A Cold Wind Blows (Forgotten series, #3)

Chapter 26

"I mope for a reason, Mason." I exhaled heavily before looking at him with tired eyes. I was excited for the hunt but being in the office where I made the order to control the borders was holding that dark shroud over me.

"Brice will come to his senses. You just need to call his bluff." Mason gave me a half smile and his slightly distracted look let me know that he knew as well as I did that Brice wasn't bluffing. This was him and his damn grudge and there was no bluffing. He wanted to goad me into a confrontation and I was doing my best to hold back. He was family and family was everything to me. He made mistakes and so did I but that didn't stop us from being brothers. I was just wondering when he had stopped seeing me as a brother and as only competition.

"I'm not going to get into that discussion right now. How is everything coming along?" I stood up. I was done with my paperwork. My thoughts drifted to Luka for a brief moment and my amusement with the amount of paperwork he always had to do.

I wanted to wince. There were moments of joy for him and Shey, there was no doubt about it but little Amelia had specific needs. She had seizures at times that would only stop if she was brought to the temple and laid on the altar in the moonlight. Moonborn children were different and they could be difficult. Luka and Shey has been shoved to the ground and every time they had tried to get back up, they were shoved right back down. I ached to be with them but they had a good support system and I knew I needed to be here for my own little family.

I hated it sometimes. Luka and Shey were in a constant fear of losing Amelia every day that she lived and I was celebrating every day because I was making progress with Lace and the children. The extremes between our situations almost made me ill. I didn't like that I was feeling so happy while Luka was feeling a pit of hellish despair that I would never be able to imagine. Luka told me not to feel guilty about it. That he and Shey were happy that things were getting better for me and Lace. That I now had my own family but it didn't stop the feelings.

"Azrael, are you listening to me?" Mason's voice filtered into my mind and I snapped out of my thoughts.

"Sorry. I was thinking." I tried to shake the somber thoughts away and Mason rolled his eyes at me as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"I know that." He gave a slight scoff. "Are you ready to listen now?" his voice was slightly harsh but it was slightly teasing, something to draw the sombreness away. I appreciated him for it.

"By all means." I gestured at him lazily and he gave me a look before he lifted a finger.

"Everything is going as planned." He let the finger drop and I fought back a smirk.

"That is all?" I raised my eyebrows and he scoffed as if offended.

"Does there need to be anything else, little brother?" The emphasis on the word made me bristle but I simply gave a small smile. I knew what he was doing.

"Can you look out the window for me?" I watched as he made his way over and I smirked at his back. "You see that large mud puddle in the courtyard?" The storm we had last night had left a rather large one near the middle of it. I had noticed it when several of the pack children had started playing in it.

"Yah." Mason raised an eyebrow as he turned to look at me. His entire posture spoke of his amusement and I stood up slowly, keeping my eyes on him.

"I'm going to give you a bath in it." I gave him a darkly amused smile and he returned it, his teeth showing. My wolf gave a growl of anticipation.

"If you can catch me, little brother. I'll give you one." He bounded out of the room and I cleared the desk in one leap and chased after him. Our booted feet thudded along the wood floors as I chased him. I could faintly hear my mother yelling at us to stop running inside. Mason laughed in response and charged outside, I was close behind him and when he was within two steps of the puddle I tackled him.