When I dropped off Skylar this morning, I don't even remember telling her goodbye. My father had gotten on my head and was about to come to my loft where Skylar was. I was so annoyed with my father that I literally ignored Skylar's presence. Blake has been sulking in my mind because of this since morning. He is not ready to talk to me.
My father wanted me at the office because he wanted me to go through the entire German contract as a punishment for my interference. He knows how much I hate all this, but he wants to punish me, and there is no way around it.
Because of the contract, I was unable to even text Skylar the entire day, let alone call. My father was hot on my tail the entire day. I had to keep my composure so that he does not doubt me. Since we have mated and marked Skylar, we want to be with her continuously. Staying so far away from her was not acceptable to Blake.
In the afternoon, my father told me to go and meet Kevin. He had arranged some training sessions with him. I was having the worst day ever. I just wanted to be with Skylar in her arms. I drive to Kevin's place and knock on his door. He opens, and suddenly, his wolf has taken over, and he demands, "What did you do to her? Where is she? Why were you with her?". I look at him, pissed and confused, and try to pry myself out of his hold. Damn, the old man can hold tight.
I say, "Rex, what are you on about? I was with my mate. Why are you acting like that?"
I see Rex give the control back to Kevin, and he apologizes. He says, "I do not know what came over Rex. I need to calm him down. Can you give me five minutes? Please see yourself in my dining room. I will be with you shortly."
I adjust my tie and walk to his dining room, still confused about his reaction. I feel as if he is trying to hide something from me. I cannot put my finger on it. Blake surfaces and says, "I think it has got to do with Skylar. The way he reacted."
"No, Blake, that's not possible. He gave me a long speech on the day of the attack on how I was making a mistake by not rejecting Skylar. I highly doubt that he will care about her. She is, after all, only a human to him."
"I think we need to do a bit of digging on why he was acting that way?" Blake says.
"I guess I can ask him directly. I mean, of all the people I know, Kevin would not hide things related to my mate from me."
"You know you can not trust him, don't you. Plus, I have been trying to reach out to Rex, but even Rex has not been responding to me. They are definitely hiding something Cole and I have a feeling it is bad."
"Blake, I think you are getting paranoid. I mean, I did find his behavior odd, but consider this, if anyone finds out that Kevin even remotely knew about Skylar, even he will be liable to punishment. I think he was just being cautious for saving his ass."
I see Kevin entering the room, and we proceed for lunch. He talks about various things, specific assignments, and why we are assigned them. People like him get one assignment a month. He has been told by my father to prepare me for the same. For the next half an hour, during our lunch, our conversation remains only related to training. Once we are done with our lunch, I take the opportunity and say, "Kevin, if you don't mind me asking, why was Rex so mad at me?"
He clears his throat and looks at me straight in the eye, meaning he is telling me the truth, "Listen, young man, I can smell that you have marked and mated with your destined mate. Rex got furious at the fact that you walk in here behaving as if nothing happened. You have broken the rule of this pack. If the higher-ups come to know that I am training you even after smelling your mate on you, they will slaughter me first. Look, I know the importance of having a true mate. I had found mine too, but I lost her the minute my father came to know about her. I do not want you to go through that."
"You lost your mate?" I ask him, shocked. I see his eyes glisten with water, "Yes, I lost my beautiful mate because my father could not handle the fact that I did not reject her. She was pregnant with our pup Cole. I lost my love and my child that day.". I saw a brave man break in front of my eyes. I could not imagine the pain he must have felt. I try to console him, but I can feel that he needed time. I sit there quietly, pondering over the fact that I might lose Skylar in the same way Kevin lost his mate. My father hates humans.
I can see Kevin calming down, and I hand him a glass of water. He tells me dejectedly, "Cole, I know the feeling you get with your true mate. I know how the tradition to reject our mates came into being, and I am truly sorry for that. But, you need to save your mate, Cole. We need to find a way to save her. I am not allowing you to lose your mate. I know you must be thinking that I am doing this because I want a favor from you in the future. No, my sole purpose is remorse."
