Vindicator

Chapter 35

Once his mother left, Theo was sitting in the hospital bed, left to his own devices. He was angry, and had kept tossing and turning while trying to rest, so he eventually gave up. He was nearly fully healed anyways, thanks to the medical staff and his own wolf healing. So now, he was just restless from being locked in a hospital room. He felt like a child being locked in their bedroom while the adults discussed the plans for the day, leaving him ignorant of what was happening.

He had an older twin sister. He had a male mate. He lost his pack. Everything in the world that was supposed to be in the palm of his hand had slipped through his fingers like grains of sand. It infuriated him.

He got up and walked over to where a change of clothes had been neatly folded on the little table in his room. He ripped off the hospital gown, roughly grabbing the clothes to take into the bathroom with him; however, something fell from the pile and clattered to the floor. Upon closer inspection, he realized it was his phone. Finally, something good happened!

He scooped up the device and powered it on. Sue to the pack's bank accounts being set up to pay for the phone bills of all pack members, his phone was still active despite the Red Moon pack all but dissolving when his father declared them rogue.

Once the Home screen came up, he got a bunch of notifications of missed messages, calls and voicemail. With a sigh, he took a preliminary scroll through the messages to see if any interested him. Most of them were pack members who were begging him to reel in his father and swear allegiance to the throne again so they could go home with their families. Some were pack members who had been updating him on where they had ended up until things got sorted out. It was all shit he didn't want to deal with, and he was about to shut it off when the oldest message caught his attention.

"Hey sexy" it read from Tiffany. She was the sexy she-wolf he actually lost his virginity to, and seeing her message made him grin and forget all of the others.

"Hey beautiful" he replied.

He could see she read the message nearly instantly, and was typing a reply. It made his grin widen.

"Omg!! Where have you been?! Everything is gone to shit Theo! Wtf was Alpha thinking???" She replied.

Theo's grin faltered, seeing he wasn't getting quite the response he'd been hoping for. Nonetheless, he replied with "Sorry dad dragged me with him when he ran. He finally snapped. Where are you now?"

While waiting for her to reply, he grabbed a quick shower and got dressed. He came back to his phone to find several messages from Tiffany.

"I'm staying at a safe house thing in the Royal pack while they evaluate us for being accepted into another pack. Most of us are here."

"Where are you??"

"Are you okay????"

"Theo????"

He sighed, starting to regret chatting with Tiffany. He replied "sorry was busy for a sec. I'm at the palace. If you're at the Royal pack you're not far, wanna meet up? ;)"

"Yes!!!!" Came Tiffany's instant reply.

Restoring the wide grin to his face, Theo asked if she knew a good place they could meet to hang out.

Raff growled in Theo's mind, realizing the human's intent. "You said what you did to the Prince was wrong. Why are you trying to sleep with that she-wolf again and put him through more pain?"

"It only hurts if I have full on sex with her" he said dismissively. "I can fool around and nobody will even know."

Raff growled again, but Theo ignored him as he read the location Tiffany sent. Being in the Royal suite of the medical wing, he had a large and luxurious hospital room. One added luxury was the walk-out balcony, which he decided to use to sneak out of the hospital. Being an Alpha heir, he was strong and nimble, and the descent from the balcony was a non-issue for him. Once out, he strolled along the palace grounds casually as if he belonged there.

He kept his eyes down as he walked, not wanting to bring attention to his red irises. Although rogue, his scent wasn't overwhelming just yet so he hoped he'd be able to sneak past the guards without issue. It seemed inside the palace walls, though, security was lax in the gardens, so he went unchallenged for a large portion of his escape. It wasn't until he reached the wall, and followed it towards a small gated entry point that he knew he might have difficulties.

The entry point was just a little side gate, which Theo suspected was used for staff to check in. There was a little booth for the guard to rest in, but the lone guard currently stood on duty outside of his shelter.

As Theo moved closer, the guard on duty suddenly stiffened, with nostrils flaring, and whipped his head in Theo's direction. Fortunately, Theo wasn't trying to sneak up on the man, so he didn't appear guilty or dangerous. He was approaching in a casual manner, hands in pockets, as if he had nothing to hide. The guard began to growl in warning, so Theo held his hands up in a gesture of surrender.

"My name is Theo Hemming, I was the Alpha heir of the Red Moon pack. I've been in hospital at the castle, and was just released...I'd like to go visit my pack members, I understand they are being held nearby" he explained, hoping to alleviate the guard's concerns.

The guard took Theo in, and relaxed a bit. He knew the Alpha heir had been taken into the palace walls, but he hadn't heard anything of him being allowed to visit his pack. "You need to have an escort to leave the palace walls" he said, which was standard procedure. "Let me notify my superiors that you weren't sent with one, and we can have one brought to you" he offered.

Not wanting the Prince alerted to his plans, Theo decided he had to take action. He smiled and nodded, but before the guard could mindlink for anyone, Theo had lunged.

The guard hadn't expected the move, but was a trained fighter so he quickly managed to go on the defensive. Theo had moved to get him in a chokehold, but with the guard suddenly defending, he had to switch tactics. He just needed to knock him out before he called for help, so he jerked forward and smashed his forehead into the guard's nose. Blood spurted out of the guard's broken nose as he grunted in pain, and it gave Theo enough of a distraction to swiftly and solidly deliver a blow to the man's head. With Theo's strength and precision, and the guard being flustered from the headbutt, the Alpha heir's blow landed cleanly and dropped the guard like a sack of potatoes.

Theo was a bit worried that the guard would have had time to be able to call for help during their scuffle. Unable to change the past, though, he just decided to hurry. He dragged the unconscious wolf into his shelter, then took off at a run towards his destination.

It didn't take him long to make it to the little village-like setup that had been arranged for all of the displaced Red Moon pack members. They were under careful observation, in case any of them tried something suspicious. There was a specific perimeter they were expected to remain within, and Theo needed to get into that area unseen. He lingered under the cover of some trees as he surveilled the guards, trying to come up with a plan.

He was intently focused on the guards when a feeling of unease went through him. He was about to turn to check his surroundings when a strong hand clamped on his shoulder to hold him in place. He felt a sharp pain in his neck and opened his mouth to yell, but another hand encircled him to cover his mouth. He began to struggle, but whatever he'd just been injected with was working fast and already making him dizzy.

As his world spun, he heard a man's gruff voice say "Hello, Alpha heir."

And then everything went black.