Chapter 2

“Is something wrong?”

Dylan’s words brought me out of my thoughts. He seemed surprised that I had woken up with him in the morning.

“I’m fine,” I distractedly replied.

I couldn’t stop thinking about Liam. I needed to find a way to hide his absence from Dylan and the pack. During the time Liam had formed part of the pack, he had been all over the place.

Everyone saw him around all the time. I wasn’t sure how I could hide the fact that he was gone, if people would start missing him. I just knew someone was bound to ask where he was at.

“Leila!”

“What?” I snapped.

When I noticed the surprised look in his face, I was slightly shocked as well that I had yelled at him.

“Sorry, what is it?” I asked, lowering my voice.

“You tell me, what’s wrong?” He asked.

I cocked an eyebrow at him. There was nothing for me to say, at least nothing I was willing to share.

“What makes you think something’s wrong?”

“For one, it’s six in the morning,” Dylan said.

“So?”

“I’ve never seen you wake up at six in the morning on your own. You look worried. Now tell me, what’s wrong.”

“Nothing’s wrong. I just can’t sleep,” I told him.

He hadn’t gotten in the shower yet, and my being awake so early was delaying it.

“I felt you tossing and turning last night,” Dylan said.

“I had a restless sleep.”

I wrapped my arms around his neck, and pulled on him, so he ended up lying down over my body.

“Trying to distract me?” Dylan asked, but he began trailing kisses down my neck.

“Maybe,” I chuckled.

“It’s working,” he said, squeezing my waist, which made me squirm under him.

I gave his chest a light shove when I felt his hand sliding under my night gown. I could feel the small shocks from our bond making my skin sensitive wherever his hand touched me.

“Go get ready,” I told him, breathlessly.

Dylan didn’t stop kissing my neck, and his hand kept moving higher up my thigh.

“Go,” I said, pushing him away with more force.

I wasn’t sure if I would be able to stop if I let him continue. As much as I wanted to be with him, I had bigger things to worry about.

Dylan chuckled at me, but he managed to get up.

“Tease,” he said, giving me an amused look, before brushing his lips against mine for a second.

“Alright, I’ll call Liam to come over early.”

“What?” I shrieked, without realizing my mistake until after I spoke out.

“Is there a problem?”

“No, I mean, why don’t you just call Eric?”

I wasn’t prepared to pull off an excuse for Liam just yet. I had been calling his cell phone, but he had yet to pick up.

“Did you forget?” Dylan asked me.

I frowned at him, and tried to think of anything that might’ve been going on.

“Did I forget what?”

“Eric’s mom needs him today. I’m not really sure for what. She’s only going to pester the kid some more about his mate,” Dylan replied, shaking his head.

“Oh, okay,” I mumbled.

“I’ll just call Liam after I come out of the shower. Since you’re up, we can have breakfast together,” he said.

Instead of going back to bed like I usually did, or going downstairs to make breakfast, I went straight to the closet.

I had been with Dylan for over six months now. In all that time, I had never really followed him to see what it was that he did all day.

I ended up settling for a pair of black skinny jeans, a comfortable t-shirt, and a pair of converse.

It seemed appropriate enough, even though I hadn’t worn a pair of jeans in a while. Whenever I was out and about, I usually just stuck to shorts or a summer dress. It was easier to shed it in case I shifted and they were also more comfortable.

Since Dylan was still in the shower when I finished getting ready, I left to bathroom in one of the guest rooms and did my morning routine. I had to do my hair in a braid because I wasn’t really interested in having it loose and messily standing up all over the place.

I was making some scrambled eggs when Dylan walked into the kitchen. He took a look at me, cocked an eyebrow, and crossed his arms over his chest.

“Okay, what do you want?” He asked.

I put my hand on my hip and gave him a stern look. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“Are you going somewhere?”

“Actually, yes, yes I am going somewhere,” I replied, and then turned back to the breakfast I was preparing.

“Really?” Dylan asked, in a questioning tone.

“Yes, really.”

“Where are you going?”

I plastered a huge smile on my face, and turned back to face him.

