Chapter 48
Hours ago.
Sebastian walked out of the council meeting room looking more than a little pissed. He had returned from his days of absence from the pack only to be met with countless pack matters that gnawed at him relentlessly, all while he was already in a state of mind that should not be crossed.
Being the Supreme Alpha, he was in charge of assisting and sending aid to smaller, abandoned packs. He had just learned that one of the packs he had planned to take under Silver, to expand their members, because he had noticed so much potential among those wolves who were dying from poverty and lack of resources, had been under attack by unknown werewolves. Women and their pups had been killed, their heads sent to him as a message, a warning meant to force him to back off from his idea of expanding Silver more than he already had.
Sebastian didn’t need to dig any deeper to know that one of the elders, or even someone from Silver itself, was behind it. They did not want him to rule the right way, nor did they want him to bring in more members who, in the future, would support his reign as Supreme Alpha for giving them a chance to strive in a place like Silver. A place where he had built more apartments and towering skyscraper condos that now stood empty, waiting to be filled.
With their current werewolf population, they couldn’t afford to have their kind killed more and more, or the werewolves would decline further in numbers and give humans the strength and confidence to walk into their world. Humans were sneaky, endlessly curious beings who would always find a way to experiment, poke, and pry at anything they found strange or unexplainable.
Sebastian wanted to protect and secure the werewolves as a whole, while also giving chances to those with potential, especially the ones who had been left behind and forgotten in small packs. But some of the silvers don’t agree with that.
As he and Matt, his Beta, whom he had left in charge during the weeks of his absence, walked back toward his office, he asked, his voice tight with restrained fury, “Did you send the troops to assist them p>
“Yes,” Matt replied. “But it was too late. Many of them had already died from wolfsbane. Still, we managed to save a few by sending our healers there p>
Sebastian’s jaw clenched.
“Are you thinking what I am thinking?” Matt questioned as they stepped into the office, and without waiting for Sebastian’s reply, he continued, “Do you think it’s Mrs. Kade again? She didn’t succeed in getting the elders to follow through with her plans to remove you. Perhaps she’s using this method to make them see that you are to blame for the deaths of those packs, for openly sending them assistance p>
“I don’t know. I don’t want to point fingers without any evidence. After all, she’s still a Kade.” To Sebastian, who had already lost more than he ever wanted to, the few relatives he had left were not people he wished to lose as well. They had once meant something to his parents, despite how little they meant to him anymore.
Matt sighed, knowing there were many things Mrs. Kade had done that should warrant her death, but Sebastian always let it go for the sake of kinship and blood ties that refused to loosen their grip on him.
“Hell, thank goodness you’re back. I can’t handle these pack matters like you do, man. Take your place,” Matt said, gesturing for Sebastian to take his desk seat, where he had been glued for weeks in his place and was dying to finally get away from. Matt couldn’t understand why people fought so hard for the Alpha position when it carried this much responsibility and never-ending pressure.
Flopping onto the couch, he took in Sebastian’s haggard face as he settled into his chair behind the desk. To every member of the pack, Sebastian simply went away on business for weeks every month, but only Matt, the elders, and the Kades knew what he truly went away to do during those absences.
“You look worse this time around. Was it that bad this time?” Matt asked, his tone lowering slightly as concern slipped through.
Sebastian simply ran his fingers through his hair as he hummed in response to Matt’s question. “How’s everything in the pack in my absence?” he asked instead, immediately scanning the digital documents on the transparent holographic blue screen that appeared out of thin air in front of him at the press of a button.
“Everything was steady, thanks to the approaching competition, which has currently sealed the elders’ mouths for now,” Matt replied. “No more pressure coming in, demanding your marriage p>
At the mention of the competition, Sebastian looked away from the documents on the screen and asked, “Did Kelvin train her p>
Matt grinned. “He sure did. But Laila said she didn’t need a trainer, and she is well capable. You wouldn’t believe it, three she-wolves have forfeited the competition, including Elder Brenna’s daughter. They p>
“Laila?” Sebastian asked with narrowed eyes. He hadn’t hired Kelvin for Laila because he already had complete faith in her strength to win this competition. It was that little idiot who lacked the sense to see that she was walking herself into hell for whom he had hired the trainer, because Zoe wanted it.
