The Game Of Quadruplet Mates
Chapter 38

Ajax

I can't remember the last time I lost control of myself. Years. Maybe. But with June, always with my June, my control over myself just goes out the window. Like it was never there. She could give one smile, one lift of an eyebrow, one word from those lips and I am

hopeless at her orders, a man possessed.

A man willing to do anything for her.

Anything.

And I should be angry about this or at least bothered, but I'm not, as I enjoy every second of it, demanding more of it. Except today.

When I came out of the shower to replace June gone and tracking her back to where I had just killed an old friend of hers and then seeing her with Jeremy, my Beta, the man I had taken her from. I should have been more understanding. I could have been until I heard what Jeremy was saying.

"You know good and well how much I love you. I was ready to leave it all for you."

And then him telling June, my mate, the girl I've been looking for all my life, that he still wanted her and that he regretted not choosing her in the Games just pushed me over the edge. The blinding rage that consumed me was something else entirely. I felt so angry. I felt so betrayed and June just stood there.

Any other man that said such a thing to June or even just attempted to say that would have already been d e a d. Most likely tortured, but this was my Beta. This was a man I thought of as my younger brother. And he has never betrayed me before until now. I know what happened to them in the Games and it was less than two weeks ago. A short time to be able to move on. And I do feel guilty, I do feel shame that I claimed her for myself when he obviously loved her too.

But this?

It was just too much and before I knew it, I was ready to end Jeremy's life. My hand was already up, ready to strike, ready to hurt, but seeing him flinch back with those eyes- those same eyes that begged for his d e a t h all those years ago, it all came back to me. He was so young back then. I remember it clearly.

I knew who he was when he left the city pack borders. The Alpha's nephew. The future Beta.

But I also knew the secrets of what they did to him. I didn't have to look hard at him to know that this teenage boy was constantly beaten and always near d e a t h. His skin was marred with old bruises-permanent bruises but also new ones. Fresh ones. He smelled of burnt flesh and some parts of his face were charred.

Some of the things they do to him, I can't even stomach and I've a lot of terrible things.

I remember thinking how awful these people were to do this, even to their own. He wasn't even just some pack member. He was their family. A kid.

My hatred for the city pack grew that day because he was a boy, like I was just a boy and he was obviously in so much pain.

Sympathy didn't come often for me. Not for the city pack. But I realized that day how disgustingly vile they were, more than I had originally thought.

Because they obviously have been doing this to him for a very long time. Younger than when they came for me.

He was begging for his d e a t h, begging for it to all end and as much as I hated everything about the city pack, especially a boy with the Alpha's blood, I couldn't do it.

How could I?

And when he took my hand, offering him another chance at life where he is safe, where he can be taken care of, I imagined my baby brother from all those years ago. He would be around his age too. It was... fate.

From then on, we forged a sort of brotherhood between us. He had become my best friend, my closest ally. The one I could blindly rely on without having to ever worry.

So when I lifted my hand to him, ready to unleash my anger, to show him what happens when he threatens to take the love of my life, I saw the same boy who begged to die. I saw the boy that wanted to end it all because of the monsters that hurt him and I realized with horror that I was about to do what everyone in his life has done before. I was about to become that monster he ran away from. I promised him safety and I was about to break that. I was horrified.

I was disgusted with myself.

For how could I do that? How can I be the same monster that he ran away from?

He had asked me to kill all those years ago and now he was doing it again. I couldn't bear it.

With all the horrors I've done in my life, I can't imagine doing that to Jeremy, who has only ever been a loyal friend.

And when he repeatedly pushed me, trying to get a reaction from me, all I could give was this defeat. This boiling anger that wouldn't surface. Not for him.

Not for a man I consider my younger brother.

The worst part of it is that I know that they're lying to me. Two of the people I love the most, who I trust the most, were lying through their teeth.

I feel as though I had lost a brother that night.

I feel as though I've lost even more people that I care about.

When June comes to replace me, she continues to lie and I know that if I let her touch me, it would be over. I would give in because I could never say no to her. Despite how much it hurt me to move away from her touch, I do it and plead for answers. Because if there's one person that I can never cope with losing, it would be her. I've lost June before. Seventeen years of it.

And I can't fathom losing her again.

