Before I Rise
The Mark

Marcus POV

I felt the warm soft body underneath me trying to get out from under me. I debated for a second whether or not to keep her here or let her go. She started to pull at my arm, signaling me to let go of her. Once I did, she sprang from the bed and ran to the bathroom.

“You ok?” I called out to her as I sat up and rubbed the sleep from my eyes.

“Yeah, I just had to use the restroom. I’m going to take a quick shower.”

I felt Xavier stir a bit when she said that. “You want company?” I asked her.

“No! You stay away, I know what will happen if you get in this shower with me and I am physically exhausted. Love you, but no thanks.”

I chuckled silently as I laid back into bed. She was right though, I was exhausted too. We had locked ourselves in our bedroom for the past three days. The only time we would take breaks was when we were hungry or needed some sleep. Even then, we would make food up here in our small kitchen. It was all part of the mating process. Sometimes it could take up to a solid week before we saw a newly mated couple again. Part of me was thankful we had these three days just to ourselves. I had a deep gut feeling that this was the calm before the storm, especially with what happened to Alexis’s pack.

Speaking of Alexis, I really needed to check on her today. I knew by the very small updates I’ve been receiving from various pack members that she still has not left her room. I’ve had a few people bring her food and leave it outside her door. Majority of the time, they would return to grab her plates and the food had been left outside untouched. I was glad the mating haze was clearing up, I really needed to check on her today. To say I was worried was an understatement.

I reluctantly got up from bed and started to get dressed when I heard the water shut off in the bathroom. Just as I pulled my shirt over my head, Em walked out wrapped in a black towel with her hair pulled into a bun. I took a step forward but stopped as soon as she glared at me.

“Don’t even think about it Alpha. I need a few days to recover.” She said.

I put my hands up in front of me to let her know I was not going to touch her like that. She finally walked up to me and gave me a small peck on the lips. Just as she was about to turn around and head into our closest, something caught my eye.

“What the hell?” I grabbed her arm and pulled her back to me.

“What’s wrong?” She asked me as she turned to face me again. I stopped her and shifted her in a way that the light in the room was shining on her shoulder where her mark was. I hadn’t seen it yet since it takes a few days for the mark to appear.

Confusion filled my entire body as I looked at it for the first time. It was in the shape of a waning crescent moon, but instead of it being outlined in black like usual, it was outlined in the color of gold. I kept moving her shoulder in and out of the light. Without light shining on it, it was barely noticeable. With the light on it, it was the shiniest thing I have ever seen.

“Marcus what are you doing?” She asked me again.

“Have you seen this?” I could hardly take my eyes off it. It was not normal at all. I haven’t ever heard of someone’s mark being a different color than black..

“Seen what?” She tried to move away from me again, but I didn’t let her. Instead, I pulled her to the mirror I had hung up for her in our room.

“Look.” I positioned her to where she could see her mark in the mirror within the light.

Em’s eyes grew huge. “It’s beautiful.” She whispered.

What could this mean? I asked Xavier.

I felt Xaiver’s confusion growing faster than my own. I have no idea. Does it still work like a normal mark?

I hadn’t even thought of that. The mark wasn’t just there to let others know you had a mate. It was also there to let your mate know if you were ever in distress, and it helps bring the mated couple pleasure when touched during certain explicit activities. I placed a small kiss on it, making Em shiver in delight.

“Good to know it still works like it’s supposed to.” I said as she turned around to face me.

“What do you mean?” She asked me.

“I haven’t ever seen a mate’s mark outlined in gold and not black.”

Her eyebrows bunched up together. “So, this isn’t some kind of Luna thing?”

I shook my head at her, “No. I’m not sure what it means. But, I wouldn’t worry about it right now as long as it’s working like it’s supposed to.” She seemed to relax, but I definitely wasn’t. I really needed to speak to Elder Morgan about this. I just wanted to make sure everything was okay.

Em let out a big yawn and rubbed her eyes. “Why don’t you get some comfortable clothes on and just spend the day relaxing. You need it. Also, Julie brought up some breakfast for us and stuck it in our fridge. Why don’t you go and eat?”

She took a few seconds to think. “That sounds nice, but it’s my first full day as Luna and I don’t want it to be spent being lazy. That’s not going to look good.”

“My love, you’re exhausted and deserve some rest. The pack won’t think anything of you if you do. They all understand how tiring the mating can be.” I wrapped her in my arms and placed a small kiss on her forehead. It absolutely amazed how she always put everyone else before herself.

She sighed in defeat. “Okay I will. What are you going to do today?” She asked me.

“I am going to go check on Alexis and make sure she’s ok. Then I’ll most likely come back up here and spend the rest of the day cuddled up with you. We can veg out and watch movies all day until I need to leave for evening training.” I knew I should probably get back to the paperwork, but one more day with my mate wasn’t going to harm anything. However, I definitely needed to check on Alexis and at least go do evening training with my Elite Warriors.

“I would love that.” She gave me a long kiss before stepping away from me. “Don’t be too long.” She said, as she gave me a wink and walked into our closest before shutting the door.

I walked out of our room and quickly grabbed some snacks for Alexis before going down to her room. She was on the floor beneath us in the last room down the hall. Usually no one stayed on this floor unless they were visiting from another pack and were here to discuss business. However, I wanted to make sure she had absolute privacy to mourn for her pack.

