Chapter 5 - Silas
The weight of judgmental looks and unanswered questions fell on Silas as he stood in front of his pack.
The pack had assembled in the meeting hall at dawn, thanks to Rael, who had told them that their Alpha had something to tell them. They had arrived in search of a response to the human woman who had come into their land. The woman who was now bearing the mating sign of their Alpha.
Silas scanned the crowd. These were people he grew up with, people he trained with, people who had vowed their loyalty to him when he was made Alpha, his father's successor. Those who now stared at him with bewilderment, disillusionment, and in others, barely suppressed rage.
“I know you have questions,” Silas’ voice echoed across the hall. “ I am aware that what I did last night was not expected.”
“Unexpected?” One of the older pack members, named Thomas, took a step forward. “You have brought a human to our land, Alpha. You bonded with her. You violated pack law.”
“My father's law,” Silas said evenly. “And, as I told you last night, I am Alpha now. I make the laws.”
“But tradition—”
“Tradition isn't always right.” Silas glanced at the wolves present. “I understand your concerns. I realize this seems out of the blue. But I need you to trust me.”
“Trust you?” Another voice called out in the back. “When you will not even tell us why?”
Silas's jaw tightened. He could not tell them anything concerning the trafficking operation, the mission, or the fact that their pack was being framed.
Not yet. Not until they had additional answers, additional evidence.
If news spread that they were in the process of investigating, it might undermine all that.
“Elle is vital when it comes to the security of this pack,” Silas said cautiously. “ I can't tell you all the details yet, but I promise you that everything I have done has been in our best interest. For our safety.”
“How? How can bringing a human, whom we sent away, be for our own good?”
“You will know soon,” Silas said. “I'm just asking you to trust me. To believe that I haven’t forgotten my obligation to this pack.”
The pack members silently exchanged glances. They wanted to believe him. Most of them, anyway. But he was asking them to believe something that contradicts all they had been taught.
“The human stays,” Silas said in his Alpha voice. “She's my mate. She's under my protection. And anyone who harms her or makes her feel unwelcome will answer to me.”
Silence fell. It was so quiet, you could hear a pin drop.
“And we are not asking you to love her,” Rael added, stepping up alongside his brother. “We are asking you to honor the decision of your Alpha. To allow him the opportunity to show that he knows what he is doing.”
More silence. Then, gradually, wolves started nodding. Not all of them. Not even most of them. But enough.
“The meeting is adjourned.”
The pack marched out slowly, still murmuring, still throwing glances back at him. Silas stood and watched them go, bearing the burden of their disappointment on his shoulders.
He sighed loudly when they all left, and it was just Rael and Javi.
“That went better than I had imagined,” Rael stated.
“Did it?” Silas pulled at the roots of his hair. “They think I've lost my mind.”
“You have,” Javi said bluntly. “But at least they are not publicly challenging you.”
Silas turned to his brothers. “I let them down.”
“You made a choice,” Rael said.
“I abandoned the mission. Six months of work went down the drain because of my inability to control myself.” Silas balled his hands into fists. “We were so close, and I threw it all away.”
“You rescued your mate,” Rael pointed out.
“I could have done both. I should have done both.” Silas began pacing. “I should have waited till the end, collected all the intelligence we required, and followed up with her case afterward. But instead I—”
“You are not a machine. You saw your mate being sold. Your wolf took over. It happens.”
“It shouldn't have happened. Not to me. Not at the risk of the pack image.” Silas stopped pacing and stared at his brothers. “I'll make it up to them. We'll find another way. I'll clear our pack's name.”
“How?” Javi asked. “The auction's gone. Those buyers are scattered all over. Any advantage we had is gone.”
“I will find out how,” Silas sighed. “I have to.”
Rael eyed him for a couple of minutes. “You have to take care of Elle first. She is traumatized, furious, and stuck in a place that is full of bad memories for her. You must work out things with her if you want this mating bond to work properly.”
Silas knew that his brother was correct. But the guilt gnawed at him, the knowledge that he'd failed his pack when they needed him most.
“I'll fix it. I just need time.”
A couple of minutes later, Silas left the meeting hall, making his way back to his house, where he had left Elle sleeping in the guest room. His wolf wanted her in his bed, in his room, covered in his scent. But Silas had forced himself to leave her alone. She'd been through enough.
When he stepped into the house, Elle was already up. She was standing in the kitchen, wearing one of his shirts, which hugged her figure perfectly, showcasing her voluptuous curves. Her hair was up in a messy bun, and her eyes were a bit red. She stiffened when she saw him come in.
“Where were you?” she demanded.
“Pack meeting. They wanted to know some things about you.”
“And what did you tell them? That you kidnapped me? Forced me into a mating bond?”
“I explained to them you are vital to pack safety,” Silas said. “That they need to trust me.”
Elle laughed bitterly, rubbing her face harshly. “Trust you. Right. Because you are so trustworthy.”
Silas bit back a retort. This was going to be a long day.
It turned into a long week.
Elle fought him on all things. She refused to step out of the guest room when he tried to give her a tour of the house.
When he came in with food, she would just pick at it, barely eating anything.
Even though her stomach would growl so loud that he heard it in the hallway.
When he tried to talk, she answered him in one word or stony silence.
The previous Elle, the submissive girl who took whatever he dished out to her, was now entirely absent. This Elle was aggressive, obstinate, and didn't hesitate to let him know what she thought of him.
“You are a controlling bastard,” she told him on the third day when he demanded she have breakfast.
