Alpha Assignment (BL) Chapter 41 (Early Access) (Patreon)

“I need an insane favour and I need you to not ask too many questions.”

Jordan was silent on the other end of the line for a few moments. “Is this…” He dropped his volume. “About the cult?”

“Yes.”

“I’m on my way.”

The call ended and Quinn turned to his newly bloodstained couch. Laid across it was a male werewolf, untitled. Remi was mopping him up with cloths and disinfectant in tiny, careful wipes. Being clean wouldn’t keep him alive, though, they needed professional medical help. And without a pack to provide it, Quinn had panicked and turned to the human health service. Only, he had never had to use it. So he panicked a little more and called his only human friend.

The unknown man had been beaten within an inch of his life, presumably expected to die by his pack.

“What’s your name?” Remi asked him, dabbing around his face wounds with the utmost care.

It took him a few moments to respond, his breaths laboured. “Wes,” he croaked.

“West?” Quinn hissed. “Like the direction?”

“He said ‘Wes,’” Remi corrected. Wes was no longer reacting to either of them.

“And where did you find him?”

Remi hesitated before answering. “Sanctuary.”

“So, you brought home a fugitive on his death bed?”

Over his shoulder, Remi pointed a sour look at Quinn that instantly filled him with guilt. “I couldn’t leave him there.”

“How did you know he would be there?”

Remi turned away again. “I didn’t.”

“Then why did you go?” The question came out sharper, maybe more accusatory, than he’d wanted.

Remi sighed, a weariness overtaking his features. “Because this is common.” He tossed a scarlet cloth back into his water bowl. “I wanted to start visiting Sanctuary… checking for those I might be able to help. I wasn’t expecting to find something so severe on my first trip.”

“Did anyone see you out on the streets?” Quinn pulled back a curtain with his pinky to scan the road, but there were no wanderers.

“No, we didn’t walk out in the open much. Well, except one person who said our costume was super scary.”

Quinn groaned into his fist. Remi ignored the sound and continued fighting the flow of blood. It wasn’t clotting enough to halt. Too many wounds and too deep for Wes’ body to begin pulling itself together. Werewolves healed quickly, at least, compared to what Quinn understood about human bodies, so when they got themselves injured enough to die - they died fast.

The doorbell rang and it sent an anxious shudder through his chest, as though he couldn’t quite catch his breath. When he flung it open, Jordan was waiting on the other side, flushed red and blotchy.

“What’s going o-”

Quinn yanked him inside and shut the door.

“Remi found another cult member,” Quinn whispered. “I think an attempted escapee but he has no paperwork and he’s had the shit kicked out of him.”

“Jesus,” Jordan breathed.

“He needs medical treatment before we go to the officials that deal with this, and-” He faltered, a little embarrassed. “I’ve never been to a hospital, I don’t know how it works, I just-”

“It’s okay.” Jordan grabbed his upper arms and squeezed reassurance into them. “I can take him if you can drive.”

Quinn stumbled back a step, sighing with relief. “Thank you.” A crumb of the weight on his chest lifted. “I’m so sorry to drag you into this.”

“I’m glad you called.”

They gave each other momentary, sad smiles.

“Before I take you in, he’s a little out of it so he might say some weird shit.” Or, more concerning, some true shit. “But please do your best to let the people at the hospital know nothing, we’re not allowed to discuss these things-”

“Of course, witness protection and all that.”

Quinn didn’t know what witness protection or ‘all that’ was, but he nodded. As long as Jordan understood to be discreet, he had to trust that it would be okay. He lead them into the living room and heard Jordan gasp softly behind him.

“He looks like he was run over by a truck.”

Remi was tying bandages around his limbs in a desperate effort to keep any of his blood inside of his body.

“Maybe,” Quinn murmured. “He’s not coherent enough to tell us much, and the things he says don’t make much sense.” A lie, but if Wes said something werewolf-related in front of any humans, they needed a pre-asserted excuse.

“I take it he’s got no identification then?”

Quinn shook his head.

