RAIDEN ||

"Hello?"

"Goodmorning Raiden!"

My eyes slowly crack open at the sound of Weheil's voice excitedly beaming through my phone. Glancing over at the alarm clock, it read 6:05am.

This is an illegal hour for phone calls to take place.

Groaning before sitting up in the bed, I gently push Dylan off my body and he rolls over, I chuckle at the way his ass jiggled before I decide to take my phone call to the hallway.

If this elf wakes up my mate or my sons because of his overly excited voice, I'm going to be pissed. We all know the moment Rhys wakes up, he's going to cling onto Dylan and Gage is going to do his little annoyed groans until he goes back to sleep, while Ezra is probably up right now, looking around without a care in the world.

Thinking of my concern for my mate and our boys just now caused the memory of my bond with Taj to creep into my mind.

I hate myself for the way I felt for him, the fact that I actually liked him and maybe even felt a little deeper than that. I knew it was the bond driving me crazy after our conversation in the livingroom, but that didn't take away from the fact that I felt bad about having those feelings.

The worst part of it all was I actually thought something was missing in my bond with Dylan.

My bond with my mate is perfect and always will be, he's the only man that's been destined for me and I love him with everything I am. There has never been anything missing and that stupid bond with Taj actually made me feel like there was and I have to apologize for that.

After walking out the room, I gently close the bedroom door behind me and bring the phone to my ear again.

"Weheil, what's going on? It's pretty early."

"Kano reached out to me and said he has some news for us all, I was going to summon him at 9am outside of the packhouse, so he could openly share the information."

"What kind of news does he want to share with us?" I ask, glancing over my shoulder towards the nursery door when I heard one of my boys stirring in their sleep.

Walking towards the nursery, I push the cracked door open a little bit more only to notice that Ezra was indeed already woke and I sensed his aura was wrapped around Rhys and Gage as they continued to sleep peacefully.

I smile at my boy as he notices me in the doorway. His big green eyes glowing through the darkness of their room. Ezra's protectiveness over his brothers is truly heartwarming to see and I couldn't help but think about his future as he stared at me.

There was no way I would ever allow someone to take him from us, lock him away or label him as dangerous. The little boy laying in his bed right now, was observant, quiet, clearly loves his brothers and will protect them with his life as he's always done from day one in the womb.

Thinking about his humanity weighed heavily on my heart. I never brought it up to Dylan because I didn't want to stress him out, but Ezra's well-being was always on my mind. I knew Gage and Rhys would be ok through life, Rhys would most likely become Alpha of this pack, while Gage would either go off on his own as male felines do or he would stay here in the pack and live peacefully, but Ezra would have it tough. He would never truly be the Alpha even though he's the strongest and the first born, nor would he be able to live peacefully.

My son would eventually lose all that he holds dear. His mental state would revolve around the need for blood, the urge to kill, the destruction of it all and in the process, he would lose himself. Becoming nothing more than a blood crazed, savage beast as his wolf or leopard or mixture of both takes over and my son no longer recognizes us as his family, but more beings that he needs to kill in order to crave his primal ways.

Every thought of his future scared the living shit out of me, I'm not prepared for what's to come for my beautifully quiet, observant, protective son.

His future may be unknown, but a few things are for certain. He's mine and he's perfect and whatever I have to do to keep him safe, I will do as he's done so selflessly for his brothers.

"Raiden?"

I pull the phone away from my ear and look at it as I hear Weheil's voice again, completely forgetting I was on a phone call.

"Yes, I'm sorry Weheil, I'm here."

"Did you hear what I said about why Kano wants to talk to us all?"

"No, can you repeat that part please?" I ask, as I close the door to the nursery once again.

"Sure... Kano wants to speak to us about the execution of the prisoners that were here."

All of my movements seem to stop all at once. My grip on the door handle tightens as does my grip on the phone. I look towards my bedroom door and see that it's still closed, some form of relief hits me as I knew Dylan wasn't awake yet.

I swallow before licking my lips, suddenly feeling completely dehydrated.

