“Doesn’t matter. Alek doesn’t agree. And he never will. He thinks I let your mom die.” Wrath stood and inched closer to the bars, “so this is our great destiny now.”
“Can I speak to my brother? Can he hear me? Is… is he hurt?”
“No. No, and no,” Wrath lied, sort of.
“Wrath. I disobeyed a direct order from my alpha to risk coming here. I gambled on a lot. I did it because I wanted to prove to Justice that you’re not evil and we need to work—”
“EVIL?! DID I SEND HIS MATE TO AN EARLY GRAVE?”
Mac growled as the heat intensified. Instinctively protecting himself, Mac pushed a ton of virtuous energy into him that made Wrath stutter on his last thought—which was to kill Justice Volkov.
Wrath, calm down, Alek snapped. You’re hurting him when you yell. Feel that goodness from him, don’t reject it. Mac means us no harm. He’s trying to connect with you. Open up a little more so you can feel his wolf, and I promise the last thing you’ll want to do is hurt him, Alek begged. Your job is to protect us, not hurt us.
Now Alek wanted to believe that Wrath wasn’t public enemy number one and that there was some civility in him. How convenient. But Wrath wasn’t fooled by the temporary cooperation. They didn’t want to make an honest deal with him. All Alek wanted was for Wrath to shut up and retreat back to the shallows of their being where he’d always been, while he and Wolf plummeted headfirst into their doom.
The bold animal in front of him was still pushing a lot of power at him, but it wasn’t similar to the kind he’d been hit with by the Alpha Zenith. It wasn’t the type of energy that made him want to react in a bad way. That made him want to rage against it. No, this was different… special… a different kind of warmth than he was used to. Wrath let his eyes fall closed, dropped his head and inhaled Mac’s energy. Immediately, he sensed the wholesomeness. Irrefutably decent. There was no way to fake that.
“I’m sorry. It got a little hot in here and I suppose I got nervous for a moment. But I wasn’t afraid.” Then Mac shook out his fur, the strands appearing slightly darker from the dampness of his perspiration. “Whew! Damn, it’s fuckin hot. But, I know you get that way when you’re upset.”
“I have every right to be mad. Belleron is gone and Justice should pay.”
“I’m not saying you don’t have reason to be pissed. But you’re projecting in the wrong direction. I’ve never met my true mate, but I suppose if I did, I’d never want her to leave my side either. But that’s not reasonable, Wrath. I think you reacted like any other possessive shifter would’ve.” Mac snarled, “But Justice didn’t run your mate off… you did. From your argument, it sounded to me like the Lord High Belleron is more alpha than you thought. He won’t submit until you earn it. Mating goes both ways… not only your way.”
Wrath seethed. His chest rose and fell with hot breaths of outrage, but he didn’t send out his power. He couldn’t when Mac was only telling the truth, but not in such an accusatory way as Alek had. It appeared to be a consensus that he couldn’t force Belleron to do anything, and when he’d tried, it’d infuriated him to the point of absolute rebelliousness. Maybe it wasn’t too late to fix this mess… and Bell could possibly give them another shot… if he showed a bit of… patience. Wrath scowled at the dainty, useless word.
Mac shifted and stood before him on two strong, tanned legs. His abs rippling and dripping with tiny beads of sweat as he bent over and placed his hands on his thighs, panting against the dry heat. “Shit. It’s like a desert in here. You’ve got to come out now, Wrath. Wolf. All of you. Now that I know you are still in there, let me help. I know Alek. And I remember how you all were before when we were younger. You and my brother were one. I remember. I remember thinking Alek could do anything.” Mac gasped for air, “I always wondered how Alek started the campfires so damn fast all the time.”
Wrath remembered those times, too.
Mac wiped at his damp brow, then ran his hand over the scruff on his stern jaw. “Wrath. You’ve been gone for hours. It’s almost ten at night. I need Alek. I need to speak to him, now. Or, I can trust you the same way you’ve trusted me when you dropped some of your shield to let me in. I’m vulnerable here like this, but I believe you truly don’t want to harm me. And… I believe you’re the only one that can help Belleron right now.”