RAIDEN ||

The moment Dylan left, Gabe gave Avery a kiss on the cheek before telling him that he needed to go deal with pack business and complaining that it would take days before he was actually done.

Avery understood because his mate is the Beta, so he didn't fight him on anything. Instead, he just said he loved his mate and then turned back to Roman and I.

"You guys want to watch a movie?" Avery asks, I look down at the smaller man before looking at Rome.

"Sounds good to me, brother?" Rome tells him before looking at me.

"No complaints." I say, smiling down at Avery who was gleaming at the both of us.

"Great! Let's go!" He was practically jumped up and down before grabbing both my hand and Rome's, pulling us inside the packhouse.

Everything felt really weird without our mates here honestly. I know Gabe is somewhere on the territory, but without Dylan and Hunter, us felines we're a little bit lost.

I definitely didn't feel welcomed or at home here in my mate's pack yet, that's why I convinced him not to announce me to the pack yet.

I still wasn't totally sure if I would be staying here, even though this was Dylan's home. I mean he's an Alpha, we can claim new lands and build our own pack together, instead of living off the remnants of the Alphas before him.

That's what felines did. We just don't stay in our fathers territories, I understand that wolves are different, but for me, this is just weird.

If there was a way to start over on our own and build our own home on our own territory that we claim together, then I would be all for it.

Thinking about it clearly, there has to be a way because after spending two months here, I can definitively say, I would never be able to call this land, my home.

Not to mention, the many, many wolves here that have my anxiety spiking constantly. I hate crowds, I just can't do it, neither can Onyx. It's just the way Leopards are, we're solitary unless it's our close family. I've been able to keep myself and my leopard in check, but I don't know how long that would last before it becomes too much and we have to leave or someone would get seriously hurt.

I definitely wouldn't be able to have cubs with Dylan while living here. Onyx and I wouldn't allow any other wolf around him while he's pregnant nor would we allow it after my cubs were born. The possessive and protective nature of a feline is bone chilling dangerous. Of course I've never seen how bad I could get because I don't have my own cubs, but I'm sure with the way my father was so insanely angry all the time when mom was pregnant, that I would be 10 times worse.

Roman felt the same way, being a male Lion, it's in his DNA to find his own territory, build his own pride and create cubs with Hunter, not take on the pack of his mate, plus he would never be able to fully lead here because his mate is a Gamma.

Roman and Asad would never be content nor calm with the fact that they could never build their own pride on their own land. Luckily for my brother, his mate isn't an Alpha, so removing him from his birth pack to start a new life elsewhere was a lot easier than my situation with my mate.

The whole situation here is backwards too. I've been trying my hardest to understand wolves, but no matter how much I learn, I'll never be able to fully grasp the concept of the way they function. It's not that I don't understand the pack mentality because I do, growing up in a pride, I understood the whole family sticks together thing, but it's the whole hierarchy thing. There's way too many different ranks and the most unsettling thing is that wolves follow their Alphas, mindlessly.

It's like the rest of the pack doesn't have a say so in any decision. Whatever the Alpha says, goes and that's foreign to me.

Our pride didn't function that way. There was only one rank there, Alpha and that was it. My father and mother held that title and the lionesses were just that, lionesses. My father had the job of leading the pride, protecting and sacrificing for his pride, bringing a sense of calm and stability when my mother couldn't. The pride also made all their decisions together, despite my father being the Alpha.

My father said that Lions understood that family is pride and pride is family and being family means you make decisions together, not separately and the one that's the strongest, has the final say.

Unfortunately, that's how wolves think.

This wouldn't work for me much longer.

• • •

Walking into the livingroom, I take a seat next to Roman while Avery grabs the remote and sits on the opposite couch because he said he didn't want Gabe to freak out if he smelled like another male. The little wolf was growing on me, he's the only one here that hasn't actually done me wrong, so I've grown to like the smaller man.

He's really funny too, he likes to walk around in booty shorts or skirts and tank tops. Gabe doesn't seem to mind as everytime I've seen them, the Beta can't keep his hands off his Omega.

The little man was really loud too, if I wasn't mistaken, he was the deaf one and not my pups. I mean he's obnoxiously loud and he loves to pick on Dylan the most, which didn't sit well with me. The omega is lucky he's so small, if I even flicked him, I would probably break him.

Avery ended up picking some weird movie about zombies, so I completely zoned out with thoughts of my pups on my mind. I couldn't wait for him to get home, so we could continue our moment we had last night.

I seriously hope he keeps pickles as his safe word because it wouldn't definitely throw me off and give me a good laugh at the same time.

After the movie was over, we decided to go into the kitchen and get some food. I checked the freezer and groaned once I realized I forgot to hunt.

"Do you want to try some steak Raiden?" Avery asked.

"No, thank you Avery, I can't on my diet."

