Chapter 50

***Alpha Ethan*** 

Thank Goddess the full moon phase has passed. I don’t know how much longer I could bear waking up in the middle of the night screaming. It’s always the same nightmare. Over and over again.
As I walk into the living room late at night, I frown when I spot Little Dove. She is slumped in an ivory loveseat, her eyes closed and her pink lips are slightly open. There are piles of papers everywhere, and a few are messy on her lap. I look at her face again and I can spot bags under her eyes. 
I frown. I hate what I see. Her delicate human body looks exhausted. Why haven’t I noticed how tired she was? 
Probably because I haven’t seen her in the last few days. And also, her vibrant aura is remarkably striking and undeniably enchanting when she is awake.
But right now, my protective instincts are kicking in, and I feel a surge of protectiveness. In front of her, all I can see is someone who needs to be bundled into bed for a long nap. 
‘Easy, human. You’re not her mate,’ Kral reminds me.  
‘Fucking hell. The irony of your words! Who do you think my instincts come from?’ I ask him. ‘That’s pretty hypocritical! They’re coming from you!’
Kral growls in my mind.
This stupid wolf. He drives me crazy.
“Alicent?” I say loud instead of calling her out quietly.
“Ah!” She wakes up screaming. “What happened? Az?” She whips her head around, anxiety etched on her face, searching for her son and anything that might hurt him. Her eyes flick down to the papers around her, and that’s when she realizes where she is. She looks up at me. “Gosh, Ethan! Why did you scare me?”
“Why were you sleeping here? This isn’t the place for that,” I lie, responding angrily.
“What? No, I wasn’t sleeping!”
“Yes, you were.”
“No, I wasn’t! I was just resting my eyes after grading the students’ assignments.”
“If you want to sleep, you have a room for it.”
She starts to organize the papers into a single pile with an adorable frown. “And that’s the end of this extra shift thing. You’re not going to be replacing Jenkins anymore.”
“What?” She stops the papers in her hand halfway midair to the pile. “You’re not in charge of me, Ethan! I do whatever I want. Everyone can call you Alpha around here, and that might give you a sense of superiority over everyone else, but you can’t tell me what to do!” 
A wide grin spread across my face, and then I bark out a laugh, giving my head a little shake of disbelief. “You don’t even understand how far off the mark you are.”
Her face shows utter disbelief. “What do you mean?”
I lean my face closer to hers. “I’m in charge of everything around here, Little Dove. The land and the people. Including you. My word is law.” 
She opens her mouth slightly, a gasp escaping her lips before she gathers herself to object. “All I’m hearing is that you like to mind people’s business!”
“Alicent!”
I shoot her a look. She grimaces but doesn’t back down. 
What the hell? I’ve had strong werewolves piss themselves in just the face of my displeasure. Not this tiny human. 
I’m regarded as one of the more powerful of my kind, and although my command often doesn’t hold for long stretches of time with some other strong Alphas, it usually requires much more effort to shake it off than this. My hands tighten into fists, rage filling my eyes. I can’t believe my pride has been injured by a tiny human. My weakened state after the full moon is obviously the cause of my malfunctioning command.
“You can’t do this to me. I need this extra shift!”
“No, you don’t. No extra shifts for you starting next week! Stick to the work you already have,” I say firmly, looking at the dark circles under her eyes.
“Ugh! You’re infuriating!” She picks up the papers and places them in her arms before standing up. I step back to give her space.
“Obey, Little Dove. I’ll know if you do otherwise,” I say, protesting just to protest. Yet, I make a mental note to mindlink Penny tomorrow. “I don’t even know why you took on this extra work if you can’t do it.”
Can’t she understand that humans are more delicate? Especially her!
“And for the record, out of all the females I’ve ever met, you are by far the most infuriating, too!” 
Little Dove snatches a small pillow from a sofa within her arm’s reach and launches it in my direction.
I catch the soft pillow before it hits me.
She stiffens, and she eyes the pillow in my hand. Holding her furious gaze, I throw the pillow on the loveseat she was in. “You just made my point.” 
For a second, she looks scared by my reaction in a way that I don’t like. Like I would somehow hurt her physically. I would never.
That’s why I stop stifling my smirk. And suddenly, her scent of fear disappears.
I swear, I can almost see steam whistling out of her ears. 
It is unsettling how quickly I flip between annoyance and curiosity for Little Dove.
She takes a deep breath. “I’m sorry about that. But I wouldn’t act like this if you didn’t always push me to, Ethan! God knows I’m not like this. I’m normally a much calmer person, but you bring out the worst in me!”
“That’s because you always make terrible choices!” I snap back as I notice again that her clothes seem to fit looser in her body than last week. Kral growls in my mind again, noticing that too. She isn’t taking care of herself. “You should try to be less fucking reckless every now and then for a change.”
Her meadow green eyes narrow at my black ones, and she curls her lips. I feel a little satisfied. 
She *is* angry.
We both know I’m being an ass. But it’s better than Little Dove continuing to exhaust herself.
I stroll past her, ignoring the enticing whiff of her sweet scent as I do. 

