"What the fuck did you just say?" Cain growled at Mason, his typically guttural voice sounding even harsher than usual.
Mason's gaze shifted from mine to Cain, whom he regarded coolly. "I meant no disrespect, Alpha. I was merely stating the obvious. Do you disagree that your mate looks well?"
Instantly, Cain grabbed Mason by the neck and threw him into the nearest wall, sending him through the drywall. Cain was shirtless as usual, and his veins were angrily popping out of his arms as he stalked towards the wall which he sent Mason through, presumably to finish him off.
Cain! Stop this! I mindlinked him.
Cain hesitated at my voice, but his body was shaking in anger, and I could tell he was on the verge of shifting. He ignored me, and continued moving towards Mason, who got up and began dusting himself off.
Seb took a step towards Cain as he rolled up his sleeves, anger in his eyes. "You said you wouldn't kill anyone when you came, Alpha."
Cain slowly turned around to look at Sebastian, who, to his credit, held his ground against the formidable man in front of him. "He obviously has a death wish. I will oblige."
If you kill someone then I'm killing someone too, I told Cain, willing to make the trade.
Cain turned towards me, his black eyes ablaze with fury. "If someone makes a pass at me, then you are allowed to kill them. I would never stand in your way."
I sighed. I didn't want to have to do this here, especially not in front of the Red Crescent pack leaders, but Cain was like a dog with a bone (no pun intended).
Cain's back was turned as he faced Mason, who stood in a defensive position with a smirk on his face. Why the hell was Mason trying to provoke Cain? Even though Mason was a strong wolf, Cain is nearly invincible.
I threw a knife at Cain.
Due to his wolf being in control, his senses were heightened to the extreme, and he turned around right before the knife sank into his shoulder blade, and swatted the knife away as if it were a pesky fly.
Ares. If you try to stop me from killing the pup then you will be punished for it later, Cain threatened, and I could see the warning in both his eyes and posture.
Promise, Alpha? I smarted off with a smirk, both wanting to provoke him and distract him. It worked.
Cain stalked towards me, and I flashed my canines at him, excited for what was coming next.
He grabbed my waist and threw me over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. I winked at Axel, who was fascinated as the scene unfolded in front of both Red Crescent and Blood Lake wolves. He narrowed his eyes at me when I winked.
Cain, who was still shaking from fighting the urge to shift, followed where I instructed him to go. Luckily, I knew this pack house like the back of my hand.
Once we got to the empty room, Cain roughly threw me on the bed, and already was unbuttoning his jeans.
I grinned, my sliver eyes lighting up as my canines dropped further.
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Cain, who was much calmer after our copulation, began to put back on his jeans. "Put on your clothes," He gruffly ordered, still being a grumpy pants.
I rolled my eyes. Yes, Alpha, I responded sarcastically, even though I felt much better after the mating, and I could tell he did too.
I begun dressing myself, and looked in the mirror on the wall, and looked at the bite Cain left in my neck. Often times during our mating, he would reclaim me, like the beast he is. Ever since my Alpha strength surfaced, I no longer passed out every time he bit me. I was about to wipe the small traces of blood of my neck, when he suddenly appeared behind my and grabbed my hand.
"Don't," He ordered. "They need to know who has claimed you."
I rolled my eyes. I'm pretty sure they already know, Cain. They know we didn't just go off to play an innocent game of chess.
I wasn't embarrassed that the pack leaders knew about our copulation. It was extremely normal for wolves to go off and mate whenever they felt like it, especially sexually charged wolves like Alphas or other wolves with a title.
"Don't start with me, pup," Cain warned, as if I would be scared of him. "You're lucky I'm not killing the wolf for his insubordination. If you weren't such a little vixen, Sebastian would already be burying the pieces of his body."
I sarcastically responded as I pulled my mask over my mouth, Yeah, yeah, so scary. You're such a big, bad Alpha.
Cain rolled his eyes at my attitude, but I could see the faint traces of a smile. "And don't you forget it," He joked, and then smacked my ass, making me yelp and then laugh.
He requested to carry me, and I acquiesced, knowing that at least he wouldn't be able to rip someone's head off if his arms were otherwise occupied.
Cain took us back to the conference room, where everyone was sitting in silence. Axel was glaring at Mason, who was sitting with his eyes closed, his hair and clothes covered in white drywall residue. Sebastian turned to look at us, and nodded his head once at Cain as both a greeting and confirmation that he understood. Mason needs to be more cautious, especially around the Blood Alpha. One of the reasons I was drawn to Mason while I was the Gamma was because of his aggression and disregard for other people's feelings.
Cain sat on the opposite end of the table from Seb, keeping me in his lap. I would have put up more of a fight if I wasn't so sure he would tear Mason's uvula out of his throat for any slight sigh of disrespect.
Are you okay, Ares? I was surprised to hear Axel's voice through our mindlink. I looked over at him, and he stared back in concern.
