Then, his eyes flashed amber. Raging amber-gold.

The silence broke, and suddenly, everyone was talking at once to each other. Smatterings of the sentences were able to be made out, while some weren't.

"What!? Shit, the King's wolf is close to the surface..." Alpha Ratinus.

"I think we have angered the wolf...!" Alpha Asisy.

"Shit, I didn't expect this...!" Head Sentinel Rodarh.

"Hades, we have been planning on how to punish and devour his mate...!? Right in front of him?" Alpha Morose, the python alpha.

"How did he hold out for that long...? I wouldn't have been able to." Alpha Zane.

"It's the first time he's losing a bit of control in front of us, shows how enraged the Alpha King is...!" Head Sentinel Rodarh.

"I have no hand in this at all...!" Alpha Ratinus.

"Please, do calm down, Alpha King. We will not harm your mate." Adanel finally spoke up towards the Alpha King, leaning forward to convey his own sincerity. "We have no intentions of ever harming a mate. Ever."

"I am calm, Head Sentinel Adanel." Wolfariane was leaning back on his chair in the most relaxing pose ever, his tone as cool and calm as always, even as he fought his inner battles within him.

A raging wolf who feels the threat to what 'belongs to him' is hard to control. His eyes flashed amber again. "I am perfectly calm."

They know he isn't, and that made it even worse. His deceptive calmness.

They know that the only way to calm the King Wolf is to show their sincerity. Also, the King Wolf has to FEEL that they are no threat to his mate. If not, it is a disaster waiting to happen.

No one... absolutely no one... wants to be perceived as a threat by the King Wolf, or even the King Cougar inside him. The Mortal might be rational, but his other halves are not.

Rodarh spoke next, raising his hand in surrender. "I will never harm your mate, King Wolf. Never." He was trying to speak to the wolf directly through the Alpha King, "I did not know that she is your mate, or I will never—EVER—suggest making a meal out of her."

Zane, the Jaguar Alpha winced slightly. Rodarh does have a knack for letting his tongue put him in trouble whenever he's angry. If not for the male is Wolfariane who is legendary for his control, Zane believes that there would have been bloodshed here today.

You do not threaten a mate. Ever.

He has been mated for ten years, so he knows this down to his bones.

"Me too, Wolf King." Alpha Asisy raised his hands too in surrender. Reddish-brown eyes of the tiger have covered the leader's gray eyes, so the Wolf King will feel the tiger's sincerity too. "I will never harm your mate."

The others did the same thing. Each and every member of the twelve council did the same thing one after another until finally, the weight pressing on the Alpha King's shoulders began receding.

Feeling heavy on the shoulders is one of the signs of the animal trying to force a shift if the male is not willing. But, with the receding of the feeling, followed by the feeling of the wolf going back to the deepest part of his mind and settling down there again, Wolfariane took a very deep breath and opened steady blue eyes to the council again.

Heavy signs of relief filled the air with different breaths. They all knew when the danger passed through their other halves.

"Thank Heavens, that was close." Head Sentinel Rodarh muttered.

Alpha Alphose and Alpha Degar looked at each other. A smile curved their lips at what just happened.

"You, Head Sentinel Rodarh, are always quick to make decisions. I cannot believe you suggested that we kill a Mate." Alpha Morose snapped, still annoyed at the prospect.

"We can't believe it either." Most of the other council members added, glaring at the fifty-four-year-old elephant changeling.

"What? So, now it's all my fault?" Head Sentinel Rodarh asked, horrified. "How was I to know that she is his mate? We all agreed together that the culprit who lost the King's ring has to be punished. We were all in this together."

"No way, Rodarh. You are all alone in that." Alpha Asisy pursed his lips in disapproval as if to say he never for once supported the notion.

"Tsk tsk tsk, you always make bad decisions when you're angry, Rodarh. Learn to control yourself." Alpha Ratinus added too, shaking his head in disappointment.