Page 36 of Wolf Bound

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 mefor 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 inmyfamily 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'tpossiblybe the fuckingmurderof 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, likeyou, 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 fuckinglies?!" 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 stillneverlearned!"

"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 Ilovedthat 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 forbothof 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 aheap 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."

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