Chapter 3

Alex

I rub my hand over Sophia's mark.

It's throbbing.

She's upset with me. I wish it was just anger that she felt, but I can sense the hurt that I caused.

I keep thinking that with every milestone we cross in our relationship, things will just get smoother from here. But I can't seem to stop being making an ass of myself. Compared to me, Sophia seems more emotionally mature when it comes to us. There is a steadiness within her that I can't seem to grasp.

I survived a long time on my own before you came along.

The moment she uttered those words, an overwhelming fear had risen within me. Because if she were to complete that sentence and tell me that she could survive very well without me, it would have broken my heart. But even in her anger, she held back the cruel words that she had every right to say.

I make my way to Grace's room to check in on her. Elsa is sitting by her bedside.

I've not given up on her mother.

Have I?

I stare at the comatose woman.

But then maybe Sophia is right. Perhaps I have given up on her mother Maybe that's why accepting Elsa's words at face value was so easy. But…I should never have confided in Elsa first. I should've gone straight to Sophia. After all, it was her mother's life on the line. Who are we to make decisions for her?

"Everything all right?" Elsa looks up at me.

I close the door behind me and lean against it, my hands in my pockets.

"Is it ever? I hurt her. Again. Can't seem to stop sticking my foot in my mouth."

Elsa studies me. "Sophia?"

"She says I should have gone to her when the representative from the Central Alliance approached me. That I shouldn't have kept that conversation a secret from her."

Elsa's expression grows tense. "It was for her own good. There's no point in giving her false hope. They will not help."

"This isn't about your bias against them, Elsa," I say abruptly, shutting her up.

Her face turns white.

"I'm not biased…"

"It's been twenty years since you reached out to them, Elsa," I respond, feeling even more foolish over my decision. "Twenty years is a long time. A lot of things have changed. Sophia is a Silver Wolf who is no longer in touch with her roots. There's a chance they would have wanted to connect with her. Don't you think so?"

Elsa opens her mouth and then snaps it shut before looking away. "Do you think they would help Sophia when they abandoned her as an infant? When they cast me out of my own coven when they didn't even have the right to do so? They will never help her."

Maybe Elsa doesn't see the hatred within her, but I see it.

My heart sinks.

What have I done?

I let myself be influenced by her and, in the process, made a grave mistake.

Elsa looks disappointed. "I know you don't believe me, but I have lived in the Central Alliance for most of my life. I was around nineteen when I left that place. You don't know how they treated the Silver Wolves there. There has always existed one Silver Wolf in each generation. The way they were treated was atrocious. They had no autonomy. Their decisions were made for them. They were like caged birds, fed and cared for, but with no right to make even a single decision for themselves. Their mate, the number of children they were allowed to have, the amount of time they could spend with their mate, it was all decided by their caretaker."

Tension fills me at her words. It doesn't sound like a very comfortable life.

"Even if they agree to help Grace," Elsa saysgrimly, "it would come at a great price. They might even force Sophia to stay with them. They can force the two of you apart as well. You don't know them like I do. This is not bias, Alex. This is experience."

Maybe she's right. Maybe they're not trustworthy. But the person who should've made that choice is my mate. Not me and Elsa.

"Be as that may," I say, heavily. "It should have been her decision. This is her mother's only chance right now. You cannot expect Sophia not to take it."

"Of course I don't expect her not to take it!" Elsa says, angrily. "But the cost is too high. I have to protect her. This is what her mother would have wanted."

I run my fingers through my hair, wishing I knew the right thing to say.

"Either way, she knows now, and she sees it as a betrayal that we kept this from her."

There's a stubborn glint in Elsa's eyes. "We were doing this for her. She doesn't know the world the way we do. We need to protect her."

Even though I want to agree with her, Sophia is also right.

"If she wants to talk to the leader of the Central Alliance, then I'll go with her," I decide. "I'll discuss with her what to expect, and we'll handle the situation accordi…"

"You don't understand!" Elsa gets to her feet with a growl. "She should never go there. Why are you deliberately putting her in harm's way? We have to keep her safe!"

"She's not a child anymore, Elsa." I raise my voice, mimicking my mate's words. "We keep treating her as somebody we have to protect when she's more powerful than both of us. If anything, Sophia needs our support, not our protection."

It's obvious Elsa disagrees, but then again, she's looked after Sophia for so long that maybe it's hard for her to believe that the young teenager she helped raise is now capable of making her own decisions.

"She needs guidance," she argues with me. "Sophia is somebody who will dive headfirst into a situation without thinking of the consequences."

"Then I'll be there to think of the consequences." I retort. "I don't want to damage my relationship with her, Elsa."

"Her safety comes before your relationship."

