Enigma novel Chapter 36

“Is something bothering you Ryder?” I asked.

“No.” He more like pouted. I raised my eyebrow at him questionably. “Okay! I just feel like you don’t love me anymore.” I didn’t say anything and let him continue. “You don’t spend time with me like before. You are always paying more attention to the pups. You don’t talk to me like before and even if you do come to see me, you go all mushy over Xander and the other pups. Do you not love me anymore?”

“Ryder what has gotten into you? No way in the hell will I stop loving you. You are my older brother. Nobody can ever take your place. About the pups and kids, Ry they are children. How can anyone not adore them? Just because I love them too, doesn’t mean I love you any less. I love you Ryder.”

I hugged him and he dropped him head on my back, hugging me back.

“I love you too princess.”

“Now come on. We have to do some grown up things.” I said walking towards the meeting house.

I heard him follow behind me. I entered the house with Ryder in tow to find all the eight boys and Leo, Stanley and Ryan, waiting for us there. Ben, Ethan, Lucas, Archer and even Hudson were glaring murderously at the utterly terrified group of Zeno, Francis and Fabian.

“Leo, Stan, Ryan, please leave. I would like to talk to them in private.” Leo opened his mouth to protest but I cut him off. “I promise I won’t murder them.”

Ryder snorted beside me in a very audible voice. Oh come on Ry. Don’t blow my cover.

Leo, Stanley and Ryan reluctantly left. The panic on Zeno, Francis and Fabian’s faces became more prominent.

Scared are we?

I plopped on the ground as the couch isn’t big enough for Ryder and he sat down beside me.

“We are here to talk about shifting. I will come straight to the point. Zeno, we don’t have a choice but to let you shift. Your condition is getting out of hand. If you are shifting, Francis and Fabian will be shifting as well as they are your beta and gamma. I seriously don’t trust you though neither do the spirit wolves but we don’t have any other option here. Either that or… well so you three are shifting. I will tell you about your role once you have shifted. One wrong move and I will snap your necks. Keep that in mind.” The three boys nodded, trembling from head to toe. Hah! Fear me bitches. That’s what you get after tormenting my daughter. “Now Lucas, Archer and Hudson, you don’t have an alpha. Ben is an alpha and he can lead you but our family does not work separately. Ethan is a beta. He will join with Ben and if time comes, so will Elliot. Your spirit alpha agreed to this but I want to ask you three if you are okay with this arrangement.”

“We don’t mind. As long as we are not in the same pack as those three,” Lucas said pointing at Zeno, Francis and Fabian. “we are okay with it. Besides, Ben and Ethan are awesome. We couldn’t ask for better leaders than them.”

Ben and Ethan grinned at them. I am proud of my boys.

“There is one more thing. Spirit wolves are better at killing demons than shifters. I don’t know how to ask this… just hear me out and tell me what you think. We will go with that. If you five shifted, we will lose five spirit wolves but we will still have shifters so the numbers will be the same. So I wanted to ask you, do you want to be on the battel field?”

“I know this sounds unreasonable but we want to fight. We lost our entire pack to those monsters. I don’t think we will be at ease till we fight them ourselves. Please let us fight.” It was Archer that talked this time.

I smiled at him and nodded. They grinned at me.

“Okay it’s getting late. We should get back home. Zeno and Ben, we will meet here tomorrow at nine in the morning. You two will be shifting first. If I am not exhausted after that, the betas will be shifting tomorrow as well. I will inform you about it when the time comes. Zeno be here by nine in the morning.” With that being said, I turned to Ryder. “Let’s go home Ryder. I want to rest as much as I can.” He got up and nodded. “Boys drive home. Be careful. We have guest over so you might have to cram up. Please bear with it.”

“No worries mom. We will see you back at home.” Ben said smiling.

I nodded as I exited the meeting house. The boys went on their way to the cars and I hopped on Ryder’s back. The three monkeys still hadn’t moved from their places. I saw Leo, Stanley and Ryan coming towards the meeting house from the trail as Ryder dashed into the woods with me on his back. They must be thinking that I decapitated their sons. Like I would. I am not that heartless. If they were in my place, they would have already kicked the boys out of the pack or might have even killed them but it’s not their daughter that is suffering. So why will they care right? Those people can go do whatever they want if they don’t even trust me. My family must be waiting for me at our house.

Who would have thought that one person’s stupidity and arrogance will end up causing so many problems.