🐺 🐺 🐺

“Where’s Lily?” I ask my sister the minute she arrives alone at the gym.
She approaches the bench I’m sitting on. “She’s not coming today. She’s out with her dad.” I raise my eyebrows in surprise. Jordan rarely spends time with his daughter.
I study Vi’s face. “What happened?” I ask. She looks sad. “Did you and Jordan have a fight again?”
She sighs as she sits by my side. 
“We’re good now. I vented a lot with poor Allie. She had been so busy lately, but she still managed to make time for me.”
I just blink in acknowledgment. 
“You know, she quit working extra hours,” she says with a knowing smirk.
“Yeah, after I literally forced her,” I say, shaking my head.
She presses her red-painted lips together before saying, “I know you’re a hard man and take no shit from anyone. But take it easy on her, Ian. I feel like she only shows a third of what she struggles with.”
“That’s rich coming from you when we do the same thing to her. What do you want me to do?” I ask impatiently, looking at her.
She grins and then laughs. “Well, you aren’t wrong... But maybe if you try smiling instead of scowling, she might be inclined to *obey* you without you demanding.” Vi arches one brow. Oh fuck! She listened to the conversation that night, or Alicent told her. 
I blink hard at her, taking a deep breath.
“You do remember how to smile, don’t you?” She says with a smirk. “You seem to forget when you’re near Allie.”
“Fuck off,” I snarl, making her laugh.
There have been times over the years that I thought my sister was sent to test my patience.
“You are coming with me tomorrow to Summerville?” 
“Of course I am,” Vi answers with a smile. 
My head turns forward and I can’t help but smile too. I like when she tags along. Vi has a sharp mind. “Good.”
“Aww, you love having me around, don’t you, Ian?” 
“Wouldn’t go that far,” I say gruffly. But she notices my smile gets wider.  
Az enters the gym, the kid has been growing so fast that his clothes are already getting too short. And I’m not talking about the old ones he wore when he first arrived here, those haven’t fit him for a while now, but the new ones his mother bought.
“You’re late,” I tell him.
He approaches my sister. Vi grins at him and holds out her fist. Azrael bumps his against hers with a smile. “Where’s Lily?”
The brat has been bonding with my sister since day one. He’s not like that with me. To prove what I thought, he then turns to me and grimaces.
“She’s not coming today. I have to go,” Vi says, checking her phone. “See you later!”
As soon as my sister leaves, I get up and go to where I usually stand. Azrael follows me.
“Where’s your mom?” I ask to annoy the boy. “I prefer it when she brings you.”
“Stop asking about my mom!” He yells behind me. I turn to face him with a smirk. However, I didn’t expect to sense so much anger from the boy. Anger and fear at the same time. “I don’t want you to come close to her! Never again!” He yells louder. “I hate you! I hate you!”
And then, just as Azrael is about to shift, he’s so worked up that he doesn’t realize his mother is approaching. Little Dove appears with a small lunchbox in her delicate hands. “Azrael!”