Chapter 41 CHAPTER 041
Stone POV:
"You shouldn't have done that?" Her voice was soft when she spoke.
"Done what?" I growled, but Ari was already stepping back, her bare feet pressing into the floor.
The light through the windows, coupled with the one overhead, painted white streaks across her collarbones, the same collarbones I'd bitten into less than an hour ago. Her cheeks were still flushed and her lips were swollen.
"You shouldn't have suspended Sierra," she said, like it was obvious.
"Why do you feel the need to speak on her behalf?"
"She's not my enemy, Alpha. You are."
The words hit like a blade between my ribs. Before I could snarl a response, she turned on her heel and walked away, the sway of her hips looking like she was giving me a silent "fuck you". She didn’t look back and that made me hurt like hell.
I waited until her scent faded before stalking toward the training fields.
Harry stood at the edge of the sparring circle, his back to me. His shoulders were tense beneath his jacket. He wasn’t training. He was just staring at nothing, like a man counting the ways his life had gone to shit.
I stepped beside him, close enough for my presence to register, but not close enough to be mistaken for casualness. "You look like hell," I muttered.
Harry didn’t flinch. "Feel like it." His voice was rough, like he’d been shouting, crying, or swallowing glass.
While we let the silence simmer between us, the sound of birds chirping reached us from afar. "How long has it been? Since we stopped moving around like we used to? Listen," I straightened, letting my gaze roam over him. "I know we haven't been on the same line for a while now. But, I can't help but wonder if I'm doing the right thing."
Harry looked at me then, his brow arching. "You want me to tell you what I think?" I nodded, and he continued. "Your wolf is becoming a liability, Stone. The pack talks about it in the street about how their Alpha loses control more often than he holds it. You can't keep ruling through fear alone." His jaw tightened, his fingers flexing like he wanted to reach for a weapon. "Not when your weakness is walking around the palace with your scent all over her."
The truth of it hit like a kick to the ribs. I clenched my fists, feeling the phantom prickle of fur beneath my skin. "I'm not weak," I growled. "And certainly not because of her."
Harry scoffed, turning fully toward me now. The sunlight carved dark rings under his eyes. "No? Then what is she, Stone? A pet? A prize? Because from where I'm standing, you're treating her like both while pretending she's neither." He stepped closer, close enough that I could smell the whiskey on his breath. "And the pack sees it too. They see how you drag her into the woods one minute and let her walk away from you the next. An Alpha who can't control his own mate isn't fit to lead."
A snarl ripped from my throat before I could stop it. My vision tinted red at the edges. "Careful, Beta."
Harry didn't back down. He never did. "Or what? You'll suspend me too?" His laugh was bitter. "You're losing yourself in this, Stone. And if you don't find a way to rein in your wolf..." He cut himself off, shaking his head.
I could still feel the years of fighting between us. I could see the training field now, smelling of damp sand and sweat, the same as it had when we were boys sparring here.
I exhaled sharply, rolling my shoulders to ease the tension. "Remember that summer we stole Garrison's wine?" The words came out faster than I intended.
Harry's posture shifted almost imperceptibly. "You drank half the barrel and puked in the stables. Of course, I remember."
"And you took the blame." I met his gaze. At that moment, the memory was dangling between us like a bridge over a storm. "Why?"
For a heartbeat, Harry looked like the boy I'd once called a brother, loyal to a fault, even when it cost him. Then his expression shuttered. "Because you were my Alpha." His voice dropped low. "But you're not that boy anymore, Stone. And neither am I."
The truth hurts. It always did. But I loved something about him, and it was his ability to say the truth, no matter how much it hurt. I studied him and saw the new hardness in his jaw, the way his fingers twitched toward the silver accessory at his belt.
"Your father's back in town, I believe," I observed. "Has he been giving you one of those life lessons again?"
Harry's lips twisted. "He's not wrong about everything."
"Since when did you start listening to him? You never wanted to."
"You want advice?" Harry said suddenly, stepping back. "Stop pretending Ari is just another conquest. The pack can smell your obsession. And if you don't claim her properly," His gaze flicked toward the palace windows, where Ari's passed behind the glass. "Someone else will."
The threat almost made me transform and tear him into two. But for all I know, if Harry wanted a girl, he got them. For the first time in years, I saw a hint of the warrior Harry could've been, the one his father's ambition had suffocated.
I turned away before my wolf could react. "Go home, Beta."
Harry hesitated, then offered a mock salute. "As my Alpha commands."
His footsteps faded into the space, leaving me alone with the gnawing certainty that the next time we talked about Ari, it wouldn't be as brothers. But as enemies.
Just as I turned to go back inside, a guard rushed over to me, Ari was gone. I couldn't believe my ears.
“What do you mean, Ari is gone?”
“We saw her going towards the west woods and believed you sent her on an erra—”
Before I could stop myself, my claws sunk into his throat, slowing his words to a bunch of gargling sounds. Everyone around flinched, some of them pressing their bodies together.
I didn’t know why my wolf did that, but for the first time, I was in support. With a heavy breathing, I raised a hand and yelled out, “I want every single guard to turn this pack upside down until Ari is found"