Chapter 4

I slammed my fist into Wyatt’s stomach and he crumbled with his knees giving out. Pulling back, I sighed and rolled my shoulders. Ken and Dean were also nursing their wounds from our earlier bout. Shaking my head, I pulled Wyatt up from the floor, but he still curled over his stomach.

“Alpha…I don’t think…any of us are a match for you.” Wyatt took some breaths in between his words. “Maybe…Beta would be…better…”

Rolling my eyes, I let out a sigh. He wasn’t wrong. Except that Nate had been absolutely insufferable as of late. I thought we’d be able to go back to the way things were, but it was going to take some more time, apparently.

“Beta is busy at the moment. You all should at least last a little longer. We need to ramp up training. I’m going to assign a new regimen and we are going to work harder.”

There was a resounding ‘yes, alpha’ and I was happy to hear it. I expected complaints, especially given my plans. However, there was only so much they could say. At the end of the day, we all failed. A failure that I would not accept again. From me or from my warriors.

“I want a lap around the pack territory. Then you can hit your patrols. Is that understood?”

All the warriors for the morning training session looked at me like I had three heads.

“Alpha, that’s…” Dean looked at the guys around him. “We have three hours left before our patrols.”

“Then you should get the pack run done in three hours. Simple. Otherwise, you can tell the patrol you’re replacing why you’re late.” I grabbed my shirt and pulled it over my head. “You should be able to get the territory run in two hours. If you can’t, then I suggest you train your wolf as well.”

Leaving them behind, I headed back to the pack house from the training area. I’d already run the perimeter myself this morning and was under three hours. If I could do it, then I could expect my warriors to do it. It might take a couple of weeks, but they could do it. Until then, the patrols might be a little skewed.

Walking into the pack house, I saw Sam sitting in the living room with his tablet. He looked up and immediately stood.

“Alpha, you have a meeting in a half an hour with Marco. He’s going over the information for the new plots…”

Growling low, I stopped and yelled into the house. “Nate! I needed those fucking papers on my desk yesterday!”

Of course, he meandered out of his office like he wasn’t being completely incompetent these last couple of weeks. I swear, he was trying to make my life more difficult. With everything that was going on, me stepping up our packs training, defenses, alliances, making sure the pack was running smoothly, getting more homes up, upgrading older buildings, power lines, water mains, all getting overhauled, I needed him to match my push. It was the opposite.

At every turn, he was fighting me. He wouldn’t turn anything in on time. He questioned everything I was doing. I couldn’t speak to him without a fight breaking out. We had butt heads before, but never like this. Not only that, but he looked like a beaten puppy once I finally put my foot down.

“It’s on your desk already, Alpha.” Nate leaned against the wall with a frown on his face. “Had you looked through your paperwork this morning, you would have seen it.”

“I’m sorry. I had to leave to do your job this morning. Three of our so-called best warriors and they crumbled to the floor within a few minutes against me. Not to mention that they can’t do a run in three hours? What have you been doing all this time? I thought you were supposed to be our best warrior.”

His jaw locked, and I saw the fight rise in his eyes. “Me? Last I checked, you couldn’t even beat me, Alpha. No one should have to make a loop around the perimeter in two hours. That’s overworking our wolves!”

“Well, I want it done. I’ll be providing you with the new training regimen for them. I expect you also to be stepping up your game.”

“Silas!”

I growled, pressing my Alpha Command against him. “You want to have this fight, Beta? You couldn’t even protect your mate. She died protecting you. Twice. How about you step up and do what I ask when I ask it?”

As defiant as his eyes looked, his neck was bared to me under my presence. “Yes, Alpha. I’ll help you run this pack into the fucking ground.”

“Watch it, Nathaniel. I do not want to have to fight you.”

“Because you know you would lose.”

There was a whimper behind me, and I turned, immediately letting up my command. Sam was curled in on himself, trying to hold himself up against the couch. Charles would be pissed. I forgot he was still standing there.

“Nothing like forgetting someone else is in the room when you’re talking to me.”

My head whipped back around to Nate. “I’m not talking about this with you. Get your shit together, Nate. You have mourned Aelia. Now, it’s time to get your head out of your ass. I need you present and aware. I need you to be stronger than this.”

Nate glared at me for a moment before he shook his head. “All your paperwork is on your desk. Maybe you should stop wasting time trying to tell me to do my job faster and actually step up and do yours.”

