Alpha Loren novel Chapter 61

November 14th

When we got back to the Loren household only Mateo, Xander, Bella and Lia were in.

"Where the fuck is everyone?" Leo asked Mateo.

"Well Elena and Maria are out...again. They've barely been in lately. Marco and Carlos are probably smoking weed somewhere. Mom and Dad when to the store with Lisa and Lenny and I believe that's everyone," Mateo explained, "But Lia wants to go and see Haden later."

"Does Elena not need more time to recover?" Leo asked. "The girl nearly died a week ago."

"Try telling her that," Mateo laughed, "Her and Maria have taken up a sudden love for running."

Of course, I knew exactly what Maria and Elena were doing in the woods: filling in where Leo had failed by attempting to train some of the pack women in fighting and defence skills.

"I'll take Lia to visit Haden," Leo offered, "I have to go and check on him later anyway to ensure he is being kept weak enough so we'll combine trips."

Half an hour later, we were heading towards the base in Leo's car.

"Haden better not try anything today," he grumbled, "Eight of my pack members were killed by rogues today but I couldn't help but think about the hundreds that died as a result of Haden."

Lia paused, "Mateo could have come if you're not in a good mood. I don't want you to rip his head off or anything."

Leo shook his head.

"As long as he doesn't piss me off it will be fine," Leo replied as we drove down the forest track.

"It is Haden we are talking about..." I said.

"It will be fine," Leo repeated and nobody said much for the rest of the journey.

When we reached the prison guard, the guard lead us straight to Haden's cell.

"We had to increase the hourly dose of wolfsbane this morning as he had started to become immune to its effects so be careful and if he seems too strong please let us know immediately," the guard warned. 

Lia nodded before he unbolted the door revealing Haden in the exact same position as the previous visit.

"Lia," he said in a fairly strong normal voice.

"Hi again," she said approaching him.

"And you brought your eldest brother...great," Haden groaned sarcastically.

"Careful. He's in a bad mood," she mentioned sitting beside him as he reached up to kiss her cheek.

"Leo, why don't we wait outside?" I asked taking Leo's hand.

"I'm not taking my eyes off him until he's had another dose of wolfsbane," Leo replied. "Guard!"

"Yes Alpha," the guard said as he appeared a few seconds later.

"Get the doctor to deliver him more wolfsbane. He's nowhere near weak enough," Leo said.

"Oh Leo please," Lia protested. "Is that really necessary?"

"Yes. Go," Leo ordered.

The guard nodded and left 

"He's chained to the wall, for Christ's sake!" Lia said. 

"Yeah and won't be for much longer at this rate," Leo grumbled.

A few seconds later, a lady in a white coat and a syringe appeared.

She injected Haden's forearm with it before swiftly exiting the cell.

"Thanks, Doc," Haden remarked already sounding weaker as the doctor left.

"I'll be about ten minutes," Lia said as I took Leo's hand and guided him out of the cell closing the door behind us.

"Eight civilians killed, huh?" I asked, "Thats quite a number for a rogue attack."

Leo swallowed and nodded, "There were a lot of them."

"What did the one you 'questioned' tell you?" I probed, "You skirting the question when your soldier asked."

"Nothing you need to know," he said.

I rolled my eyes, "Seemed like a pretty big deal to me. Why won't you tell me?"

"Because I don't want you getting involved," he said, "Or arguing with me about the way I'm dealing with it."

"Well...how are you dealing with it."

"I'm still not discussing this with you, Ella," he said.

"So I'm going to decode that to mean you are using unnecessary violence and evil," I said.

"If it was down to you, I'd be a fluffy teddy bear even to the rogues," he muttered.

"Well if there's anything I learnt from my time learning history at school it would be that the leaders that used evil, for example, Genghis Khan, Maximilien Robespierre and Adolf Hitler all have two things in common: they were hated and they either were executed, assassinated or committed suicide. So it must be better to be fair and just and popular?"

"Julius Cesar was loved by the people and was still assassinated. You can't win either way."

"I hate that you're smarter than me," I said folding my arms.

"Not used to that, huh?" he asked pinching my cheeks.

"Might just assassinate you and your brains," I suggested.

"Well, you can join the 1199 other attempts since I became Alpha 6 years ago," Leo asked.

I furrowed my eyebrows, "That's how many people have tried to kill you?"

My face instantly dropped and I felt myself holding his hands.

He shrugged, "I have a lot of enemies."

"But none of them get close...right?" I asked.

"Don't worry about it, Ells. I can defend myself," he replied. "And most of the time, my men stop them before they even get to me."

"Most of the time?" I asked. "Has anyone ever like... got into the house?"