“Okay, so you do want something,” Dylan spoke out, without waiting for me to reply.

“I’m going with you today.”

“Going where?”

“With you, to do rounds or order people around. Whatever you do, I’m going with you,” I said, leaning over the island counter and pecking him on the lips.

Dylan seemed dumbfounded. He was scrunching up his eyebrows, like if he didn’t know what was going on.

“Why?”

“I want to be with you.”

“Any reason in particular?” Dylan asked, suspiciously.

I narrowed my eyes at him, in false indignation.

“What, you don’t believe me?” I asked.

Dylan remained quiet after I said that. He was probably thinking over my words.

“You think I’m lying?”

“Is this a test,” Dylan slowly asked.

“What? No!”

“Then I’m supposed to say…”

“Nothing, I just want to go with you. But if you don’t want me to go, I’ll just hang around here, like always,” I said, stretching out and emphasizing the last word.

“I didn’t mean that. If you want to come, you can come,” Dylan said.

When I turned back to the food, which was already starting to smoke, I noticed he’d gotten a distant look in his eyes.

I was hoping he wasn’t trying to talk to Liam, not that he would be able to. I wasn’t sure if Liam leaving meant his link with our pack was broken. I had tried to mind link with him, but there was just silence on his end. The link was there, Liam was just not replying.

“Hey Dylan,” Jace said. He was looking down at a thick packet of papers, not really paying attention to us. “I was thinking that….” He stopped talking when he noticed I was standing right next to Dylan, holding his hand.

“Leila?” Jace said in a questioning tone, getting off of the desk he was sitting on.

“Hey Jace,” I greeted, giving him a small wave.

We had arrived at the pack’s prison, although we weren’t underground. Jace, along with a few other shifters were hanging out in a large open space, in the first floor of the place.

“What are you….? Is something wrong?” Jace asked, looking at me strangely before turning to face Dylan.

“No, Leila just wanted to, come with me today?” Dylan said, sounding unsure.

“I did,” I replied, giving them both a bright smile.

Guys were going in and out of the room, and there seemed to be a lot of movement everywhere. I assumed it was where they hung out, or made plans, or whatever it was that they did.

Whenever one of them entered the room and spotted me in there, they did a double-take. I smiled at anyone who stared at me longer, and they were polite enough to smile back. Even then I could see they were all confused as to why I was there.

“We have a meeting in half an hour,” Jace told Dylan.

He tried to conspicuously give me a look, like if he was telling Dylan that I should probably not be there.

“I’ll go with you guys. I want to know what’s happening with the pack.” It wasn’t until after I made the comment that I realized it was true. I wanted to know what was going on, or what plans Dylan was making.

It seemed especially helpful now that Caine was insisting on starting another war.

Dylan and Jace were looking at each other, probably trying to find a way to get rid of me. When John entered the room, it was the same thing all over again. He looked at me strangely. Then he turned to Dylan and Jace.

“Luna?” John asked, attracting more attention from the guys surrounding us.

“What?” I asked, annoyed that all of them just kept staring at me.

“Nothing,” Dylan replied and he gave a sharp look at everyone that was still staring.

I wasn’t sure if he ordered them to stop, but after he said that, everyone looked away and started minding their own business.

“So, where are we having this meeting?” I asked excitedly.

Dylan was talking to Jace, John, and a few other pack members in one of the conference rooms in the lower lever. When Dylan called for the meeting, he found a way to leave me out if it.

I had been alone in one of the lounges for about three hours when Eric strolled in.

“The Alpha told me to come get you,”

“You okay?” I asked, noticing that he looked tired. “Tough day?”

“The worse,” he groaned. “Anyways, what are you doing here?” Eric asked, motioning around the room.

“We can go now.”

“Okay, but why were you here?”

“I’ll tell you when we get home.”

“Where’s Liam?” Eric asked.

Dylan walked into the room in time to catch Eric’s question. Jace was with him, and again he was holding a stack of papers. I was curious to know what they were about, but I didn’t think Dylan would tell me. He had a bad habit of wanting to keep things from me.

“Where is Liam?” Dylan asked, looking around the room like if Liam would magically appear.

