Chapter 22 — Smoking Kills

Victor's POV:

I woke up, happy with my Little in my arms. She was squirming around, but I didn't want to let her go. I wanted to keep her in my hands forever. I knew she needed to pee. She didn't have to say it, but she was so focused on that feeling that she sent me the message through our bond.

She went to the bathroom, and that was when everything went downhill. I was summoned by my Alpha—not called down. Summoned meant I couldn't say no to him. I had to obey.

I made it down to my father, who was still our current Alpha office. I saw Alvin there, too, with a big scowl on his face. He hated this as much as I did. Call us nicely, and we'd be there. Force us out of bed, and you'd have one grumpy Alpha and his jerk Beta on your hands.

"Couldn't you, like, call? Send a message? Send Sammy to get me?" Alvin asked. He just expressed my bad mood. That guy seriously hated this. He said he'd only pledge to be my Beta officially if I swore never to summon him ever.

"This couldn't wait. Let's go," my father said. He wasn't joking at all. He moved out of his office while we were both still in our pajamas.

"Wait. Where?" I asked him. He snapped at me and nodded towards the door. We moved after him. He shifted into his wolf form, and we did the same, taking off after my father. He started running toward the edge of our territory. We moved after him and saw rogues!

Rogues were wolves who hadn't found their mates or had lost their mates. Their wolves took over. There was no redemption. Not even the moon Goddess could save them anymore. Some were just evil spirits. Evil existed everywhere.

They owned no lands. They owned no human forms. They moved from one territory to another, just spreading violence. And now, they were in ours. That was why we always had patrols for the edges of our territory, why we kept an eye on who came in.

They had probably slipped through our guards. We went on and started fighting. I felt Sophia searching and calling for me, but since I knew she was okay and safe at home, I blocked her. I blocked our bond. The more dominant wolf could do that. We could read our mate's feelings and block ours. That was a way to keep them safe and happy.

The fight took around an hour before every rogue was dead. We shifted back and helped our hurt ones. This was going to be a busy day, from calming scared wolves to helping hurt ones to securing our borders again. The day passed.

I opened my bond with Sophia the second I knew I was done for today. I could feel how upset she was. I'd make it up to her. She didn't really understand much yet about our life or what being an Alpha meant yet, but I didn't want to scare or overwhelm her.

I walked toward our backyard slowly. I could smell cigarettes. Smoking was one of my twin bad habits. I had warned him that one day, it'd land his ass in trouble. His answer was that it wasn't going to kill him. Then, I heard some coughing. I looked ahead and saw Sophia! Standing with a cigarette in her hand, she took another blow from it and coughed badly, then threw it on the ground.

My twin was wrong. Smoking does kill—since I was killing him tonight. Sophia turned and saw me coming/ I couldn't help but growl. She was in deep trouble. I nudged her toward the house. She tried to talk, but I growled again. Even though I knew she was feeling guilty about what she did, a good punishment was coming her way.

I stayed in my wolf form since my human clothes had blood all over them. I walked her toward my room—our room now.

"Corner," I growled through our bond, making her run and obey.

I shifted back and got some random clothes before heading to the bathroom. Making sure she wouldn't see the bloody clothes, I changed quickly and moved back outside in human form now.

I walked toward her. She was standing in the corner, her back to me and trembling. She knew she had messed up.

"Explain," I said, turning her around.

"I was upset…I wanted to try…I'll never try it again," she stuttered her excuses out quickly.

I now had both my hands against the wall, locking her between my body and the wall. She was on the verge of crying when something snapped in her. I felt her mood shifting from sad and guilty to pure anger.

"You left me! Without saying anything! I called you, but you ignored me!" she accused me. I opened my mouth to reply, but she beat me to it. She raised her finger now, pushing my chest while scolding me. "This is all your fault. You left without telling me!" she said, and a few angry tears made their way down her face. She tried to wipe them away, but I saw them. She was right. I did mess up here too.

"I'm sorry, baby girl, but I had something to do," I said, trying to keep the rogues out of our conversation.

"Nuu! You left me alone the whole day," she accused me again with tears now flowing freely down her face. Somehow, our situation had changed from me being mad at her to me hugging her close, trying to comfort her. I shouldn't have left her like that.

"I'm sorry, baby. Promise I'll never ignore you again," I said genuinely.

"Missed you, Daddy. Smoking is yuck. Pwomise never again," she said, and that was all I needed to know.