Chapter XXII

Atlas and I spent the day around the house until Artemis gave us the okay to come see her. It was midafternoon so most of the pack was out and about. I received many hellos and glares as I traveled with my hand in my mates.

The glares were all from women, as you could guess. I did not let it bother me, though. They don't know me and I did not need their approval to be Atlas' mate.

Atlas allowed me into his sister's room first, and I slowly walked inside. It looked exactly like it did yesterday besides her messy bed. She was sitting in a chair in the corner with her phone in her hands.

"Artemis," I softly spoke, sitting on her bed. Atlas copied me but kept quiet.

"I'm fine." She spoke in a bored tone.

My fingers fidgeted together on my lap. I knew she was not fine. "You know you can talk to us,"

"Goddess!" She slammed her phone onto the arm of the chair. "Yes, Everly! I know! But why can anyone not get through their skull that I am fine! I am not some fragile doll! Nothing happened!" She yelled.

Atlas bit back a growl at her for yelling at me, but we all heard it.

She scoffed at him and pulled her arms to her stomach.

"Something happened, and you need all the support that you are willing to have. You have ours. Do not push us away because you are hurting." Atlas said, trying to get through to her.

She laughed at him. Not her normal, airy laugh. It was dry and full of anything but humor. "Right, Atlas. I should take advice from you. This would be a good time for Helix to whisk you away for a while. I might actually get some peace from you and your mindlinks."

That was cold.

Atlas' face showed a bit of hurt, but he flashed it away to a neutral expression, averting his eyes somewhere else.

Celeste was upset that someone had offended her mate, but I pushed her back from making the situation worse. "Just come over if you want to talk, Artemis." I say, standing.

"Oh, I will put it at the top of the list. Talk to the Beta's daughter. That has everything so easy." She shot at me, but I knew better than to buy it. She was trying to push us away, so she did not have to deal with the events of last night.

Atlas did not even try to hide this growl from his throat, but I quickly tugged him out of the room before he added to her pain.

"I can't fucking believe her. She was fine with us coming over when I asked." Atlas gritted out as we went down the stairs.

Hitting the last step, I turned to him. "She is hurt, Atlas. I really think there is something else going on with her. I'm going to go find Ellie and talk to her."

"Okay, I am going to go see if Declan needs help with his reports." He kissed my forehead. "Stay with Ellie, she is an official member, so it shouldn't be a problem for you two to walk around."

"When did that happen?" I questioned, looking up at him.

He pushed my hair over my shoulder, revealing my neck. His eyes stayed there for a moment and then answered. "A couple of days ago. The process of becoming a member is quick once the paperwork is done."

Feeling flushed at his gaze, I leaned up, giving him a quick peck. "I'll see you later?"

He blinked at me and just nodded his head.

Grinning at him, I ascended up the stairs to the Beta's suite of the house.

Ellie was coming towards me when I hit their hall. "Hey, Ev." She smiled.

"Hey, do you want to hang out? I wanted to talk about Artemis." I turn when she is next to me to walk in the direction she was going.

"Yeah, of course. I was just heading to the kitchen to grab some food." She looped her arm into mine and we went to where I just came from.

Atlas was long gone from the last place I saw him. Which did not shock me. That man is extremely busy all the time.

"So, we just visited her. She was..." I left off, trying to find the right word.

Ellie let go of my arm once we got to the kitchen and went to the cabinets. "A crying mess? Yeah. I could not imagine having my ex-boyfriend do that to me. She has every right to be like that."

My face showed confusion as I shook my head. "No, she was the opposite. She was stone cold and practically threw word daggers at us. It was weird because Atlas said she was fine with us coming over, but when we got here, she was being so mean."

Ellie turned around, giving me the same questioning look I was giving her. "I was just with her an hour ago. She was definitely not like that. She couldn't wait to see you after I told her you scared the living shit out of Warren."

"Something is not adding up, Ellie." I said, growing worried.

