49. Outraged

Kiran’s left ear would never regrow. Supernatural healing was just that—healing. It did not cover *regrowth*. No recovering a lost limb. 
Godsdamnit, he could barely hear out of it, just warbled noise. It was clogged with blood and the scab the healing formed. He sustained plenty of scratches, his front leg was sprained, and he was still blinking liquid out of his eyes to clear the blurry vision. 
He was an immortal warrior. He’d been injured like this before with worse wounds and he was accustomed to pain—but that didn’t mean he didn’t feel it.
Sienna heard the fight and brought a few lesser Alphas and a cot, though that did little fucking good trapped in his wolf form. “What the hell?” his Delta snapped.
“Don’t mind me,” Kiran growled, barely able to lift his head.
“Dad,” one of his Alpha sons gaped, “your ear!”
Another son was less shocked and more amused. “She beat your ass real good.”
They only enhanced his outrage. He curled his lip and snarled, loud and angry enough that it put them into their place and hurried to silently help him onto the cot. His legs hung over the edge. It took four males to lift him and begin the trek back to the Keep. Kiran was humiliated and he wanted to rip Selene’s head off.
Sienna kept pace at his head to stay in his line of—fucked up—sight. “Care to explain, you bastard?”
“What do you think?” he growled. “Hazard a guess.”
“Selene beat your ass and took Seff. You didn’t win. *Why* didn’t you win?”
Kiran rumbled deep in his chest. That was it: he didn’t know why. It was as if his energy was siphoned away. He barely put up a fight. Just how addled did Seff make his brain? He was Kiran Cyrus, the Alpha of the Sun pack, and his intelligence went beyond most of his pack. What did his subconscious instincts tell him that he let Selene win? If he wanted to protect Seff from her, why didn’t he fight with every ounce of effort?
“You were distracted.” Sienna’s voice was deadpan. “That’s all it was.”
Kiran bared his teeth. “I wanted to keep Selene from stealing her. That required inhibiting her long enough to drag Seff back to the Keep.”
She shrugged. “Or you just lost your touch, old male.”
He didn’t bother responding because she was right. A simple lapse in judgment. He wanted Seff badly enough that he rendered himself fucking useless. 
The gates of the Keep were already open and they had to carry him through the courtyard to reach the clinic. Godsdamnit it, he needed to fix the layout of the compound. 
“Nosy bitches, make a path! Get out of the damn way!” Sienna roared.
Kiran’s pack members, offspring and not, filled the courtyard and halls like water flooded a ditch. Whispers took mere seconds to spread like wildfire. Kiran just closed his eyes and thanked the nonexistent gods for his lost ear.
“Kiran.” 
That voice was different—urgent, a tone specific to him, unlike the fretful pleading from everyone else. Kiran’s eyes opened. His lesser Alphas snapped at her to get away, but she squeezed between two with a hand gripping the side of the cot. 
“Allium.”
Seff’s obscenely jealous friend was distraught and desperate. Not long ago was she dazed in the throes of her heat cycle and keen on throwing her life down in servitude to him. He’d labeled her as a subtle zealot; not as crazy as some, but still tripping over her own feet to get his full attention. 
And clearly her priories still needed sorting. 
“I’m pregnant,” she said breathlessly.
Kiran’s jaw clenched. *Good for you*, he wanted to snap, but he just glared at her.
The Magnolia bit her lip. “Is Seff—is Seff okay? Please tell me she’s okay.”
*You’re a shit friend*, he wanted to tell her. *Seff doesn’t deserve you*. “She’s fine.”Allium breathed a sigh of relief and Kiran ordered, “Sienna, bring me Aster.” 
Allium’s relief shattered like a dropped plate and her legs faltered. The two Alphas barked and shoved her aside, leaving her standing alone. Rejected as easy as breathing. Kiran didn’t really care. She and her future pups were just names on a list—and she insulted Seff. He promised not label Allium untouchable; he would keep that promise, but that didn’t mean he had to like her.
Then she called, “What happened to Aiden August?”
Kiran thrashed his battered body hard enough to be dropped onto the ground with several outcries of protest. Allium stood her ground when Kiran towered over her with his worst snarl yet. He must have looked rabid—missing an ear, covered in blood and river water, most likely smelled horrific, his veins filled with wrath. 
“Never say that fucking name again or I will kill you.”
Allium’s lower lip wobbled and tears made her eyes glossy—but they were defiant. “Let my parents visit me and talk to Seff. Then I will.”
He gnashed his teeth. “You want to *bargain* with me, Omega?”
“Kiran! Back off.” 
He whirled on Aster, who bounced one of their five-year-olds on her hip. She didn’t even flinch. “Leave her alone,” she ordered. 
She was only five-four feet tall and it was like facing an unyielding deity. Kiran’s rage didn’t dim but his hackles smoothed. His fractured paw nearly gave out beneath him, but he just grumbled and decided to stubbornly walk the rest of the way. Aster moved aside once she was sure he wouldn’t act out again. She handed her son off to someone so she could walk alongside him near his head. 
“What do you expect me to say,” she demanded, “other than to tell you how rugged and attractive you look without an ear?”
Under any other circumstances he would have barked a laugh, but he just grunted. They reached the medic building with a parade behind them. Aster jogged up the steps and blocked his path. Her arms crossed over her chest. He suddenly wanted to bury his face between them. “What happened?”
There must have been something about him that Aster’s eyes suddenly softened. She wrapped her arms around his neck and rested her cheek on the top of his head. A kind of embrace so he could rumble low enough for only her to hear, “Three days with Selene. She’ll remember that bitch before she remembers me.”