West POV
‘West.’ his Beta’s voice woke him.
West was tired, too darn tired, couldn’t have been asleep all that long, he supposed ‘Terence?’
‘Pack hospital now.’ he could hear the stress in the man's voice.
West’s Alpha instincts kicked in, nothing stressed that man, well almost nothing. Volt’s head raised inside his mind.
‘Jo-Jo was attacked by a pack member.’
‘What?’ West was up and out of the bed in a split second and already looking for clothes. ‘How bad? Who was it?’ Volt was all attention now too.
‘I think Clova took the attack, she was naked and crying when I found her. Told me she needed clothes.’
‘How bad is it?’ his heart was beating fast inside his chest, Volt was now prowling around in his mind. He could feel worry coming from his wolf for Clova.
‘Not so bad, she’ll be alright.’
‘Who was it?’ he repeated himself.
‘She won’t tell me.’
‘On my way.’
West was now wide awake, pulling on his pants ‘shower.’ his wolf snarled at him ‘smell like her.’
West didn’t care, Joanne knew he and Miranda were together, it would not surprise her or bother her, from what he’d seen earlier. But his damned wolf had his feet glued to the floor, it seemed, fighting him for control, West found he was not winning either.
‘Fine’ he snapped at his wolf. Stalked into the bathroom and showered quickly, dried and dressed ‘happy now.’ he shot at his wolf.
Volt just snort at him but said nothing. He was finally allowed to leave the room and head for the hospital. It was still dark outside, no wonder he was tired, probably only had an hour or so of sleep.
Made his way to the packs hospital.
‘Terence, she told you yet?’
‘No. is quiet on the subject. Upset about it actually.’
West was angry, was the woman so stupid as to not want to report an attack on herself. He knew Clova had no fight training, could only run away. He’d not wanted her to train. Wanted to make sure she would stay away from all attacks, remain inside the pack-house, where she’d be unharmed if shit hit the fan.
More anger rolled off him as his Alpha hearing, picked up her soft voice as he came down the hospital corridor to the hospital's Luna suite. “Can’t you just let it go T.J. just this once. You don’t have to tell him. It's not that bad.” She was in that room trying to convince his Beta not to report to him, the attack on her.
His hand hit the door and it banged open. He stood staring at the scene in the room. Her head was bowed, she had a hospital gown on her left shoulder and arm out of it, there was a large wolf bite on her shoulder, Terence was standing just to the left of her and the pack doctor Patterson, was cleaning the wound.
West could see several sterile combines covered in her blood, on a wound trolley next to the doctor, there were gauze patches on several of the teeth marks on the top of her shoulder, still bleeding, he noted, her healing ability, either not activated, or Clova not being allowed to roam about freely all the time which had reduced her healing abilities, perhaps didn’t even recall how to heal her. He didn’t know.
Dr Patterson glanced at him briefly before turning back to the job at hand. He was the very man that had saved Jo-anne’s life at 17, and here he was attending to her again.
West knew that he needed to maintain control. Volt was fuming inside of him at the site of her, at the smell of her blood in the room, not something either of them ever wanted to smell again. This was not her fault, he had to remind himself “Jo-anne?” he asked her, trying to reign in his anger at her bloodied appearance.
“ Yes, Alpha.” she acknowledged him.
Did not lift her head to look at him, her voice sounded a little more than sad to him. T.J. was right. She was upset about this. Wolves were normally angry creatures about being attacked, only ever sad if it was someone they knew, someone that they trusted and had not expected to attack them. Their Mate usually brought about this kind of response. West knew she didn’t have a Mate, T.J. would never hurt her, nor Lark his wolf, for that matter. So who?
“Who did this to you?” he asked her a direct question. He was the Alpha she had to tell him.
To his annoyance, she whispered “no-one.” It was a bloody lie. Look at the state of her, she didn’t want to tell him. Was she protecting that person? His eyes moved to his Beta “Terence?” he asked, knowing the man would not miss his meaning.
“She won’t tell me either,” his Beta told him, and it was his Beta all up front.
West’s eyes moved back to Jo-anne. Why wouldn’t she say anything about this? It was his job to deal with pack members and pull them into line. She recalled that surely. He turned his eyes back to the wound, definitely a wolf’s bite, so likely T.J had been right. Someone’s wolf had attacked Clova. There was a possibility they didn’t recognise her. But unlikely she had the pack's scent on her, he could smell the unique pack's scent on her, it kind of smelled like wet moss.