“Yep, Laila. What’s wrong?” Matt asked. “Kelvin claimed you hired him for her. Didn’t you p>
Sebastian didn’t answer that question and instead asked, “What about the girl? Who is training her p>
Matt shrugged. “I have no idea. I haven’t left this office more than necessary to go home and return here. All I know is that she and Zoe have been hanging around the training grounds often. I heard that from the cleaning Omegas p>
Sebastian’s cold expression barely changed at that information, but he couldn’t help thinking it was too late, the little idiot would indeed die in three days without training. His sister didn’t know the first thing about training someone, and yet she was assisting the girl.
So all the two weeks had gone away without her training?
He pushed her from his thoughts and focused on the documents, sighing as he signed those that required his signature and approval.
When Sebastian finished his work and began to head back to his own quarters to finally rest, he caught sight of someone walking on the other side of the hall.
He wouldn’t have recognized her if it hadn’t been for her scent, which immediately slammed into him unexpectedly, causing his muscles to coil like springs and goosebumps to rise on his skin. Heat pulled low in his stomach.
Her scent shouldn’t have done this to him. It shouldn’t have made his pulse throb slow and deep beneath his skin after he had already taken a piece of her, something that belonged to her, and kept it with him so his body would grow accustomed to it, so he could force himself into immunity.
But immunity, it seemed, was not something he possessed when it came to this certain mate of his.
She still affected him more than he wanted her to. She still reached into him, stirred him, claimed a place inside him she had no right to occupy, and refused to let go.
She wore a maroon overall training gear that hugged her body like a second skin. She carried a bag slung over her shoulder and had headphones on her head. The shape of her body was so different from the skinny girl he remembered that Sebastian began to doubt it was even her. Was this woman really her?
This person had the body of a perfect goddess, her feminine curves clearly defined, a rounded backside shaped like an upside-down heart, a cinched, narrow waist, and a graceful sway to her hips, while the girl he remembered had been a skinny teenager with barely any flesh on her.
’Mama mia, she looks different!’ his wolf drawled in delight.
But Sebastian refused to believe that was her in any way. She hadn’t had a trainer, nor was it possible for her to change so much in the course of just two weeks and a few days.
His wolf let out a tired sigh. ’They say you are the strongest Alpha, but my, my, my, man, you sure do lack sense if you believe that is not my girl. She has a natural swing now, and I want to see more, go after her p>
Intrigued, Sebastian found himself moving toward the underground gym space. By the time he reached the entrance, he saw her set her bag down on the side and stretch lightly before she began to run the long stretch of the training grounds.
From his vantage point, the space seemed endless, over a hundred meters from end to end, and wide enough that several fighters could sprint side by side without ever brushing shoulders.
The polished floors gleamed under the harsh overhead lights, reflecting her small, determined figure as she cut across the expanse. He doubted she could run it more than five times, for her short legs would surely break under the strain of that long distance.
This place was not made for a wolfless in mind, it was made for strong werewolves.
One full lap took several minutes at a steady run, the reinforced track looped endlessly around combat zones, equipment bays, and closed training rooms.
But when he thought she wouldn’t be able to run it, she completely caught him by surprise, and Sebastian was rarely surprised or taken aback by anything.
He watched her run it again.
And again.
By the time she reached her twentieth lap, he was certain she would give up or pass out.
But she didn’t stop. She didn’t even slow.
And Sebastian began counting the laps she ran, one after another, until ninety-nine. If he said he wasn’t surprised, it would have been a plain, blatant lie. He wasn’t only surprised, he was impressed, because what she was doing bordered on the impossible for anyone, even a shewolf, let alone a wolfless.
’And you call her weak,’ his wolf scoffed. ’No weak person could do what she is doing without rest p>
Though Sebastian rarely agreed with his wolf when it came to her, he found himself both fascinated and a little concerned. Was she planning to kill herself?