I know this is the news we have all been waiting for, but knowing Dylan's fake family were imprisoned versus knowing they are about to be executed was a hell of a difference and I wasn't sure if Dylan would be able to handle it.

Taking a deep breath, I decide to just thank Weheil for the news and then go speak to my mate about this.

"Thank you, we will be outside at 9am Weheil."

"Ok my friend, see you soon."

"See you soon."

Hanging up the phone, I walk towards our bedroom. Gently opening the door, I groan as I see Dylan is already awake and sitting at the edge of the bed. He looks at me and smiles, which confuses me because I was sure he would be upset if he actually heard my conversation with the joyful elf.

"Hey babe."

"Hey Pups, why are you just sitting there like that?"

"Your worry flooded our bond and it woke me up, I thought you might be in trouble or worried about the little fuckers, but then I felt you calm down, so I decided to just sit here and wait for you."

I smile at him before closing the door behind me.

"You're adorable Pups.. and your nickname for our boys is a little aggressive." I tell him as I sit next to his on the bed and kiss his shoulder.

"Oh that's just what I call them when I'm referring to all of them, but they have individual nicknames that I'm sure you won't like." He laughed.

I roll my eyes before shaking my head.

"Goddess, what are they?" I ask, concerned.

"Well Rhys is known as 'clingy fucker,' Gage is 'no touchy fucker' and Ezra is 'the creeper fucker." He explains happily, while puffing his chest out as if he was actually proud of his terrible nicknames for our boys.

"I should not have asked." I mumble, dragging a hand down my face.

Dylan laughed at my embarrassment before grabbing my hands and kissing them. "Who were you on the phone with in the hallway?" He asks, his ocean blue eyes staring into mine.

"Weheil." I answer honestly.

He frowns before looking at the alarm clock, noticing the time, he raises an eyebrow before looking back at me. "What did Weheil want so early?"

"He told me that he's summoning Kano at 9am because he wants to talk about the execution of the prisoners he took from here." I tell him carefully as I watch his frown deepen.

Dylan blows out a frustrated breath before gently placing my hands back in my lap and running his through his hair.

"Well, I guess we better get ourselves and the little fuckers ready, we only have two hours before Weheil summons the King." He tells me, his face void of all emotion.

Seeing his expressionless face right now, I knew what I wanted to tell him, what I needed to come clean about. What he might hate me for.

"W-wait pups, I wanted to tell you something first."

"What is it?" He asks, turning towards me. I swallow nervously before grabbing his hands.

"I wanted to apologize about the things that umm..." I pause only to take a deep breath. "The things that took place between Taj and I, they were disrespectful to you and I'm really sorry about that.."

"Babe, it's ok, I was aware of the risks, I knew you two would need each other like that."

"That's not what I'm saying pups." I stare into his eyes as he looks more and more confused. "That day when Taj and I wanted to keep our bond, which was really fucking stupid, I thought some really terrible things about our bond." I start to explain and he nods for me to continue. "I actually thought I liked him or maybe even felt deeper for him, but the worst part was I actually thought something was missing in the bond I share with you and there isn't, there's nothing missing, you're so fucking perfect and you give me everything I need and I'm so sorry for ever thinking that you weren't enough for me because you are and..." I'm cut off by Dylan placing his hand over my mouth.

Then he smiles causing me to frown.

"I know about everything that happened that day babe, that's why we were all in the livingroom waiting for you and Taj to come down and tell us your idiot plan." He chuckled as my frown deepened.

"I heard every single thought you had that day, I felt every emotion you felt and listened to everything you and Taj said to each other."

"How?" I ask through our link because his hand was still covering my mouth.

"You left your link open, you tend to do that in stressful situations." He laughed even harder. "So it's ok babe, you don't have to apologize, I know it was just the bond making you all crazy and dumb... you love me and you can't live without me and Taj would never be able to make you as happy as I've made you, he definitely wouldn't be able to give you such cute little fuckers like I have."