Two girls entered the area. I have not seen either one of them before, but I gave them a small smile. They both did the same back to me and came over.

"Hi, you must be the Alpha's guest everyone is talking about." The blonde one said and stuck out her hand. "I am Willow."

"Everly." I stated and shook her hand. I guess the news of Atlas and I being mates had not spread yet. "Nice to meet you."

"You're so sweet!" Willow squeaked, making Cel whine. She then turned to her red-headed friend, who was two feet behind her. "Isn't she precious, River?" Willow asked her.

"The cutest." The red head now called River, replied.

Ellie chuckled at my uncomfortable face I was giving to her. These two were like two schoolgirls that are in every cliche high school movie.

"Well, Everly. I was wondering if you wanted to hang out sometime before you leave? You seem super nice and you are pretty. You should probably start hanging around with other she-wolves, anyway. If you know what I mean." Willow winked in my direction and then turned to Ellie. "You too. I'm so happy Beta Declan found his mate! We would love for you to come too."

Ellie dropped her smile when Willow kept talking. "What do you mean we should start hanging out with other she-wolves?"

River walked closer to us and stood next to Willow. "What she means is, you do not want to be associated with the pack slut."

"Exactly," Willow picked up from where River had left off. "We all know what happened last night. Who purposely goes after a mated man? We are just looking out for you two."

"What the fuck did these bitches just say?" Celeste was up and ready to take out the both of them.

"Excuse me," I growled. "What the fuck did you just call her?"

"Look, I get it. You guys have been around her, but she did not deny it when we confronted her earlier." Willow took a step back. "River is Warren's mate that Artemis made him reject. She used her brother's Alpha title to threaten him."

"That is such a lie!" Ellie was by my side in a heartbeat, just as angry as I was. "She broke up with him when he found his mate. The dumb dog would not leave her alone."

"Do not talk about my mate like that!" River snarled.

"You mean the mate who rejected you for Artemis on his own?" Ellie snapped, taking a threatening step forward. "I was there. Alpha Atlas was there and stopped him from hurting her."

Willow scoffed at Ellie and took a step forward also with River. "If Alpha Atlas sees a bee around his sister, he will go ballistic. She screamed assault because her brother had caught her."

"And Warren told me that he did not want to reject me!" River growled in Ellie's face.

"I think you should get your facts straight before running your mouth." I bite, getting between the three of them. Ellie was definitely not doing this alone, and I was not allowing anyone to talk about Artemis.

Willow laughed in my face. "You are not any of my concern, honey. You will be shipped back to Aurora Dawn once I tell Alpha Atlas that you are interfering with pack members."

It was Ellie's turn to crack up now. "Yeah, see how well that works out for you."

Willow looked taken back for a second and shared a glance with River.

"You're fucking the Alpha!" River gasped with disgust. "I guess whores do run together."

Celeste's consuming anger filled me, and I had enough of these brainless broads. My hand twitched as I felt my chest heave. "Neither one of you is worth my time." I turned to walk away with Ellie out the back door.

"Funny, Atlas thought I was worth his time a couple of nights ago." Willow snickered.

I stopped in my tracks. I knew it was not true. Atlas would never. I knew that. But, damn it, that was the last straw.

I whipped around faster than she anticipated and hit her square in the jaw. She fell to the ground, and I felt ten times better until River pushed me into the island. I yelled out in pain when my hip connected to the stone. Before I could lay my hands on her, Ellie had her against the wall, creating a crater in the dry wall.

It was the literal scene of "Mean Girls".

"You bitch!" Willow was up and tossed a vase at my head that I dodged last minute. Looking back at her, I saw blood covering her mouth.

"Hey, Willow. You got a little something right here." I point to my lips before smirking. "Just looking out for you." I mocked her earlier comment.

She snarled, grabbing ahold of my hair, slapping me across the face.

Celeste was nagging for me to let her out, but I did not see the point. I had this.

