"It isn't the time for it. Your pack members are scared. They're being thrown into a war without any warning. They need their alpha, not this sulking, scary, red-eyed, giant thing you've got going on."
I sighed. "You're right," I said in defeat. I was letting my emotions get the best of me.
"Really?" Kyle asked in shock. His disbelief didn't last long. A large smile overtook his face. He looked very pleased with himself. "I mean... Of course, I am. I'm always right."
I rolled my eyes. I turned my gaze back to the several pairs of wolves, assessing them and their skills.
Two wolves, in particular, were being especially violent with each other, snapping their teeth and trying to push the other one to the ground.
The larger of the two wolves, Micah, was one of my best pack warriors. I'd never seen anyone fight like him.
"You're scowling again," Kyle said. I looked at him, only noticing then that he had been studying me. "You look like you're about to kill someone."
I was scowling? I hadn't even noticed.
"You want to tell me what's going on or why you were looking at Micah like he just killed your puppy?" Kyle asked.
I sighed. I didn't want to talk about it, but Kyle wasn't really giving me a choice.
"Azazel," I said after a moment. "He ordered all of the pack members to shun Belle."
"What?" Kyle asked. "He didn't order me to shun her."
"Because you already knew her. Azazel knew you would try to fight it. Mortars can only control actions, not emotions." I crossed my arms over my chest, trying to contain my anger so I wouldn't shift.
It wasn't getting harder with each passing moment that we spent talking about this.
"Pack members refused to talk to her and snapped at her whenever she tried to reach out.
"She was terrified of them. I felt it. She wouldn't even leave that godforsaken room where she was freezing and alone because she was too scared to see anyone. She wouldn't even leave to get food. She was starving herself."
Kyle inhaled quickly. "Shit," he muttered. "Fuck, that's why I didn't see her."
"She was hiding," I agreed.
Kyle ran a hand down his face. "Why didn't she come to me? Shit, why didn't she ask for help? Didn't she know I would have done anything to help her?"
"Azazel threatened her. He told her not to talk to you or Elijah after you had tried to help her find food. Remember that? The day you brought her into my office?"
Kyle nodded.
"He hit her right after and told her to stay away from you and Elijah. She was absolutely terrified. She didn't know what to do."
I could feel her emotions now, even though she was so far away. She was in pain, scared, and devastated. She was also determined to keep me out of her mind, so I couldn't figure out where she was.
Usually, I could sense her overall presence and use it to pinpoint her general location. Now, though, she was completely closed off to me.
She had built up walls in her consciousness, and no matter how hard I tried to break them down, she didn't give in.
Kyle looked pale. "So that's why you're glaring at your pack members? Because they mistreated the luna?"
"Yeah," I grunted. "I guess so."
Kyle didn't say anything for quite some time as he processed what I had just told him.
After a few minutes of silence, he finally said, "You can't blame your pack members for what happened to the luna. They didn't know what they were doing. Just like how you had no control over what you were doing."
I looked at Kyle. The idiot somehow always managed to be the voice of reason.
Kyle gazed at the horizon, squinting at the sun. "If you're going to be angry with someone for hurting your mate, be angry with Azazel.
"He's the one who's responsible-and he's on his way here right now. And you get to decide how he dies."
4. Unexpected Reinforcements
GRAYSON
I stood stoically at the edge of the training grounds as I watched my pack members train.
After my conversation with Kyle, I needed time to process things, so he left me alone and went to train with the others.
Something small suddenly wrapped itself around my leg. My first instinct was to kick the thing off me, but then I looked down. It was Zoe.
Zoe was only five years old, and one of my pack's more rambunctious young wolves.
I wasn't surprised to see that she had somehow managed to sneak away from the pack house where all of the younger pups were supposed to be. Zoe was always finding ways to get into trouble.
She didn't say anything as she hugged onto my leg like some sort of monkey. She simply watched the werewolves in front of us with wide eyes filled with interest.
I always liked Zoe, and she seemed to like me. She was one of the reasons that I wanted to have kids.
We formed a bond a while back as soon as she could talk and ended up spending a lot of time together.
She would often sneak into my office and ask me what I was doing, constantly interested in pack affairs.
I had a sneaking suspicion that she would become a higher-ranking member of a pack someday, maybe even an alpha.
She showed all the signs of being a great leader-except for her disobedience and inability to follow orders.
I sighed. "Zoe, what are you doing here? You're supposed to be at the pack house," I said, bending down to pick her up.
Zoe pried her gaze away from the warriors. Her brown eyes widened when she saw me. "Your eyes are red," she told me matter-of-factly. Her voice dropped into a whisper. "You look like a demon."
I couldn't help but crack a smile. I didn't even realize that my vampire was at the surface of my consciousness, making my eyes red. It was probably due to all of the anger that I was feeling.
I was surprised that, rather than being frightened, Zoe seemed interested in my red eyes. "That's because I have a vampire inside of me now, just like how you have a wolf. I have both species."
Zoe nodded. "Yeah, I know," she said, shrugging nonchalantly as if it were the most normal thing in the world. "My mom told me.
"She says you are really strong because you have a vampire and that it's good to have you as an alpha. That's also why you turned into a giant!" She spread her arms out wide, trying to express how large I'd gotten.
I chuckled. "Yeah, I have gotten pretty big, huh?"
Zoe gripped my shoulders, inspecting them. "Yeah, you're basically the biggest person I know."
I laughed, but before I had a chance to respond to her statement, Zoe placed her palms on either side of my face. "Your beard is scratchy," she said. "Like my dad's."
I nodded, amused by how quickly her thoughts jumped around. "Well-"
"Hey, your mate is pretty. I saw her," she interrupted.