I was taken aback by that, not that it wasn't true at all because it's the complete fucking truth, but I was more so taken aback by my mate's lack of care for the whole thing. He's so confident in himself now that he doesn't even care about the feelings that I've accidentally felt for another man.

"No I don't." He tells me, clearly reading my thoughts, then he smiles again and leans in closer, his eyes mere inches from mine.

"That man has nothing on me, he's no threat."

I smile as he slowly removes his hand only to replace it with his lips. He gave me the shortest, most gentlest kiss but it was exactly what I needed in this moment and he's so perfect because he knew that.

Breaking our kiss, he looks me in the eye once again. "Now let's go get ready and talk to King Kano about the dumbasses."

I nod and watch quietly as Dylan gets off the bed and walks into the bathroom, then softly shuts the door behind him.

Getting off the bed myself, I sigh happily and make my way into our walk in closet as I took my shower last night. Grabbing a T-shirt and joggers, I get dressed then make my way to the nursery.

Picking out clothes for our boys, I lay them across each of their crib rails, just as I heard Dylan enter the room, fully dressed himself.

He didn't seem upset or angry, as his movements were calm, cool and collected, but I could feel his worry through the bond and it was making me anxious.

I hoped he wasn't upset now about the things we just talked about.p

"Pups, are you alright?" I ask, grabbing Gage's clothes off his crib, as Dylan grabbed Rhys' clothes.

"Not really." He whispers back as he slowly gets Rhys dressed.

"What's wrong?" I ask, carefully pulling Gage's shirt over his little head.

"I'm ready for this shit to be done already... There's no need for King Kano to come back here and talk about anything, just kill the fuckers and be done with it." He growls quietly.

I stop my action of putting Gage's pants on him and look at my mate, he was snarling to himself as he continued to get Rhys dressed. I bite my bottom lip before laying Gage back down, only to reach out and grab my mate's arm.

He didn't fight me, but he did flinch from my touch, ignoring his reaction, I pull him into me and cradle his head against my shoulder as he wraps his arms around my waist.

"Thank you.... I needed this." He whispers against my shoulder. I nod, trying to stay completely quiet as he took the time he needed in my arms.

Kissing the side of his head, I whisper soothing words into him as he takes deep breaths into me. Clearly using me as his anchor in his sea of emotion. I stopped all action from moving forward as he needed me to, just as he did for me in the bedroom.

"I love you so much puppy."

"I love you too babe."

Once he lets out a sigh of relief and starts to pull away, I lean back and cup his face before planting soft kisses all across his features until he giggles.

I smile after giving him one more kiss and let him go once I see that beautiful smile I've been looking for.

"Let's get the boys ready and get out of here."

"Ok." He smiles back as we part once again to resume our tasks, only I find out that I left Gage unsupervised for too long and the little booger took a nice, big poop.

Oh this is going to be a long morning.

__________________________

|| TWO HOURS LATER ||

__________________________

We all stood outside the packhouse as Weheil stood a few feet away, hand in hand with his brother, Quiweeme.

The grandpas had all decided to hold their namesakes off to the side while we wait for Kano to appear in the bright light that had now surrounded the elves.

"Ow!"

I heard Kano's voice after a loud thud.

"Hi love!"

Then that same high pitched squeaky voice from Weheil everytime he got too excited.

The elves summoning light thing starts to dim until it completely disappears and we all see Weheil helping Kano off the ground.

"You know I don't think I'm ever going to get used to that, little one." Kano tells Weheil as he gets to his feet.

"With time you will, I promise my love." Weheil tells him as he latches onto the larger wolf's side. Kano kisses the top of his head before looking at all of us.

"Goodmorning everyone."

"Goodmorning my King." The wolves and magical creatures greeted him, while the felines pretty much stayed quiet because he wasn't our King and I wouldn't greet him that way, which didn't seem to bother him at all.

The guy was pretty cool if you ask me.

"I asked Weheil to bring me here today because I have news regarding the prisoners we transported about a month ago." Kano says.

"What's your news?" Liam asks as he rocks Ezra in his arms.

