With Christmas approaching in a couple of weeks, I figure I'll ask Edward about having Amelia and her family join us in celebrating the holiday. Not everyone in the pack believed in Christmas, but that still didn’t stop them from wanting to get in on a fun time of the year. It was usually peaceful during the holidays. Could be the weather, but I liked to believe that everyone used this time as a relaxation break from everyday stressors. 

This year has been an overall pretty good one. I met my mate obviously being the highlight of this year, but leaving Dustfall Pack was a huge relief. Alpha Zachary had been a neglectful leader, and frankly I was close to running him out of the pack myself. The only reason I left my birth pack in the beginning was because I wanted to see what was out there. My mother's formal pack had been the ideal place to start. 

After the Arne family were completely wiped out, a new family took the open spot and renamed the pack. Unfortunately for me, Zachary Walker was the ruling alpha. He knew who I was the moment I showed up at his doorsteps. He never declared me beta nor given me a role, but he treated me like a beta. Even passed on the roles a beta might take. I was glad Edward called me back before I got tangled up in a power struggle. 

My brother was a good leader. He took those lessons we were all forced to go through more seriously than Jace and I. But he was a hot head like Jace. I was pretty level-headed, but I lacked the passion he did for Pack Eclipse, so Edward took the role naturally. Before I left Pack Eclipse, Edward and I did get into an argument, but it was nothing like that rumor someone spread about me leaving the pack because I wanted power.

This place. We used to play here as boys. Since I got back home, I've never really had the time to take a walk in the forest. I was usually going back and forth between the school and home. And when I was home I was doing my duties of either patrolling the borders or aiding Edward. Since meeting Amelia, most of my time revolved around her as of late. Now that things calmed down after the Colette’s mission, I had time since I was giving Amelia space. Plus, I needed to think for myself. 

Looking around at the mudhole, I remember we used to pretend we were rogue werewolves searching to evade packs and making our own packs. Edward and I would always end up pushing Jace in that mudhole simply because he was the smallest. Then somehow Edward and I would end up going at it. By the end of the day, we were all muddy and dad wasn't too happy about having to deal with three dirty boys. He never really did like that when we played rogue werewolves. It wasn't until he started teaching us those lessons that we started to understand that all werewolves weren't the same. And all child games didn't look nice. 

I did miss dad and his ways. I was in the process of leaning over to grab a stick when I felt the squeeze from the arm wrapped around my neck, holding me in a chokehold. I started to struggle with every intention of getting out and beating my attacker to a bloody mess until he spoke.

"You failed to inform me one of the emperor's men was lurking around, Brother." Edward growled as he slightly tightened his grip on me. "I had my suspicions about your half-blood mate right from the beginning. I’m not dumb."

“I didn’t say you were dumb. Listen Edward-”

“Shut up," he snarled, shaking me a little. "You kept the fact that we have one of the emperor’s dogs watching the pack and who knows what else. Did you even consider us or was your head so set on your mate that you left us on the back burner? You selfish, powder puff bitch.”

I had enough. Throwing the color of my fur in my face was a button pressed coming from him. The moment he tried to swing me, I reached to his face, just underneath his nose, and shoved his head back. When his hold loosened, I moved my leg to knock him on his back, but he side stepped me and grabbed ahold of me again. He knocked me to the ground, easily knocking the air from me. 

“I got a freaking letter from that pompous aristocrat today. Glad it’s the weekend because now I can blacken your face and you’re on round watch for the weekend.” He had been strangling me by the collar of my shirt, but when I saw him pulling his fist back, I flipped us. He rolled away as I got to my feet. We started circling each other. Our eyes locked on each other instead of looking for openings along the body. 

“I wasn’t forgetting anyone. The pack means a lot to me too.”

“Yeah we mean so much that you ‘forgot’ to stop in and say 'hey Edward, by the way, one of the emperor’s men is watching the pack’.” He walked up to me, shoving me hard.

I had no intention of fighting today. Much less, talking about some wolfhound who wasn't even targeting the pack. With the hot air flying out of Edward's mouth, I could see that might not be happening. I still had a chance out of this if he would only hear me out. 

"Edward-" He shoved me again, igniting my anger. He knew I hated being pushed like that because to me that move was a one way ticket to a full fist fight. Shoving him back, I stared at him as hard as I could. “You’re one to talk. How much have you been keeping from me about Amelia?”

“You already found out about her situation, so it doesn’t matter." He pointed his index finger at me. "The emperor is way bigger than mates. He can have us all killed at the snap of his fingers, you idiot.”

I didn't like that he was brushing information on my mate off as if it never mattered. He had a point though. We could all be killed easily from a werewolf who held the influence over forces that could have us all dead by the end of the day. Taking a slow breath, I lowered my voice. Hopefully, he will calm down as well. “Don’t you think I know that? It’s wh-”

“If you knew then why did you keep your mouth shut about the freaking ambassador showing up at our doorstep?" A growl left him at the end of his question as he took the opening to knock me to the ground. 

He leaped on top of me to keep me from getting up. Only, I knew his moves and countered by pulling my knee up, keeping him from using his full weight from pinning me. He grabbed my shoulders and I grabbed his. We tussled around on the ground, trying to gain the upper hand. 