"Yes, it does." I agree with her. "But she will never be happy if we treat her the same way the Central Alliance treats the Silver Wolves."

My words have Elsa startling back, shock written all over her face.

"I am not…"

"We are," I murmur, feeling guilty. "I understand that she has a reckless streak, but it's not my job as her mate to protect her from the consequences of her choices. Instead of controlling her decisions, it would be better to discuss things with her."

Elsa looks towards where her friend is lying and shakes her head. "I promised Grace I would protect Sophia. I need to keep my word."

I realize that arguing with the older woman is pointless. But Elsa is no longer in a position to force Sophia to do anything, not that she has done so before. While I understand her concern, Sophia was right. There is an imbalance of power between us, but she's not using it against me even though she can. Instead, she's fighting to keep me on equal footing with her. I owe her this much.

*****

We still have a few hours to leave, but I can't find Sophia anywhere. Assuming that she's avoiding me, I get theremaining soldiers together and begin gathering some food items for the journey to the South Alliance. My heart feels heavy. Leaving the North is harder than I had imagined.

But Sophia belongs to the South now, and I won't leave my mate.

However, when the sun sets, there's still no sign of Sophia, and I begin to worry.

I try to search for her using our bond, but it seems she has blocked me. A wave of panic and worry wash over me. Why would she do that? No matter what kind of fight we had, surely it could not have been so bad that she needs to block off her emotions from me.

I don't get time to dwell too much on my worried thoughts, however, because I see her walking toward the guest house, next to Dorian. It occurs to me that I've not seen the Alpha of the Greyson Wolf Pack either since Sophia stormed off.

An unpleasant feeling forms in the pit of my stomach as I approach them.

"Where are the two of you coming from?"

Dorian exchanges a look with Sophia before replying. "We went to see if we could get a hold of the representatives of the Central Alliance. Sophia wanted to speak to them."

I stare at my mate, who is deliberately not meeting my gaze. "Why didn't you take me with you?"

Instead of replying, she just walks past me.

Dorian looks uncomfortable. "I don't want to get between whatever is going on with you two…"

I growl at him. "You had no business going anywhere with my mate."

The Alpha bristles. "I wouldn't have had to, but she approached me to ask for a favor."

The insult that I feel is one thing, but the hurt is another thing. She didn't even trust me enough to ask me to go with her. Did she think that I would try to stop her?

"Well?" I look at Dorian, irritated. "Did you meet them?"

He shakes his head. "They left earlier today. We tried to follow after them, but it was pointless."

"I see."

He tries to walk away from me, but I put my hand over his shoulder, my claws digging into his skin as a warning. "She may be the Queen of the South and a powerful witch in her own right, but at the end of the day, Dorian, she is still my mate. Next time learn to say no. Or I can make life very difficult for your pack."

Dorian stares at me.

Removing my hand, I make my way to where Sophia is standing by the soldiers.

"You should've told me."

"I saw no need to tell you anything." Her voice is frigid. The only time she behaves like this is if I do something really hurtful. I want to talk to her, to sort things out between us. But I know Sophia well enough to tell when she's ready for a conversation and when she just wants to marinate in her anger. Right now, it's the latter.

I'll approach her when she's ready to talk. When we talk, I will probably also find out the extent of the damage I caused to our relationship. That's not a conversation I'm looking forward to.

I don't think there's anything wrong with getting protective over my mate. But Sophia is not just my mate now. She's had a huge responsibility thrust upon her shoulders. She's frantic over her mother, who's dying. She was betrayed by someone she had begun to consider a close friend. She lost somebody dear to her.

Maybe it was my behavior that was the tipping point for her.

I need to give her some space.

I make my way over to where Elsa is waiting with two of my soldiers. One of them is carrying my mother-in-law in his arms. Shifting into my wolf form, I bend down, and the soldier hesitates.

I understand his hesitation. After all, an Alpha carrying anyone is considered an act of submission. But the situation is different. I refuse to trust Sophia's mother to anybody else.

Reluctantly, he puts on the harness, and once he does, he adjusts Grace on my back in a way that won't hurt her when I run.

We leave quietly, Sophia in her human form, sitting on the back of one of my soldiers, who is running alongside me. As much as I don't like the idea of her touching another male, I don't have a choice right now.

Once we reach the edge of Dorian's territory, we see the group of Alphas of the South Alliance waiting for us. They look at me in surprise, staring at the woman on my back. I'm taken aback when Sophia comes to stand beside me, her eyes tense. They immediately look away.

"I'm still pissed at you," she mutters.

I lick her cheek.

