Chapter 15

Kai

The thick leather of the office chair creaked under my weight as I shifted, my mind was a whirlwind of conflicting thoughts. The heavy mahogany desk before me held a mountain of reports, each a silent testament to the complexities of ruling a pack. Yet, none of it held my attention.

My fingers drummed a restless rhythm on the polished wood but it did little to dispel the growing tension in the room.

"I'm sure they'll be here soon. Rowan just texted me," Rhys said, trying to sound as reassuring as he could, but I only sighed heavily before looking away.

Rowan and Smith were almost an hour late for our meeting. I had called for an official, but private meeting between the four of us so that we could handle pressing matters without dragging the rest of the council officials in. Now, however, I had half a mind to cancel the entire thing. Just before I could speak again, the door was suddenly pushed open to reveal Rowan.

"You're late," I said as Rowan strolled into the office. My voice was raised but it didn't seem to faze him in the least because he simply flashed his teeth at me in a smile like something was supposed to be funny.

"Well, it seems I'm not the last one here yet so I would say I'm early enough," he responded snarkily, grinning even wider. Beside me, Rhys chuckled, which grated on my nerves.

"It's not a joke Rowan. Where were you anyway? And where's Smith?" I asked. Rowan was about to respond when the door was pushed open once more to reveal a flushed Smith.

"Sorry I'm late. I got caught up in market gossip…" He trailed off when he noticed the somber looks around the table and instead moved to take a seat. I rolled my eyes at them both before plucking up a piece of paper from in front of me.

"Any new topics to be discussed before we go into reports?" I asked as my eyes ran over the paper in my hand.

"Well, an Omega was sighted at the market today, and like I said, the gossip is going around the pack like wildfire. It was enough to make me lose track of the time," Smith said with a laugh, but my heart dropped into my stomach at his words. I raised my eyes to meet his.

"When you say an Omega was sighted, you mean Elara right?" For some reason, my voice was shaky when I spoke, and it caused Smith to frown.

"Yeah, of course I mean Elara. What other Omega do you know? But she was safe, and no one tried to harm her or anything. The women were mostly curious and amazed at the sight of her. You know her presence here has mostly been a rumor and…" Smith was saying but I cut him off.

"Safe? The moment she steps out of the pack house she's no longer safe! Where were the guards at the gate when she left? I gave specific orders to make sure she never left the house unsupervised. How did she even get to the market? Wh…"

"She was safe because she was with me," Rowan interrupted and I snapped my head in his direction, my anger brewing beneath my skin.

"You took her out of the house?" I asked, my voice calm but cold.

"She wanted to go to the market with Rose."

"Rowan, do you realize how dangerous that was? Do you even understand how delicate this situation is? Have you forgotten Daniel's reaction and that there may be several others who might impulsively react like that to her presence?"

"Yes Kai, yes. I understand how delicate this situation is, and that is why I took her to the market and got her back home safely. She wanted to go to the market, Kai, not the training grounds filled with raging testosterone or the council meeting. The women there were mostly curious about her, and none thought to even ask any questions. Plus, even if there happened to be an attack, I was there, was I not? Except of course, you're insinuating that you don't think that I'm fit to protect her."

I could hear the hint of anger in Rowan's voice and it prevented me from responding immediately. Because he was right. Elara wasn't a prisoner in this pack and she was free to go wherever she pleased, but I worried about her safety. I had a strong desire to protect her. But I should also realize that it was the same for Rowan and Rhys. They were both very capable of taking care of her.

I slumped back in my chair, sighing heavily before picking back up the piece of paper I had dropped. This past week had been the toughest one I'd had in a long time and that was saying something, considering that my responsibilities usually were stressful.

It had been a week since her heat and a week since the last time we both encountered each other, and even as I sat here in the conference room, the memory of her raw vulnerability, the way she had clung to me, was a brand seared into my mind, leaving me craving so much more. Yet, since then, she had retreated further into her shell and it made frustration gnaw at me.

