Chapter 17
I continue to release my anger by punching Ezra over and over again even though mostly I am hitting him in the arms because he blocks
his face with them. But then
I am suddenly pulled from
behind by the hair.
“Get off of him!” Bryn
shouts.
She manages to get me off of Ezra. I fall to the ground and
then she kicks me on the
side of my ribs.
The pain doesn’t register at
all. I get to my feet and as I am getting up, I put all my weight into my lunge, taking
her down with me. We roll
on the ground trying to take
a bite out of each other. Even
though we don’t shift, these are definitely our wolves fighting.
She gets the upper hand on me and gets on top of me. Bryn lifts her hand up with
her claws out and then
swipes down at my face. Luckily, she suddenly goes flying back and I do mean flying. It takes a few seconds
for her to come back down
and hit the floor with a loud
thud.
Colt growls at her and Ezra with his fangs and claws out.
Ezra quickly helps Bryn up.
She looks hurt but is still
fine.
“What are you all doing?!”
The Luna and Alpha run
outside.
“Are you crazy?!” Bryn
screams at me taking deep
breaths.
“Yeah! Apparently, I am!” I scream back as I get up.
“Everyone here is quick to call someone crazy when
they lose it but no one takes into consideration how they
got to that point! And you two are part of those reasons!” I point at them.
“Shut your mouth, you filthy girl!” The Luna says walking in our direction.
“Let her speak!” Colt growls at her and suddenly takes me in his arms in a hug.
This shuts everyone up, even
- me. I was not expecting that,
not in front of everyone.
The Luna stops in her tracks
with wide eyes. The way she
was coming my way was the way she always had done
when she was about to strike
me but Colt’s words made
her freeze.
The rage inside of me suddenly diminishes when
he starts to caress my hair
and I am even more stunned
now.
The Alpha steps closer but
looks calm. “What is
happening here?” He asks.
While Bryn starts giving
their own version of things, I
close my eyes and cling to Colt, feeling a sudden sense
of safety. Like nothing bad will happen to me because
he won’t let it. I have never
felt like this before. I don’t
understand this feeling
but…I like it.
“What the f**k are you
doing?” Ezra suddenly asks
staring at us.
Everyone stops talking and
they look at us.
“What you should be doing,”
Colt says without even
turning to him. His eyes
fixed on me.
“What?”
“You heard me. You are her
mate. It should be you doing
this. But I’ll gladly take over.”
“What did he just say?” Bryn
asks.
“Get your hands off!” Ezra shouts. “It was…it was you?”
Colt now doesn’t say
anything but Ezra is livid.
“It…WAS YOU!!” With so
much speed, Ezra rushes in
our direction.
Colt lets me go and turns to
him. It happens so fast that
all I see is Ezra flying back
with a bloodied face.
There are multiple gasps
from everyone who watches.
“Ezra!” Bryn and the Luna
rush over to him.
“What did you do?” The
Luna screams at Colt.
“He got what he deserved,”
Colt says and then saunters
back to me where he holds
- me.
“Colt!” The Luna yells.
“I think it would be best to
take this inside.” The Alpha
says, looking around at the
spectating pack members.
“In a more private area.”
“Agree,” Colt replies.
“War room,” the Alpha says
and Colt nods.
Colt takes my hand and takes me towards the pack house leaving the others behind
questioning each other.
“Colt, what are you doing?” I whisper.
“It’s time, Angel. Don’t worry. Everything will be fine. No
one will hurt you again.”
I don’t know how everything is going to be fine but when he says it, I believe it.
We walk past the Alpha’s office until we reach a huge
room with books and maps
everywhere. There is a huge
table in the middle that is
just as big as the dining room
table.
Once there, he closes the
door behind him and leads
me to the table where he
turns around and takes me
in another hug. We are completely alone at this
moment waiting for the
others to arrive.
“This is going to just make him angrier.”
“Let it. This is about you, not him.” He caresses my cheek
as he looks into my eyes. “Are you okay?”
Now calm and assessing my body, my ribs hurt but I
know I am okay so I nod.
“Good. You don’t have to say anything if you don’t want to. Let me do the talking.” He kisses my head and then goes to kiss my lips but the door opens and I pull away
but Colt won’t let me go. He
still holds me.
They all walk in, talking and
asking questions to each
other. I can’t understand a
single thing.
“Enough!” The Alpha shouts. “Someone explain to me what the hell is going on!”
“Gladly,” Colt says. “Cass is-”
The door opens, interrupting him.
Kaecy, Miles, and the
Beta–Christoph–walk in.
“You called us?” Kaecy asks.
“Yes. Family meeting.” the
Alpha says.
The three of them look at
me with confusion as I am in
Colt’s arms.
Ezra suddenly grabs our
attention when he slams his
fists on the table. “Stop
holding her like that!”
“No,” Colt says in a calm
manner.
Ezra growls but the Luna
holds his shoulder. “Calm
down.”
“What the hell is going on?”
Miles mutters.
“As I was saying…” Colt starts
again. “Cass here is Ezra’s
mate.”
Well, there it is. It is out of
the bag.
The gasps start. Everyone in the room was surprised except for those who knew.
Ezra, Colt, and me.
“That has to be bullshit! He
can’t be mated to that Runt!”
Bryn spits out.
“Watch your damn mouth!”
Colt growls.
“Is this true?” The Alpha asks
Ezra who doesn’t answer
because all he does is stare at
me and Colt with anger.
“It is true.” Colt says.
“Then why are you holding her in such a way?” The Alpha asks. “You didn’t tell me this before and what is
worse is that you knew and you still chose to do this? She is your brother’s mate.”
“He doesn’t want her!” Colt
says.
Ezra growls at him.