Shoving Edward against the ground, I bared my fangs at him. "I was trying to capture him and he wasn't a threat to the pack."

"Anyone who works for that guy is a threat," he growled out while reaching for my shoulders again, easily flipping us.

As we rolled like a tire down a hill, my frustrations were reaching their limits. "Will you listen to me, damn it!"

The thick mud soaking into our clothes did nothing to deter the struggle for dominance in our fight. Edward was trying to make me submit by holding me down by my neck and I wasn't going to let that happen. I wasn't submitting to him, not when he wasn't acting like an alpha but a betrayed brother.

"Says the powder puff bitch who lies!"

"Stop calling me that!" Hitting him in the ribs had him wincing.

"If you look like one, then you're one. Powder puff piece of—." 

I hit him again, making him loosen his hold completely. His once broken ribcage had been a weakness of his from our days as young teenagers.

"Got damn it," he groaned while trying not to give in to the age old injury. "You know that's a blind spot."

"I know your weaknesses. Forgot?" Pinning him down using my own weight, I slammed a lump of mud into Edward’s face. He always did value his face a little too much for my liking. “If you stop being a hot headed fool for once and listen to me, you’ll know that I’ve been struggling with telling you about Amelia. I couldn’t put her at risk and I couldn’t risk your title being stripped away or worse either.”

When he didn't say anything, I found myself relaxing a little. I must have gotten through to him. He knows I wouldn't hurt this pack even though I threatened to make the pack mine and disband it when he wouldn't allow me to leave years ago. That's what our argument had been about after all. I wanted to see the world with my own two eyes and not be tied to the pack, but he wanted me as his beta and the pack was everything to him. Just when I opened my mouth to speak, his punch had me falling back. 

“You expect me to believe that," he said, getting to his feet as fast as the mud would allow. 

I couldn't believe this. That blockhead wasn't listening. Again. As I watched him stood, I found that I no longer cared to explain myself. "See, conversation's over. I want a punch back, Eddy." His eyes darkened as I moved my jaw to make sure he didn't break it, even though I knew he wouldn't go that far. When he leaped at me, I met him halfway. We each held onto the others shoulders in a battle locked struggle.

Just as we broke apart, we were both held off from reaching each other by the one guy who was always butting in.

"Whoa. I actually felt this fight. Came to see for myself." Jace looked between us with his arms stretched out to keep us apart and wearing that annoying smirk of his. "What are you two? Twelve year olds?"

"Stay out of it, Jace," I said, hoping he would listen this time. “Eddy’s on a rampage.”

Edward advanced forward, only to be stopped by Jace. “Call me Eddy again.”

I didn’t miss the threat in his tone, but it wasn’t like I cared for his ego at the moment. In fact, I thrived in his annoyance at the nickname he hated most. 

“You two are like women, catfight in the mud. One dressy and the other half naked.” Jace said through a toothy grin. 

I could shove his face in the mud, and judging from the heated glare on Edward’s face he could too. 

“That’s right,” Edward said between clenched teeth. “I didn’t appreciate being knocked out. Now is a good time to get my hit back.”

When Edward moved to go at Jace, I stepped forward to defend him. I didn't know when Jace knocked Edward out or why this time, but I usually was the one protecting Jace in one of our brawls. Simply because I knew he wasn't as big as Edward and myself. Edward threw a punch my way, which I dodged. Returning one, I ended up missing. Jace leaped onto Edward’s back and before I knew it. It was Jace and I against Edward. He knocked Jace off and met my punch, using his torso to take the impact. Grabbing my arm, he went to pull me forward. Only that didn’t quite happen because Jace jumped on Edward’s back again, causing him to slip in the mud. I soon followed with his hold on me. Soon we all came falling down in the mud with a good plop. 

“Enough!” Edward groaned and shoved Jace off of him. He stood up, jabbing a finger at us. “You two have been driving me crazy these past months. You know what you both can do: Get out! I don’t have time to keep babysitting if you don’t want to take this pack seriously.”

With that, he stormed past us. We watched him go, but neither one of us called out to him. We didn’t need a bond to tell us how he felt. After he was far enough away, I sighed and got to my feet, offering a hand to Jace. 

“He doesn’t mean that,” Jace, taking my hand, said.

“Probably. But then again, he probably did.” I was sure that was a dig at the fact that I did leave the pack without his permission, but it didn’t hurt any less. Openly saying you didn’t need us was worse than being kicked out of the pack. I looked down at my clothes and frowned. “I’m going to go get cleaned up. Can’t say I’m happy about my new clothes. I was going to see Amelia.” 

Jace put a hand on my shoulder. “He’ll cool off. Besides, I plan to make him see reason.”

Looking at my kid brother, I arched an eyebrow. “You were here the whole time? I didn’t sense you.”

“That's because you both were too busy ‘talking’ to notice me. I heard enough though.” He grinned that easy grin once more. 

I walked with Jace out of the mudhole. “Promise me not to get him more rile up than necessary.”

“I won’t do a thing actually.” Jace brushed mud from his body. “Just a talk is all.”

I didn’t trust him, but it wasn’t like I cared much at the moment. I was emotionally drained and I needed a long hot bath. “Do what you gotta do. I’m going to take that bath.” With him beside me, we made our way back in the direction of the pack.