Page 109 of Mates: Posy

"Yep!"

With a happy squeal, I clapped my hands and wiggled in my chair.

"How long has it been since you let Lark out?" Wyatt asked.

"I don't know. Maybe ten months? Either she or I were always too weak."

"Almost a year?!"

"Even then, it was only in my room. She hasn't run in the woods since shortly after my mother died and my brothers snuck me out while Father was at a meeting in another pack."

Cole slammed a hand on the table, which made me jump and clamp a hand onto Wyatt's thigh.

"If your idiot brothers had done something sooner, you wouldn't have had to suffer for so long!" he barked, his eyes hard and sharp.

Taken aback by his outburst, I huddled into Wyatt's side, and he put an arm around my shoulders.

"Not so loud, Cole," Wyatt scolded him, but Cole ignored him.

"Those morons should have asked the king for help sooner, but no, they wanted to be hot shots and fix it themselves. Their ego and ambition blinded them and you suffered because of it."

"They— Father— A wolf must obey the alpha." I managed to string together a sentence, although it came out as a whisper.

"They had options," he spat out. "They chose force. It didn't work the first time they tried it, so what did they do? Tried it again!"

As Cole's anger grew, so did his volume. Trembling, I pressed harder against Wyatt and fought back the fear.

"Calm down, dude." Ash's dark eyes flicked from Cole to me and back.

"And what did those bright boys do next? They waited!" Cole was not calming down. "They knew what your father was doing and they chose to leave you there with him until your birthday, after which they were going to try to use force again! All they had to do was ask for help, which they ended up doing anyway!"

A fierce growl echoed around the dining room, and I clung to Wyatt as I shook.

"Cole." Mason loaded his voice with alpha power. "You're scaring our girl."

Cole came out of the haze his anger had created and looked at me with wide eyes.

"Oh, baby, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have taken that tone or raised my voice." He came around the table and hunkered down next to me. "I'm not mad at you, honey. I'm so sorry I lost my temper and scared you."

Swallowing hard, I looked up at Wyatt. He gave me a half-smile, then nudged my nose with his. Feeling his strong arm around me, I knew I was safe with him beside me. He'd never let anything happen to me. And I knew Cole wasn't a threat. He wouldn't hurt me, not ever. I was reacting the way my father had trained me to react to loud voices and anger.

Gisela had told me I could work on changing that, and I figured now was as good a time as any to try. I wasn't so scared that I froze or felt the need to run or hide. I was surrounded by my mates in our house, their special scents calming me more than any words could do, and I knew there was no threat of physical harm or violence.

Getting my breathing under control, I loosened my hold on Wyatt and turned to Cole. His eyes shone with regret, and I slowly reached up and laid my palms on his cheeks. I was proud to see my hands had stopped shaking.

"It's okay, Cole. You have a right to your emotions and opinions."

"But not the right to scare you," he muttered as he covered my hands with his.

"I'm not scared anymore." I smiled. "Don't feel bad."

His eyes closed for a second, then popped open.

"I worry that your kindness and naivety and soft heart will get you into trouble someday. You forgive too easily."

"I don't think anyone can be too kind," I disagreed. Hesitating for a second, I gathered my courage and asked, "Did you really mean what you said? You think my brothers could have done something differently?"

"I do. There is always something you can do, even under an alpha's command."

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