"Remorse?" I ask. I am frankly shocked that he was ready to help me with Skylar, but what shocked me more was how fragile he seemed at this moment. He even apologized when it was not his fault that the moon goddess was a bitch to our ancestors.
He looked at me with eyes filled with only remorse and says, "Yes, Cole remorse. Remorse for what my great great great grandfather did. He is the reason we have this stupid rule. He was the one to spread wrong rumors about the Moon Goddess stripping us off our mates. He was the one to kill everyone's mates, Cole. Every single mate of our pack members was killed by non-other than my great great great grandfather. No one knows the truth. I know it because I saw it in one of my dreams. It was a flashback I had when I was six years old. I could not tell anyone this. I told you this today because you were brave enough to break the rule. I never thought you would have it in you. Your mate is blessed."
"Wait a minute. Your great great great grandfather was the one to spread false rumors? Is it because of him that we have this stupid rule? Why did he do this?" I was shocked, and I could feel Blake relax finally as if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders.
"You knew about this, Blake?" I am beyond pissed. My wolf knew the truth and still did not tell me.
"Yes, Rex told me the day I accepted Skylar as my mate. He wanted me to know the truth. I did not tell you because Rex told me that it was Kevin's story to tell."
Kevin looked at me, and I could see his eyes begging for forgiveness. I had no clue how to react to this news. "Kevin, I honestly am very pissed. I don't know how to forgive you. But, I will forgive you. Not because I pity you, but because now you know the responsibility you hold to protect my mate."
With that, I leave Kevin sitting there on his dining table, looking lost and defeated. I wanted to go to Skylar, but I had to go to the office instead. My father would be furious if I did not reach the office on time.
Once I reach the office, I go to my cabin and shut it tight, wanting some privacy to process the facts revealed by Kevin. I still was a bit annoyed with Blake for keeping this secret from me. While I am pondering over my thoughts, I get a feeling that someone is trying to reach me through the mindlink. It was one of the assistants of the Higher-ups, "This is a mission notice. You will be assigned a mission in the next six to eight weeks. During this period, you are not allowed to travel as you need to be available in case we do not find a prisoner to do it. Details of the mission will be shared via regular means."
Saying so, the mind link closed. "Fuck" I groan out loud. I had not been assigned a mission for a long time. Why now? I am assuming it was my father's doing. He finds ways to punish me. He will not be satisfied until I have been punished enough.
The missions generally vary, but the end goal is the same- maintain power and fear amongst all. I remember when I was 19, my father made me go on a mission instead of him. I had to hand over a prisoner to one of the neighboring packs. Father had told me to carry my gun with silver bullets, just in case. You see, we werewolves are trained to use not only our wolves but also all sorts of weapons since the tender age of eight.
When I was handing over the prisoner to the Alpha of the neighboring pack, I saw no one at the border. Not even the patrols, which was kind of shocking because rogues can attack your pack if you do not keep patrols all the time. While I waited for the Alpha to come, I heard a twig smash somewhere behind me, and I saw a hunter with a gun pointed at me. I did not have time to think, and I shot the hunter straight in his face. Once I did that, I heard another gunshot, and this one was directed to the prisoner's head. I looked towards the source of the gunshot and saw my father standing there smirking.
That was the day I actually started hating my father. Till that day, I wanted to impress him. Make him proud of me. But I realized that he was cruel. I had just killed a man. Although he was a hunter and I killed him on pure survival basis, but still. I took a life, and my father was standing there grinning as if he had won a lottery. I was unable to sleep for a few months after that.
That was a side that my father had created. A monster suiting our creature. It was not the real me. Blake was always helping me compartmentalize that monster part of me and the real me. The real me was when I was with Skylar.
I had to see her today. I leave my office at 10:00 PM, knowing it's pretty late and that Skylar must already be asleep. But I had to see her. Blake was wagging his tail at the thought of seeing his mate. The idiot acted like a love-sick puppy whenever he was around her.
"Hey, you are an idiot too, then," Blake grumbles.
See, I told you he was a sensitive mutt.