"I can make it rare for you." He offered with a smile.

"What does that mean?" I frown.

"Umm it's like cooked, but not really. Like the outside of the steak will be cooked a little bit, but the middle will be mostly raw... maybe if you try it like that first, then you won't get sick."

I looked at Roman who nods and smiles.

"Maybe rare steak is what you can start with and then work your way to medium cooked foods then fully cooked, you know like slowly get your stomach used to it." Avery says grabbing the thawed steak from the fridge.

I hated watching him go in the fridge, I had become annoyingly protective of the kitchen. Food is life literally.

Seeing the 5 slabs of raw steaks on the plate, I would much rather eat it the way it is, but I couldn't be selfish and take every piece of steak for myself, so I hesitantly nod to Avery's suggestion.

I prayed to the Gods and Goddesses while he cooked it, that I wouldn't get sick. My body has only consumed raw foods the last 7 years, so I was very nervous about this.

"Here you go." Avery sang, sliding the plate across the island counter. It stopped in front of me and I clenched my jaw.

I looked at Rome before taking a bite.

"Try it brother.. if you get sick, me and Avery will be here for you."

Taking a deep breath, I cut into the steak and notice how pink it is on the inside, thinking it wouldn't be too bad, I bring the piece of steak up to my mouth and bite it.

I closed my eyes, bracing myself for the nausea that I was sure would hit me like a damn bullet, but to my surprise, I didn't feel sick immediately after. My mouth didn't produce saliva at an obnoxious rate, I didn't get that lump in my throat that I felt everytime I ate cooked food.

No.. this almost felt ok.

It's been so long since I've had cooked food, I savored the taste, slowly chewing the piece of steak until I had no choice but to swallow it.

Opening my eyes, I look down at my plate then at my brother before my eyes landed on Avery, who was anxiously biting his nails.

I narrow my eyes at him, disbelief taking over as I chuckled looking back down at my plate.

"Oh Goddess, you're going to kill me, aren't you? Was it terrible? Did I make you sick? Oh man, Dylan is going to kill me. I'll go get you a trash can and some Tylenol." Avery rushes through his silly question before trying to leave the kitchen.

I quickly got out my seat and grabbed his arm.

"Avery, it's ok." I chuckled, letting his arm go. "It was really good, I was just surprised that I didn't feel sick afterwards. Thank you very much for cooking for me."

He smiled before jumping up and hugging me, I stumbled backwards at the sudden impact of his tiny body on mine. I tried my best to ignore the creepy crawly feeling I got from touching another man that wasn't my mate, so that I could show him how much I appreciated his actions.

After too many minutes, I had to pull away from our hug. I didn't really like being touched, the only exception seemed to be Dylan, so the little omega had to release me from his tiny grip.

"Thank you again Avery." I smiled as I set him back down on the floor.

"You're welcome Raiden." He shook his body in a like a little dance gesture before walking back into the kitchen.

I walked behind him then sat in my chair at the island counter.

"Brother." I look at Rome when he called me. "Do you ever think about leaving this pack?"

"Yes, all the time actually." I answer honestly.

"I think it's time I take Hunter and go find our own territory. Asad is getting restless, especially on nights when he comes back and smells like other men from his patrol duties. It's just not working anymore."

I nod, feeling the exact same way.

"Onyx has been extremely restless too, Rome. At least you can leave with your mate though, it kind of seems like I'm stuck here."

"Why? Why can't you just take Dylan and go? This isn't your territory anyways, it's his, you need to claim land together."

"Yeah I know, but Dylan is the Alpha, he can't just leave unless he passes the title down to someone else and I honestly don't see him doing that, Hunter is different, he doesn't have to run the whole pack, so he can leave and Dylan can take another Gamma, but he said it's harder for a pack to take another Alpha."

Rome shook his head, more like he didn't agree with what I just said, but had no choice to accept it.

"Promise me something brother."

"Anything."

"Promise me, if you ever can leave and take Dylan with you, that we can claim a large enough territory to split, that way we can always be close."

I smiled before grabbing the back of my brothers neck and pulling his forehead against mine.

"If that's an option, I promise to do just that Roman."

He reached up and grabbed my shoulder, shaking it gently before smiling himself.

"I love you brother."

"I love you too Rome."

• • •

The next 3 days went by without much drama. I haven't seen Gabe at all during these last few days, so I didn't really know what to do when the pack paperwork started piling up on Dylan's desk.

I ended up asking his parents, Dean and Jade for help, which they happily agreed to, even his uncle Jake said he would help, so that was one thing off my shoulders.

When pack members started coming by the packhouse for other things like repairs, supply orders and banquet information, I asked Avery to help me because his mate was the Beta and it only made sense that he would know how to help.

The only thing Roman and I could actually help with without getting confused was the phone call from another Alpha, named Rhogon.