“Regardless of whether I
want her or not, she is
mine!”
I explode at those words. “Yours?! Are you f**king kidding me?! From the moment you found out we were mates, you hurt me, slept with women, ridiculed me, belittled me, and treated me like an animal.” His face
doesn’t change. There is not
even a twitch on it. I laugh. “You mean I am yours to do
exactly that? That is all
you
want me for. To hurt me.”
“Is this true, son? You knew
all this time and did all this?”
The Alpha asks Ezra.
“Of course not!” The Luna
says. “She has to be lying.”
“I am not!” I shout at her.
“Don’t you dare talk to me
like that!” She shouts back.
“This pack has a problem, and it is you.” Colt suddenly says to her.
Her eyes widen. “What?”
“You coddle them. Make
them believe that they are above everyone else. And look at them now. All they
care about is what people
will think of them, material things, and status. That is
why he treats her this way.
Because to him, she is
beneath him.”
“You do coddle them too
much, Alice.” The Alpha says
to her.
Colt shakes his head and
continues. “People like him
and those that would do
something like this to their
mates do not deserve mates.
HE doesn’t deserve her.” Colt
pulls me closer. “And if he
doesn’t want her, that is
completely fine because I
do.”
“What is wrong with you?”
Bryn asks. “There are more
than a hundred she–wolves
in this pack and you choose to have her? Not just a low nobody but your brother’s
mate?”
“Bryn, shut the f**k up, you stupid little girl.” He says to
her.
She looks shocked, I am
shocked, we all are but
suddenly Miles laughs.
We all look at Miles and he
now looks embarrassed.
“Sorry.” He says.
The Alpha takes a deep
breath and looks at Ezra. “So
let me get this straight. You
knew she was your mate for how long?”
“Since I turned eighteen,” I respond to him because Ezra
stays quiet.
The Luna and Bryn quickly
look at me with anger. They
really don’t want me to talk.
The Alpha doesn’t seem to
mind and continues. “So,
you knew she was your mate for this long, but you didn’t want her and you chose to torture her instead of just rejecting her?”
“I never said I DIDN’T
WANT HER!” Ezra shouts.
Now I am the one that is
confused here.
“She is my mate. I’ll want her regardless of how I treat her.
SHE IS MINE and she is
mine to do what I want
with!”
This pisses me off so much.
“F**K YOU!” I shout.
I start sprinting towards him but Colt immediately grabs me by the waist. “YOU
SADISTIC SON OF A
BITCH! You tortured me all
these years and
and you think
that I will ever want
someone like you after everything that you did to me? NO! So f**k you! F**k you because now, I am the
one who doesn’t want you.‘
“You are MINE!” He shouts
again.
“I reject you, Ezra Beaufort. I reject you with ALL OF MY
SOUL! I HATE YOU!”
He suddenly jumps in my direction but Colt
immediately pulls me back and grabs him by the throat. He slams Ezra to the ground
and squeezes his hand on his
throat.
“Colt! Don’t!” The Luna
shouts.
“Son!” The Alpha shouts.
Colt slowly gets close to Ezra as he loosens his hand. “Try
to touch her again, and I will break your neck.” He whispers with a growl.
“That’s enough, Colt. You’ve made your point.” The Alpha
says.
Colt lets him go and backs away but takes me with him
further from all of them.
Almost to the end of the long
table.
The Luna helps Ezra up but
you can tell that she is now
angry.
“No. I will not allow this!”
She shouts.
“Allow what, mother? She is
mine now.” Colt speaks to
her but he doesn’t take his
eyes off me.
“No, you can’t have her. I
forbid it! Neither of you can
have her!”
“Yeah?” Colt says. His voice
now scares me a little. He
looks at them with a few
seconds of silence until he
speaks. “Well, I dare any of
you to try and stop me. Go
ahead! Try!”
The silence now stretches.
No one speaks up.
“Enough, enough…” The Alpha says sounding tired.
He paces for a few seconds and then stops. He looks at
Ezra. “I do not have the
power to make you reject her but if I could, I would. Colt is
right. After what you have done, you do not deserve to
have her as your mate.”
“But-” The Luna tries to
complain.
“It doesn’t matter who she is!
If he didn’t want to be with
her, he should have rejected her from the beginning. Instead, he-” He takes a deep
breath. “I have no idea where
you learned this shit
behavior but it sure as hell
wasn’t from me! I would
never do something like that to your mother!” He looks at Colt looking agitated. “Colt, you’ll have no objection
from me. Do what you wish.”
“What the f**k?!” Ezra
shouts. “You are only doing
this because you want him to be Alpha! You always favored
him!”
The Alpha turns around with
a ludicrous stare. “Do not test
me, boy! You do not want to be on my bad side. And word of advice, if you don’t want
to feel what comes next,
accept the girl’s rejection. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” His eyes scan them all. “Now
leave us!”
Ezra is pulled out by Kaecy and the Beta. He doesn’t try
to stay but he doesn’t want to
leave either.
The Luna walks close to us
and points at me. “I don’t know what kind of spell you have over them, you witch!
But I will not stand for this!”
“Enough, Alice,” the Alpha
says.
“No!” she shouts and walks
away slamming the door behind her.
The Alpha–now looking
stressed–gives Colt a sideglance.
“He wasn’t wrong. I favor
you, always have. You were
born to be Alpha…so don’t
make me regret this.”
“I have every intention of taking over the pack.” Colt
says.
The Alpha nods. “Good.”
He now looks at me and I
freeze.
“Are you ready for this? Being the Luna of a pack this big won’t be easy.”
Uhm…what? Did I agree to
this? I don’t remember
saying yes but…I never said no either.
Well…shit…
