Isaac jerks upright out of a sound sleep at the urgent signal from Paul over the bond. He flails in the blankets on the bed for a moment nearly falling out. "Paul?" He calls out looking around. "Paul!" He shouts leaping from the bed panic rising as it becomes obvious Paul is not in the suite. He grabs his phone hitting the speed dial for his Alpha. "Derek!" Isaac gasps. "He's gone! He's gone and he's in trouble!" "I know. We can tell where he is we're headed that way right now meet us there!" Isaac whines looking around the bedroom as if expecting Paul to emerge from behind the drapes our out of the closet. "Why would he go off on his own again? I thought he'd forgiven me." The frightened Beta says desperately reaching for Paul over the bond. He gets an anxious yank back. The direction to his mate coming through strongly. Isaac tries to reassure Paul as he quickly slips his clothes on. "Hunters have Kyle." Derek says angrily. "Jeremy came by a few minutes ago and told us. They got to Kyle's mom and convinced her they could cure him. She poisoned him and then let them carry him away. Isaac, one of the hunters is named Mark." Isaac shifts to Beta and roars throwing his head back his arms shaking in fury. The rest of the pack attempts to calm him after they are all hit by his blast of animalistic anger over the pack bond. "Isaac. Isaac! Get there and wait for us. Don't go in on your own. Isaac?" Derek's voice tinilly fills the room from the discarded phone on the floor. The only sound in the room is the click of the front door latching as it swings shut.
Paul looks around in the dark building his eyes slowly adjusting from the brightness outside. There is a loud squeaking sound as the roll up door comes back down closing off the exit. The interior of the building is mostly vacant and poorly illuminated. A few signs here and there on the walls point to its former life as a liquor store. There are a couple of cars parked in the middle of the floor and a set of double doors in the back. As Paul puts the car in park and looks around the double doors swing open. Mark strides through them arms held wide in a welcoming fashion. "Hey babe." He says mockingly, a cruel grin on his face. "Come on back, jail bait's back here." He says gesturing over his shoulder with his thumb. He smiles coldly a moment before he turns and heads back through the doors. "Search him." He says over his shoulder. The person who had operated the door scowls at Mark's retreating back but walks over to Paul's car and taps on the window with the butt of a rather large hunting knife. Paul shuts the car off and exits. The hunter shoves him against the side of the car and roughly searches him. He scoffs when he finds the dagger strapped to Paul's ankle. "Odd weapon for your kind don't you think?" He says. Without waiting for an answer he jabs a needle in to Paul's arm and quickly empties the syringes contents. "Fuck what is that?" Paul asks wincing in pain as he turns and shoves in vein at the stronger hunter. "Just a little something to ensure you behave." That said he shoves Paul towards the double doors causing him to stumble. He power's off Paul's phone and drops it on the hood of the car shoving him again.
Paul stumbles through the double doors and is shoved in to a small office off to the side. Nearly falling at the force of the blow Paul trips and goes down on one knee. Looking up he locks eyes with pale sickly looking Kyle. "Paul!" Kyle says fear heavy in his expression. He is lying on a tired old couch secured with ropes. The sleeve on one of his arms has ridden up some revealing painful looking burns on the wolf's wrists. "What have you done to him?" Paul says moving to rush to his mate's side. He's grabbed and held firmly by the hunter who had brought him in. "Stuff worked faster than usual he's pretty weak." The hunter says. Mark chuckles drawing Paul's attention over to where he and another hunter are leaning up against a desk. "He had this." The hunter behind Paul scoffs tossing the dagger towards Mark. Mark catches it and unsheathes the weapon. "Nice." He says admiring the runes on the blade and handle. "Now what did you plan on doing with this? Last time you tried to go up against me you got your tight little ass fucked." Kyle growls loudly and fights against the ropes. His face ripples as he tries to shift." "Easy tiger." Mark says you're just gonna wear yourself out fighting those ropes. Mark walks over towards Kyle while still appearing to study the blade. "Something tells me this is not a normal metal." "What would he be doing with a knife?" The other hunter asks. "Helps him keep a low profile I guess, throw people off his trail." Mark says shrugging. "Whatever." The hunter who brought Paul in says. "Let's get this over with." "Yes." The other hunter agrees and uncovers a long sword on the desk. "A sword?" Paul asks with disbelief. "Why use a sword when you have guns?" He asks pressing back but not going anywhere due to the iron grip of the hunter behind him. Hunter number two holds the sword up admiringly before swiping it in front of himself with a flourish. "Easiest way to make sure your kind stays dead."
