Page 21

Chapter Twenty

Talia

A fter the whole war revelation between Wes and I, we knew we had to get all of the guys together to talk about this.

All five of them are connected to me by fate and that means my destiny in this upcoming war is also theirs.

We’re intertwined through better or worse for the rest of our lives, and I really, really hope that our lives will be long.

A freaking war.

I thought everyone in the Croises were crazy, and they are, but I never could have predicted the full severity of what they were trying to do.

In all honesty, though, there was no way for me to predict the involvement of divine beings and the fight for power amongst them.

All of this struggling, bloodshed, and contempt between shifters and humans has been brewing since the beginning of time.

Somehow I’m supposed to be a part of ending it once and for all?

That’s a lot for one girl’s shoulders.

I walk into the living room and twirl my hair between my fingers for the umpteenth time since Wes told me about the legends.

I sit down on the big couch between Penn and Alaric, smiling at both of them as they press closer to me.

A quiet giggle comes out of me at the possessive, almost feral energy coming off of both of them.

It’s like being trapped in a hot, sexy sandwich that I would very much like to live in for the rest of my life.

Wes winks at me from his spot on the loveseat, the heat in his gaze enough to respark the heat from earlier.

I know we have a lot to talk about and figure out as a group, but I can’t lie and say the arousing distractions from all of them aren’t needed.

The weight sitting on me only grows heavier with time, yet the moments with my mates lighten it just a little bit.

Forrester saunters in, glaring at Drayton standing in front of the TV.

He glances at me quickly before dropping his eyes and shuffling his feet.

My heart pangs in my chest, the hurt of his dismissal of me growing deeper every day.

Pushing myself back onto the couch, I hide behind my other mates as much as possible.

A growl loudly rumbles out of Alaric, setting Wes, Penn, and Drayton off as well.

I sit up quickly, not wanting a fight to break out because I can't take the feeling of being ignored. The two beside me are already on edge with Forrester enough as it is lately, they would probably start swinging before anyone could stop them.

"Oh, fuck off." Forrester throws himself down on the spot beside Wes, rolling his eyes dramatically.

"Maybe you should fuck off out of this group," Penn growls, gripping the arm of the couch and my hand. "Why are you even fucking here if you're going to act like this?"

"I was summoned to whatever fucking bullshit this is. It's not like I want to be here," Forrester sneers, his eyes darting to look at me before dropping back down just as quickly. "Let's just get this shit over with."

"Don't be a fucking ass," Wes groans in frustration. Even he seems to be hitting his limits with the tension in the group. He sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. "You know exactly what Penn meant. Why are you still on packlands, taunting Talia, instead of being a fucking man and committing to or rejecting the bond? You're hurting our mate and none of us will tolerate it anymore."

Heartache and anger fight against each other in my chest. I love that they all want to stand up for me and defend me against whatever they see as a threat. Who could ask for more in their mates, right? It's just that, this is one fight that's making everything worse. It's not only tearing at my heart even more, it's hurting all of them. This fighting amongst themselves is weakening all of us and it needs to stop.

Shaking my head, I stand up before this goes any further, holding my hands in the air. "Look, I'm fine. We're here to discuss the Champions of Adessa and whatever the fuck is going on in the pack. The rest can be figured out later. Right now, we need to sort out the stuff we actually came here to discuss."

Drayton smiles proudly at me, and I promptly return one of my own. After a quick glare to the rest of the group, he holds out a hand for me to come to him. I happily oblige, sighing at the contact of our hands and the less aggressive atmosphere over here. He pulls me into his arms, facing me away from the group of growling men.

Drayton clears his throat loudly, and a soft, almost tangible vibration releases from his chest that instantly calms every part of me down. The growling behind me stops, the vibration seeming to calm all of them down as well. Drayton stops the sound and sighs deeply.

"Talia is right. While the situation with Forrester will need to be addressed sooner rather than later, now is not the time. We need to discuss the more imminent problems first," Drayton addresses the guys with the commanding tone. The sound of his voice makes me nuzzle deeper into his chest to soak in every ounce of him.

With a sigh, I pull back from him and move to sit on the arm of the couch by Alaric. I need to focus on the important issues that threaten shifters all over the world. Drayton and Alaric also want to update the group about the unrest in the pack. I can't focus on the way my heart is breaking just being in the room with the mate that doesn't want me.

