Leonidas ✔️

Chapter 30 - Leonidas

The mate bond was supposedly disappearing.

Jackson received a call four days ago, and had linked me that it was from Councilman Harry. He wanted to speak with me. My wolf had immediately taken over and shifted, practically flying to the pack house because he'd thought something was wrong with Eleanor.

Upon entering Jackson's office, I felt a small part of me become relieved when his face wasn't worried. He stood from his chair and handed me the phone, then sat back in his chair and folded his arms across the desk.

"Hello?" I said loudly, and heard the clearing of a throat come through the phone.

"Leonidas, I just have some quick questions for you." I growled and rolled my eyes—the man could never get straight to the point. He always wanted to do some smalltalk first.

"Is everyone alright, councilman?" I asked. I was trying to be as calm as possible, because I knew if I'd caught a temper with him he'd just hang up.

"Eleanor is fine, Leonidas, I was just wondering if you have felt any pain from the mating bond in the last few days," he said. Was that a question or a statement?

"I took the medication two days after you left, if that's what you wanted to hear, councilman."

"You didn't take it the first day? You're lucky Eleanor didn't feel that much pain."

"She didn't?" I frowned, "That's odd."

"I know. I'm going to call a doctor after this, and make sure the bond isn't disappearing," the councilman said with a sigh, and I could picture him rubbing his hand across his face.

"Please call back when you get the answer, councilman."

"I will. Have a good day, Leonidas." Before I could say anything else the dial tone was in my ear, loud and monotoned.

Without a word I held out the phone to him, and sat down in one of his chairs. He raised his eyebrows in question.

"Are you going to tell me what just happened?" Jackson asked. I rolled my eyes.

"Like you didn't listen in on that poem with your advanced hearing, brother," I muttered with distaste.

"I'm a respectful human being, and that conversation was none of my business."

"It was about Eleanor, alright?"

"I kind of figured that," Jackson said with a smirk, "can you be more specific?"

"No, Jackson. Like you said, it's not of your business," I muttered. Jackson was really starting to get on my nerves.

"Why are you still here then?" At Jackson's question I released a low growl, then got more comfortable in my chair. A shrill noise broke the silence a few moments later and I shot to my feet when I realized it was the phone ringing.

"Yes?"

"Nothing's wrong with you guys Leonidas, you guys will be fine." I unknowingly sighed, then hung up the phone. Without another sound I was turning towards the door and walking out of it.

"Leo! Wait!" With a large sigh I listened, my feet stopping in their tracks. Jackson came out of his office with a smirk on his face and I growled. I knew whatever he said next was going to make me angry.

"Are you sure you don't need help with the house?" He asked, and sure enough, I was angry.

"I told you, Jackson, that I don't need and will never need help with my home. Understood?"

"I'm just trying to help, brother."

"And I'm just trying to be alone, but it's not exactly working is it?" I asked him sarcastically.

"Come back to my office, Leo. I'd like to talk about mom." It was like he was trying to anger me now, and I whirled around to face him with a growl.

"You know you have no right to talk about her, Jackson."

"In case you didn't know, Leo, we share the same damn mom."

"Oh I know, Jackson, but she only raised one of us," I spat.

"I know," Jackson said, "that's what I want to talk to you about."

With a growl I stomped back into his office and threw myself into a chair, waiting for him to speak. He quietly followed me into the room, shutting the door behind him before taking a seat at his desk.

"I spoke with my foster mom, Leonidas, and she told me some things I thought you might want to hear," Jackson said in a soft tone, and I rolled my eyes.

"Feel free to interrupt me if I'm wrong," Jackson said carefully, making eye contact with me, "but our mother was not happy with our father."

I stood pushing the chair back slightly and wincing as it made a very loud, sharp noise.

"You're wrong." I wasn't going to budge on this, and instead of backing down like I'd hoped he raised a hand to stop me from speaking any further.

"Just listen to what I have to say, please. Then you can go do whatever you'd like, okay?" Jackson said. I muttered a curse under my breath, but sat down.

"Your mother may have been happy around you, but there's more than enough proof to suggest that she wasn't happy at all around our father."

"What are you trying to say, Jackson?" I questioned, my eyes narrowing.

"Multiple people witnessed our father striking our mother more than once."

"They're lying!" I yelled as I jumped up, "They're trying to cause issues within the higher positions of the pack, so that we fall. You can't listen to them."

"I can and have listened to them, Leo, because they are people that both mom and dad trusted, and I trust them too," he said. I didn't want to listen to this anymore. I couldn't.

"You never even knew our mother, so why would you care anyway?" I scoffed, rolling my eyes.

"I care because you're hurting Eleanor, and I will not stand by and watch the abuse happen. That is why I called the council, and why the council took her with them, because we're afraid you're going to hurt her. She is not coming back until we are sure you won't."

I growled, and my wolf fought for control after hearing Jackson's accusations.

"I wouldn't hurt a woman, you know that."

"But you don't, Leo, because you were raised that way. Also, in case you forgot, you knocked my mate out."

"That was an accident and you know it, Jackson," I muttered.

"That's the thing, Leo, I don't know it. There is not excuse, accident or not, for you to hurt a woman. Is that understood?" He asked using his Alpha tone. It was the first time he'd used it on me, and I absolutely despised it.

"Understood, Alpha, now if you'll excuse me, I have shit to do," I said before stomping out of the room. He had absolutely no right to talk about my mother and make accusations like that.

He called my name but I ignored him and continued to jog until I'd gotten out of the house. I stopped, looked up to the sky, closed my eyes, then took a deep breath. So much was happening, and I'd just been told that my life had been a lie.

Had my mom been lying to me? I was only a child, so it wouldn't surprise me if she didn't tell me about the abuse, but shouldn't I have seen the signs?

As I got back to the plot of land I'd been working on, I felt my mind drift towards my mother, then to Eleanor.

My mother deserved to be happy, and I thought she was happy. Was my father really abusing her?

These thoughts clouded my brain for the rest of the day, and I thought maybe, just maybe, I had done something wrong.