The Alpha's Exchanged Mate
The Alpha’s Exchanged Mate – Chapter 38

Alexander’s POV…

“Pack our clothes now. We are going back,” I yelled at Edwina, who was perplexed by my sudden change in reaction.

“Why, what happened?” She asked.

“I said pack our clothes now! We are going back.” This time, I commanded her.

“I need to know why you are cutting our honeymoon and why was I the settlement deal?”

F**k!!! I exclaimed, scratching my hair. I always do that when I am agitated. Why can’t this woman just listen to me and understand we don’t have time for a long explanation? We were running out of time.

“Did you demand an explanation when you decided to keep such a crucial piece of information to yourself?” I blurted out and regretted it as soon as the words were out. She didn’t utter a word and moved immediately to the room and began throwing the clothes in the bag. We had not gotten much time to unpack when we came in here.

“I am sorry, I didn’t mean it that way,” I called after her.

“Yes, you did, ” she replied back briefly and started zipping the bags. She didn’t fold the clothes, so she was finding it quite hard to zip the baggage and was struggling with it.

“But you can’t blame me for thinking in such a way, why do you have to wait for us to come all the way here before you tell me?” I should probably just shut up, we’re getting better, and now I have just ruined it again with my quick words of assumptions.

“First of all, I waited because I just found out recently, during my last visit to my sister, you know the one you went to also visit her and we had that big fight that night,”

“We have had conversations after that,” I should probably shut up now because I was making things worse, not better.

Edwina continued. “Secondly, I was skeptical about telling you__.”

“Why? Because you are still trying to save Ben’s cheating a*s???” I yelled at her. At this point, I was way beyond micro-managing the situation.

“Because it involves my sister, and I know the penalty for treason,” she yelled back at me this time, for the first time she yelled back at me. And that act alone made me calm. I couldn’t say a word.

There was a creeping silence that overshadowed the room. It was a silence that we both knew too well.

“I think Ben wants you back,” I said calmly.

She glared at me with confusion, and I could understand that she needed further explanation.

“There is no reason why the sizzlers would need you. It has been strange to me till now. Only Ben could make such a request, and if truly he worked with them, it means that he is most likely still working with them,” I gazed at her, hoping we would have reached some sort of clarity, but I saw that she was still looking so perplexed.

“What is it?” I asked again.

“I am about to tell you something, but please don’t get angry at me,” the fact she needed to say that for me not to react broke me down. What have I become? I wasn’t a man they were conscious of making certain statements around.

“I am sorry, if you ever feel like I am not approachable, you can tell me anything,” I muttered to her before I reached towards her and grabbed her hands.

“When I went to visit Ben, I asked him what he plans to do with the child, and he told me that Sonia has not been picking up his call. According to what he said, he might end up escaping just to be with his child. So I don’t know why Ben will ask for me. It isn’t me he wants. He wants his child and its mother.”

At this moment, my head was already singing red, and I couldn’t imagine why she could hide such crucial information from me. How can she claim she is doing this for Sonia when this only benefits Ben? Even since he said Sonia doesn’t want him anywhere near the kid?

But I promised her not to react even though every inch of me wanted to react to the fullest.

“Let’s get going. If Ben is working with the sizzlers and plans to escape, this would be the perfect time for him to bust out, knowing I am not around and there is a limited chain of command,” I told her, still trying to contain my anger, she nodded and quickly zipped the bag, we rushed out to the car, and I could see how puzzled the driver who had ridden us out here for three hours on the road became confused when we told him we were heading back.

Throughout the ride back home, my mind flickered around to that night I became crippled and how I couldn’t put it together. That day alone had a lot of things to do regarding that.

He was the only one that knew the secret plan. He was the only one that knew the exit plan.

We were still far. I tried reaching Caleb so that he could head down to the penitentiary before we reached there.

“F**k!!!” I exclaimed out loud.

“What is it?” She asked

“I am trying to reach Caleb but this damn network isn’t going through, it only works in the Night howlers territory.”

At this point, I was becoming impatient and frustrated with the outcome of this trip. If only we had stayed in the night howlers’ territory, maybe, just maybe, it would make a difference. I am now feeling the same way I felt that day the war started, and I lost everything.

***FLASHBACK***

Most people believe people know the day they will die, that they have this feeling of abnormalities and make strange requests and comments.

