The throne room was noisy, with everyone saying one thing or the other. Every elder was present, and they stood at both sides of the large hall, speaking words to one another as they waited to be addressed. The council meeting had come as a shock to all and no one knew what to expect as they stood in the throne room. Ever since the fight, there had not been a serious meeting so it was understandable why everyone was nervous.While the elders from the Blood-Moon pack occupied the right-hand side of the large hall, the elders from the Night Scars pack stood by the left-hand side. There was an air of hostility settling above them as some of the Blood-Moon elders glared at the Night Scars elders. While some were getting along really well, the rest weren't and as they stood in the throne room, waiting, some threw insults at one another. However, the noise died down when the door flew open and Aiden walked in, accompanied by Alpha Velvet, Kunata, and some other deltas from the Night Scar

Jared was tensed. He was so tense that he could not sit down. He was at the training field, watching the Greystone warriors train rigorously as usual even when their Alpha Rio was yet to announce the day they were going to attack the Blood-Moon pack. The training field of the Greystone pack was just as big as that of the Blood-Moon pack and they had as many resources as the Blood Moon pack. The Greystone pack was just as mighty as the Blood Moon pack and this was one of the reasons Alpha Lundamous had accepted Rio's proposal and allowed him to take Adelia with him. His father had always told him that he didn't always have to fight or subdue everyone but could sometimes befriend mighty packs like these to live peacefully and become allies. Being enemies with the Greystone pack was definitely not a good idea — so his father had said and Jared was beginning to see how true that statement was. If he had not maintained his relationship with Rio even as alpha as the Blood-Moon pack the

"Well, yes!" Aiden snapped too. He had been trying to pacify them but since they felt like they had something against him, then he should let them know that he wasn't completely happy with them. "Haven't you? Haven't you guys been making up shit about Calix just to make me doubt him? What's your point? Why are you backstabbing your friend?" "Backstabbing?" Both Jamal and Andrew shouted in shock. "What the fuck, man? Who is backstabbing who? Just because we told you the truth about Calix, you call us backstabbers?" Andrew yelled again. "You guys gave me that impression." Aiden shook his head, feeling a little bit remorseful for using that word. Maybe that wasn't the right word to use but he couldn't find a better word to qualify how they were behaving. "That's so uncalled for, Aiden! And I'm disappointed in you for saying that. We don't have anything against Calix. What we told you was nothing but the truth. I have no idea if Calix's reason for being the beta has changed but as o

"I don't know what your problem is, Leah," Aiden sighed once again as he tossed the pouch back into his pocket, "You asked me to pay and now, you are not accepting my payment. Can you see how indecisive you are?" "You're the indecisive one, you fool! Just so you know, you might show up with shiny golden armour and force everyone to bow to you, but you can't stop anyone of us from seeing you for what you really are: a worthless wolf who is cursed by the goddess. That's what you are, Aiden, and that's who you will continue to be." "Leah!" Her mate looked so horrified, especially when he saw Aiden's brow furrowed in anger. He took a step back when Aiden took a step forward, but Leah remained in her position, trying to hold Aiden's gaze so he would not think she was scared of him. "I'm not in a good mood, Leah," Aiden's voice was low and grave, "so I'll advise you to watch what you say." "And if I don't?" She held her chin up. "I won't hesitate to treat you like those bunch traitors t

But one thing Calix didn't know was that he was wrong. Aiden was not as foolish as he had thought. The moment Calix left and the door closed, the smile that had been on Aiden's face fell off. His expression moved from a smiling face to a stony glare as he gazed at the shut door. Something was not right; it was so clear Calix was hiding something. Aiden could tell all this from his weird behaviour, yet he had decided to pretend like he hadn't suspected anything. Now, he could not tell why he had not called Calix out directly on his game — perhaps, he wanted to be very sure because he would hate to wrongly accuse his friend — but whatever the reason was, Aiden knew with so much certainty that something was wrong. He moved to sit on one of the stairsteps below the throne, his elbow resting on his lap as he propped his palm under his chin. He was still in a daze and nothing he could think of made sense as to why Calix had been alone in the throne room. He was trying to make up excu