Outside a few buildings away Isaac pulls to a stop. He jumps out of the car leaving the engine still running. He races around the corner of the building and nearly knocks down Max and David. The three growl at each other. "We're here to help." Max says when Isaac reaches to smack David out of the way. "Then stay out of my way." Isaac growls barely breaking his stride and in full Beta shift. He approaches the building using his enhanced senses he finds that the hunters outside are all gathered in the same place at the back of the building. "Shouldn't you be watching the perimeter?" He growls drawing their attention as he races towards them. Max and David race around the corner not three seconds later and one hunter is already dead. They stare in shocked amazement as Isaac utterly savages the hunters. Claws and teeth ripping through flesh and gone as he fully unleashes his wolf. "Oh my god!" David exclaims taking a step back. "Wow." Max says shaking his head in amazement. The second hunter goes down missing one arm and nearly decapitated. Isaac hits the final hunter in the chest and there is the loud sickening sound of bones breaking as the human cries out in pain. Isaac whirls around and punches the unfortunate man so hard in the temple his head distorts as the force of the blow cracks his skull. "Fuck I don't think even Jeremy's that strong." Max chokes out. The man falls to the ground and Isaac looks at the two and smirks. "Still want to fight me?" David shakes his head no. "Wise choice." Max says stepping over one of the dead hunters headed towards the back door. Let's get our pack mates shall we?"
The sound of gun shots rings out and the three begin attacking back door to get it open. "It's reinforced." David says. "Liquor store." Isaac says growling deeply. Veins and muscles bulging out in his arms he slowly pulls the frame of the door free from the wall.
A few minutes earlier
"What do you mean my kind?" Paul says struggling in hunter number ones grasp. "Werewolf." Mark says with a vicious grin. "Don't you remember? You went crazy on the full moon when I rejected your disgusting advances. You came looking for me and killed poor Donovan instead." "What?!" Paul and Kyle both exclaim. "Shut your slut mouth." Mark yells and slams Paul's knife down in to Kyle's leg. Kyle screams and starts bucking against the ropes violently. Paul stomps down hard on the hunter's foot and slams his elbow back as hard as he can. He manages to break free of his captor and moves rush to Kyle's side. He makes it two steps before his legs are swept out from under him and he's flat on his back on the floor. Out of the corner of his eye Paul sees Mark draw two pistols and fire, a maniacal sneer on his face. Paul looks over expecting Kyle to be hit but the hunter who had tackled him falls to the ground. A glance in the other direction confirms that the other hunter is down as well. "Woooooooo!" Mark shouts jubilantly. He goes over to the hunter next to Paul and shoots him again before reaching down and grabbing Paul's foot. He twists it painfully causing Paul to scream. "How's that twisted ankle healing up. OH well I guess you've had a setback." Mark laughs loudly dropping Paul's foot back to the ground. "Yeah you think you're so smart. Had no idea how close I was to you so many times. You'd think those animals you hang out with would have been able to stop me but nope. I was close enough to touch you several times. None of you ever noticed. My hunter buddies showed me how to mask my scent. Could have killed you, your boyfriend, your OTHER boyfriend." Mark says rolling his eyes and moving over to the other hunter who has started making some soft noises. "Could have probably killed the Alpha any time I wanted. I imagine you're not so tight now huh? You probably are pack bitch." "Paul." Kyle says. Paul looks and Kyle nods towards the knife still stuck in his shivering leg." Paul gets to his feet and leans over Kyle eyes closing at the intense pain from his re-injured ankle.
"I have to thank you." Mark says standing over the groaning hunter and firing a couple of rounds to finish him off. "I was not entirely sure of how I was going to take them both out. You know big bad hunters. Trained from birth. Masters of combat. Supposed to be unstoppable. Whatever." Paul locks eyes with Kyle and mouths "sorry" and pulls the knife out of his leg causing Kyle to flinch painfully. The wolf clenching his mouth tightly to avoid crying out. "How did you convince them that I killed your brother." Paul says trying to grind the blade of the knife against the ropes around Kyle's wrists without being obvious. "Oh it was pretty easy. Once I figured out what your friends were I figured the enemy of my enemy is my friend right? So I just did some research to see what kills werewolves. Interesting fun fact. Did you know silver isn't what kills them? It's actually the rough English translation of the name of a family who has hunted them for hundreds of years. Anyway all I had to do was find some hunters and get them to help me. Taking care of Donovan was easy. He was small and weak like you. I just made some gloves up with fake claws and showed that little fucker what happens when people betray me." Mark laughs holstering one of his weapons.