Apparently he wanted my mate's help in changing some werewolf laws and asked if he could reschedule the first dinner that Dylan missed. So I told him sure and asked him what day and time worked for him next week and we got it all figured out.

I was proud of myself for doing something for my mate's pack, even though I didn't want to at first. I didn't think I could handle anything, but I did one thing with no problems, so to me, that was progress.

Today was now the 5th day that our mates have been gone and Roman and I have honestly been losing our minds.

I don't know if wolves feel the same way, but for felines, being apart from our mates was like the worst form of torture. We're independent creatures, so when we actually allow ourselves to become attached to something, we love that thing or person as hard as we can.

It's been so much of a struggle that we have been sleeping in the same room for comfort, like we did when we were kids or when I had an anxiety attack.

Tonight would be no different, everything had been taking care of by Dean, Jade and uncle Jake so I went to bed early, with Roman right behind me.

My baby brother was a very touchy feely man and loved to cuddle, I think it's a Lion thing. It worked my ever loving nerves, but again I bit my tongue and just tried to be there for him in a way that made sense for him.

Climbing into bed after taking a shower, Roman rolled over and laid his head on my chest, all of his damn hair hit me in the face as he got comfortable.

I chuckled at the memory of Dylan telling me that my hair was stupid and that I needed to cut it off, I knew Rome would get a kick out of that, so I decided to tell him to lighten the mood.

"Roman." I said, moving his hair to the side.

"Yes brother."

"You want to hear something hilarious?" I rubbed his back.

"Always."

"Dylan washed my hair the night before he left and.." I stopped talking abruptly when Roman sits up and looks me in the eyes.

"You let someone else touch your hair?!"

"I know, shocking." I laughed. "But yes, it was after I got stabbed so I couldn't do it myself, so Dylan helped me and he had the nerve to call my hair stupid and tell me that I should cut it."

Rome's eyes widen as he clutches his chest.

"Oh, he wanted to die that day." He bursts into a fit of laughter, which I joined before I felt a stinging pain.

I rubbed my chest to soothe the pain as I see Roman doing the same. My brother eyes started darting around my room before he looks back at me.

"Hunter feels weird."

"How do you know?" I ask, clutching my stomach as the pain started making its way through my body.

"I claimed him." He gritted out before groaning in pain.

"We have to go brother, something is wro-"

Avery busted in the room, interrupting what Roman was going to say, with a worried look on his face, I'm sure that matched ours.

"I can't find Gabe and he's not answering the link."

"Isn't he in the pack somewhere?" I ask getting to my feet, one hand clutched my stomach and the other I reached out to grab Avery's shoulder.

"No, he's not here Raiden. I've searched the whole pack link, I can feel him but he's not close and I can't link him, I'm scared."

"Where would he go?"

"I don't know."

"Well where did the others go? Maybe it has something to do with them?" Rome asked looking at me.

"The only thing I know is that they said something about a silver river and rapids." I tell them.

"Oh my Goddess.." Avery whispers, covering his mouth with his hands.

"What? What's the silver river?" Rome asks.

"It's not a safe place.. it's surrounded by a lot of shady areas." Avery explains.

"Maybe the others were in trouble and called Gabe there?" I suggest.

"That makes sense, Gabe is the strongest wolf here besides Dylan." Avery says, nodding more to himself than us.

"Ok, well what are we waiting for? Let's go." I tell them, walking out the bedroom door.

"Brother, wait a minute! We can't just go there and think we're going to outnumber whatever our mates found."

"We won't be outnumbered Rome, we have the pack here. Dylan said we can trust them."

"No we can't." Avery whispers, but I caught it.

What the hell did he mean by that?

"Avery? Is there something you're not telling me, something I should know?"

"The only thing I know is that Gabe told me not to trust anyone here when he left to do pack work. He said to stay with you and Roman and don't speak to anyone else... he said I couldn't trust anyone in the pack and to stay here until he figured out what's going on." Avery explains.

Yeah that scared the shit out of me. If Gabe is saying we can't trust the pack, then what the hell does that mean for my mate and my brothers mate? There's pack members with them right now. If we can't trust them, then what kind of danger could our mates be in?

"If we can't trust the pack, then I don't know what to do. My body is telling me to go to my mate, but we don't have enough backup for this."

There was a deafening silence between us all. None of us knew what to do or say, there was nothing that could this situation. I know my strength as well as my brothers, but we would have a vulnerable omega with us to protect and I know my mate took 13 other warriors with him, including Taj and Hunter, two wolves I still don't trust.

"We might have backup brother."

I look at Rome before narrowing my eyes and tilting my head, trying to figure out what my brother has up his sleeve.

"Who do you know that we can trust Rome? Someone with enough help that could actually help us get our mates?"

Roman smiles, looking between me and a terrified Avery. He nods to himself before rolling his shoulders.

"The pride."

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