Jo-anne finally looked up to him, met his eyes, sadness in them. He didn’t know what to do with her. To be honest, was not going to Alpha Order her to tell him he’d already done that to her twice in the last 24 hours, hurt her the last time because he’d been angry, she was just looking at him, waiting for him to do it and he knew it. Why would she think other wise, with their past history.
“She’ll need some stitches Alpha.”
“Do it.” West stated flatly. It wasn’t the first time she’d been patched up. He turned to leave the room. T.J. followed him and closed the door behind him.
“ Who was it? Did you scent anything?”
“Possibly, I’d have to look into it.” T.J. nodded at him.
“Hazard a guess for me. Wolves are generally angry about being attacked, unless…” he trailed off.
“I think it was her own father. Heath, well Jester his wolf.”
West looked right at the man now. “You certain about that?” It didn’t make much sense. Heath had been protective of his daughter. Why would he or his wolf attack her? He knew she looked a bit different, smelled slightly different as well, but that man would know his own blood. “ It doesn’t make sense,” West admitted.
“No, it doesn’t, he was a good father as far as I recall.”
West agreed with that. Jo-anne had been a happy child, only not happy after waking up next to him at 16.
“Is he on patrol tonight?”
“Mm, North Eastern border.”
“Where did you find her?”
“Between the pack-house and the North Eastern border.”
West sighed “So it is likely you’re right then.”
T.J. just nodded.
This was not good. She was very unlikely to tell him anything if it was her father. It would definitely account for her quiet and sad demeanour, she was likely confused about what had happened. Likely, had not expected it either, what child was afraid of their own father, one who on all accounts had loved his daughter, something was off and he knew it.
Dr Patterson walked out of the suite and looked at West and shook his head. “I don’t like having to patch that girl up every time I see her, Alpha.”
“I don’t like it either.” West agreed with him.
“She’ll be fine, smells different to me than the last time I patched her up.”
“That she does,” West acknowledged. The woman did look and feel different to him, smelled slightly different to him, why he had no idea. He didn’t even know if she knew she smelt different. He did know she would have seen the difference in her eyes and likely Clova’s as well, but why were they different? That was the real question.
West walked into the room and closed the door. He was not worried about being alone with her right now. Volt wouldn’t do anything while she was injured other than want to hold her, he thought. But his wolf was still mad. It appeared about the insult to her wolf, Clova, felt certain if they were still bonded Clova would have told him without hesitation.
“Jo-anne please...tell me what happened.” he asked calmly. There was no point in yelling at her, it would likely not help the situation. “How as the Alpha can I assist if you don’t let me?”
“I startled another wolf and it bit me. That is all that happened.” she told him. He knew it was a lie, too much sadness in her eyes for it to be the truth.
He let it go, the lie.
“Alright.” he acknowledged “Who was the wolf?” Let's play it her way, perhaps he could get her to tell him if she thought he believed her.
“Why dose it matter? It was an accident.” she countered him.
What was wrong with this woman? He rubbed his temples, was it so hard, to give up a name. He was just trying to find out what happened and get to the bottom of it, punish those who needed it.
That was his job as the Alpha. She would know that ‘Ah’ he thought ‘that was it’, if she gave up her own father, he West would punish the man and she did not want her father to be punished by her Alpha.
West walked over and sat right on the bed in front of her. “I will not punish them, if it was as you say, an accident.” he tried to reassure her, but he was going to beat the man senseless and toss his ass in the cells for a few days for hurting his own child. He could tell right away that she did not believe him, probably came across in his expression. She would likely know how to read him. Had spent 2 years being weary of him and his moods, not that he had ever laid a hand on her, just voiced his anger.
West sighed and shook his head slightly. If she was not going to tell him willingly, then he would have to do it the official way and hold an investigation. “I’m not going to order it out of you, Jo-anne.” he told her, and he did mean that “I do need to know what happened, your side and theirs, though.”
“I told you. I startled them and they bit me by accident.” she reiterated her story.
“I don’t believe you.” West told her truthfully, and he did not believe it was an accident. “I’ll investigate, shouldn’t take that long, seeing the time of night.” it would be easy her blood trail would lead him and T.J. right to where it happened and the wolf in question. “Not many out and about, border patrol mostly.” he stated hoping she would realise he was going to investigate and find out who it was.
Hoped she would tell him, seeing as he was going to find out anyway. She did not, however. He stood and walked to the door, stopped and said “No shifting until this has been addressed.” and then he stepped out of the room.