The journey back to the border of the South Alliance is a long one. We are far away from the border and it will take us at least two weeks to get there. Sophia shifts into her wolf form once we cross Dorian's border and the Alphas with us admire her form openly. I snarl at them in response.

However, they don't seem to feel very threatened by my anger. In retaliation, I step in front of Sophia, daring them to take me on. That has them backing off.

It's not surprising that the other Alphas are showing some interest in Sophia. Wolf shifters, especially Alphas, are hardwired to seek out strong mates. Sophia, even though she has a mate, is an incredibly powerful shifter. But I'm not going to tolerate just anybody looking at her with even the slightest hint of curiosity.

She's mine.

Brian WolfFang is treating her with respect, and when he talks to her, it seems to be more with the intent of guiding her than anything. But the other Alphas aren't worried about me. Most likely because I'm wearing Sophia's mating mark, and she's not wearing mine. I still haven't had the time to figure out what that means for us. But clearly, in the eyes of the other Southern Alphas, she's fair game.

Fortunately, Sophia doesn't seem very interested in anybody else. Although she's angry with me, all her attention is on me. It's amusing. Almost. Even when she wants to punch me, she never seems to remove her attention from me entirely.

We travel in silence for a full day, running without a break. By the end of the night, we all have to come to a stop. My soldiers instantly surround our campsite, covering all our vulnerable spots. Two of the Alphas head out to hunt down some meat. I send five of my soldiers with them. Despite the disrespect toward me personally, the Alphas can't seem to help but admire my soldiers.

I'm settling Sophia's mother onto comfortable bedding, Elsa fussing over her, when Brian approaches me.

"How did you train your soldiers?"

He seems genuinely curious.

"What do you mean?" I let Sophia and Elsa take over, straightening up to face the former King of the South.

He glances toward the tight formation of thirty of my men standing at attention around the campsite, creating a wall around us. The rest of them are resting, ready to take over in the next four hours. "That discipline. I mean we have our own squadrons, but nothing like this."

I give him a grim smile. "I watched the humans. I learned from them. The human military is one of the most disciplined forces in the world. I sent my men there when they were young. They attended military schools, they were part of the military, and after they were fully seasoned, they got honorable discharges and returned to the pack, where they continued to train others. Every single member of my squadrons is extremely disciplined. Just because we're shifters doesn't mean we always have to bend to our nature to subdue the enemy. There's far more we can do."

Brian looks hesitant. "So, you're training them like humans?"

I bare my teeth at him. "Humans are far more violent than we imagine. They don't need much of an excuse to hurt each other and they're quite creative. I sent in my men to learn all their techniques. In my army," I use the word deliberately, "even the most physically challenged soldier is still capable of creating unimaginable havoc. So you can imagine how easy it would be for me to annihilate a couple of shifter packs. My people don't have to use their claws to shed blood."

Brian shudders visibly before glancing toward my mate, who is sitting by her mother. "Does Sophia know all this?"

I shrug. "I never saw the need to tell her. But I will if she asks me. My army is now hers. My people are hers."

Brian is silent for a few seconds before he murmurs. "It seems you're good at hiding your true face, Alpha Stone."

He's called me Alex so far. The respect in his voice doesn't escape me.

I give him a cool smile. "Only a foolish man reveals all his cards. You've just noticed the one I'm holding out."

"I believed that you were lucky to have the Silver Wolf as your mate," Brian looks toward her, his voice quiet. "But now, I can safely say that she is just as lucky. No wonder you didn't care much about the Alpha role. You are anincredibly powerful figure."

I don't respond to his words.

"There is something that's bothering me," he suddenly says. "If you had all these assets at your disposal, why didn't you go after Karina immediately? And why did you show up with just a few hundred soldiers at the banquet hall?"

My face tightens. "She had our children in her control. I had the manpower, but needed a witch. And even after Sophia removed the magic linking our pups to Karina's soldiers, there were still the lives of all the other shifter pups in the North Alliance to think of. She could've killed them in retaliation to turn the packs against me. And even if she didn't, I wouldn't have been able to live with myself, having all that blood on my hands. As for the banquet, I didn't have time to recall all of my soldiers. I took a risk. The other squadrons were on the way."

Brian arches his brows at my words. "I see. And how many squadrons do you have at your disposal? How many men arein one squadron? If you don't mind me asking."

I give him a steady look. "I have enough. And it's five hundred men per squadron, or unit, as I call them."

The alpha's expression tightens and when he walks away, I can tell he's troubled. He has every right to be worried.

After a few minutes, Sophia approaches me. "What was Brian saying to you?"

Her arms are wrapped around herself, her posture defensive and hostile. She's still mad at me.

"He wanted to tell me that I was lucky to have you as my mate."

She bristles. "That's not his business."

