Chapter 18 - Elena

"I'm sure they will all be back any minute," Eddie insisted, sitting at the bottom of the manor stairs, reclined on his elbows. How he could be so calm right now, Elena didn't know.

Though still recovering from all the silver, she had healed a great deal, and the wounds weren't showing anymore. Inside, though, she was in turmoil. Outside, she paced up and down the entryway of the manor, half-tempted to dart back out before Eddie could stop her.

Every time she closed her eyes, all she could see was Hanson being dragged down under those three vicious wolves.

All she could remind herself was, he's ex-military. He knows how to fight.

But even a guy in the military could lose against three opponents.

Elena didn't respond to her brother. She just kept pacing. She was most annoyed with him and the fact he hadn't even tried to lift a finger to help.

"Would you quit pacing?" Eddie demanded. "Jack and the others know what they are doing."

"And Hanson?" Elena hissed, turning on her brother. She stopped now, glowering at him, hands balled into fists.

The urge to punch him was becoming unbearable when she heard the sound of voices coming up the hill.

They were joking, laughing even. That had to mean…

Elena grabbed the door handle and practically yanked it off its hinges in her eagerness to get it open.

Please be with them! She prayed even as she rushed out onto the porch.

"Elena, wait!" Eddie called after her but like hell she would. She had lost all respect for her brother's instructions the second he left another man to die.

"Is everyone okay?" Elena asked, examining the group up and down as she descended the porch steps.

Jack was before her immediately, gripping her forearms. "We're fine. What's the matter?"

Elena gulped hard. She sniffed. There was no scent of blood. These guys hadn't been fighting. There was no sign of Hanson. Yet, desperately, she asked, "Where is Hanson?"

The scowl that darkened Jack's face told Elena all she needed to know. He looked over her shoulder at Eddie and growled, "I thought he was with you."

Elena cringed as her brother walked down the steps and joined her.

"We ran into complications."

"Complications?" Elena blurted incredulously. She whipped on her brother, shoving him hard in the chest. "We left a packmate behind because you refused to help him!"

Eddie grabbed her arms, but she was too furious. She released herself quickly from his grip and shoved him again.

Taking a step back, Eddie narrowed his gaze and growled, "Elena, shove me one more time and so help me—"

"Enough!" Jack snapped and all fell silent. It was only then that Elena realized all the senior men of the pack had gathered around them, all save Hanson.

She shuddered. She had seen him with these guys so many times, laughing and joking and being brothers, out on the lawn and in the dining room and on patrol.

His absence pained her immeasurably. What she wouldn't give to see him disappearing around the corner of the manor right now in an attempt to avoid her.

"What happened?" Jack asked again, looking to Eddie. Elena seethed.

"We got Elena out of the barn easy enough, but three of Christopher's wolves attacked. Hanson ordered me to get Elena out of there, and so I did."

"Since when do you take orders from an omega?" Elena snarled at him. The man standing before her was no longer her brother.

"Since he was right!" Eddie hissed back at her, squaring his shoulders. "You were weakened by silver. Hell, you were so weak you couldn't even get out of my arms. They'd have ripped you apart!"

"At least we wouldn't have left a good man behind!" Elena said, vexed beyond anything she had ever felt before. She moved to shove her brother again, but Will stepped in the way.

There had been a time long ago, when she was just a young she-wolf, that she had been extremely attracted to the one often believed to be the most handsome in Jack's pack, but now he disgusted her with the way he protected her brother.

"We have to go back," Elena said, turning on Jack. If she couldn't beat the crap out of her useless brother, then she sure as hell was going to fight for Hanson.

"Is he all you care about?" Eddie said, his voice seething as much as her own.

The others glanced amongst each other. The siblings had never fought like this before. Had they really grown so far apart?

"Everyone else is here, safe," Elena said, turning on him again. "Who else am I supposed to care about? Fool!"

Eddie took an aggressive half-step forward as if to give her a taste of her own medicine, but this time it was Jack who stepped in the way.

"Elena is right," the alpha said. "We have to go back for him."

"He might be on his way back here right now!" Eddie protested.

"Sure, he might be," Jack shrugged. "He may also not be. And we don't leave a man behind."

Though angry with her brother, she did feel some sympathy for him at the guilt that swept his face when his alpha gave him the sternest look imaginable.

"Kane, go get the others," Jack instructed without so much as glancing at the tattooed wolf. "We're going to need backup."

"Backup? Christopher won't know we're coming! Who's to say Hanson isn't already gone?" Eddie asked, and Elena cringed. Her brother truly had changed.

"He gave us until sundown to have all our wolves off his territory," Jack said, glancing at the sky. Then he added, "Then he'll hunt us down and murder us without mercy."

Elena's stomach churned. The sky was already tinted orange. "That means he is still alive!"

"For now," Jack said, laying a hand on Elena's shoulder.

"If we can trust that coward's word," Eddie scoffed.

"If there is even the slightest chance that we can," Jack sighed deeply, not sounding too convinced, "then we have to go back. But first, I have to call the major and get him to sign this off."

"You have got to be fucking kidding me?" Elena blurted. Her disbelief was astounding. "Are you a true alpha, or just another damn soldier?"

Quick as a shot, Eddie darted past Will, who was still between them, and grabbed her by the chin. "You are not even a member of this pack. You will treat our alpha with respect."

She didn't even recognize her brother as he glared at her with deep-rooted anger in his eyes.

It was only when Jack laid a hand on Eddie's shoulder that he finally released her. But the two siblings continued to glower at each other until Jack said, "Elena has every right to be upset."

He then turned to her and added, "The last time we pursued an unsanctioned attack on another pack, Christopher's pack, it caused a load of trouble. I can't risk that coming down on my pack again for one man."

Elena was about to protest, but Jack cut her off as he added, "No matter how good a man he may be."

Elena's heart sank. Hanson was a good man indeed, a brilliant man, and she had never gotten the chance to tell him.