Focus, Talia.

My eyes refuse to cooperate when I tell myself not to look over at Forrester, and I toss a glance in his direction. He's looking at me, his eyes darker than normal, the bags under them extremely prominent against his olive complexion. My fingers itch to reach out to him, my magic stirring in my soul with the urge to help him. Forrester is here for a reason, even if he refuses to tell us the reason, yet the longer he's here the more haunted he looks.

Drayton clears his throat, grabbing everyone's attention before he begins. His face is tight and somber with the stress of everything going on. "There's been some rebellion sowing in the pack for a while now, but it's come to a point that it needs to be addressed in a harsher manner. We know that Marcus has been behind most of the discord within the pack as of late. We believe he's going to attempt an insincere challenge against me for alpha, but instead of a fair fight, he will incite a rebellion to overthrow me and take the spot."

Forrester scoffs, pushing up off the couch in a flurry of movement. "Right. Everyone in my family is a villain to you. It's definitely my uncle who's causing all the bad feelings in the pack. It couldn't possibly be your own actions that caused these problems. It couldn't possibly be the fucking murder of my father causing these feelings."

"You are so fucking blinded by your own bullshit!" Penn yells, his anger palpable in the air. Penn is standing all of a sudden, and facing Forrester with his hands lifted in front of him.

Alaric tenses beside me, looking between Drayton, Penn, and Forrester with a narrowed gaze. He seems to be gauging whether to stay here in front of me, or get between Penn and Forrester. Drayton is standing starkly still, watching the two men stare each other down. Alaric shifts closer to me, his body facing them in case he needs to act.

There's so much pain between Forrester and the rest of the guys. The healer part of me wants to reach out and make it better, but the hurt mate part of me is just as frustrated and done as all the rest of my mates. The tension in the room is suffocating, and it's drawing on my inner magic to make it all go away. With everyone on edge as Drayton and Forrester glare daggers at each other, I have to fight against my very nature to let this play out.

"Yes, it is in fact your uncle that is causing this strife. He's creating lies that pack members, like you , are gobbling up and regurgitating to whoever will listen," Drayton snaps, holding his body insanely still while his breathing gets heavier and heavier.

"Lies? You're going to call them fucking lies ?!" Forrester shouts across the room, trying and failing to step past Penn. Penn uses his body to back him up, the beta side of him in full swing.

"Yes, I am. I'm so fucking tired of trying to protect your feelings on this." Drayton snaps, his voice booming out over the room. "For someone who can see the darkest, hidden parts of people, you sure are fucking shit at using your goddess given powers. I understand you were never taught. I gave you so many passes because you never had to learn. You had no expectations put on you, and honestly, it was better for your parents to have you clueless with your powers. But you grew up and still never learned!"

"Go fuc—"

Drayton cuts Forrester off, silencing him mid word. "Quiet! I'm still speaking. You got to live in your perfect golden world being spoiled fucking rotten and I loved that for you. I wanted that for you! I never wanted life to taint you the way it did me, but that meant that I had to carry the burden of abuse and expectations for both of us, our entire lives. I'm fucking done. It's time for you to wake the fuck up!"

Forrester growls loudly, attempting to push past Penn to get to Drayton who still has yet to move. Alaric and Wes are waiting with bated breath, not wanting to move and instigate an even bigger fight. I have no such reservations about pushing them further. This has gone on for far too long and needs to be dealt with.

I can feel my own frustration and anger rising up at the growing conflict in this group of men. It hasn't even been that long since I've joined the pack, but I'm already sick and tired of the fighting between them all. Pushing up to my feet, I step up to the solid wood table in the middle of the room and stand up on it.

"ENOUGH! EVERBODY SIT THE FUCK DOWN!" I scream furiously, magic shooting out of my body like a bright ball of teal light that explodes in the room. Drayton is sitting on the ground, a confused look on his face. Penn and Forrester are folded in a heap on the ground between the two couches, their limbs and bodies all tangled together. The room is deathly silent, despite the hilarious image of Penn and Forrester in a cuddly looking dogpile on the ground.