To me, that day would have been every other normal day. There would have been no profound statement or ultimate speech that would make anyone believe that I had a little bit of premonition about my death. I don’t know about others who lost their lives that day. Maybe they did. But I speak for myself; I knew not the day had come. I didn’t eat any special meal or wear special clothing. The only thing that might have indicated my knowledge of the predicament was that I made love to Sonia that morning. I mean, we f****d real good before heading out.

I had already coordinated my packs.

“The gamma wolves would stay behind and hold down the ford. They will play defense.” I strategize with Ben.

“No, why don’t the Gamma wolves go out as bait? The omega wolves would be in the middle line, and we will be on the battlefront,” Ben suggested.

“No, we will lose too many soldiers,” I disagreed with him.

“But we will win, while they are focused on the Gamma wolves we will sneak from behind and ambush them, and then the Omega would have already left the middle line for the frontline and we will be victorious,”

“Hmmm,” I was entertained about his plan, it was too risky, and a lot of lives would be eventually lost in the process, was that worth it? Ben suggested sacrificing some valuable lives just to win a battle.

“Trust me. This is the only way we can win them. I have thought this through, and there is no other way,” he assured me, and he was the Beta wolf. He was more experienced in battles and war than I was. It was not all battles I engaged in.

“I don’t feel comfortable sending soldiers to their death just to secure victory,” I lamented, still struggling with the idea and rationale behind the plan.

“Would you rather we lose everyone?” He asked me. And I thought about it, even though these men had wives and children, they would willingly give their lives to protect and save them. And I would do anything to save my people.

“No, let’s do this, but let’s try our best to limit casualties, as much as we can,”

I never knew I had just signed a death warrant for over three hundred soldiers, and I would have been among them if my wolf had not emerged to fight and save me.

While making our way through the underground tunnel in order to ambush them from behind, the plan was going well, Ben stayed behind as the Beta, and I led the way as the Alpha, and the last thing I recall was me changing to my wolf form immediately in order to withstand the blast and had landed on my back.

I later found out the way we won, if that was even a victory or merely an escape, was when Celeb saw the lineup on time and knew we were going to lose. He commanded the omega to take the front line, and then the gamma wolves stayed in the middle line.

All this truth starts to make more sense now. Ben knew what he was doing when he gave that strategy. He knew what he was doing when he led us to that tunnel. No wonder he was the least affected by the blast. They had all thought I had died. He had even announced I had died and had been buried alive in the tunnel after the blast, but some group of Omega wolves commenced a search for my body and saw me lying down with a group of dead wolves, I wasn’t lifeless, but I had lost the life in me.

I can honestly say a part of me died that day.

***

We returned to the night howlers’ territory, and I immediately called Caleb to prepare the soldiers.

“What is wrong?” He asked, confused as I had not given him the complete details nor let him in on the full picture of what was going on.

“I think Ben is trying to escape, and the sizzlers might try to help him,”

“What? We need to go fast then… Wait, is that why they asked for Edwina? Because he is working with them?” He asked, immediately putting the piece of the puzzle together.

“Yes, most likely, and he was also in collaboration with them during the first war we had. That was why we lost. He leaked our plans to them.

“Shit!!” He exclaimed, “that’s messed up. Let’s head out fast,”

As we rode in the car heading to the prison, a lot of wild thoughts came to my mind. I might kill Ben if I get to see him there. I thought of all the good soldiers who lost their lives because of him.

I then wondered why exactly he did all he did.

Was it because of his relationship with Sonia? It might be that he was always looking for a way to go free with it. Since I had no children, if I had died in the battle, then I think it is almost acceptable for him to inherit my wife and my throne.

Was he doing it for power? He was always power-driven, and I thought I could tame him. As we reached the penitentiary, an alarming red light had already been raised before our arrival. And I feared we were already late.

“What is going on here?” I asked a guard who was trying to control the crowd and noise.

“A prison riot broke out,”

I looked at Caleb, and we both chorused “Ben,”

We quickly and hurriedly headed for his cell. I almost forgot myself in order to stand up and run; thankfully, I didn’t. As we got there, he was nowhere to be found. We searched the whole prison after the riot had been contained.

He was still nowhere to be found.

We were already too late.

Ben had escaped!!!