“I haven’t seen him around,” Jace shrugged.

“Liam’s busy,” I quickly said, and started walking out of the room.

“Eric’s here so I’m going home,” I told Dylan.

Dylan caught my elbow, and brought me to a halt before I could leave the room.

“What is Liam doing?”

“He’s busy,” I replied.

Eric was diverting his gaze from us, but Jace looked all too interested in what was happening between Dylan and me.

“I’m not going to ask again. Where is Liam?”

“What did you guys talk about in the meeting?”

At my question, Dylan released the hold he had on me.

“I was going to tell you as soon as we got home.”

“Oh, well, then I guess I’ll tell you where Liam is when you get home,” I said, before giving him my back and walking out.

Eric was quietly following after me. There was a big smile on his face, and I knew it was over what had just happened.

“Another point for our Luna,” Eric quietly mumbled, since Dylan was still within hearing range.

“Liam is gone,” I told Eric right after I closed the door to the mansion.

“Gone, as in…”

“He’s not here anymore. He left.”

“Left?”

I rolled my eyes at him and shoved the letter Liam had left for me. “Here,” I told him.

“Liam took off?”

“He went to go get his sister. I’ve been trying to call him all day, but still no word from him.”

I was starting to get worried that something might have happened to him. It had been a few weeks since the battle between the packs, but I knew that some members from Raven pack had gotten away.

They could have been out there. I was trying not to think of what would happen if they got their hands on Liam.

“He’ll be fine, that is, if he doesn’t come back here,” Eric said, with too much excitement in his voice.

“Oh come on. You can pretend all you’d like, but I know that you care,” I teased him.

“I don’t care,” Eric defensively replied.

“You do.”

“I’m guessing the Alpha doesn’t know about this.” Eric was trying to distract my teasing, and he’d done a good job at it. His words only made me sigh.

“He’s going to be furious.”

“No shit,” Eric said.

He headed for the kitchen, and I followed after him.

“Did you have breakfast already?” Eric asked. It was barely eleven, which was around the time he and I usually ate breakfast.

“Yeah, I woke up early.”

“Liam?”

I nodded. Liam had been the reason my night was restless and I had been awake way before Dylan woke up, which was unusual for me.

“So…”

“So?” I asked him.

“What are we going to do? Tell the Alpha?”

“He’s going to find out if Liam doesn’t come back by tomorrow. Dylan already thinks that something’s wrong. It doesn’t help that we were fighting about the same thing last night.”

I sat on one of the stools and lowered my head on the kitchen island.

“You have to tell him. He needs to know before this gets out. That other Alpha, Layton, he’s not going to like having Liam running around free all over the country.”

I gave Eric a flat look, although I knew he had a point.

“He’s not running around. Liam’s just going to get his sister. I know you would do the same thing,” I told him.

“But I don’t have a sister. You’re the only person I’d do that for, but you also happen to be my Luna. I’m sure the Alpha would do anything to get you back if you went missing.”

Dylan arrived at home by two in the afternoon. My Wolf was happy to have him home early, but I was nervous.

“You’re dismissed. Be ready in case I call you back later on,” Dylan told Eric.

I was staring at Dylan curiously. He was upset. He kept clenching his jaw, and his hands were balled into tight fists. Even Eric noticed the tension Dylan was carrying before leaving.

‘Be careful,’ he told me through our mind link.

I nodded, but I didn’t think Eric had seen it.

“Is everything okay?” I asked.

I was expecting him to start yelling at me.

“Come,” Dylan ordered.

His voice sounded huskier and his eyes were dark.

I didn’t argue when I made my way to his side, but I gave him a questioning look. He was starting to worry me.

All the way to his office, Dylan kept quiet. He had a deadly grip on my hand, and whenever I attempted to take a step away from him, he would pull me back.

“We need to talk.”

“Look, I can explain,” I quickly told him, not willing to take all the blame for it.

“You can?”

“Yes, I can. And I know that you’re furious. Are you trying to scare me?” I asked him, because he was doing a darn good job with it.

My words made him ease on his guarded stance, but only a bit.