I knocked on her door a few times and called out to her. “Alexis, it’s me. Can I come in?”

I waited to see if she would say anything, but about a minute went by and she still hadn’t said anything or even attempted to make a noise to let me know she heard me.

You don’t think she would’ve done anything to herself, do you? Xavier asked me, concern laced in his voice.

I’m not sure, but I’m about to break down the door if she doesn’t answer me soon.

I knocked again, louder this time. “Alexis come on, it’s just me. You need to open this door now. I’m getting worried and so help me, I will break this door down to make sure you are ok.” I waited to see if she would open up, but she still hadn’t.

After a few more minutes, she finally cracked her bedroom door open. “What do you want?” She asked, her voice cracking in the middle of the sentence.

“Hey, I just came to check on you. Can I come in for a few minutes?” She seemed to be hesitant to let me in. “Come on Lexie, it’s me. I promise I won’t stay long. I just want to check on you.” She took a deep breath in before finally opening the door.

I looked around her room once I was inside. There were things thrown around the room. A picture that was previously hanging on the wall, was now smashed on the floor. Blankets and pillows were scattered around the room, some of the pillows were sliced open. The dark curtains were also pulled off of the rod and piled in a corner of the room.

I turned around to take a look at Alexis once I was done surveying the room. If the room looked bad, Alexis looked ten times worse. I had never ever seen her look like this, not even when her parents passed. She had deep dark bags under her hazel eyes, her curly black hair looked like a bird’s nest, and she looked like she had lost a ton of weight. My heart ached for her.

I put the snacks on the bed and opened my arms for her. She just looked at me and didn’t move an inch. Em was right, Alpha’s are so stubborn. I rolled my eyes and pulled her into my arms.

She pushed me back and glared at me. “Don’t! I don’t deserve to be comforted, not after what I did.” She bit her lip to keep the tears from falling.

I shook my head at her and took another step in her direction. “Lexie, that’s not true. You couldn’t have known what was going to happen. You can’t blame yourself. You reacted with the information that you had at the time. No one blames you. It’s not your fault.”

Tears began to fall down her face. She tightly wrapped her arms around herself to try to hold it together. “Yes it is. You told me not to send your elite warriors back to you, to wait and see if the rogues would come back. And what did I do? I did the exact opposite because I didn’t want to face the reality that there was an actual threat out there against my pack again. I killed them all, they are gone because of me. Every woman, child, and man, is dead because of me. I destroyed everything my parents created and built up. IT’S ALL MY FAULT!” She screamed and crashed to her knees.

I knelt in front of her and gathered her into my arms. We stayed like that for a while before she pulled back and looked up at me.

“What am I going to do?”

I wiped the tears from her face and stood up, bringing her up with me.

“Listen to me, you are going to stay here along with the other of your pack members. You are going to mourn for a few more days for your pack. And then, you are going to get out of this room and come train with me everyday. Once you start feeling better, you and I are going to sit down and start figuring out a retaliation plan against those bastards. There is no way I am going to let this go. We need to bring them to justice for the lives they took.”

“I can’t ask you to do that Marcus. This isn’t your fight, it’s mine.”

I shook my head right away. “No Lexie. This wasn’t just an attack against you, this was an attack against every Alpha. Who knows if they are going to attempt to take out a new pack or not. We can’t risk it. I’ll contact Alpha Jensen and let him know what happened to you. See if he can offer any advice on this matter.”

Alexis looked up at me with a small glimmer of hope. “Are you sure you want to help me?”

I didn’t even hesitate in answering her, “Of course. There’s no way I’m about to let my best friend go through this alone. And, you can stay here for however long you want. Hell, you can stay here forever. You are always welcomed here.”

She began to silently cry again. “Thank you Marcus.”

I gave her shoulder a small squeeze. “Of course Lexie. I’m sorry I haven’t checked on you the past three days. I’ve been a little busy with Em.”

Alexis let out a small chuckle. “Yeah I figured you would be. By the way, how was the ceremony?”

Just as I was about to answer her, I felt a small pressure in my head letting me know some pack member was trying to mindlink me.

Yes? I asked the person.

Alpha, I am sorry to disturb you but you might want to come to the east side of the pack territory right now. He warningly said.

Why what’s going on?

There are a ton of rogues that just showed up, there’s about twenty of them and only five of us. They haven’t crossed our boundary line yet, but they are getting closer.

Right when I was going to respond to him, I felt another pressure in my head.

Marcus, you need to get to the west side of our territory immediately! Jacoby urgently said.

How many Jacoby?

I’m not sure yet. They are lining up outside of our boundary line, none have crossed. They just keep coming, Marcus. I just got word too that there are also on the south side of our territory.

My heart began to race, this was not looking good. Ok, I’m on my way. Tell Jules to lock down the pack and get everyone to safety. There were some on the east side as well. It’s highly likely that they are going to surround us.

Alright I will. Hurry!

“Marcus, what’s wrong?” Alexis asked me.

My heart was beating so fast in my chest, I thought I was going to throw up. I was begging the Moon Goddess that the rogues wouldn’t attempt to cross our line. I also prayed for the safety of my mate. My heart plummeted as soon as I thought of Em. I didn’t want to leave her unprotected.

“Marcus, what is going on?” Alexis asked me again.

I took a deep breath before finally speaking. “Alexis, I need you to do me a favor. They're here!”