19

"How far away are you?" I linked Stellan.

I was currently sitting in one of the pack's meeting rooms with Milo's parents as I waited for Stellan to bring him. I wanted to go get him myself, but I still wasn't entirely sure whether the couple in front of me was trustworthy or not. Besides, I trusted Stellan to get Milo here safely. If I didn't then he wouldn't have been my beta.

"I just want to say thank you," Milo's mother said, drawing my attention away from my thoughts and across the table to where she sat with her mate on her left side. "After Milo's disappearance, we did everything in our power to find him, but it was as if he'd just vanished into thin air. There was no trace of him and as the years went on, we started fearing the worse had happened. You have no idea how happy and relieved we were when we got the call saying he was okay."

I tight-lipped smile formed on my face. Her words reminded me that I still needed to deal with Solomon once this was over. He was my brother and even if we fought, I tried to remember that. However, he was proving to me that connection didn't matter to him as much as it did to me. If I let his actions continue to go unchecked then it would only cause more harm. So, even though I cared about him, I was past giving him a slap on the wrist.

His words from before replayed in the back of my mind. I knew what he was really after the alpha position. If he already viewed me as weak then what lengths would he take to get what he wanted? I wasn't willing to find out.

"I'm happy that he had someone looking for him. We've seen cases where some wolves have no one. I'm glad that wasn't the case for Milo, but if you don't mind me asking, how did he go missing in the first place?"

I watched the couple's faces as I waited for an answer. They stared at each other for s moment before Milo's father let out a cough and answered.

"Children can be difficult—especially teenagers. Milo was what you'd call...a wild child. He didn't listen well; you could tell him to do one thing and he'd do the complete opposite, you see. After a particularly bad fight, he ran out of the house and that was the last we saw of him."

"Did you go after him?" I found myself asking.

I didn't doubt that my mate was a wild child. Even now, he was a lot to handle, but I also found it hard to believe that he would have willingly gone with Alfie McClain or have made it easy for the man to catch him. There was clearly more to the story like how did Milo meet Alfie.

"Of course, we did," His mother cut in before her mate had a chance to answer. "We did go after him, but Milo can be quite stubborn. Too much for his own good at times. The more we chased, the more he ran until we lost sight of him."

I wanted to ask more questions, but the quiet knock on the door caused me to pause. I stood up from my chair and the couple's eyes followed me. I opened the door and was immediately met with the sight of my scowling mate leaning against a tired-looking Stellan.

"Thank you," I told Stellan as I gently took Milo from him. I felt a bit guilty knowing that Milo had undoubtedly given him trouble. I made a mental note to give him a break soon.

"Milo, can you tell Stellan bye?" I asked even though I likely already knew the answer.

Milo eyed Stellan blankly. "No."

Figured.

I sighed. "What he means to say is thank you, Stellan. You're free to go now."

The beta didn't need to be told twice. Milo let out a "hmph" sound as he watched Stellan leave. I rolled my eyes and briefly glanced back at his parents.

"Milo, sweetheart, there are people inside the room waiting to see you. They've traveled a long way so can you come say hi?"

Milo's brows furrowed, but to my surprise, he didn't fight me on it. Instead, he nodded so I secured my grip on him so that he wouldn't fall and turned around so that he could see into the room. I watched carefully as his eyes moved across the table until they landed on his mother's familiar ones.

"M-Milo," she called out, her voice beginning to break.

Milo's eyes didn't leave hers. I could see a large amount of emotions swirling in his brown eyes, but I couldn't tell whether they were good or bad. He didn't move toward his parents, but they wasted no time doing so instead.

In a stride, his mother closed the gap between us and she reached out to him, but that action alone seemed to knock him out of whatever trance he was in. Milo yanked himself from my grasp and before I could blink, he was stumbling his way out of the door causing my inner alarms to ring.

"Milo!" I called out as I went after him, but he didn't bother to look back. His attention was on one thing and one thing only: the exit.

I could hear the sound of the door being pushed open and Milo's mom pushed her way past me and took off toward him. I sped up as well and tried to make sense of what was happening.

I got outside and I could hear the sound of bones rearranging. I looked in the direction of them and I watched as fur sprouted from Milo and his grey wolf quickly replaced his human form. His ears flattened back and I could feel my heart start beating faster. This wasn't good. There were people out here watching not to mention his parents. Clearly, he didn't want them around which was the mother of all red flags. I needed to get to him.

His eyes darted around wildly and he let out a low growl which was enough to have the people closest to him shuffling back and giving him some space. His mother, however, didn't seem to get the memo.

"Milo!" She called out as she reached out toward him.

I pushed forward and tried to grab her and pull her back, but it proved to be futile. Before I could reach, Milo was already lunging forward and it was as if I was watching the scene in slow motion. Milo's teeth sank into her arm and everyone around seemed to go silent and stared with wide eyes.

He bit her. My mate, the one who was supposed to be the second alpha to my pack, had just bitten his own mother in front of our pack members.

A deep feeling of dread settled in the bottom of my stomach and I glanced around, taking in the mixture of expression. They were different, yet they all shared one thing in common: negativity.

And, to make matters worse, standing in the back of the crowd with dark eyes similar to my own was Solomon, only he wasn't alone. Beside him was a group of elders, one of whom was Elder Samuel. The disapproval was clear on his face. My gaze lingered on Solomon's face and even though no words were exchanged, I understood the message he was sending me.

Checkmate. He had just won.

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