“I’m not trying to scare you,” he said, in a low threatening voice.

Right… I thought to myself.

“If you had let Liam go get his sister, this wouldn’t have happened.”

“I don’t think-” Dylan started to say, before he abruptly stopped speaking.

How angry he looked before multiplied in just seconds.

“What do you mean if I had let Liam go with his sister?” Dylan asked through gritted teeth.

“He wouldn’t have run away,” I defensively replied.

“What?” Dylan growled.

I took a step back when he shoved his desk, trying to get some of his anger out in something. His desk landed on the other side of the room, in pieces.

“Oh,” I quietly mumbled, feeling more nervous than before and slightly stupid.

So maybe Dylan didn’t know about Liam yet…

“Where is he?” Dylan asked.

His Wolf had surfaced even more, and when he approached me and grabbed my shoulders, I felt his claws digging into my skin.

“I don’t know where he is. He just took off.”

“Don’t lie to me.” His words at that point were coming out in loud aggressive growls.

“I’m not lying! He left me a note, telling me he’d be back soon with his sister.”

“You gave him permission, didn’t you,” Dylan asked, his eyes turning colder against me.

“I didn’t, but what if I had? You’re trying to blame it all on me when this is also your fault!” I snapped, and shoved his arms away from me.

I could see blood in my shoulders, smearing my shirt. That had been Dylan.

“Me? I gave him an order. But Liam always has to disobey me. I told you he needed to be kept in prison. I am going to start a war soon. I don’t need Layton against me right now,” Dylan told me, bringing up the Alpha that had sent Liam to us a few months back.

“Well Layton will have to suck it up and you too, since Liam is gone.”

Dylan growled at me. I knew he wouldn’t hurt me, at least not intentionally. That didn’t mean anything else around him was safe. He began throwing chairs and decorations around, even slashing into his couches.

I had somewhat prepared for how angry he would be about Liam, but I didn’t think he’d get that mad.

“Something else is wrong, isn’t it?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at him when he didn’t stop breaking his study apart.

“Yes, but now is not the time. I have to find that mutt before he causes anymore damage.”

I shook my head at him, and began walking out of the room. When he noticed I turned my back on him, he growled at me.

“Don’t leave,” he ordered.

“Watch me,” I said, more to taunt him.

With inhuman speed, I ran out of the room, up the stairs, and didn’t stop until I was safely in our room.

Dylan didn’t follow me.

He always followed me. Even if our arguments were my fault, and he was blaming me for this one, he would still follow after me.

A few minutes later, his howl resounded throughout the mansion.

And then, he was gone.

I started getting worried a few hours later when he hadn’t returned. I kept trying to enter his mind, but he was blocking me out. He had only ever blocked me out a handful of times, and it was always for an important reason.

I had been pacing around the living room, waiting for him to return or to hear from him. I was starting to freak out, that maybe this time I had pushed him too far.

But then I didn’t think it was fair that he blamed me entirely for it. I didn’t want him to blame Liam either, because the last thing I needed was for Dylan to hunt him down. The more I thought about it, the more nervous I felt.

My Wolf was uneasy. She could feel something was happening with our mate, and she kept begging me to shift so that we could go find Dylan.

I was going to call Eric over, but I changed my mind and called Jace instead.

“Hey,” Jace said, giving me solemn look when I opened the door for him.

I had sent him a message through our mind link, but he insisted on coming over.

“What happened?” He quietly asked.

My Wolf was so worked up by the time he arrived. She caused my words to stumble out aggressively.

“Dylan left, and I don’t know where he is.”

“I thought you would be the one leaving,” Jace said, as we walked towards the living room.

I would’ve taken him to Dylan’s office, but it was completely destroyed after Dylan threw his fit.

“Me? Dylan blamed it all on me. He practically said it was my fault,” I snapped.

Jace caught on to my tone, and raised his hands up.

“It’s cool, I just assumed that. Why did he blame you?”

“I don’t know. He just got angry and we argued pretty badly,” I said, and then looked down at one of my shoulders, where my shirt was still ripped and stained in blood.

“Dylan did that?” Jace asked, his tone hardening when he saw the blood. By then, my skin had already healed.