“Okay, we might have to pay for his treatment then. Without proof that he’s a citizen, I don’t know if he can get it for free.”

“That’s fine, I’ll give you my credit card. Whatever we can do for him, we will, as long as it doesn’t bring the cult back to us.” It was Remi he gave a look of warning to as Quinn finished that promise.

Jordan approached Wes, looking as helpless as Quinn felt. “If we just drive him to A&E they’ll ask us how we know him.”

Quinn glanced at the bloodied man. He was watching them discuss him with barely open eyes. “We don’t know him, not really.”

“I found him in the woods,” Remi announced.

“Okay.” Jordan nodded, unable to pry his eyes from the mess that was Wes. “I’ll tell them it was me that found him and called a friend to drive us to hospital.”

“Plan sorted. Let’s go.” It all felt too fast and too frail of a plan, but they had no time. If they didn’t move, Quinn would have worse than a bloody werewolf in his house - he’d have a corpse.

Quinn carried Wes, floppy and sodden, while Jordan and Remi unlocked and opened doors. He laid him across the back seat of his car and Jordan squeezed in with him. Remi hopped up front with Quinn.

“If anything,” Quinn said, pulling free of his driveway. “It would be better for him to pretend to be foreign. If he can’t answer questions, he can’t say something that will come back to bite him later.” Possibly literally. “Do you understand, Wes?” He looked back at him. “You can’t say anything at the hospital about where people like us come from, okay?”

Wes made a grunting sound and his eyes closed. Jordan pressed his fingers under his jaw.

“His pulse is weak,” he said, and began rearranging their positions. “It’s been a long time since I did my first aid training, I don’t know if my CPR is up to scratch…”

Quinn only understood the filler words in that sentence, so he kept his attention on toeing the speed limit. His phone showed less than ten minutes left of the journey to the local hospital, and it still felt like too long. What happened if he showed up in the hospital car park with a dead man on his back seat? What would he tell the police? And what would the Assembly do to him for bringing that kind of attention to himself?

His wheels screeched in protest when they reached the double doors that announced the A&E department in bold, red lettering. He offered to help carry, but Jordan pulled Wes over his shoulder and dragged him out while grunting that they should minimise the amount of people involved. Remi shut the back door after him and hopped back into the front as the pair disappeared through the automatic doors.

The moment they were alone in the car again, Quinn murmured, “You should have warned me,” as he pulled away.

“I’m sorry.” So timid and sweet, but it didn’t fix Quinn’s frustration for once.

“You were texting me back all day saying everything was fine and it wasn’t.” He finally forced himself to look at his little mate tucked into the passenger seat. He appeared sincerely guilty under his fluffy bangs, but that wouldn’t ease Quinn’s paranoia the next time he wanted to go for a ‘visit.’ “I trusted you, Remi.” The words hurt to say aloud. “You’re my mate.”

Remi’s bottom lip wobbled and Quinn couldn’t look at him any longer or he’d crack. He focused on the road and clenched the steering wheel in his fists.

“I’m so sorry, Quinn. I was scared you’d tell me not to bring him home.”

“I would have told you not to move him at all, not in that condition.” Quinn sighed and he hated that out of the corner of his eye he saw Remi jump at the sound. “We could have brought supplies, or driven him to the hospital straight from Sanctuary.” He took the opportunity of a red light to squeeze his eyes shut for a few moments. When he opened them again, he said, “I’m not heartless, I just don’t want the Assembly to have any reason to intrude on my life.”

There was a sniffle, and then a sob, but no reply. Quinn kept his attention on driving. There were too many emotions crammed into the car with them. He didn’t want to say something he didn’t mean, or hear something that might have him hurting more than he already was.

“When we’re in our human-like form…” Quinn murmured to himself. “We are… biologically the same, right?” Bigger, stronger, but the same.

Remi made an uncertain noise.

“There isn’t a way they could ever tell - a test or something?”

“I don’t know, Quinn,” Remi sobbed, his voice cracking.

Neither spoke another word for the rest of the drive home.