect her? The pain in my heart increased. Why did she leave us? She would just give up our life so easily?

“Son? Markus? You’re having a panic attack. You need to breathe. Slow your breathing. Come on. Steady breath.” He tried to calm me but I could barely hear him over the rush of b***d in my ears. I started to feel dizzy when I felt a sharp pain on my cheek, making me see stars but cutting through my panic. The pain in my chest decreased and I was able to take a full breath. I looked up to see Maya in front of me. Tears in her eyes, her hand to her mouth. Atlas was still asleep. Whining loudly. Why wasn’t he waking?

Danny moved Maya away as Gillian pushed forward. “Alpha? Markus, talk to me brother?” He said as he knelt in front of me to meet my eyes. “Markus?”

I felt tears begin to flow freely from my eyes. “Markus, we need to know what happened so we can get Celeste back,” Gillian said, and I could see a tear falling from his eyes as he stared at me.

“I don’t know.” I choked out. “I woke up and she wasn’t in bed. I looked for her and found her outside. I thought she was sleep walking, but Kara was in control. I couldn’t talk to Celeste. She sounded so scared,” I choked back a sob and looked away. I felt broken. “Kara said the moon goddess showed her that this was the only way to avoid loss.”

“She gave herself up?” Danny asked, his face full of hurt.

I nodded. “She said he wouldn’t kill her until the full moon and I had to replace her. He will kill her where it all began and under the full moon so he can make Selene watch.”

Dad grabbed me and led me to the bathroom. He got it running and pushed me inside, “Shower and change. We’ve lost three days already. We need to replace my daughter-in-law before anything happens to her,” he said, and my head snapped to him.

“What do you mean three days?” I said.

“Markus, you have been sleeping for three days. Nothing we could do would wake you. Dr West and both Dr. Castle said you were in a healing sleep. They think you went into shock. Your heart rate was all over the place the whole first day. They were concerned your heart would just stop beating,” Dad said, emotions playing all over his face.

“I…how?”

“It doesn’t matter right now, son. What matters is getting your mate and your pups home safe. We only have 12 days before the full moon,” He shut the door and I took off shorts I don’t remember putting on. I walked into the stream, letting all of my anguish flow out of me. If dad was right, I didn’t have time to let my grief overwhelm me again. I was going to get my mate back. Wake up Atlas – I said, but there was no response. I tried a few more times with the same result.

I wrapped a towel around my waist and looked in the mirror. Despite apparently sleeping for three days, there were large bags under my eyes and I was tired. I walked out of the room to replace all of them there. Evergreen had joined them along with his mate Valeria. I walked to the closet and changed into a shirt and sweats. I stood at the door of the closet and took a few deep breaths, though I could replace no calm, I got control of my emotions and opened the door, “What’s happened while I was sleeping?” I asked.

“We reviewed the cameras while you were out to try to figure out what happened. Evergreen has scanned his picture and one of Celeste and is having his software scan to let us know where they are. So far we have no hits.” Gillian said, disappointment in his voice.

“Alpha Diego returned to his Pack yesterday. He is gathering his warriors and will return so he can be near when we replace and fight Huitzilopochtli,” Danny added, “He also said he would call around for us to see if there have been any sightings from other packs.”

“Tell him not to come but to be ready. Kara said he would take them where it all began and that will be somewhere in Mexico.” I said and Evergreen nodded, already typing away on the computer.

“Get all of our warriors ready. The moment we know where he has her, we are flying to Mexico. Every warrior should have a bag ready with some change of clothing and their passport. I will call Rhett and ask him to send some of his warriors to protect the pack in case of a rogue attack.” I went back to the bed and sat down, grabbing her shirt again. I felt pain shoot through my heart as I thought of her. “Have either Dr. West or Dr Castle be ready with supplies. We don’t know if she’s eating or if she’ll need medical attention,” I said quietly.

“Hey man, Celeste has been through a lot. She can survive anything,” Gillian said.

“Can you call one of them? Atlas is not waking up.” I told dad. He sighed.

“Dr West already said that might happen. When he checked your vitals, Atlas’ eyes were in place, not yours. Atlas healed you while you slept. He’s likely just tired and will be asleep for a bit longer than you.” I nodded.

“Is there anything else?” I asked them. I was tired. I just wanted to sleep again.

“Your people need to see you, son. The pain they felt, that we all felt. They are worried about you. They need to see their Alpha.”

I nodded. “Not today, dad. I need to sleep.” I looked at my clock. It was only 7pm, but I had no energy. I didn’t even have the energy to pretend I was OK. I curled back up in bed with Celeste’s shirt. Her scent was faint but it was still there.

“Son, you need to eat something.”

“Tomorrow dad. I’m not hungry.” I said and shut my eyes. I slept, but this time I had nightmare after nightmare. My mind replayed the same set of events in my head over and over. Sometimes Kara was smiling, holding Huitzilopochtli lovingly. Another time, he ripped her head off. I woke up panting sometime around 5am from a dream where he had punched a whole through her stomach. Despite having an empty stomach, I threw up into a waist basket.

Markus – Atlas howled at the dream.

Are you OK? – I asked him.

We were dying. Our heart was hurting too much. I had to put us into a deep sleep – He said.

We have to replace her. – I said.

She was being held in a basement somewhere. She hasn’t been hurt and the pups are OK. They are taking her to Mexico. They were waiting on a fake passport. She will be in Mexico in a few hours. – He said.

How do you know this?

After I healed you, I reached out through the mate bond. I pushed it as far as I could with everything I had. It took hours but I finally got through. That is why we had to sleep for so long. I used all of our energy.

She’s OK.- I sighed.

Yes, she said look for two pyramids. When she visited the moon goddess, the last vision was two pyramids in front of each other.

Will you be able to talk to her again? I asked him with a bit of hope and he howled.

She’s too far now. Trying to reach her would kill us. We need to replace the place so we can try to reach out. Even then, getting through would take too much energy for us to do. We wouldn’t be able to fight after. – He said.

So no – I said sadly – Thank you for doing that. It’s better than thinking the worst. We have to tell Evergreen and Diego, maybe they know the pyramids we are talking about.

We have to gather all that we have. He cannot live Markus. He is a threat to our pups. -Atlas growled.

We don’t know if he can even be killed. – I reminded him, making him growl more – We don’t have time to look now, we need to think of the Celeste and the pups.

Mate and pups first – Atlas agreed and we headed downstairs to where my friends and family had spent the last three days looking for Celeste.