"After that it was pretty easy. Oh boo hoo big strong hunters help me get justice for my poor little brother. He was an A student everyone loved him. Etc. Etc. They didn't even do much to check my story. I showed them some pictures I took and they were in. Bit of a shame. When mom was hiding me after I got out I discovered that he sucked cock almost as good as you. Required some persuasion to get him going each time but in the end he always got the job done. I figured taking your place after what he had done was the least he could do. He wasn't like you though." Mark stops right behind Paul and whispers in this ear. "You were always so eager to get my come down your throat. Fucking loved it when I'd feed you." Mark takes a step back and laughs looking down at Kyle's furious face as the young wolf fights at his bindings. "Did he ever tell you the time we almost got caught? You see your boyfriend here is a grade A cock sucker. And well. I love getting my cock sucked so once we figured that out we'd get it on at work from time to time. One day he was sucking load number 3 out of me when. Now picture this. I'm sitting on his desk cock out he's in his chair with my dick down this throat and the fucking door swings open just as I bust. Stupid ass was so eager for my come that he forgot to lock the door. Thankfully the person coming in was carrying some boxes so they didn't see me zip up and wipe my come from his chin." Mark laughs loudly and slaps Paul on the back. "Man those were the days huh?"
"Ah well. I guess only one person left to deal with huh?" Mark says stepping forward again close to Paul. "Well I guess two actually." Paul places his hand on Kyle's leg and squeezes gently doing his best to calm and soothe his frightened mate. "You make it sound like I was just some little come slut." Paul says tightening his hold on the dagger. "I seem to remember an awful lot of…..enthusiastic reciprocation." Mark grits his teeth and says. "You fucking little…." Paul whirls around bringing the knife up as he does and slashes Mark from one shoulder to the other. Mark staggers back hissing in pain. "Not quite high enough faggot say goodbye to your lover." He aims at Kyle and fires several shots. Kyle cries out and goes limp. Paul screams and lunges at Mark just as the gun empties the slide locking open. Mark tries to pull the other gun but Paul slams his blade deep in to his chest. He pulls it back out and furiously buries it again and again continuing to scream. Marks mouth drops open in shock both guns dropping from his hands as he stumbles back while Paul continues to stab him over and over. "Die fucker!" Paul screams eyes wild. Mark falls to the ground as the door to the office slams open and Isaac, Max and David races in. Paul straddles Marks body and continues stabbing him sobbing wildly.
Isaac grabs Paul from behind. "Baby stop he's gone." Just then the rest of the pack including Jeremy crowds in the room as Paul, with a strength that surprises them all knock's Isaac back several feet. "He killed him!" Paul wails. The blade breaks and Paul switches to his fists slamming them in to Marks face. "Fucker!" Paul screams. "Die you piece of shit!" "Die!" "Paul!" The voice causes Paul to freeze mid punch. His head snaps up entire body heaving with effort. He turns towards the couch and sees Stiles helping Kyle to a sitting position. Kyle holds his arms out to Paul. Paul limps over to Kyle slipping on the blood soaked butt from his broken dagger. "Oh my god." he cries pulling Kyle on to his lap and holding him tightly. Paul runs his fingers lightly over the nearly healed wounds on Kyle's head, face and neck. "Normal bullets." Kyle says tossing the slugs that his healing body had pushed out on to the floor. "Get them out of here." Derek says softly to Isaac who nods and helps Kyle and Paul to their feet. As the three are about to leave the office Paul looks over his shoulder at Mark. His blank empty eyes staring at the ceiling. "I want my dagger back." He says before continuing to help Kyle towards the car.
As they slowly make their way to Paul's car he notices Kyle stealing glances at him. "Wait, just…wait..stop." Paul finally says. He pulls Kyle loose from Isaac and wraps around him tightly. "Fuck Kyle." Paul whimpers in to the side of his neck. "I love you." Kyle cries. "I love you so much. I'm so sorry this happened. Please don't leave me in Texas. Please Paul I'll do anything. Please. Please!" Kyle begs hugging Paul desperately. "We need to go guys. Right now. Someone may have heard the gun shots." Isaac says gently tugging Paul and Kyle towards the car. "I'll get the door." Max says sprinting towards the controls for the roll up door. Isaac gets Paul and Kyle in the back of the battered Buick and then gets in the driver's seat after retrieving Paul's phone from the hood. As soon as the door is open high enough Isaac rapidly backs out of the building with a squeal of tires nodding his appreciation at Max who quickly lowers the door. Isaac throws the car in drive and speeds away from the building. "Want to go back to the hotel?" Isaac asks. Paul is so busy checking Kyle for additional injuries that he doesn't hear him. He pauses gingerly touching the wound on Kyle's leg. It's stopped bleeding but is healing very slowly. Kyle winces in pain and grabs Paul's wrist. "I'm sorry he used it on you. I should never have brought it in." "I'm glad you did." Kyle says rubbing his hand up and down Paul's back. "Things may not have worked out so well otherwise." Paul whimpers closing his eyes as his pent up tears start to fall. Isaac looks in the mirror and sees them both trying to pull each other in to their lap. Desperate to comfort each other. "Hotel." Paul says after several minutes. I just want my mates right now." Isaac nods and changes direction sending a quick text to Stiles to let them know. Looking in to the mirror he sees that Kyle has his human in his lap and both have their arms tightly wrapped around one another. Both have their heads down on each other's shoulder.