When June tells me she loves me, I know she means it. I know that I am the first she's ever told this to and I am so weak for her that I almost gave in, nearly falling on my knees at the sound of it.

I wanted to hear it over and over on repeat.

She loves me.

Me.

I had never deserved anyone's love before.

Finally, when she starts to tell me this secret she's been hiding and she says his name, I breakdown.

If June tells me she still loves Jeremy, if she tells me that she wants to leave with Jeremy, I would never be able to live with myself. Not when I've already bound myself to her completely, not when I just had the best days of my life with her. I couldn't.

I just couldn't.

I would let them go because that's what she wants, but I would never be able to continue on.

The thought of this gave such pain in my chest that it became too much, triggering my wolf like it did before, when I first lost June, and my wolf ran away from her before I could stop myself. I didn't want to leave her, but I needed to calm myself down. To clear my head.

With all the intention of just burning off my anger through a quick run and coming right back to her, I let my wolf take me around the borders. Half way into the run, I felt strange. At first I thought it was guilt for leaving her, but something in the air made me feel uneasy.

I tried to convince myself that June was right beside her house. Nothing would happen. Her father was on his way back. They would replace each other, But no.

Something was definitely wrong. It was an instinct, a feeling, a twisting in my gut and a worry like no other.

And I always trusted my instinct.

I turned back, running as fast as I could to where I left her, but panic was starting to settle, weighing down on my chest, making it hard to breathe. She's safe.

She has to be safe.

She has guards nearby. She has her father coming back too.

But I shouldn't have left her.

I should have stayed and manned up.

June.

My June.

Please be okay, my love.

But as I make it to where I left her, I only replace Jeremy, clutching his neck and looking around with a look of such deliriousness. He looked like he was going insane, walking back and forth, touching the ground with his free hand. "June?!" He screamed at the top of his lungs, making me freeze. "June!"

She was gone.

June, my June.

With much difficulty, I shifted back into my human form and couldn't wrap my head around this... "Jeremy?"

He whirled around, eyes wide. His panic was evident. "Ajax!"

Jeremy never called me by name. Once. Earlier, but this was different. This, this was him in a state of absolute alarm.

Of absolute fear.

"Where's June?" I managed, my throat closing.

The hold he had on his neck tightened. He's been holding his neck a lot recently but it was never like this. "She's gone. I can't replace her. She's not at her house-"

I didn't let him finish, kicking down the front door of her house, but it was empty. The lights were closed with no sign of life. I ran back to where Jeremy was and he was touching the ground.

The smell of silver powder was everywhere and I found myself gasping, not from the pain of the smell but from the horrible realization.

Someone took June.

My wolf takes over yet again, howling into the night, and then he's growling and snapping and raging as I feel my entire world shatter into a million pieces.

How many times have I been warned that this would happen? How many times have I made sure she was safe, that she was always accompanied by either Jeremy and I... except today when I told Jeremy to leave and when I left her.

No.

No. No. No.

No!

June.

This. Can't. Be.

June.

Where's my June?

I was howling again as my wolf shed his own tears. There was so much pain happening in my chest that I couldn't breathe, I couldn't think, I couldn't do anything. I was running again before I could think straight, trying to replace her scent, trying to replace her in the woods, but I knew better.

Silver powder is potent, erasing all scent.

A weapon that only the city pack uses.

I'm tearing through the woods, breaking everything that I touch as I replace myself heading towards the city pack's territory. It would take days to get there, but I would be there and I would show them my wrath.

June.

I've failed her.

I was too angry at Jeremy and June that I had risked her.

This is all my fault. I did this. I let this happen.

And now they've taken her.

She must be so afraid. She must be so confused-

I stop running, my mind clearing for a few seconds. No one crossed the border. I've made sure of this. That's why I was so confident about leaving her alone near her house.

Not a soul was ever near the borders.

That means whoever took June came from within the farm lands...

And the only other people near June at the time that I left her were the guards that I assigned to her. She had four guards. All of them in the vicinity, close enough to hear everything that happened, close enough to know that I had sent Jeremy away and that I had left for a run.

I replace myself back to where I left June. A pile of my ruined clothes was on the ground and they were warm. I can tell she was holding them before she was taken, clutching me close after our fight.

Another wave of pain shot through my body as I imagined my mate grasping my clothes before they took her.

