Greyson

I stared at the person in front of me. I was at a loss for words as everything Karissa had told me weeks ago flooded back into my memory.

Liam. Alex's first mate. Her mate from the council. The mate who didn't even give her a chance.

Instantly, anger consumed as I thought about him making her the hateful person she used to be. He ruined her.

"Greyson. Alex's mate," I said as I took his hand and shook it. He chuckled and smirked once again. I glared at him as he let go of my hand and crossed his arms over his chest.

"You know who you remind me of? Ashton. Always glaring at people," he joked. I growled lowly at him. Who was he to make snide comments about Alex's little brother like that?

"What are you doing here?" I snapped. He ignored my question and turned to look at Alex. He walked over to her slowly. I growled when he nearly laid his hand on her arm. He held his hands up in surrender and laughed.

"Relax, pup. Just here to catch up," he said. His smirk never left his face and the glare never left mine.

"I guess it would only make sense for the first destined mate of a high ranked council member to become the second chance mate to the alpha of the second largest pack in, well, existence." Each word he said made me angrier. I just hated the fact that something as repulsive as he could speak. "How many territories are you controlling now? Four? Five?" Liam's eyebrows raised as he questioned me.

My pack had been known to take over smaller packs and join them with ours. There's power in numbers. I won't deny it.

"So I see we are exactly like Ashton now, arent we?" He questioned. I growled in response and took a step toward him. "Aye. Calm down, boy. Just messing around." Liam's words were more mocking than sincere. I had a hard time controlling what I did, but I had to. I hated to admit it, but he was stronger than me.

He looked deep in thought for a moment before speaking quietly. "Exactly like Ashton." He stood up and walked toward me. He stopped and stared. I stayed frozen and he huffed. "I have watched Alex, Ashton, for years. I needed them safe. Ashton became exactly what we needed him to be; ruthless. Never answered unless he needed to. He became what he was meant to be." I stared at Liam the way you'd look at someone speaking a different language. With that look of 'what the actual hell'.

I was about to question his when I heard a nearly inaudible whisper from the bed.

"Ashton?"

Alex

"Ashton became exactly what we needed him to be. Ruthless. Never answered unless he needed to. He became what he was meant to be." A voice echoed in my mind. The voice was familiar, but I had no idea who was actually speaking. The only thing I could focus on was Ashton and ruthless. He hadn't actually gotten that bad, has he?

"Ashton?" I croaked. My throat was dry, and my body ached. I needed water or something.

"Alex, darling, are you alright?" The voice said again. I heard a growl and tensed. "Oh stop growling, you big baby. Here."

I opened my eyes slowly, but my vision was blurry. I heard footsteps as a figure walked toward me. I hand sat on my arm, and by the shocks that ran up my arm, I knew it was Greyson. I tried to lift my hand and grab Greyson's, but failed. My hand opened slightly, but he must have noticed because he quickly grabbed it.

"I'm right here. It's okay," he said quiety, but he did not seem calm at all.

"Grey?" I asked as my vision slowly adjusted and focused on Greyson.

"Oh, I think I've seen enough of this lovey dovey bullshit for now." I turned my head slowly to the voice and nearly had a heart attack. My heart actually stopped beating I think.

"Liam? What-Why are you here?" I panicked. Greyson squeezed my hand to try and calm me down, but didn't really work. Liam chuckled as he watched me with innocently evil eyes. The same innocently evil deep brown eyes that rejected me nearly four years ago.

"Don't get ahead of yourself, sweetheart. Maybe we should let you rest." I was going to growl at him, but failed badly when my condition allowed me not too. My throat burned when I tried to. I cursed under my breath and tried focusing on him, when the door opened.

A nurse nervously peeked her head into the room and looked at the three of us.

"Only one is allowed in the room at once. One of you must leave," she said quickly and then swiftly slammed the door shut.

Both boys looked at me with questioning glances, and I didn't know what to say.

"Well, who's staying?" Liam said cockily. I huffed and watched the both of them. My gaze fell on Greyson.

"Greyson," I said in a whisper, "go. I need to talk to Liam." Greyson's face fell. I knew he was thinking of the worst possible thing, but he still gave me a peck on the cheek before exiting the room.

