trouble in the brood

Laziel Brahm

There were dark circles under Ronan’s eyes but the cuts on his face from where Caius’ wolf had scratched him had stopped bleeding.

The overhead chandelier whizzed electronically above us as wind whistled in the deathly quiet corridors.

“Of course you would say that, Ironside, everyone knows you would suck Dante’s cock if he let you.” I spat thoughtlessly, regretting the words the second they left my lips and a hurt look warped the Beta’s face.

His boyfriend tucked him behind his back protectively, but his sharp hazel eyes that had filled with hurt haunted me over his shoulder.

“How could you even say a thing like that, dumbass? I always do what is best for you all! I sacrifice a lot for each one of you fools—” Dante glowered, baring his teeth at me and stabbing one claw my way until it punctuated the air like a knife.

A harsh, bitter laugh escaped from my throat before I could stop myself and I ignored Ronan’s warning look.

“Us? Please! The only one Dante Milburn sacrifices for is himself! You would throw us to the dogs if it meant saving this bloody pack when these wolves you try to protect don't even know you like we do. They don't know the real you—” 

My voice had taken on a menacing quality that I was unused to, and blood roared in my ears when the Alpha’s eyes narrowed to slits and he cocked his head at me.

Like something I had said struck one of the many nails I imagined were lodged deep inside his chest.

Silence stretched between us and I caught the doctor shifting his weight uneasily out of the corner of my eyes.

As if he would rather have been anywhere else but here.

Well bad-fucking-luck!

I should have taken the tavern wench’s temptations and gotten myself a good night’s fuck.

But Caius would have been dead and now we were here.

“What an odd, foolish thing to say,” he spat acidly, shaking his head and I heard the doctor mutter a low curse.

“Admit it, Milburn. All this Alpha, big dog shit’s gotten into your head! Why else would you want to have him locked up in some dark cold tower like an animal when he’s done NOTHING wrong?”

I was only an octave short of screaming now, shrugging off Ronan’s restraining hold when he tried to force me back.

Someone needed to stand up to the dark-haired wolf, and if Ironside didn't have the balls to do it then I was very well going to!

“So, what do you suggest, I let him walk free looking like that? Showing up at the common rooms and sparking gossip with the servants?” The Alpha sneered, crossing his hands over his cheat and plucking up one of the books on the half-broken coffee table.

His eyes never left my face when he chucked it at me, missing by only a hair’s breadth.

“Or no, no, I know! I’ll give Winters’ wolf a seat at the council, have him explain to all twelve fucking elders how he came about the burns on his face while they all laugh about it and hold hands to fucking encourage him, are that fucking slow?” Dante cursed, baring his fangs at me as his wolf flashed in the waning moonlight.

The flames in the fireplace whooshed now, the heat of it burning the air on the back of my legs.

Slow was the curse the Alpha in my old pack had always used for me.

I opened and closed my mouth wordlessly, swallowing back the bitter lump stuck stubbornly in my throat as pain hummed through my body.

It was almost worse than the beating Caius’ Wolf had given me before we managed to get it under control, except I wouldn't have a scar to show for it.

“Milburn—” Ronan tried, but the crowned wolf held up a hand in disgust, not even bothering to spare his Beta another look.

“Your naivety has always been a problem, Laziel, but tonight, it is downright sickening,” His growl was a harsh vibrating sound that made pain stab into my heart until I staggered back, feeling the barb of it like a hangnail twisting under my flesh…throbbing just out of reach.

How could he speak to me like that?

Ruthless…Dante Milburn was even more ruthless than his old man.

“You always know how to twist the knife, Dante,” I laughed sarcastically, but the tears stood in my eyes and I refused to let them fall.

Far be it from me to cry like a wuss when he hadn't even brought out the pliers yet.

Boy, they should have him doing the rounds for the dungeon torture.

I was certain after the Alpha was done with those beasts they would become the snorting, sniveling mess I was trying hard not to be.

Something hardened and congealed in my chest as I watched him watching me, without a hint of regret on his perfectly lined face.

He was so good with his words and his delivery that he didn't understand just how much wreckage it would cause.

“You want me to tell you what the council’s going to do once they find out the shit you both have dragged me into?” Dante rumbled, voice cutting through the air like a double-edged dagger.

Ronan stiffened beside me, lowering his head, but I met Dante’s eyes head on.

What else could he say now that would be worse than the shit he already pulled out the hat tonight?

I couldn't think with my pride now, for all it was worth, I had Caius to protect.