I try to push this away, focusing on the task at hand. I would be no use to June if I let myself panic.

My eyes narrowed as I followed my nose. The silver powder masked June's scent but not the ones she was with. Two prominent scents came to me and I knew instantly that they were her guards, but where were the other two?

Tracking their scents, I wasn't surprised to replace their bodies in the woods, d e a d for an hour or so.

A new wave of rage went through me.

Betrayal yet again.

"Alpha?" It was Jeremy, following right behind me. His hand was still on his neck.

Back in my human form, I turned to face my Beta. "What's wrong with your neck? And how did you know June was missing?"

Jeremy's eyes widened. He swallowed, his gaze was everywhere but at me. "We don't have to talk about this now."

"No. You knew June was missing before I did. How?" I questioned, jaw tightening. From his expression, I half expected he had something to do with June's disappearance, but his eyes said differently. He was just as worried as I was. "Tell me now or I will surely kill you this time, Jeremy."

I have just lost June.

Life had just turned into a living hell for me and I was ready to lose everything to replace June.

Even him.

Jeremy's lips quiver as he knows I am telling the truth, that I am ready to kill him and everyone else. That I have turned desperate. Utterly desperate.

I can see him thinking, trying to replace the right words. My patience thins. "Just say it."

"We're destined mates." He blurted out, looking pained to do so. "Like the stories of old."

At first, I merely stared, frowning.

I had no idea what he was talking about.

That is until he fills the gap for me.

"Soul mates." He explained, shaking from head to toe. "Made by the Moon Goddess."

That's when it all clicked. The way he held his neck, the longing looks he gave June when he thought no one was looking, how he could never help himself when she's near. How he pushed and pushed to keep June safe and how miserable he looked all the time. How he says one thing but does another. Or how June smiled a little brighter for him.

I had thought it was just because they fell in love in the Games. Apparently it was more. Much more than I could have ever imagined.

Destined mates. Two souls made for each other.

An invisible tether keeping them together.

That made them one.

Binding them forever.

But... they're extinct.

Right? Looking at Jeremy, I knew he was telling the truth.

If I thought everything hurt before, it surely hurts more now. For my June was made for another all this time.

For my Beta.

And yet again, I'm getting between them, but this is much worse.

The roaring beat of my heart was all I could hear in my ears, drumming and chaotic and breaking.

My June.

No. I can't accept this.

I can't... and she knew about this? She knew they were destined to be together?

Yet she stayed?

And then another thought occurred to me.

This was her secret.

This was what they were keeping from me.

Jeremy took a tentative step closer to me. "I don't know how it works but I feel her through my neck. That's how I know she was taken. I felt it."

"You're not marked." My tone was accusatory, too defensive and far too hurt. For I marked June. Even when no one marks mates anymore, I marked June and she marked me. I tried to fight against it but my hand held my own mark, tracing it.

He nods, showing me his neck. It was bare. No mark. "Exactly. I'm not but I can still feel her."

"How long have you known?" I replace myself asking, breathing hard as I feel that I might crumble into dust at any moment,

Jeremy had the gall to look guilty. "Since Moira's execution."

That long ago?

They've both kept this since then?

Jeremy sees this, sees the horror of this all in my face. I didn't just lose my mate. She wasn't just taken by my enemies. She was taken by my Beta. "Alpha, we didn't know if it was even true and by the time I confirmed that it was real, June was telling me that it didn't matter because she loves you. Not me."

His words made me think about June and how she told me that she loved me.

June said it even when she knew she was destined for another.

I can't think about that right now.

The most important thing is taking her back, to keep her safe. "What does the mark tell you?"

Jeremy pulls back, surprised at my disassociation. He didn't know that I had to do so just to focus enough, to keep my mind away from things that are going to destroy me forever. "That she was drugged and unconscious. She's far and going further away!"

"Is she physically harmed in any way?" My throat tightens at this question, for if they harm even a single hair in her body, I will lose my shit and I will truly burn the world before a new day starts.

Thankfully, Jeremy shakes his head. "No. Not that I can tell."

"We're leaving." I ordered, turning away from him.

Jeremy stumbled, following behind me. "Where?"

"The city pack. We're tracking those guards and ending this war once and for all."