"I thought you guys went on the run!" I exclaimed when Eleanor, Taylor and their new guy friends came walking out of the building. They were all laughing and sounded like the were having a funny conversation before walking outside. "Hey there." Eleanor swung her arm over me, pulling me to walk with them. She was drunk, and so were the rest of them. Taylor walked on the other side of me and the guys walked behind us. I figured I should still tell them what happened, especially since Ashton was Conor and Greg's alpha. "Kingsley put a search out on Ashton, he and Kale are trying to kill him." My words made everyone sober up. No one was laughing anymore. "Oh my gosh what? What happened?" Eleanor stood in front of me, and so did everyone else. I braced myself, knowing they were going to react to my next sentence. "Ashton followed me into the bathroom, and forced a kiss on me."

"Oh he's dead meat." Taylor scoffed angrily. Eleanor began to scowl. Greg and Conor looked at eachother then at me. "Im so sorry Luna, that our alpha did that to you." Greg apologized and Conor's face was sympathetic. "He's been loosing it lately, more then usual and We don't know what's going on." He shook his head, starting to look pissed off.

"Thanks guys, but Ashton and I use to be friends, so a lot of what happened has to do with old stuff that he and I didn't really sort out I guess."

Greg squinted his eyes at me. "Luna, there's nothing to sort out. Alpha Ashton knows that a woman is off limits once she's found her mate, or is with her mate. So no disrespect, but regardless of whatever you two had unresolved is irrelevant. Our alpha was wrong. He deserves what's coming to him." Greg's voice turned dark, he looked at the ground and continued to walk. I felt maybe this subject was touchy for him for some reason. I knew what he said was completely right though but he was speaking against his own alpha, something I learned that wasn't really okay to do. Especially to me, the Luna of another alpha. He was safe with me nonetheless.

Ashton was wrong regardless and I needed to start holding people accountable for the bad things that they did without finding ways to put the blame on me. Even if I did care about them. I still did not think Ashton deserved to die though.

As we approached Eleanor's in silence, Conor turned to us. "Maybe we should go help Alpha Ashton, maybe we could help things not to turn so deadly." "Not a good idea." I told him. "Kingsley and Kale are on a mission. They alerted the commanders and basically all of the alphas to find Ashton. If you find him and help him, you could die too." I explained. Taylor nodded and adjusted the straps on her dress. "You guys should stay here tonight, it'll be more safe for you."

"Yeah" Eleanor agreed. "At least until the sun comes up."

The night wasn't totally ruined by Ashton. We sat in Eleanor's kitchen with the guys and I listened to stories about how they grew up and how Ashton became alpha. The position was passed down to him by his father. His father lead the pack very well, until he fell ill. He didn't have any other kids to leave his pack to so he had to leave Ashton in charge. Ashton didn't run his pack very well, he actually didn't run it at all. Collin was the brains, and Ashton was the show-er. He walked around like the big bad alpha, with his head up in the clouds- is how they described him. He wasn't mean or anything, he just didn't know What he was doing or even took interest in getting to know his pack and organizing things and so forth. His pack wasn't United like ours, they weren't family oriented like ours and I felt bad. I felt like Ashton needed to find his mate to straighten him out.

Greg and Conor grew up in the pack and had been friends since they were babies. Their parents were close friends so they made sure their kids grew up close. Greg's dad left his mother for a younger woman when he was 15 years old though and she had been a single mother since then. He was now 24 and it was still only him and his mother. Conor's parents were a great and impactful support system throughout the ordeal, Greg explained fondly.
I now understood why it angered him so badly that Ashton did what he did to me. His parents were mates, yet his father still pursued another woman. It made me think this mate bond stuff wasn't as strong as I was taught.

We stayed up all night together, talking, laughing, telling funny stories, sad stories. I felt like I knew everything there was needed to know about Taylor and Eleanor's potential boyfriends once the sun started to rise. We sat on the porch together and watched it rise up. Greg and Taylor went off to the side of the house, having a conversation of their own while Conor and Eleanor sat on the stairs. I sat near the door at Eleanor's patio set, holding the blanket from her couch wrapped around me, close my body.

Greg then jogged back over to the house with Taylor behind him. "Ashton mind linked me that he is okay and the bounty was called off. He wants us to meet him at the pack house." Greg told us. Relief and curiosity both hit me at once. I was so grateful that for whatever reason, my mates didn't kill him. The why was a big factor: were they not going to kill him at all? Or just not right now? I had to go find out.

Conor and Greg said there goodbyes and I headed to the pack house. The neighborhood was deserted since it was like 6am. The visiting packs had already left throughout the night so it was back to normal in the pack, the ball and the wolf run was officially over as well. I almost walked passed my mates from being so caught up in my thoughts. They were standing near the holding cells having a heated conversation. I could hear both of there deep voices with every word they spoke. Kingsley was shirtless, he had a bit of dirt on his face and arms. Kale was wearing a thin white shirt and blue jeans that had a bit of dirt. I could tell they had a rough night. I hid behind the trees so I could eavesdrop a little, hopefully they were so into there conversation that they couldn't feel my presence or smell me.

"You are not thinking clearly." Kale sighed while putting his hand smugly in his pockets.

Kingsley glanced at Kale with a fixed expression. "What's not clear you? He touched our Mate. He kissed her. ." A determined look took over Kingsley's face as he then looked up at the sun.