Rhys cleared his throat. "I'll start with the reports. I organized some communal activities to make up for the pack hunt that didn't happen last week. The full moon is already past, we can't hold the hunt anymore, and there has been some…unrest concerning that issue as expected, but with the upcoming activities, there's plenty to plan and look forward to. Things seem calmer and everybody seems to be in happier spirits."

"Which brings us to the Harvest Feast. It's still months away, but if we shift the planning to start earlier, we might be able to appease the council. Some of them really did not take well to the cancellation of the hunt, and I think we might need more than some communal activities to get them to settle. These men are blood-thirsty Alphas, and the hunt provides that thrill. Now that it has been taken away, they need something worthwhile to satisfy that craving," Smith said, and a hum of approval went up in the air.

Although I nodded, my mind was distracted and the drone of voices in the conference room as they gave report after report on each segment of our business barely registered in my brain. My mind whirled with thoughts of my mate, just like it had been all week.

Now it wasn't just the unanswered questions about her past, or the unsettling whispers about her origins that had begun to circulate through the pack. Now it felt like it was more than that, and it was evident in the way she had looked at me, Rhys, and Rowan. She acted like we had hung the very moon during her heat, but almost immediately after her heat ended, she had almost disappeared. All that I had to go on was just glimpses of her shadow as she flitted through the halls, determined to avoid us.

I had spent the entire week trying to figure out what must have gone wrong. Did she regret what had transpired between us? Did the idea of a bond with all three of us terrify her enough to push her away?

I'd had to resist the urge to seek her out and force her to tell me what the problem was. I knew that I couldn't afford to scare her even more. So, I tempered my actions and played along with her needs, but it was getting more difficult to conceal the storm raging within me, especially after hearing about her little escapade with Rowan. Maybe that's why I had been so angry about it. It wasn't because I didn't think he couldn't protect her as well as I could. It was because I had felt a pang of jealousy go through me just hearing that he had spent the day with her.

Suddenly, Rowan's voice cut through the haze that had surrounded me. "There's been some…unrest in the neighboring pack. My men reported some unusual activities close to our borders," he said and a prickle of irritation rose in my spine.

"We need to focus on solidifying our defenses across each of our borders to make sure that they don't come into our territory," I said and a tense silence followed.

Finally, Rhys spoke again, his voice low. "I understand your desire to maintain order and I support you a hundred percent, but perhaps we ourselves have to delve deeper into everything. Especially into the mark. It might hold a clue about her true origins. Elara doesn't remember where she's from, so she can't give us what we need. Maybe it's time we find it ourselves on her behalf and for all our safety. If we don't know yet what we're dealing with then I think it's wise we treat it like a threat."

I wanted to argue, to tell him to drop it, but a traitorous part of me acknowledged their concern. What if there was more to Elara than even she could remember? What if, beyond the prophecy, there was something else to her mark? What if the bond we shared had some other kind of significance?

"Fine," I conceded grudgingly. "But we do it discreetly. No need to cause unnecessary panic." I could feel a headache start to form behind my eyelids, and I wanted nothing more than to dismiss this meeting and head home.

"If that's all, I think we can…" I began saying, but Rowan interrupted me before I could get the rest of the words out.

"The mate bond, Kai. It's been almost a month now. Sooner or later, we'll have to address it," he began.

"We can't keep having these meetings where we discuss everything in detail but skirt around the topic and eventually ignore it like it doesn't exist," Rhys added and every muscle in my body tensed.

"There's nothing to address," I said, my voice clipped. Rowan leaned forward in his seat to look at me.

"Kai, we are the pack leaders. We happen to be mated to this one girl. Just one girl, out of every option that could be available or out of all the possibilities that could have happened. Fate somehow tied us to her. This isn't even about the mark or the prophecy anymore. The intensity of what we share is more than anything we've ever encountered. I've seen you with her, I've seen Rhys with her and you both have seen me with her. This mate bond between us blazes like no other. We can't ignore it any longer. We need to acknowledge it. Only then can we take the right steps forward," Rowan urged, and I raised my eyes to meet his.

"There's nothing to address. This meeting is over," I said, ignoring the look that passed between Rowan and Rhys and instead focusing on arranging the heaps of paper in front of me into piles so it made my work easier.