Fine, I responded in confusion. Did he actually think Cain would hurt me? I knew Axel was protective, but Cain isn't a threat to me. He hadn't hurt me outside of sparring since the whipping incident.
Axel nodded once, clenching his fists as he looked at Mason, who looked at Cain and I in interest. I could feel his stare particularly pointed at my neck.
"If you keep staring at my mate, I will rip out your eyeballs and feed them to you," Cain threatened lowly to Mason, who's grin just got bigger.
"My apologies, Alpha," Mason responded in a tone that may sound genuine to some people, but I knew him better than that.
Cain grunted in response, and Seb quickly took the attention off of Mason, knowing that Cain was a ticking time bomb. "Let's discuss the issue at hand, shall we?"
Cain's eyes flickered over to Sebastian. "My visit should be enough to quell any planned uprisings for the time being. They will be deterred knowing that you are backed up by Blood Lake."
Sebastian nodded in agreement. I disagreed, and Cain knew this. While I did think that some uprisings would potentially be stopped if they knew the Blood Alpha would be doling the punishment, I really felt like killing someone would make a much stronger point, and show the rebels that we weren't afraid to resort to violence.
To my surprise, Cain spoke on my behalf. "However, my mate disagrees. Although she isn't an Alpha, she is very competent and experienced on pack matters, which means we will take her input into account as we decide."
I looked up at Cain in surprise. I hadn't expected him to speak on my behalf like that, thinking his stubbornness and cockiness would stop him.
"Ares," Sebastian sounded equal parts offended and shocked. "You can't seriously suggest killing Red Crescent wolves. Even the protesters are good people, they're just confused since they don't have an Alpha right now. It's hard on them."
I stared blankly at him as Cain spoke my words for me. "She says that they won't be confused if heads are rolling on the ground."
Omar gasped, his face the picture of innocence. Despite being a good warrior, he wasn't hardened from battle and didn't have thick enough skin. "With all due respect, responding with violence will make the situation drastically worse. You don't want to fight fire with fire."
I snorted, Omar didn't realize that he indirectly referenced Cain's gift, but he continued talking. "None of the upset people have resorted to violence. If you respond with violence, then they will use it too."
"I agree," Axel interjected, and gave me an apologetic look when I glared at him. "There's no need to escalate it without reason. Rumors of rebellion isn't enough to respond with violence."
"Oh? And what if they do resort to violence and then it's too late to quell any resistance?" To my surprise, Lucas spoke up. He rarely talked during our pack meetings, but I guess it shouldn't surprise me that he suggested resorting to violence, he was an action-oriented kind of guy. "Should we wait until they attack or attempt to kill one of you before we respond? It will be too late by then. Packs are too unstable without an Alpha. Without the proper hierarchy, their wolves aren't at rest. If there is no Alpha, the pack will crumble to chaos and you will have a bloody mess on your hands."
I couldn't quite determine the exact reason why, but it seemed like Lucas was speaking from experience. I suddenly realized I didn't know much about him outside of his fighting abilities, and made a mental note to remind myself to ask Cain about him later.
All of the wolves were pensive as they considered Lucas' point. Cain spoke up, his tone resolute. "We will step in before it gets out of hand. It is natural that they are feeling unsettled without an Alpha. It doesn't mean the pack has to crumble, as long as everything else is normal. Killing pack members will certainly inspire others to violence, which is the opposite of what you need. Besides, Thane is looking for Wilson, and there's only so many places he can hide."
"Has he found anything yet?" Sebastian asked, disgust marred on his face. He was incredibly furious at his father for lying to him his whole life, and especially for leaving him to deal with the pack in the state, but he hated Thane for some reason. As you recall, Blue Moon and Red Crescent had been enemies for as long as I could remember. Cain refused to tell me why, and said if I wanted to know, I had to ask Thane myself. Maybe I would text him later and ask.
"Not anything related to your father, but he has incredibly skilled Trackers that are working hard around the clock," Cain answered in a clipped tone, not liking the way Sebastian reacted to his cousin's name.
What do you mean, not anything related to Wilson? I asked Cain after I considered his words. Did he find something else?
Cain looked down at me, a glint of happiness in his eyes. I'll tell you later.
I narrowed my eyes at him. I wonder why I didn't hear about this sooner, Thane at least should have told me. We text somewhat regularly.
"Okay then, it's settled. We let the word spread that you visited and we formed an alliance, which will deter Red Crescent wolves from causing trouble in fear of retaliation, and it will also prevent other packs and rogues from attacking," Sebastian spoke, sounding calm and like an Alpha. I was proud of him. Despite the crappy situation, he was handling himself remarkably well.
"You hear that, Ares? No killing people today," Axel teased me.
I smirked. It's only 1pm, and we wouldn't be leaving until the evening. You never know what could happen in between now and dusk.
An update for all of you losers without Halloween plans ;)
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