“Let me watch over him! My quarters are big enough, heavens know I don't use nearly a half of all that space…” I tried, emflailing my hands in emphasis but the Allha shook his head once.

“Take care of him the way you two did tonight? I’m sorry, but two dead friends wasn't on my tarrot reading tonight.” He hedged, nodding to the doctor when he backed away from the now-snoring blond hunched in the corner with his face in his tree-sized laps.

“Is there a cost too big for protecting your friends, Dante? Fucks sake, its Caius! He’s not like the rest of us okay? What happened with Mara was a mistake! He wouldn't hurt anyone who didn't deserve it!” I hedged, making the Alpha turn his body fully to face me, his angular face hardening until it was almost unrecognizable.

There was only two feet of space between us, and yet it felt like he was standing directly on my lungs, crushing the puny airbags under his boot until all the air drained from it.

“The COST, Laziel Brahm, is when I get impeached from MY throne for treason against the pack, breaking pack laws, letting an infected roam free, and all after I have to execute MY best friend at the guillotine for the entire pack to see!” He bellowed, the boom of his baritone vibrating through the floors and walls until my knees were weak from standing.

“The cost is that I lose the only friends i’ve ever had and be left with nothing again while the pack my father suffered decades to build is taken over by power-humgrh ruffians and run to the ground—” He continued, and I swallowed heavily, realizing that I was nodding, overwhelmed by the depth of his emotions.

All this time, I had thought the Alpha to be a frigid son-of-a-gun, and all this time I had been wrong.

His walls were acres higher than Ronan’s and then he put a mask in front of it just to be sure.

Dante Milburn’s heart wasn't an icy wilderness…it was the swelling, heaving…withering pits of Hades itself.

“I get it…okay? Shit man—” I stammered, raising my hands in surrender but he pressed closer, almost a head taller than me and yet, somehow managing to tower over me in the domineering way only he knew best.

“I don't think you do. The only reason Mara got hurt tonight and will probably never speak to us again is because of you. Because YOU made the wrong call—” He seethed, stabbing one index into my shoulder so hard that my skin burned under its weight.

I snapped my head up to him so fast that my head spun, shaking my head when I remembered ethe way Mara’s face had scrunched up in pain not moment’s before.

“He said he gets it! Enough! Both of you! I can't fucking think with the two of you bickering like a pair of church fucking ladies—” Ronan snapped, making us both fall silent while he stood over the doctor and our blond invalid.

It was his third swear of the night, and now I was convinced miracles do indeed happen.

“Caius needs us now more than ever. We’ve all had enough excitement for the night. Keep your voices down now, or we’ll be having a lot more when the servants follow your noise—” He finished, gentling his tone when Dante turned to glare at him.

“Oh, that’s not gonna happen. Our Alpha here has his guards keeping watch doesn’t he? No one’s going to come in or leave unless he bloody well wants them to,” I muttered with more venom than I felt, but the emotion that flashed in his riveting blue eyes were gone the next second.

“Don’t ever hide anything from me again, Laziel. If I ever find out there’s something else either of you aren't telling me, it will be the last thing you do. I swear it.” He gritted through clenched teeth, his fangs dangerously close to scraping skin from my face before he stepped back.

His words hung in the air like a plague, straining the already taut tension warped around each of us.

I nodded coldly, getting his message loud and clear.

“Take him to the towers. Be discreet. We are done here.” Dante bristled, his lithe body twisting away from us before his guards blocked our view and he disappeared into the shadows, dragging Caius’ now chained beast along with him.

I exchanged heated looks with Ronan, his shock of white hair still stained with dried blood with his torn pieces of his shirt hanging off of the muscles on his mocha skin.

“I guess that leaves you with clean up. Take your time, you should be completely sober by the time you’re done,” He rattled, beating me to the punch before I could and clapping me firmly on the shoulder when he walked past.

“Asshole,” I muttered goodnaturedly, returning his tired smile and hiding the climbing panic that tore through all my defenses.

Ronan wasn't fooling me, that was the truth. I could see through all of them the way neither of them could.

Could see the stiff way his smile didn't reach his eyes and the limp in his right leg he’d been trying so desperately to hide.

I had felt the rage that soared from his wolf when Dante had ordered our mate out…the small things…the little things.

The truth was we weren't fooling anyone. 

Even with the hint of azure now seeping into the sky beyond the big shattered windows and the soft chirping of colorful birds in the treehouse.

I knew this nightmare was far from over.