As Rowan and Smith filed out, Rhys lingered. The idiot was too stubborn for his own good and even as I continued to ignore him and pretend to focus on what I was doing, I could feel his stare boring a hole into my skull. Eventually, I raised my eyes to meet his gaze with a heavy sigh.

"What do you want, Rhys?" I asked, and he smirked, an action that grated on my nerves. I remained quiet, waiting for his response.

"I was hoping you would ignore me for longer. It's good to know that my stare is still as powerful as ever," he said teasingly and I rolled my eyes. "You can't let your emotions cloud your judgment, Kai. None of us have ever experienced anything like this before and we're all trying to figure it out, but we need to do it together. We need to be on the same page if we ever plan on moving forward," he said, his tone turning serious.

I respected Rhys and Rowan and valued their opinions more than anyone else's. We had been ruling together for a long time now and had gone through several challenges together. However, for the first time, I felt alone, which was weird because we were going through the exact same thing together and all at once too.

With a defeated sigh, I pulled myself to my feet. "Not right now, Rhys. We'll talk about this some other time. Please," I responded, and although disappointment flickered on Rhys' face, he nodded in understanding.

Exhaustion settled over me like a leaden cloak as I made my way home. I wanted nothing more than a warm shower and some sleep.

"Good evening, Alpha Kai," Rose greeted me the moment I walked through the door and I frowned, pulling my phone out of my pocket to check the time. It was pretty late already.

"Why are you still up Rose? It's quite late. Go to bed," I said as I moved toward the stairs.

"I wanted to be sure that you ate dinner, Alpha Rhys. Would you like me to bring it up to your room?" she asked and I shook my head.

"Rhys and Rowan are both on patrol tonight, so they won't be coming home and I don't feel very hungry. Thank you for your efforts, but you can go to bed now."

I made my way up the stairs, fully intent on going to bed, but I lingered when I got to the hallway. Soon I found myself outside Elara's room, my hand hovering over the knob. I longed to hold her, to chase away the shadows that clouded her beautiful eyes, but the fear of rejection held me back. It was a bitter pill that I forced myself to swallow.

With a defeated sigh, I turned toward my own room, but just before I could take another step, a bloodcurdling scream shattered the silence in the house and every muscle in my body coiled with primal instinct.

Elara.

I burst into her room, my heart pounding a frantic rhythm against my ribs. Elara sat wide-eyed and frightened on the bed, her face pale and tears streaming down her cheeks. Relief washed over me when I realized she wasn't hurt, at least not physically, and I rushed to her side, gathering her into my arms. She clung to me when I reached out for her, and I noticed how her body trembled.

"Elara!" The warmth of her body seeped into mine as I held her momentarily grounding me. Her scream had faded, leaving behind ragged gasps for breath.

"What happened? Are you okay?" My voice was a rough whisper, all the anger that I had accumulated in the last week forgotten within a twinkle of an eye in the face of her distress.

She shook her head, unable to speak. Her body continuously trembled, a silent testament to the terror that gripped her. Without another word, I scooped her into my arms and carried her to my room. Gently, I laid her on the bed, and for a split second, the image of her naked and spread open on my bed filled my mind, but I shook my head gently to clear it.

The moonlight streaming through the window cast an ethereal glow on her face, highlighting the remnants of tears clinging to her lashes.

It took a while before she could speak, her voice raspy with fear. "A nightmare," she finally managed. "A horrible nightmare."

"It's okay. I'm here now and you'll always be safe with me," I promised quietly, and she nodded her head, squeezing my hand that she now had a death grip on.

I held her close, stroking her hair, my touch a silent promise of safety. Slowly, her ragged breathing calmed, replaced by the soft rise and fall of her chest. My gaze lingered on her trembling lips, and I fought the urge to kiss her. As I watched her sleep, a wave of protectiveness washed over me. It was so fierce it almost scared me.

Suddenly, a vibration began in my pocket, sending a jolt through me that ripped me from his reverie. I pulled my phone out of my pocket to find Rowan's name flashing across the screen. It made me frown, but I answered the call. His voice came through sharp and urgent.

"Kai, there's been a breach at the northern border. We need you there, now!"