On the fifth day, when she would not have the pack healer examine her wounds sustained at the auction, he growled, “You are impossible.”
She muttered “I hate you” at least ten times a day. And each time she said it, Silas felt as if a knife was lodged in his chest.
When Silas woke up on the seventh day, the guest room was empty.
His wolf sprang into action at once. He trailed her smell all through the house and out the back door, into the woods which bordered his land. She had a head start, perhaps twenty minutes, and she was going towards the confines of the pack.
Silas ran after her. He found her a mile from the border, running through the trees. She had even found some clothes, one of his old t-shirts, and a pair of sweatpants which she had pulled in tight around her waist.
Silas ran past and stopped in front of her, blocking the path.
“Get out of my way,” she panted.
“No.”
“Silas, I swear to God—”
“You're not leaving.”
“You can’t keep me here against my will!”
“I can, and I am.” Silas stepped closer. “You won't make it anyway. The bond won't let you.”
Elle's eyes flashed with fury. “What are you talking about?”
“The mating bond. It ties us together. The farther you are away from me, the more uncomfortable you'll be. After a while, you will be physically sick. Restless. Your wolf—if you had one—would force you to return.”
“I don't have a wolf,” Elle spat. “So I'll be fine.”
“That is even worse because you are a human. The bond will tug at you, creating this painful ache in your chest. You will miss and despise me at the same time.”
Elle's face went pale. “That's not fair.”
“Well, it happens in both directions,” Silas explained. “I feel it too. The need to be near you. To know you're safe. To—” He stopped himself.
“To control me,” Elle finished. “To own me.”
“To protect you.”
“I don't want your protection!” Elle's voice rose. “I want my freedom! I want my life back!”
“I can't give you that. Not yet. Especially not now with the traffickers still in business.”
Elle clenched her hands. “Then I will take care of them myself. I have lived alone for eight years, Silas. I have been homeless, hungry, and lonely. I learned to fight. I learned to be strong. I don't need you or anybody else to protect me.”
“They're shifters,” Silas said. “You can't fight them.”
“Then I'll learn. I'll train. I'll—” Elle sniffed, her voice breaking. “I'll do anything not to remain here as your prisoner.”
“You're not my prisoner.”
“Yeah, right. I can't leave. I didn't choose to be here. I didn't choose this bond. I didn't choose any of this!” Tears rolled down her cheeks. “You took everything from me. Again.”
Silas swallowed harshly. No matter how many times she said it, it still hit him the same.
Elle was right. He had taken her away from her life. Just like his pack did eight years ago.
But his wolf snarled, saying that it had to be so. She was safer here, with him, than in the streets where traffickers would be able to locate her.
“I will thrive without you,” Elle continued, her voice hardening. “Just like I did before. You thought that by forcing me to remain here, things would suddenly be fine? You're wrong. I'll never accept this. I'll never accept you.”
Her words should have made him and his wolf furious. Instead, Silas was fascinated.
This Elle was nothing like the girl he remembered. The docile, adoring girl who had allowed his pack to tramp all over her had disappeared. Now, she was a woman who survived hell and emerged stronger. A woman who stood before him, with tears streaming down her face, and wrath in her eyes.
He wanted to know what she'd been through. What made her this hard-edged?
“What are you staring at?” Elle demanded.
“You,” Silas said honestly. “You're different.”
“Of course I'm different. Eight years of struggling to live will do that to someone.”
“Tell me about it.”
Elle blinked. “What?”
“Tell me about those years. About what you did. How you survived.”
“Why the hell would I tell you anything?”
“Because I want to know.”
“Well, I don't want to tell you.” Elle wiped her tears angrily. “Now get out of my way.”
“Elle.”
“I said, get out of my way!”
She tried to push past him. Silas grabbed her wrist, and Elle kicked him in the shin, scratching and fighting to the best of her ability.
Silas allowed her to get it all out. She needed to.
Finally, after a couple of minutes, Elle sighed and leaned against a tree, breathing heavily.
“I hate you,” she whispered.
“I know.”
They were standing in the forest, and the morning sun was just rising fully behind the horizon.
Then Silas's phone buzzed.
He took it out of his pocket, and his brows furrowed.
Silas looked up at Elle. “Your brother's here.”
The expression on Elle's face changed from fury to something more complicated. Hope, terror, relief, everything combined.
“August,” she breathed.
“He wants to see you.”
For the first time since Silas brought her here, Elle looked anxious. “Does he... does he know about what you did?
“Well, from the text Rael sent me, he knows you're here, and we're mated.”
Elle groaned, closing her eyes. “He's going to hate me.”
“He could never hate you.”
“You don't know that.”
Her eyes flickered open, and Silas saw the vulnerability there, which was quickly covered up by her normal defiance.
“Fine,” she said. “Take me to him.”
August was standing on the front porch when they arrived at the house. He stood as soon as he saw them; his dark eyes were fixed on his sister.
“Elle.”
Elle stopped walking. She was looking at her brother, whom she had not seen in eight years, and Silas watched her face crumple.
“August,” she whispered.
Then she was running, and August was running too. They met each other in the middle and wrapped each other in a tight hug.
This was what Elle needed. Her family. Her brother.
Guilt sank into his bones as he watched them hold each other in tears, both of them talking over each other in a tumble of words—excuses, apologies, and questions.
Silas had rescued Elle from the traffickers. However, he had also brought her back to the same location where he had ruined her and forced her into a marriage that she did not want. Now, he had to live with the repercussions of those decisions.
He simply hoped that one day she would forgive him. Even though he would never forgive himself.