Chapter 166

Chapter 166
Jeremy: 

The mood lately had been dark. I wasn’t a man of sunshine and rainbows, but I had noticed the change in the atmosphere. With the attack from the coven and not knowing what they were up to, everybody was on edge and on guard.

Most notably, my best friend. 

He lunged at me, pinning me to the ground and wailing on me like Allie said he does to Denver in the near future. I traded punches with him, but the blows landing were a lot harder than normal. Despite my telling him not to hold back, I knew that the good in Green still kept him from doing any true damage to me.

It was who he was, and yet today? Today, I could feel my mind slipping away from me with each hit. It was as if the looming threat was slowly picking the kindness out of my friend's soul.

I didn’t know if I should be happy about that or angry. I was glad that Green had become somebody who would stand up, who could fight back, who wasn’t afraid to use his voice. That didn’t mean I wanted him to be like me, jagged and angry with the world for what it had taken from him. 

His peaceful pack was now the center of the wolf world, no longer flying underneath the radar. He couldn’t go a day without a dozen new responsibilities being dropped on him. The revelation that the coven was torturing Daniel and Felicity, it had placed black in the heart of my friend and his family. 

Even Allie, the little ray of sunshine that made Green’s world spin, her smile had faded. 

I dragged my hand down his side easily. he was too focused on landing below my face. He didn’t notice when my arm slipped out from the barrage of punches we were throwing at each other, and I was able to mark him. 

He got off of me, stomping like he was a little child frustrated that he hadn’t noticed. 

“Allie says this slows me down. I have to learn to realize he’s about to do that,” he growled. 

I didn’t disagree with him, but he was being so petulant, I couldn’t stand it. 

“The second you feel him digging in, just arch away if you’re gonna be too focused on punching. Try and realize what he’s doing in the moment,” I offered. 

“Yeah, but that can make him dig deeper,” Green rebuked my idea. 

I exhaled a deep, annoyed breath, looking at him as if to ask him if he was done yet. 

“Sorry,” he snapped, a forced fake apology. 

“ Oh, gee, thank you, mister. I’m so glad that we’ve worked it out,” I mocked his false apology. 

“Look, let’s start again,” he demanded, and I was happy to oblige. 

He was fighting like he meant it. That’s what I’ve been wanting from him this whole time, like I was the enemy, like I was the bad guy coming to take everything he wanted from him. He was finally starting to picture Denver, and facing off against him.

He had been ruthless in the ring when it came to his opponents, but I feel like that had more to do with the power struggle he was facing off against when it came to the other alphas. Or his brother-in-law. 

Now, here in the quiet with me, there was no one else, and this ferocity is what he needed. This is what would keep him alive, so I was gonna let him use it. Let him see the raw power that it brought out of him. 

We were wolves. We were fueled by our emotions, and Denver wanted to kill Green because he wanted his evil plans to come to fruition. He wanted to kill all humans. He was hateful and full of rage.

Green wanted to protect what he loved. Denver was using hate, but Green he was going to use devotion. He might think I was channeling his rage, but instead, I was channeling his desire to protect Allie. The mate bond was one of the most powerful things in our world. Not even Denver could go against the pull of it. 

Green battered and bruised me about, I could feel my bones rattle as he launched me from side to side of the clearing. My teeth rattled in my mouth as I landed hard against the forest floor. My body ached, but I couldn’t have been prouder. 

If he felt like this, when he faced off against Denver, Denver wouldn’t stand a chance. He was fighting off of instinct, not just muscle memory. He was fighting for her, and that’s what he needed to do. 

For the first time since we started, I didn’t have a feeling like my friend was going to leave me. I had hope. I wasn’t foolish enough to tell him to let him lose his edge. 

When he was done taking his problems out on me, he handed me a towel, the fog in his mind kind of clearing for a second as he looked at the blood running down my face. 

“Sorry,” and an earnest apology came from him this time. 

“Don’t. Be.” I ordered him. 

Green actually laughed. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. I did do pretty good today, didn’t I?” he chuckled, realizing the difference that today had made.

Allie had told us that the fight was going to happen soon, and with all this activity from the coven. I couldn’t disagree with her, even if I wanted to. They were ramping up to something, and they had attacked for some reason. Those assholes never played by the rules. We’ve gone over every inch of the walls, metal detectors, trackers, basically anything we could think of short of X-ray vision. It revealed nothing. We were flying blind. 

What was worse is Allie hadn’t had a single vision since the coven attacked. Not about the fight. Not about the coven. Nothing. 

Green might’ve been happy that she was getting some sleep for once, but I still thought he was underusing his greatest weapon. I didn’t have a death wish, so I wasn’t going to suggest that she start drinking that tea again, but they really need to start trying to hone her powers. They were too distracted with everything else going on around them, though. Surprise, brothers, coven attacks, abandoning fathers. They were all just distractions.

“Have you read that diary yet?” I asked Green.

“No, we haven’t, honestly, I don’t think she wants you right now. I think she’s too scared to try to push anything further. Her whole focus is on Denver and this fight,” he explained it to me, but it still didn’t make enough sense. 

He let that girl's fear and her emotions rule him too much. Maybe someday I’d understand when I had a mate of my own, but I doubt it. At this point, I doubt I was ever going to have a mate. It made sense for an asshole like me, being left mateless.

Looking at Green and all the trouble he was in because of his mate, I wasn’t necessarily going to be upset about it. Emotions made people think irrationally, and as alpha, we didn’t have that luxury.