"Um, good. Ah, good job." The words tumble out in shock, my eyes jumping from mate to mate as I try to process what just happened. "You can, ah, sit somewhere not on the ground," I say to Dray, Forrester, and Penn with a grimace.

Alaric coughs to hold back a laugh as Penn and Forrester curse trying to get up. Wes smiles as he holds out a hand to the guys, helping them detangle themselves from the other. Drayton walks over to the spot I was in earlier, looking at me with a furrowed brow that makes me drop my eyes to the coffee table below me.

"What the hell was that, beautiful?" Alaric asks when everyone is better situated. The amusement dancing in his hazel eyes helps settle my unease a fraction."I don't think I've ever felt power quite like that before."

Looking up at him, I shrug one shoulder and twirl a piece of my hair between my fingers. "I'm not sure. I've never done that before."

"Was it the tension in the room that triggered it?" Penn asks once he's settled, his bright blue eyes focused solely on me.

"Probably?" I drop my hair from between my fingers and sigh. "I was just so angry and frustrated with how everyone was acting and I wanted it to stop. My magic seemed to jump out of me to try to make that happen. It seemed to create an instant calming reaction that forced everyone to stop fighting."

Wes rubs a hand over his mouth, a smile pulling up the corners of his lips. "I think that would be your Champion powers awakening. According to my research into the legends, they should become stronger now that the goddess has revealed herself to you. We're at the dawning of a war for shifter-kind, and since you're the beginning, you'll be coming into a few different powers. It's only a matter of time, I would think, before you develop the powers of healing cryosis."

Drayton sits forward suddenly, his eyes shifting between me and Wes as he purses his lips in thought. Alaric gets up, holding out a hand to help me down off the table now that the chaos has fully subsided.

"War?" Alaric growls out once he has me settled beside him, his face is stoic while his eyes blaze with angry fire. "You want to circle back to that?"

Wes looks at me briefly and I sigh. This whole conversation has gone off track from the moment it started. Before I speak, I turn to look at all five of my mates with a serious expression and make sure all of their gazes are on me.

"We need to finish talking about what's going on with Marcus and the pack before tackling the war we're fairly certain is coming. There will be no more fighting during this meeting. If you have feelings on the matter, you discuss them calmly and then deal with your negative emotions afterwards. This is serious and we need to be treating it as such."

Forrester sighs deeply, dropping his eyes and folding his arms in front of his chest. " Yes, Mom ."

Fury and heartache swirl inside of me at his blasé response. How dare he treat this like an inconvenience while also arguing he deserves to be here. His hot and cold routine with his fellow pack brothers and with me, his mate, has gone on for far too long. We just said war is coming and his immediate reaction is to be an asshole. No. Not anymore. This has to stop !

"No, Forrester. Enough," I snap sharply, done with all of the attitude from him. At my harsh tone, his eyes shoot right back up to mine, wide with surprise. "You're going to stop treating all of us this way. We're all tired of dealing with your constant bad attitude around here. If you want to leave, go pack your bags and leave, because this version of you? None of us want him around. You are either in with us, or you're out. No one is stopping you from rejecting the bond and walking away. It's time to make a goddess-damned choice."

Penn's eyes go wide, an awkward smile on his face that's part pride and part shock. Alaric smiles at me broadly, his eyes twinkling with so many emotions. Drayton and Wes both nod their heads, Drayton's expression is carefully neutral as to not provoke his brother any further.

There's a heavy silence in the room with all eyes on Forrester, waiting in anticipation for him to make his decision. My peryton is stomping in my mind, her uncomfortableness with the idea of rejection and her pain from the prolonged avoidance suffocating both of us with the intensity. My soul screams at the fading thread connecting Forrester to me. Every second that ticks by without a decision from him shreds the remains of our mate bond.

"I'm not leaving," he says after a moment, his eyes darting between me and the ground. Relief and unease settle in my heart. The shredded bond evens out, but doesn't grow any stronger because we can't trust his word even now. "I have every right to be here as much as any of these other assholes."

"Then be here," I whisper, the crack in my voice from the clog of emotions in my throat making it hard to talk. "You can't be here in body only. You need to actually be here, and part of that is dealing with your pain and your grief. You need to choose to heal from the past or we have no future."