--- Hild ---

The diploma came, and I carefully put it in my secret stash and decided that today was the day. Well, noticing the time, I realised that today was not the day, but maybe tomorrow was the day I would get out of here.

"Hilsh.."

Kurt staggered into the bedroom behind me, and I quickly turned, hoping he had not seen the papers in my hand nor the backpack I had put them in. He was oblivious, of course, only concentrating on being able to stand up long enough to wrap one arm around my waist and slipping his other hand under my t-shirt, grabbing my boob. Certainly a turn-on. Oh yes, wowie-wow-wow. Or not.

Never in my life had I ever enjoyed sex, and never in my life had I ever made love. Always in my life, when I found myself in that type of situation, I zoned out and just let whatever happen. I wasn't there anymore — just my body. 

However, what always kick-started my numbness and out-of-body state, this time kick-started something else. Annoyance, frustration, or some raging feeling I'd never felt before. Why should I have to take this? Was it because his anger was more threatening than mine, and I always gave in rather than risk it getting worse?

I never got time to finish the thought as a sudden flash of light through the windows announced the unexpected arrival of what I assumed could only be unwanted visitors. I quickly pulled my t-shirt down, leaving him no choice but to yank his hands off my body.

"Are you expecting someone at this hour?" I asked, giving him a quizzical glance.

He managed to look both surprised and a bit afraid at once. I didn't know if it was the adrenaline rush that made him seem almost sober, but his eyes darted towards the sideboard where I knew he kept his gun. That bad, huh? I would have felt smug if not for the fact that I was afraid of who the unexpected visitor could be. It was always Laverne.

Harry started to bark, but a thud, a whine, and nothing quickly replaced the sound. If silence could forebode bad things, this was it. It was deafening. Seconds later, someone banged on the door as if his life depended on it.

Kurt now made no effort to hide the fact that whoever was knocking was not welcome as he moved to the sideboard and retrieved his gun.

"Stay here," he said, slowly walking out of the bedroom and, most probably, towards the door to check who was outside.

Stay here? Hell no. The moment he left the room, I silently opened the bedroom window and climbed out. I heard the front door open and Kurt pretending to play the welcoming host to whoever had arrived. 

I snuck around the corner to see what happened to Harry and found him lying on his side, whining with a bloody gash on his side. He had never liked me. Dogs my entire life had never liked me. Or rather, small, white, fluffy dogs liked me, but big, black, angry dogs never did. Harry was a big, black, angry dog and had consequently never liked me. This time, though, he only whined when I approached him. I took off my T-shirt and tried to bandage him as best as I could. The commotion inside increased.

If I ran now, I probably would make it. Whoever was inside was right now busy beating Kurt up, as it sounded, and probably didn't even know I was out there. I didn't want Kurt beaten up; he didn't deserve that, but I didn't want to be caught in the middle. Or caught in any way at all. But. My stuff was inside. The only means of calling the police was also inside. I climbed back into the bedroom again. I put another top on and threw my pre-packed backpack out the window, just in case.

There was a lot of screaming and swearing in the living room next to the bedroom, and I shouldn't have, but I quietly snuck closer to the open door to see what was going on. I really shouldn't have. 

With my angle, I could only see the right side of the room, and it only contained our dining table. In a chair in front of it, facing the rest of the room, was Kurt. His hands were tied behind him, and half his face was swelling up from what I expected was a heavy beating. A man with his back against me was pointing Kurt's gun at him, obviously having retrieved it during the earlier commotion. He was currently waiting for instructions from someone else situated in the part of the room I couldn't see.

"I don't think he can take anymore now, boss. We should.."

A rumble was heard as Kurt probably made a last attempt to do something, but he was immediately put down on the chair again. The guy in front of him gave him a brutal hit in the head, so hard that the chair tipped backwards, lounging Kurt and, more specifically, the back of his head into the heavy oak dining table behind him. The cracking of bones and probably breaking of the neck made my gut turn. I threw up when I noticed how Kurt's head hung at a strange angle when the man swung the chair back to an upright position. The sound of my gut turning, of course, alerting the men to my existence.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here? Little Hilary, what a surprise."

Laverne entered the bedroom. He grabbed me by the hair, dragged me into the living room, and threw me on the table as if I were nothing. I guess I really was nothing, too. Using his belt, he managed to fasten my hands to the chairs on the other side, their heavy wooden structure effectively sealing my fate.

"Get rid of the body, and then you can have the leftovers when I am done here."

Not even blinking about suddenly having to deal with a dead body, his two companions nodded and started to drag Kurt's body out of the living room.

"Now, where is the booze in this joint?"

--- Zac ---

I paced. Ran my hands through my hair. Noticed the sweat in them. Paced again. Up and down the corridor outside Ben's room, I was mirroring the exact thing I had done in my room before I worked up the courage to do it outside his room. Pacing, that was. Was that sweat pearls on my forehead? Did I smell? I didn't want him to smell the fear on me, but him being the extreme power he was, he probably already knew I was out here pacing. The door to Ben's office crashed open, and I realised I was correct. He knew.

"Stop pacing like an idiot and just come in, alright."

He glared at me before he ushered me inside his office. I dried my palms on my pants, sighed mentally, and walked inside. The door was slammed shut behind me, and he rounded the large oak desk with a huff and sat down, never breaking the glare.

"Beta Zac."