Another sigh left the lips of Kale.
"I want his blood on my hands as well as you do. You don't know how bad I want to wrip him to shreds but you know what the council will do, Neil was right, we can't do this, it will put Ariel at risk." Kale explained. He sounded disappointed that they couldn't kill Ashton either.

Kingsley clenched his jaw and glanced up at the sun "Trust me." He breathed. "That is the only thing stopping me from killing him."

"Kingsley I know, it's the only thing stopping us both." Kale swallowed. I saw his fist clench and unclench as Kingsley continued.

"This is exactly why I wanted to stay away so bad. Give her a normal life and never let her discover that she belonged to us to. Look at the danger we Brought to her...she was more protected when we kept her away." Kale nodded in agreance with Kingsley. I could see the regret in Kale's eyes.

"I know she was scared." Kingsley rubbed his hand down his face and he looked up. "I saw the look in her eyes. She was trying to be brave but Ashton made her cry. He locked her in the bathroom and didn't care at all that he was scaring her, hurting her. He didn't care to hold her up against the wall and kiss her without her permission. Locking her in there without her consent." Kingsley growled and closed his eyes. I ran from from my crouched position behind the trees right into him. I wrapped my arms around his waist and he immediately hugged me back. I felt Kale behind me, he place a kiss on the back my of head and I sighed. Kingsley then lifted my face to look at him.

That familiar dangerous glint was in his eyes. His wolf was on edge, and even though I'm sure he was already out running around half the night, he was ready to show himself again. "Kale and I will always protect you, we will always defend and protect what's ours." He spoke slowly, stretching each word to make sure I understood. I could tell he was trying to calm himself, and not snap on me. "But Ashton crossed a line. He did something to you that he cannot come back from, DO YOU UNDERSTAND THAT?" He exclaimed. " I do." I spoke softly.

"How would you feel if a man or a woman did something bad to us?" Kale asked me. He walked beside Kingsley, stepping into my view. "How would you feel if someone actually made us cry? Hurt us? And scared us? What you take that lightly?"
I instantly thought about Natasha's words last night and how emotional she got when speaking about my mates. The hurt she expressed when describing their childhood was enough for me to know I never wanted to witness any harm on them. I then thought about what Minnie did to Kale, forcing herself onto him, purposely causing me pain. Which of course hurt Kale because he couldn't stop her.

"No, absolutely not." I felt a pang of pain in my chest at the thought. Kale took my hands in his and brought them up to his lips, gently kissing my fingers. "Prepare yourself then." His dark eyebrows raised up. "Because your friend's days are now numbered. It might be a while from now, but it is going to happen."

"Rather you like it or not." Kingsley clenched his jaw.

"No, I understand." I looked between them. "If someone harms me in anyway and you two see fit to their death then I have to accept it. Ashton knew what he was doing last night and he didn't care. I don't want him to die..." My voice trailed off. "And I will be upset when you do it but I do understand where you are both coming from."

Kingsley looked at Kale and I saw his jaw twitching. It would take him a long time to get over what Ashton did to me. He pulled me closer to him and looked at me. "I love you." He told me and then kissed my head. It still shocked me to my core every time the words left his lips. I was hoping what I said about Ashton would maybe pull at their heart strings a little bit and maybe there would be a small chance of Ashton's life being spared. I knew I was living off of false hope though. Just like Taylor said, Ashton was a dead man.

"I haven't heard back from Comander Heath; who is leading the group of commanders on the search for the rouges. I wanted to inform you on that just in case anything complicated has happened." Kingsley told me. "They are suppose to be heading back tonight." Kale added and crossed his arms. "So if we don't hear from them in the next few hours we will have to go send more of our men to go search."

"Okay." I swallowed and dropped my arms from Kingsley. Don't think about it, don't think about it, don't think about it. I repeated to myself inside of my head. Was Theo okay? Was he hurt? Why didn't they call the pack to check in?

Don't think about it, don't think about it, don't think about it. I chanted in my head once more. There was no way I could allow myself to think about a certain thing that I couldn't think about in front of my mates. "Ariel." Kale's hand on my shoulder made me flinch. "Are you okay?" Kingsley frowned and stood closer to me. I shook my head and smiled at them, practicing what Taylor told me to do when I needed to block them out. "I'm fine." I chuckled. "Just a little worried about the commanders." If my shaky voice didnt give me away, the fact that I was just zoned out for a second definitely told them I was thinking about something. I had to block them out, I had no other choice.

I saw the suspicious look they gave eachother before looking back at me again. Kale blink a few times and parted his lips.

"Alpha." Felix came jogging up to us and I felt myself release the breath I was holding. "What is it Felix?"

"Alpha Ashton has some new information about the rouges who have been terrorizing packs around the east coast area. He thinks there's a connection. He says you should call off your commanders and send them home immediately. He also said he will only give his information directly to you. He wants you to come to his pack boarders." Felix looked nervous while saying his last sentence. He knew Kingsley would not be happy about Ashton's request. I just shook my head. Leave it to Ashton to make things difficult, only wanting to tell what he knows if Kingsley comes to him.

My mates angrily glanced at each other, then Kales face relaxed once he looked at me. "Little mate, your coming with us, you will at least get an apology before he meets death."