Stronger as One (#1, Completed)

30. Beta no more

AIDEN

Hearing that Riley was human surprising. It wasn't a bad surprise- it was simply unexpected. But it didn't affect me as much as it seemed to have got to Rafe all of a sudden.

Typical- things get tense and my best friend starts barking in anger, living up to his animal side. I knew that he was worried and angry but having a go at Riley was not going to solve anything. She was also a victim in this case and I had to fight the urge of my dragon to take her in my arms and protect her. Callum and Lucien seemed to beat me to it though as they both growled defensively.

"Rafe, I can assure you that I never meant for any harm to come to Natalia. I tried my best to protect her but we were just not expecting these guys." She sounded calm but I could sense how anxious she also was feeling about Natalia. Even as a human she clearly had felt the need to protect the young wolf.

"Your best? You are a fucking human. What good is your best in a world of shifters and magic?" Rafe snarled at her before turning to Lucien. "You should have told us that your sister has lost her animal, Lucien- I would have never allowed Natalia to go with her if I had known."

Oh goddess, if it wasn't enough that Natalia was missing and we had no clue where she was, we also needed to add an inter-pack fight to our plates. Way to go, Rafe.

I wanted to step in to intervene but instead, I saw Riley walk up to Rafe, getting up on her toes to be on the same eye level as him.

At this very moment, despite everything that was happening, I was in awe of the beautiful brunette who showed no fear from the big bad wolf that my best friend supposedly was. She was not intimidated one bit by him. Quite the opposite- his outbursts seemed to bring out that passionate fire in her that we 'd already witnessed before. This woman was like no other woman that Rafe or I had ever come across and even as a human, she was million times more fierce than the women shifters we knew.

"Listen to me, Rafe Macalister, and listen carefully. I may be a human now but I did everything that I could possibly do to protect Natalia. These guys were human but they had something that allowed them to fire energy balls at us, which forced Natalia to shift back to human."

Her words left me shocked. The kind of energy balls that she was talking about could only mean that the human that had abducted Natalia had access to magic and for humans to know about our existence and to try and hunt us down using magic meant they had magic people pulling the strings behind. Demons, witches, warlocks- the possibilities were numerous but shifters and the magic folk usually tried to stay out of each other's way, except when either side was up to no good. And this sounded like that kind of a scenario.

Riley carried on. "My protection bracelet eventually kept us safe from whatever magic they were using but Natalia was injured and by the time we tried to escape with her in her wolf form again, they came at us with a tranq gun. That's the last I remember."

"You should have never left pack grounds! This is all your fault." Rafe angrily pointed his finger at her. My dragon was fuming- why was Rafe being such a prick? Could he really not see that it was not her fault. Things spiralled from then on though.

"My fault? It was your little fuck buddy that sent us there."

"My fuck buddy?"

"Yes. Amy. Amy Spade. The busty blonde that you were fucking at your dad's birthday party. I am sure it's hard for you to keep track of all of your little fuck toys but this one seems dead set to have you. In fact, she was looking for you when she came up to Natalia and insisted that we took that trail. She wouldn't leave until Natalia gave in and promised her."

As Riley went silent, I wondered why Amy would go through such lengths to persuade her and Natalia to go to that particular path.

"That fucking bitch." I heard Riley exclaim "She set us up. She knew she was sending us into a trap. I am going to kill if even a hair falls off Natalia's head."