The use of my title made it worse. Ben was my brother. We were inseparable until perhaps 7-8 years ago when everything went south. He had become Alpha, Alpha King Prospect even, when he was in his twenties and had worked tirelessly to unite the werewolves in his area of the world. Perhaps this tireless effort was the reason for his change. 

However, my bet was that the emptiness of never finding his mate gradually turned him into this almost 40-year-old empty shell that was now my alpha. No feelings ever. Cold, distant, and calculating. Rumours turned into myths would have it that he was mean. But being mean would require some feelings, and I knew he had none. He wasn't mean; he just didn't care about repercussions or fall-outs.

"Alpha, I just wanted to apologise."

I started with that. I rarely used his title, but it felt like a must this time.

"And what are you apologising for exactly?" he sat back in his chair.

Cold. I swallowed. Here goes nothing.

"Well... I am sorry for letting the girl leave like that without checking with you first."

"You are my beta, and you know very well that I trust your judgment in dismissing trespassers."

Fuck. He was going to make me say it, wasn't he?

"Let me help you," he continued.

I looked up in surprise.

"Perhaps you want to apologise for forgetting to mention that you were in quadrant 112 from the beginning because Tristan and Dhalia are fated mates."

My jaw dropped. He leisurely waved his hand.

"Early morning workout? Seriously, Zac?"

I looked down. He continued:

"So, how do we solve this situation?"

Ok. We were going to discuss about it. It was... unexpected.

"Uhm, you should let them be together, of course."

How could that even be debated?

He got up and paced around before stopping with his back towards me, facing a big window with a great view of the lake in the background.

"No."

"The pack will not like you separating them when they hear they are fated mates. There is growing unrest regarding the mating process, and some even say that it is inhumane to separate fated mates from each other, forcing them to marry others."

He turned around, walked across the room to his chair, and sat down again.

"We have to be practical. Since the Moon Goddess refuses us fated mates, we must arrange mates for the pack to survive."

"But in this case, Tristan found his.. real fated mate before he made a real connection to his arranged one. Surely.." I pleaded.

"It doesn't matter. Fated mates do not exist anymore, and Tristan knows the rules. Everyone is to do their duty with their arranged mate."

"Alpha. Ben. I know your feelings tow.."

His eyes snapped up at me. Slowly, he got up from the chair and put both hands on the desk, leaning, or rather towering, over me even from across the desk.

"You presume to know my feelings?"

If looks could kill, I was six feet under since a couple of years ago. I cringed. And then I felt a flicker of something else. Frej, my wolf, did not like me cowering.

"We bend to no one."

"Well, Frej, we do bend to our alpha. That's the rule."

"Not for us."

I didn't know where this sudden streak of revolution in Frej came from, but I didn't have time to dwell on it. Ben raised an expectant eyebrow, but Frej's attitude had pushed me over some edge I wasn't aware I had. Flashes of white danced in front of my eyes for a moment, and then, in a sudden outburst of frustration combined with anger, I growled at my alpha.

"I am doing this for you, you... you idiot! You can't keep coming on to them this hard, you know. They respect you, all of them. I dare say they even love you. But you are losing them more and more for each arranged mating you have your witch doctor create."

As if I couldn't stop myself, I continued:

"Oh, and here is my apology. I am sorry for not telling you earlier that you are an asshole."

Now, I stopped. Felt exhausted. Braced myself for whatever would come. I knew he wouldn't stand for this. I was right. He was fuming. Madder than I had ever seen him be. He grabbed the desk before him and threw it to the wall like it weighed nothing.

"Zac."

Ok, no title this time. Maybe I would survive this after all. Ben straightened up; now he actually was towering above me, and in, once again, an unexpected move of defiance, I also stood up. I was big as a beta, almost his size, and I knew that he usually thought that was good, but I could only presume that my size could be interpreted as some challenge at this particular moment. 

Chest to chest, we both huffed, he probably trying to compose himself out of anger and me just trying to compose myself and snap out of this sudden act of defiance. The proximity was provocative, not invoking submission as it should. I shook my head. First, Frej and his misgivings, and now these strange and uninterpretable thoughts seeped into my mind.

I think he sensed my confusion. Of course, he did. He gave me a confused look back. And then it was as if the world knew I needed saving, as at the exact moment that I saw Ben open his mouth to probably throw me out of his pack, his phone rang. Without breaking eye contact, he answered.

"Yes. Okay. Good. Call me when you have her."

He hung up.

"They have a visual on her now."

I broke eye contact and looked down. I felt utterly empty. Nothing bad was going to happen to B; I knew that. It had been a little over a day since the meeting and the discussion afterwards, and I hadn't met Ben since then before entering his office. I had heard him, though. His living quarters were next to mine, and judging from what I heard later that night, they were pretty much sawdust by now. 

He had stayed in the meeting room for hours, it seemed, and then decided to destroy his rooms, beginning in the middle of the night. Glass broke when he, in wolf form, jumped out through the window from the fourth floor, landing with a thud on the grass behind the pack house. Moments later, I could see a big wolf down by the lake, howling towards the moonless sky. The howls were not strong, not proud, but sad, as if all life was sucked out of them.

The pain he felt was what now would protect B, as since she was the epicentre of it all, he wouldn't want her anywhere near him. If something hurts you, you remove it and throw it away; you don't keep it as a constant reminder of your failures. Unless you were a particularly masochistic person, but he didn't strike me as one.

We stood there momentarily before I offered a bleak "Yes, Alpha" and then turned without saying anything more and left the room. It was now late in the evening, but I figured I could get started packing as I had no doubt we could never face each other again.