"They will be executed this evening and I wanted to know if you all would like to be there."

"Nope." Dylan answers almost instantly. "Just get the shit done and let us know when they're dead, my King."

Dylan's sharp answer caused every head to turn in his direction. He had the most bored, emotionless expression I've ever seen him hold, he looked so much like Ezra right now, it was kind of funny.

"Are you sure son?" Liam asks, complete confusion painting every inch of his face.

"Yes, I'm sure.. I closed this chapter in my life the moment King Kano dragged them out of here, I won't be upset if you, Taj and Bennett go but I have no desire to want to see those fuckers again."

I smile at my mate's words. Staring at him now, I can see a totally different man. He's grown so much since I first met him. He's so mature now, so selfless, so strong, so confident, so sure of himself and what he wants and needs now, he never even second guessed a relationship he had with the wolves that raised him like I thought he would.

I swear ever since he's had our boys, he's changed so much... for the better and I'm so proud of him.

"Very well then, would anyone else like to be present for the executions?" King Kano asks after smiling at my mate.

Liam and Bennett both look at my mate and frown as if they were waiting for him to change his mind.

"I know I said I wanted to be there, but..." Bennett trails off before looking at Liam. "If Dylan doesn't want to go, then I'll follow his lead... he's right, we all have closed this chapter of our lives, so it's time for me to let go of the past and move on."

"Same here." Liam says. "If my sons have chosen to stay here in our pack, then that's what I will do as well.." He pauses to look at Dylan.

"Our Alpha has made many mistakes in the past, but our future looks bright under his leadership."

Dylan's head snaps towards Liam as does mine. Nobody else seemed phased by what he just said, but to myself and my mate, his words came as a complete shock.

"Alpha?" Dylan asks, a confused expression now laid across his face.

"Yes son, this is the real reason King Kano came to visit us today." Liam tells him as he slowly walks towards us.

"B-but what about the executions?" Dylan asks.

"The executions will still take place this evening, but I had already spoken to Liam over the phone before Weheil summoned me here.. your entire pack knew about the executions, well everyone except you and Raiden." Kano explains with a smile.

Liam stops in front of Dylan and hands Ezra to me before looking back at my mate.

"You are an Alpha and you would be the best one this pack would ever see."

"But Bennett, he's older, he's the true Alpha, he's.."

"I don't want the position nor could I actually uphold it with my injuries little brother." Bennett says.

"You deserve to be Alpha." Hunter tells my mate.

"This is what you were born to do." Gabe states.

"Take it Dylan." Avery smiles.

Looking back at my mate, I see his shocked expression and I could hear his rapidly beating heart, his fear flooding our bond and his shaking hands anxiously clawing at his sweatpants.

"I don't even know how to be Alpha, everything I learned was from those assholes, I don't know what I'm doing... I-I..." He stutters through his words before looking at me and frowning. "I've made terrible decisions during my time as Alpha, I can't do this, I can't except this.."

"Your past mistakes don't define your future." I tell him, knowing exactly what he still felt guilty for. He would never truly forgive himself for the things that took place in the beginning of our bond, but I have forgiven him for those things and he does deserve to be Alpha again.

That's something that I've learned about wolves and their ranks, especially someone with his rank. They don't just hold a title, it's something much more to them. It's like their whole life, they live for it, breathe for it, everything in them screams to lead their wolves and protect those around them and he needs this if he ever truly wants to be happy again. I know he says our bond and our boys are enough for him, but being able to fulfill his birth right, that's a whole new level of happiness that he needs to allow himself to feel again.

"You do deserve this Dylan." He shakes his head only seconds after the words leave my lips.

"How, how am I supposed to do this? Everything I know is from Dean and Jake, I can't bring what they've taught me into our new pack, this is wrong, no I can't do this."

"Yes you can." Liam tells him as he grabs his face and brings my mate's attention back to him. "Whatever those bastards taught you was wrong, everything you knew about being an Alpha was wrong..." Liam takes a deep breath as Dylan's eyes brim with tears.