"Here we are." Isaac announces as they pull up to the valet stand. Paul disengages from Kyle and the two slip out of the back seat. Kyle slips out of his coat and holds it low over his blood stained pants. Minutes later the three of them are stepping through the door in to the suite. "Hungry?" Isaac asks closing the door. "Yeah but, can we just….." Paul says as he tugs Isaac and Kyle towards the couch. The three settle down on the couch with Paul in the middle. They set there a moment before Paul stands and paces around the living area limping painfully. "Baby?" Isaac asks softly. "You two are going to be the death of me." Paul mutters looking around the room. "Housekeeping cleaned up the mess from my tantrum at least. Not looking forward to the final bill." Paul says running his hand through his hair tiredly. Isaac and Kyle both frown at Paul's statement and negative scent. Paul perches on the arm of one of the chairs and looks at the two frowning Betas. "I love you both. So much. I can't even put in to words how I feel for both of you. I'd kill, have killed to protect you both. I swear to god if either of you ever lies to me again. Or keep information from me I'll….." Paul seems to run out of steam and slips off the arm down in to the chair. He blows his breath out and closes his eyes a moment looking pale and unwell.
Kyle notes the beads of perspiration on Paul's forehead and looks over at the thermostat on the wall. It reads 66. "Why are you sweating." Kyle says standing and stepping over to Paul. "I don't. I don't feel well." Paul says standing and then falling forward in to Kyle's arms. "That hunter….injected me with something because he thought I was a wolf." "Probably wolfsbane." Isaac says clawing his phone out of his pocket. "Derek, we think Paul was injected with wolfsbane. He's got a fever and doesn't feel well." Stepping over to Kyle and Paul Isaac draws them both in under his arm. Paul looks up at Isaac. "Isaac." He says before his eyes roll up and he goes limp. "Derek fuck he's just passed out!" Isaac cries in to the phone. Together Kyle and Isaac carry Paul to the bedroom and lay him down. Kyle climbs on the bed and puts his arms around the unconscious human. "His heart is really slow but it's strong. I don't think he's getting any worse." Kyle says. Isaac ends the call and sits on the bed next to Paul placing a hand over his heart. "He's on his way. He's had experience with humans and wolfsbane poisoning. Jeremy is going to give him what he needs to treat Paul." The room goes silent after that for a few moments.
Kyle looks up and sees Isaac looking at him. "I understand if you're still angry at me. I'm not leaving his side though." He says lacing his fingers with Paul's a look of determination on his face. Isaac shakes his head. "You screwed up pretty badly." Isaac exhales and lies down next to Paul draping his arm over him and laying his hand on Kyle's. "You've got a way to go though before you catch up with all the times I've fucked up in our relationship so no. I've got no right to demand you leave your mate." Nothing is said for several minutes then Kyle asks, barely a whisper. "Do you think he's going to be OK?" Isaac opens his mouth to reassure the young wolf when he catches a whiff of tears. He raises up and looks over to see Kyle's chin trembling and tears streaking his face. He leans over and kisses him gently on the lips. "Hey, we're going to be OK. All of us. We'll be fine. We've come through far worse." "His fever is getting worse." Kyle says before he slips out of the bed and walks to the restroom. He comes back a few moments later with a wet wash rag. Isaac silently sits Paul up and pulls his coat and shirt off before laying him back down. Kyle folds the wash rag over and lays it on the feverish human's forehead. Isaac removes Paul's shoes and socks while Kyle works his pants off. Kyle hands Isaac another cool rag and together they work to clean the perspiration off their mate's skin. "He's amazing." Kyle says. "He's been through so much." Isaac leans down and kisses Paul on the lips. "He's been through so many terrible things but still has so much love to give." "We have to keep him safe." Kyle says. "Away from this type of bull shit." "I know." Isaac says. "I tried to get him to leave me once." Kyle smirks. "Oh I'm sure that went over real well." "Yeah." Isaac says. "It wasn't one of my better ideas." Isaac focuses on the pack bond a moment. "They will be here in about 10 minutes. Once Paul's treated we can work out our next step." Kyle nods in agreement and lies back down next to Paul. Isaac mirrors him on the other side and the two wolves settle in to the mattress and wait.
There is a flurry of activity around Paul. Thinking back he'll recall being cradled in the arms of various pack mates as he's moved and jostled around. He'll remember the sense of being in motion. The soft lips of his mates on his cheeks and forehead as they whisper reassurances to him. He'll remember snatches of conversation and random words. Hunters, organ damage, retribution, hide, sedation, safe house.
