The Survivor Queen

Fifteen

~Edited~

*LONG*

Ch. 15

~Lily~

"What do you mean? You had no control over when you and Liam found me." I say to my mate. "Not as Liam's sister. As my mate. I was so full of work I reasoned that my mate could wait a few weeks. If I had gone looking for you right away at 18 I would have brought you home. Your family too. It's tradition for the entire family to come live at the palace."

At this my breath caught in my throat. "No, it's not your fault. You had no way of knowing. Plus, My parents would have put up a huge fuss over leaving behind their ranks without a blood relative to give it too. They were big on keeping the role in the family."

Callum looks up at me. "Role?" He asks. I nod, "I thought Liam would have told you. We are born Betas. He was going to take over for my father. He is technically older." I explain. He smiles slightly.

"He got to live that out." He says, looking up at me through his unfairly long eyelashes. I hit his arm playfully. "That's what I said!" He smiles wider at this. "Well, maybe we don't need a mark to hear each other's thoughts." He says with a chuckle.

I laugh with him, though him bringing up marking makes me realize I've been sitting on his lap since his wolf went crazy over my scar. I blush slightly at the thought but Callum doesn't notice, only pulling me closer to him.

A knock comes at the door and the urge to jump off Callum's lap would be fulfilled had he not been holding onto me. "Yes?" He called. The door opens to, thankfully, Jasmine. She sent me a "you're welcome" look before saying, "Alpha Tyler wants to meet now. He said no need to get all formal. He's aware it's still a sunday morning. Meet us in the office."

After Jas ducks out I get off Callum's lap and decide against changing, seeing as he'd probably refuse to go without me. Plus, he's still in black sweatpants and a gray t-shirt, and he doesn't seem to be planning on changing.

We walk together through the hall to the office. I lead the way since Callum doesn't know his way around. I knock on the door and walk in once allowed. Unfortunately, only one seat was available, even with Jasmine sitting on Liam's lap.

Thankfully, Callum motions for me to take the spot and doesn't make me sit on his lap, though I feel bad about him standing. I'm sitting next to Jasmine and Liam and Liam peeks down at me and spots the scar on my leg, but doesn't mention it.

"Alright everyone. Let's get to the first matter, the Ferals." Alpha Tyler speaks up. I don't miss Callum glancing at me with that mention. I know there is a high chance of a panic attack hitting me in this meeting, seeing as it revolves around Liam and I talking about the attack. I have Jasmine here, and Callum, who I won't be pushing away if I get one. I realized last night when I calmed down so fast that him being there could really aid me.

"Liam, during the attack, did you notice anything odd? Something they were leaving behind? Anything could be helpful, so don't hold back." Tyler asks. Liam sighs and closes his eyes to think.

After a moment he says, "I don't think so. Most of it was a blur. I'm sorry." Tyler shakes his head. "No, no. It's completely alright. Max?" He asks, turning to me. I take a deep breath and look back on that day.

Nothing immediately sticks out. "Well, quite a few of the Ferals were carrying some sort of silver weapon. One sliced my thigh. It's a long shot, but Jake might have some samples or something from when I first got here. The dagger seemed pretty cheap, so I can imagine some of it coming off into the cut."

Tyler looks over to Callum. "That might lead us somewhere. I can talk to Jake, our pack doctor, about it. He's very orderly, so it's actually very likely he has something that could help. Anything else? At all?" Tyler asks.