I stopped and clenched my hands into fists. Stuff like this wasn’t surprising to me. I knew half the pack thought as much. “You know Trystan… What the hell have you done for the pack so far, huh?” I asked and turned to face him. “Aren’t you supposed to be the Prince? So why is it me and Father who are going around looking for clues and talking to Baltazar and Elliot? How is it that until I mentioned it no one was even doing anything about the Silver Hearts pack? Hell, I even had to stop your future Shield from killing a packmate. All this time all I’ve seen you do was take out your anger on me and now even my friends. Tell me, is it petty jealousy? Or are you afraid I just might be more useful than you?” I didn’t actually mean any of it. I just desperately looked for something to throw in his face. Something that would give release to this bitter anger inside my chest without throwing punches at him.

I took great pleasure in his startled face, it only lasted a second though, then I was too busy dodging his clawed hand. Oh fuck. I must have hit a jackpot because claws meant true rage, they meant he was ready to kill…

“You’re a fucking abomination! You’re just a stupid fucking brat!” he growled at me, kicking against my chest with all his force. Shit. I wasn’t fast enough. I felt the air leave my lungs in a rush as he hit my chest. I stumbled back, only kept on my feet by the wall. I managed to grab his leg though and pulled him forward. He went with it and used the momentum to punch me in the jaw.

“Reid! Trystan!” the wolves called as the wall shattered. Actually, no. The window I hit with my back gave in and shattered. Both our eyes went wide in shock as we suddenly found ourselves in the air. We hit the ground with a loud thud, me with my back, Trystan on top of me. But since I was holding his leg, it hit the ground first and we both heard it crack.

As I desperately gasped for breath and tried to chase away the dark spots in front of my vision, Trystan rolled down from atop of me with a pain-filled groan. We heard everyone from the house run out.

“I hate you,” he said. “It’s not fair…” I blinked in confusion. Did he just sound sad? Something had to be seriously wrong with my head. “Why should you get all the attention? You’re just a stupid brat!”

Was everyone just talking nonsense today? I looked up at the sky. My back and head hurt. I was pretty sure some shards of glass cut me, I could feel warm blood pooling under my back in the snow. Father’s form appeared in the broken window, frowning down at us. He didn’t bother to run down and see if we were fine.

“Reid!” Yuri was by my side in a second, examining my body carefully.

“Fine, help me up,” I said. Holly and Nikolai went for Trystan. I could see a bone sticking up from his shin. I cringed in pain as Yuri brought me up on my feet. Leaning against him I turned to leave.

“Wait! I need to treat you!” Holly called after me. I forced Yuri to keep walking with me.

“No, you don’t… In the end, I’m not pack,” I said. No one else bothered to call after me.

I hissed in pain as Yuri pulled a glass shard out of my back in Scott’s living room. “So you learned nothing?” Scott asked in disbelief.

“Baltazar talked nonsense the whole time and for some reason Father went with it,” I said, digging my fingers into the couch.

“Alistair seemed quite sure it wasn’t Baltazar’s fault,” Yuri said and carefully wrapped a bandage around my torso.

“Father has lost his mind,” I growled, anger bubbling up inside me. How could he allow Baltazar to speak of Bran like that? Bran would never secretly meet with vampires. There had to be something more to it… Maybe Baltazar threatened him? Or they just talked about border business. What they suggested… was simply impossible. “I still think it’s Baltazar or someone from his Clan,” I said.

“The three Walkers that share his ability...” Yuri said and frowned thoughtfully. “Daniel’s a walker, isn’t he? Does he share Baltazar’s ability?” he asked.

“I don’t know, but what does it matter? He helped us so much, there’s no way he’s the one behind this,” I said.

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that…” Yuri whispered, frowning at the wall.

I rolled my eyes, knowing how much he hated him. Instead, I turned to Scott. “I really hope you had a better day,” I said.

“Sure, had a whole mountain of bacon for breakfast, drove your boyfriend to a cafe on my way to work. As normal a day as we can get,” he said, stretching lazily.

“To a cafe?” Yuri asked.

“Yeah, said he wanted to study there since it was nice and quiet.” Scott shrugged.

“There’s practically no one in the house. How is it not quiet enough for him?” Yuri grumbled and carefully washed my back with a cloth.

“Aren’t you grumpy today,” I said, then hissed in pain as he pressed a bit harder than was necessary.

Scott snorted out a laugh. “So… what exactly happened between you and Trystan to make him throw you out of a window?” he then asked, looking at the bloody glass shards in a bowl on the table. I put my shirt back on when Yuri finished. It hurt to stretch my hands up.

“The truth,” I said with absolute confidence. Trystan had no right to treat me like he did. I wasn’t the little brother who was scared of him, who was weaker than him anymore.

“I think that proclaiming us a pack pissed him off quite a bit…” Yuri said quietly. Scott actually froze, seemingly unsure how to react to that. Silence fell upon the living room. I clenched my fists.

“There is no point in ignoring this,” I sighed. “I became your alpha, we are not part of the Ghealach pack.” The tension seemed to fade away with my words as if acknowledging this washed away all the uncertainty and fear as if something finally fell into its place. “I don’t know what Father wants to do, but we’ll keep looking into Baltazar.”

“What about Elliot then? He’s going against the Ghealach pack, which technically is not your problem anymore,” Yuri said, looking down at the bowl of glass shards.

“I might not like Father or Trystan, but there are still people I care about in the pack… Lowell, Nadia, Ivan…” I said. “It would be bad if a war between the Ghealach’s and the Silver heart’s broke out…”

Yuri seemed to give a little sigh of relief. This had to be hard for him. He had a loving family in the Ghealach Pack. It made me both immensely happy he chose me over them and a bit guilty since because of me he couldn’t live with them.

“Don’t forget you have dinner with them tomorrow,” Scott reminded me. Right. I almost forgot.

“Should get some sleep then,” I said and rubbed my temples. I felt mentally exhausted more than anything. As I passed by Yuri I let my hand brush his throat. He gave a soft gasp and shuddered. My chest seemed to light up with his joy. I smiled to myself and went to the bedroom upstairs. I opened the door carefully, not wanting to wake Matt up. He lay in the bed, hugging my pillow, seemingly totally out of it. I smiled. How cute. I downed my clothes and lay in the bed carefully. Matt frowned in his sleep and turned around, leaving the pillow and hugging me instead. I chuckled and pressed a kiss to his forehead. I held him close as I fell asleep.