“I would have the time to do mine if you did yours correctly!”

“You want to fight, Silas? Because we can fight. We can take this out back. I’d be happy to show you how much I could not only hold my own, but protect the people who are important to me. I don’t need to overcompensate for my weaknesses.”

Snorting, I shook my head. “You shouldn’t be so happy to say that you have weaknesses.”

“If I don’t accept that I have them, how can I be better? How can I know where I need help if I don’t acknowledge them? I’m not all powerful, Silas. Neither are you.” He punctuated every word of his last sentence.

Growling so loud the walls shook, I stepped within inches of him. Looking down at him, I met his glare. Both he and I balled our hands into fists. There was a moment of silence where I wanted to just take him by the throat and slam him into the wall. I wanted to shake him into submission.

“I have no weaknesses, Beta. I am Alpha. I am not weak. Right now, the only weakness this pack has is you. Step it up, Nate. Or there will be consequences.”

“What will you do? Silas? Remove me as Beta?” Nate smirked. “You couldn’t handle even a fraction of what I do. A fraction of what Sam does. You might be Alpha, but you would be nothing without your leadership. You would be weak without us.”

I chuckled, leaning back. “Fine.” Turning, I headed into my office, but stopped next to Sam. “Transfer everything regarding the new housing project to me. Apparently, our Beta has too much on his plate to handle it. I’ll be taking care of it moving forward.”

“Silas! I’ve put years of work into that project! You can’t just…!”

“SILENCE!” My Alpha presence whipped out around me as I glowered back at Nate. “You can’t fucking handle it, Beta. Obviously. I will alleviate the things on your plate. Do not argue with your Alpha.”

Nate stepped forward, even against my command. “Fuck…you…Alpha.”

The way he called me Alpha was condescending, but I really didn’t feel like showing him how easily I could make him buckle right now. Not with Sam in the room. Goddess, I wasn’t going to get anywhere with him like this. He was still too damn emotional.

Dropping my command, I strode over to my office door and opened it. “By next week, Sam. Everything needs to be accessible to me. Is that understood?”

Sam glanced between Nate and me. “Yes…Alpha.”

Nodding, I slammed the door behind me. Plopping down in my chair, I leaned back and sighed. I really just needed to avoid him for a while. At some point, he’d get over whatever he was going through. Nate had never mourned Aelia the first time. It was probably still too fresh.

His bond with her had been cut. Originally, he had been willing to risk it all to mark her. Maybe it was too much to assume that he could push through to get things done. So, if I took some things away, maybe we would get into a better rhythm. My hand rubbed my chest, and I hissed. Some days, the marks hurt worse than others.

‘You are stupid, Silas. So very stupid.’

Sighing, I rubbed my temples. ‘Eros, leave me alone.’

‘No.’ He growled low and angrily. ‘I am your wolf. I am the Alpha. You think Nate is only dealing with Aelia’s death? You’re so stupid.’

Rolling my eyes, I grabbed a piece of paper and read through it. Eros was hard to ignore, but I had been doing it. It helped he didn’t seem to be at full strength. If there was anyone outside of Nate who could sour a perfectly good day, it was Eros. For him, though, it wasn’t about Aelia or about taking time. It was the bond that he wanted. Not that I could feel it most of the time.

‘It doesn’t mean it isn’t there! Goddess! He is our mate! His side of the bond won’t disappear! I still feel it, Silas! We have wanted our mate for so long and now you tear him down every time he is in the room! What if he thinks we hate him?’

‘We argue like this. This isn’t new. We butt heads. Then, eventually, it will smooth over. Just like before.’

Eros shook his head. ‘It will never be like before. How do you not get that? There will always be the bond. You will break him! Silas, you won’t just lose your mate, you’ll lose Nate completely. I don’t give a shit if you don’t care anymore. Or if the magic took it from you. It doesn’t change the fact that it is still there!’

‘No, Eros. Never. I will never. I don’t care if we have to fight now until we are too old to be running this pack. I will not be with Nate. I will not mark or mate him. I will not do anything. He will get over it. It will be fine. Give it time and it will be better. He’ll get over it and so you will.’

His growl was so loud that it rang in my ears, but I threw him back. If I let him, he would badger me all day. There was nothing more. It was done. I wouldn’t have any more talk of it. There were bigger issues that needed to be worked out. The mate bond was such a glaring weakness that could be exploited. I knew that now and I would never let it be my downfall.