I smile lightly. "I was kidding. We were discussing something else. How's your mother doing?"

She glances toward where Grace is lying. "She's fine. You were careful with her when you were running."

Under the anger is a streak of gratitude, apparently.

"She's your mother, Sophia. She's important to you."

I want to broach the topic of the fight with her, but there are too many eyes on us right now. I don't want the others to know that Sophia isn't happy with me right now.

When the two Alphas return from their hunt, they look irritated. I soon find out the reason why.

My soldiers are right behind them, dragging two deer carcasses behind them. My men dump the deer in front of the fire and begin skinning them. The two Alphas have empty hands, and when I see my two soldiers smirking, I realize they showed the two leaders up.

"What happened?" I ask them in a low voice, approaching them.

One of the soldiers snickers. "They were too slow."

He removes the deer's hide, taking out a small packet from his pocket to season the meat. The two alphas shoot them dirty looks before heading off to a corner somewhere.

"What's wrong with them?" I hear Sophia ask Elsa, who just chuckles.

"They lost a dick-measuring competition. Pay no mind to them."

That's when I realize that Elsa has been paying more attention than I thought. My soldiers move quickly, accustomed to preparing meals in the wild, and the meat is seasoned and placed on the fire to cook right away. The other Alphas look even more irritated by this. By the time we all sit down to eat, one of them tries to bring Sophia some food, but my soldiers have already given me her portion, which she's eating.

Elsa is right. As I stare at the two Alphas, I smile at them, darkly. My dick will always be bigger than theirs, and they realize that.

It doesn't matter whether I wear Sophia's mark or she wears mine. It will never change the fact that her heart belongs to me. Even sulking, she still chooses to sit near me and share some of her food with me.

I make sure she has enough to eat.

Once everyone retires, my soldiers are still onduty. Sophia seems to be unable to sleep, a restlessness exuding from her. She's twisting and turning on the ground near her mother. I'm leaning against one of the trees, watching her. Once the Alphas are out like a light, I get to my feet and hold out my hand to her. She stares at me and hesitates. Elsa, who is also leaning against a tree, her eyes closed, murmurs, "Nothing's going to happen to your mother. Go with him."

My mate hesitates. But I've had enough. Picking her up easily because she weighs next to nothing, I drop her on my shoulder like a bag of potatoes and begin walking.

To her credit, she doesn't scream, waking everybody up in the vicinity. Instead, she pounds on my back with a fist. The blows are weak. That's another thing I've noticed. Sophia is physically weaker than me. I doubt she could even take on one of my soldiers. It's a little worrying, but I've seen her fight. She may lack the strength, but she's a sneaky fighter who plays dirty. Perhaps that's due to her time as a cage fighter.

I see a few of my men get up to follow us, but I give them a discreet shake of the head. I need time alone with my mate.

I know the North quite well, so I know exactly where we are. Heading into the forest, I take a shortcut to a small hot spring in this area. We are traveling in the free zone, which is an area between territories that belongs to no one.

Once we are out of earshot, Sophia hisses, "What the hell are you doing?"

"Going on a date," I reply calmly.

"Right now?" she cries out, indignantly. "This isn't the time or place…"

"I think it is."

An outraged sound escapes her. "Put me down, Alex! I'm not going anywhere with you! You're an ass!"

"And your mate," I remind her.

"Unfortunately," she mutters.

I come to a standstill, her words piercing through me like a knife.

"You don't mean that." But I can hear the uncertainty in my own words.

Sophia is quiet for a moment before sighing. "No, I don't."

My feet don't move as I try to process this pain. "Are you sure?"

When she wriggles in my arms, I let her escape. She lands on her feet and one look at the stiffness on my face has her approaching me. "I didn't mean that."

My wolf is hurting at her careless jab.

"Maybe we should return." I turn around, feeling an emptiness within me. I can feel myself shutting her out, something I've been very careful not to do. Shutting out a mate is usually a defense mechanism of the beast residing within us. The only time I have ever shut Sophia out was when I had been forced to kill Hilda, a girl I had raised since she had been an infant, and who had betrayed the pack. I hadn't wanted my mate to feel any of the distress and anguish I had been feeling then. Tonight is the first time after that incident that I've felt this kind of pain. This time it's my wolf shutting her out.

"No!" Sophia has clearly realized she's made a terrible mistake because she blocks my path, her expression tense. "Not like this. I didn't mean it. You know I didn't."

I just stare at her, feeling numb. "It's fine."

She looks at me, her eyes distressed. "I'm sorry, Alex."

When she tries to touch my hand, I step out of her reach. The color leeches from her face as she realizes I just rejected her touch.

"Alex?"

The tremor in her voice breaks my heart.