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“Sh,” Alex soothes, wrapping his arm around me. He growls low, the vibrations weirdly soothing as he sends reassurance along the bond. I look up at him, and his silver eyes meet mine, a silent promise of protection. “Calm, little mate. You are safe. We will protect you.”
A quick glance at Seb shows me he and Kane are working together, and they’ve got Phoebe nestled safely with them. Ben’s positioned himself further in front of me but is still sitting down on the floor. I can feel their energies, nearly as strong as that of their dad’s, and I’ve got faith that if something did happen, they’d be victorious.
I just can’t have Phoebe caught in the crossfire.
“You did know for sure, though, or you wouldn't have gone to such extremes to hide it,” Topher snarls. “How many reports have there been, Dad? How many of our people have entrusted you with their safety, and you failed to protect them? Why would you hide something of this magnitude and act like it was nothing? You left the pack to us for a month, and yet, you’ve hidden and lied about the safety?
“How could you be so reckless? How could you endanger our people that way? The amount of wolves that could be pregnant right now, the amount of young pups that we have. The females we’re protecting and keeping safe. How could you risk all of those people for your own sake? You’re pathetic, Father, and I’m embarrassed for you.”
“You do not talk to me that way, boy. We’ve got it under control,” George snaps. “The pack is not yours yet, and I do not need to explain myself to you.” His words are harsh, and I flinch as I feel the power he’s emitting thrown out in them. My body aches at the force to stay upright against his power, but my eyes are forced close to stop the stinging, my heart beats so loud it echoes inside my head.
“And it won’t be yours for much longer if you don’t take care of it,” Topher snarls back, taking an angry step forward. “How many reports have there been?”
“None of your—” George starts.
“How many have there been, George?” Edward demands, lacing his words with the same power that George is emitting. It hurts, the pain of being in such a powerful presence overwhelming me so badly.
My jaw is clenched so tightly that my teeth ache, but I can’t stop myself.
“A few,” George bites out, his eyes flashing dangerously. I flinch again at the tension.
I look over at Seb and Phoebe, but she seems content to sleep as if nothing is happening. Maybe this is something I feel because I’m human. Because I’m not like them. I hope so because I really don’t want her to suffer like I am.
“Why the fuck did you not tell us?” Charles asks, shaking his head sadly. He sighs and looks over at his very tense mate, who is avoiding the confrontation and everyone’s eyes. “Did you know about all of this, love?”
Julie bites her lip and nods slowly, cringing at the identical pained expressions on the faces of her mates. “You all confide in me, and I don’t break your confidence with each other, Charlie. I was helping him.”
“That’s not a confidence you should keep, Jules. You’re not bound to keep secrets like that. It’s not a…” Edward sighs, shaking his head in sadness as he turns away from his mate. “That’s neither here nor there, but trust me when I say we’ll be coming back to this discussion later.” He turns to Topher, and I can see the frown on his face as he addresses his eldest son. “Why was he here, Toph?”
“To assess Phoebe’s parentage,” Topher says, and George’s face pales as Edward lets out a very loud snarl.
“They killed one of us, why the fuck would they think we’d give them another?” Charles roars, and I tremble under the weight of all their anger.
My body sinks into the sofa, my head feeling light and lofty as it lolls back, and I can barely sustain myself under the weight of them.
“Enough!” Seb roars, and I gasp pitifully. My heart is pounding, my body aching.
“The lot of you need to calm down,” Alex adds, giving Seb a grateful nod. “The anger and frustration is too much for my mate to bear. Calm yourselves, or I will do it for you.”
“You’ve dropped a huge bomb on us, son,” Edward says after taking a deep breath. He gives me another warm smile, but it doesn’t quite reach his eyes. “But I am sorry that I lost my temper, Maia. I forget how gentle I need to be when it comes to you, and I won’t make that mistake again.”
I try to return his smile, but my teeth are chattering from the fading adrenaline. The house is freezing, or maybe that’s just me, and it’s a bone deep kind of cold.
“When did you find all of this out?” Charles asks, taking a seat back on the sofa. I have no idea when so many of them got to their feet, but everyone sort of scrounges around for their seat and sits themselves back down. “Have you already been approached by the Greys?”
“No, not properly. Only via the court summons,” Topher says with a shake of his head. “Phoebe’s scent came through last month, which is what he was wanting to assess. He was posing as a doctor?—”
“No, he is a doctor,” Ben says, shaking his head. “Fully licensed and everything. Believe me, I checked. He’s their pack doctor, and obviously, someone they trust.”
“Well, fuck, they must’ve been pretty confident then,” Edward says. His tone is full of emotion, but I don’t know him well enough to decipher what specifically.
“Did he get a smell of her?” Julie asks, and I’m surprised at how strong her voice is now. She’s so calm, so serious, whereas under Charles’s questioning, she was so timid.
“No,” Topher says with a shake of his head. “Maia got her out of there, and we handled it.”
“It or him?” Julie asks, still just as distantly. She wipes her lap as if that little speck of dust was the potential dead man.
“We didn’t kill him,” Alex says, and even whilst knowing that, it’s a relief to hear all the same. “We harmed him, but he left and made his way back to his own pack. We fortified and spent the entire time reinforcing our home, and we increased the patrols just in case.”