“This is his fault. If he would’ve just allowed it,” I said, shaking my head. If Dylan had given Liam permission to go and come back, he wouldn’t have run away. We wouldn’t have been fighting.

“You have to understand,” Jace started to say.

“I have to understand?” I mimicked.

“Your mother belonged to Staten Pack. Even though things are peaceful between Jake and us right now, ever since he took over as Alpha, we’re still smoothing things over. Dylan had a right to deny your mother the right to be part of the pack.”

My mouth dropped open, although I couldn’t really speak. I didn’t know what he was talking about, since I assumed we were talking about Liam.

“What?” I asked, hoping he would clear up what he had just said.

It made me uneasy that he had mentioned my mother.

Dylan hadn’t allowed my mom to be part of the pack?

“I know she’s your mom, Leila. But she’s dangerous. After your dad die, she went off her rocker. Imagine if she would’ve done to our pack, what she did to Jake. Wolves died, by her hands.”

I shook my head to try and clear my thoughts. I was hoping I had heard Jace wrong, even though his words couldn’t have been any clearer.

“My mom attacked Jake’s pack?” I softly asked.

Jace nodded, looking confused by my question.

“Where is she?” My voice was shaky, and I could feel a tremble taking over my body.

My Wolf was begging me to shift more than she had done before.

“You and Dylan weren’t fighting about this?” Jace asked, getting up from the couch, like if it had burned him.

I shook my head at him. Tears were flooding my eyes and making my vision blurry.

“Shit,” Jace said under his breath.

I heard the front door slam shut just then. It was Dylan. Not only could I smell his scent, but I felt his presence making his way over to me.

When Dylan stepped into the room, his eyes zeroed in on me. It took just a second for him to make his way towards me.  

“Are you okay?” He asked, cupping my face with his hands.

He was only wearing a pair of shorts, no shirt and he was barefoot. I assumed he had shifted into his Wolf.

I turned to face Jace, who had taken a few steps away from me. He was standing defensively, looking at Dylan with caution.

“I thought you had told her,” Jace said, regretfully.

Dylan closed his eyes, and he clenched his jaw, but this time, he didn’t run away. He wrapped his arms around my waist, and pressed me closer to his chest.

“Where is she?” I repeated the question, very much aware that Dylan would know who I was referring to.

Dylan looked uncertain. He didn’t want to tell me about my mom. He wasn’t outright saying it out loud, but I could see it in his eyes.

“Tell me!” I cried, pushing him away from me. “What happened to my mom?”

“After she attacked her pack,” Dylan said, but he didn’t finish.

“She wouldn’t just attack. My mom isn’t like that. She’s peaceful. She doesn’t fight with other Wolves!”

“She lost her mate, Leila. Everyone takes that differently. Your mother didn’t take it too well,” Dylan slowly said, in a serious voice.

He tried to take a step closer to me, but I growled at him, and put more distance between us. My Wolf was surfacing. Mate or not, she was feeling as edgy as I was. 

“Where is she? I want to see her,” I demanded.

“Leila, she killed shifters, members from her own pack.”

“Just please, tell me where she is,” I begged in a softer voice.

Dylan was silent. He got the same dark look he had before, when he first arrived at the mansion.

“Jake had to take her down,” Dylan replied.

“What do you mean by that?” I nervously asked.

I knew what his words meant, but I was hoping, praying that he was going to say something else.

“He killed her.”

The tears poured out uncontrollably by then. I could feel my bones popping, rearranging themselves for the shift, but I wouldn’t let them. It hurt to stop the shift from happening, but I kept fighting it.

I didn’t want to shift. I wanted to kill Jake.

As much as I fought it, I couldn’t stop it. My body ended up shifting, and my Wolf took control.

Dylan was talking to me, his words sounding very much like orders. I couldn’t tell exactly what he was saying, because I was past the point of comprehending anything human.

My Wolf had completely had taken over. While she gave me time to shut down, to cry, she was craving blood.

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*Jake is Alpha Jackson's son. He is now the Alpha of Staten Pack, the pack Leila used to belong to.