My cheek stung, making me wince, but I was not giving up. I punched her stomach, making her release my locks. Once she was a coughing mess, I went to kick her, but River somehow got away from Ellie, sending her fist into my temple.

I knew it was going to be a nasty bruise when it connected. Black dots took over my vision, making me shake my head. I released a snarl of my own as River pushed me into Willow's grasps.

I sent an elbow into Willow's nose and leapt at River, sending us both out the back door. We hit the ground hard and pulled away from each other, standing.

Willow took the opportunity, shifting, throwing her wolf form into me. I was taken off guard because who the fuck shifts for a fight like this when none of us wanted to kill each other? And where was Ellie?

Nonetheless, Celeste was more than happy to comply. I felt my bones and skin transform into her form while we rolled on the ground.

Much to Celeste's dismay, I kept control and kicked Willow's sandy brown wolf off of us. I stood with our head high, sending a dangerous growl in her direction. My silver fur glistened in the sun and the dirt between my paw cracked from my claws, piercing it threateningly.

Willow clearly did not take my threat seriously because our bodies smacked together with a mixture of snarls and yelps.

Our jaws snapped into each other's fur. I got her in a position that I had been waiting for and grabbed her scruff. Once I had a good grip in my teeth, I slung her body into the ground. A few cracks signaled the breaking of a few bones. She was done, so I took a few steps back away from her.

An auburn wolf made their presence known with a growl. My head snapped to them. Of course, River. She ran towards me as her friend tried to catch her air on the ground. I spread my front paws and bent down a bit for a defensive stance, but a very powerful roar followed by a black wolf took her to the Earth. Helix.

My eyes looked behind him to see Declan holding Ellie. Ellie was unconscious and had bits of glass in her hair. She must've been the victim of the vase.

Helix was snarling in River's face as she held her neck open submissively. The only thing that came from her was whimpers. He pushed away from her once he was done saying whatever he said to her and just looked over at Willow's bleeding and broken form.

He huffed, walking over to me. I really did not feel like being lectured when I could not understand him, so I turned away, heading towards our home.

I could hear him groan in disapproval at me, but he continued to follow.

Celeste was practically begging for me to let her meet him, but now was not the time. I needed to speak to Atlas about Artemis.

When I got to the house, I forgot I did not have thumbs to open the door to go in. I growled out in frustration, turning to Helix.

He was already two steps ahead of me and placed clothes he must have stashed outside, nudging them to me.

Grabbing them in my mouth, I walked to the tree line and shifted. Getting back into human form hurt. That alerted me that I had more injuries than I originally thought. I quickly tugged on Atlas' shirt and basketball shorts.

Stepping from the shield of the tree line. Helix was leaning against the house with an angry expression on Atlas' face. He was wearing just basketball shorts, almost making me drool if I wasn't about to be yelled at.

"What were you thinking?" He got off the house when I came closer. "You are covered in claw marks and bruises."

"You should see the other girl." I tried to joke, but it just made him growl. "No? Atlas would have laughed."

"No, I would not have." His eyes shifted in remarkable time. "Why would you get into a fight?"

"Because they wanted to call your sister a slut. They are spreading rumors that she forced Warren into rejecting River and she was not assaulted. She was just saying that so she wouldn't get in trouble with you." I explained going to the kitchen. "Did you just push Helix back?"

"That explains her mood change." He mumbled, "Yeah, I guess I did. But that is not important right now. We need to check you out. You have a lot of bruising."

I could not help but squeal in excitement at the progress he was making. "Atlas, that is amazing!"

"Yes, it is. We can celebrate after you are cleaned up, and I make sure nothing is too deep." He gave me a pointed look and placed me on the island.

"They are not too deep. I feel fine. Can't I just go take a shower?" I pout as he looks over my arms. "I stink."

"You smell like me." He checked my face. "Alright, take a shower. If you find any deep wounds, tell me. I'll be down here."

"Yes, Alpha." I teased him and got down from the counter. He rolled his eyes at me but let me leave without a comeback.

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