Once the door shut, Liam smirked at me.

"Don't get your hopes up. I just want to know why you are so interested in Ashton." Ash had enough problems. He didn't need Liam creating more.

"Well my dear sweet mate," he started off. I hated the fact that when he said it that something inside of me felt a twang of happiness, sense of longing. I absolutely hated it, "I have no intention on stealing you from your mate. I just need your brother," he stated. I clenched my jaw in anger at what he was telling me.

"What do you want with him?" I snapped. He didn't seem taken back by my question. He brushed it off as if it were nothing.

"I always knew your brother was special. Every single species of..creature has its own symbol. Witches, faries, vampires, werewolves,...humans. They all have a specific symbol, but only the highest ranks can see them. Only council members from each type of category of creature can see these symbols. They are an important factor for knowing what is what," he said. I stared at him like he had just told me God sent him a pizza or something.

"What the hell does this have to do with my brother?" I questioned. He held up his pointer finger signaling for me to wait. I huffed and leaned my head back into the crappy hospital pillows.

"In the werewolf council there are five things. Alpha, Beta, Third: yours truly," he said throwing in a cheesy smile, " tracker, and warrior." I nearly had a spasm at the way his intense stare held my attention as he spoke.

"There has not been a warrior in the council for nearly 500 years. Almost eleven generations without a warrior, but we have finally found him. Ashton." My heart clenched as Ash's name was mentioned again. No, he couldn't.

"You're joking," I scoffed. He chuckled, and then rolled his eyes.

"Believe what you want, but I know for a fact what he is," he said as he cracked his knuckles carelessly. "Every council member has a special mark. You're brother just happens to hold that mark."

"My brother is my brother. He can't be a council member. He came out of my mother's vagina!" I was panicking. There was no way my brother was the heir of a former council member.

"Relax, Ashton is your legitimate brother. The previous warrior passed tragically before he could produce another heir to fill his role, so the goddess had to wait five centuries before a proper suitor for the position was born. That just so happened to be Ashton. Why else would he have shifted at such a young age? All it took was a little encouragement. He was practically holding onto what little of his human days he had left after you left? Andrew wasn't really part of the plan. It just so happed that Andrew was what Ashton needed to finally complete the shift. He just needed to be mad enough." I was practically freaking out. I wanted to rip the IVs out of my arms and stick them in his eyeballs.

"You're the mad one! You're insane!" I shouted and tried to hide the pain as my throat burned like wild fire.

"Perhaps. But, now I just need to get that pesky Karissa out of the situation, and then Alpha's orders will be complete. Can't have Ashton turning into the good guy now can we? We need him to have zero-"

"Humanity," I finished off his sentence. He wanted to turn my brother into a monster. A cold hearted monster. He wanted to make him something worse than Ashton and I combined.

"Precisely. Can't have anyone with feelings doing the dirty work. How do you think the last one died?" I couldn't breathe as he continued talking with that cocky smirk plastered across his face. "That's what happens when you meet your mate. That's what happens when you meet someone like you." His smirk turned into a harsh glare. It was that way for a moment until his glare turned into a smile.

"Now if you excuse me, I must go check up on my dearest Karissa. She's been getting pretty comfy with Ashton, and I fear that he might let the little pup crack his shell."

"No!" I yelled at him, but came out more as a squeak with my dry throat. He walked toward the door and opened it.

"Don't worry. I won't hurt her. Not yet. She's my information source. She just doesn't know that yet," Liam said evilly and then shut the door after exiting the room.

"Oh my god." Was the only thing I could manage to say.

_________

be happy bc i did this bc im tired of like the few of you that criticize me about my updates.

I don't know if you guys care, but I actually do have a life. I am a straight A student and the book is not my top priority. This took me five hours to write and my hands are like cramping. I don't mean to offend anyone, but honestly it hurts when yall criticize like one of my authors notes.

My authors notes are written so that people who maybe wanna talk to me can talk to me. I love all of you and I love talking to all of you. I honestly do, but I also like living life off of wattpad and occasionally on netflix.

Now savor this bc this was extremely thought out and i worked nonstop on it.

mkay. bye.

Edited 6/21/16