Ezra
Waking up, I stare at the ceiling. I want to know what happened to my mate. Why had she acted like that? I thought I was going to see her wolf with the way she had growled. Maddox got excited about it.
The entire Packhouse is buzzing. The laughter and cheer rises up to my ears. At least someone is in a good mood. Despite myself, I smile. I love the sound of a happy Pack. I get dressed and make my way down the stairs. Chatter and laughter fills the usual silence as they get ready for the day.
Glancing at Kat's door I pause and knock. I listen for movement before opening the door and popping my head in. The room is empty. She's not hiding in here anymore, I sigh in relief. I smile and continue down the steps, only stopping when I see Angie and a group of kids huddled together in a small mass laughing and watching something on her phone.
The laughter isn’t as happy as I'd first thought. There was something jeering about it. “What’s going on?” I ask.
Angie quickly tries doing something on her phone, shielding it away from me as the other teens suddenly take off. Walking into the foyer, I see everyone else scatter and Angie is still fumbling with her phone frantically when I see the TV. Angie is casting whatever is on her phone directly to the TV.
Acid boils in my stomach. Kat is on the TV screen while showering, trying to cover herself and crying. Red creeps over my vision. I look around for the remote but it's nowhere to be found. The kids are still scrambling and running away. I grab a chair and fling it at the TV and shatter the screen. The image of Kat flickers off and glass and plastic rain down.
Angie shrieks and cries.
This is her fault.
A guttural growl escapes me and anger surges through, threatening to consume me.
I want to break her, never in my life have I wanted to inflict pain on any of my own Pack members, but in this moment I want to hurt her like she hurt my mate.
Mateo, hearing the breaking glass and everyone's terrified screams, races down the stairs as I lunge at her. My claws slip from my fingertips and Mateo yanks me backwards. My claws scratch her cheek, I was aiming for her head. Her hand goes to her face as she screams in horror at what I have done.
Mateo and I hit the ground and I roll off him wanting her blood, I wanted her to pay for the humiliation she just caused Kat.
“Ezra, what's going on?” Mateo demands, struggling to hold me back. Angie tries to run.
Fat chance I'll allow that. "Fucking move and die!" I scream and my Alpha aura rolls over her.
She freezes in place with a terrified whimper. Crying, she bares her neck. Her entire body trembles with tension.
Mateo lets me go and I get to my feet stalking toward her.
“Give me the fucking phone now!” I tell her as I hold my hand out.
She trembles but drops the phone in my hand, tears trek down her bleeding face. I try to get in but it has a passcode.
“Password now!” I snarl, and she rattles off her date of birth.
Her voice trembles badly as tears and her blood continue to stream.
Mateo looks over my shoulder trying to figure out why I am so angry, and he catches sight of it, a furious growl escapes him.
“You would dare do that to another woman, subject her to that sort of humiliation?” I ask her, my voice deadly cold. How could she? How could she do that to my mate, or anyone? Humiliating her is bad enough, but showing it off to everyone is even worse to me.
“It wa-was a joke?” she stammers.
“That is not a fucking joke, Angela!” Mateo roars at her, also on the verge of shifting and ripping her to pieces.
“Where is she?” I ask, looking around for my mate, needing to see she is alright.
“She is still in the bathroom,” Jake gulps from the top of the stairs. I look up and see him pale, his large petrified blue eyes watching us. He nervously tries to brush his blonde hair from his face.
“And how do you know that?” I coldly ask. I know the answer, and he knows I know. He looks like he's on the verge of puking, but at least he told me where my mate is.
“It was Angie's idea, I told her we shouldn’t,” he whimpers and my vision goes crimson. He helped humiliate her in such a way.
Mateo must sense my intentions. He grabs my arm and pushes me down towards the bathroom before I can rip one of her tormentors apart. "I'll deal with them. Go, get her," he orders.
“Everyone out!” I yell to all the lingering teens. They stare at everything with fearful eyes.
Angie and Jake go to leave when Mateo catches both of them by the arms. “Not you two, you two are coming with me,” he informs them.
“You better pray Kat is forgiving, because I won’t stop her if she banishes you,” I tell them and they pale before looking at me with twin trembling lips. They both look ready to sob.
“Banish us?” Jake squeaks.
"She can't do that, she's not our Luna," Angie stutters. "We don't have one."
"Yes, she can," I argue back. "How dare you humiliate your Luna like that."
Angie's eyes widen, she turns to stare down the hall at the bathroom. She's gone ghostly pale. "Our Luna?" she whispers.
“Yes, because she is my mate,” I say before walking off and leaving Mateo to deal with them.
When I enter the bathroom all I can hear is her sobs. One of the shower curtains is ripped down and wrapped around her but it did nothing to cover her naked body. The flimsy shower curtain was see through against her tanned skin, as she huddles in the corner of the stall.
“Kat?” I whisper while kneeling in front of the shower stall.
She has her head pressed to her knees as she cries. She looks up, her face all red and blotchy and my heart breaks for her.
I pull my shirt off handing it to her and she reaches out for it, pulling it over her head. “Why didn’t you shift? You could have shifted and come and got me or Mateo.”
She looks at me before tears well in her beautiful eyes and she sobs again. “She recorded it,” she chokes out.
I pull the phone from my pocket. Her eyes widen and her lower lip trembles. My gut twists.
“You saw it?” She asks, crying even harder.
I look away and swallow. The entire Packhouse saw her, not that she had anything to be ashamed of. She is beautiful, but I know she won’t see it that way.
The front door bursts open and I hear it smash through the wall out in the foyer. And worse, I hear Shirley. “Kat! Kat, honey.” I want to kick her out, but the look on my mate's face tells me she wants her mother, and she was the one who mindlinked her.
“In here!” I call out. As much as I hate this, my mate's comfort means more than my grudge.
She appears in the doorway a few seconds later. “Oh baby,” she gasps, rushing over and I move out of the way.
My mate throws herself into her mother’s arms clutching onto her like she is her lifeline. “I want to come home,” she whispers to her mother, and hurt hit me. She doesn’t want to be here. Doesn't want to be around me.
“How could this happen, and where is the little bitch? You told me she would be safe with you!” Her mother berates me.
“Mateo has Angie and Jake.”
“What about the other girl?” Her mother presses.
“There was another?” I snarl.
Kat nods as another person finds themselves on my shit list. “I will find her," I promise the both of them.
“And what will become of them?” Shirley demands, trying to contain her anger. It's oozing off her in waves.
“Kat can decide that,” I assure her mother.
She pulls back, looking down at her daughter. “I am taking her home,” Shirley tells me in a do-not-question-me tone. My wolf hackles rise at her tone and he presses beneath my skin. The last thing I need is Maddox getting out, he despises her mother and wants to kill her.
“No, she stays and everyone will be leaving the Packhouse, she can also stay on the Alpha floor. I won't let this happen again." I turn to my trembling mate. She looks so fragile. It broke my heart that this has happened to her. " Kat, please stay,” I beg.
“I want them dealt with,” her mother hisses.
“And they will be.”
“Come sweetie, let's find you some clothes,” Shirley says, helping her stand.
Kat tries to pull my shirt down, covering her exposed legs. I thought it a little odd that she is afraid of being nude in front of people. It honestly isn’t a big thing in wolf Packs, you are bound to see each other naked and some of the Pack members even strut around naked after the Pack runs.
I also find it strange she didn't just shift and walk out of here to alert Mateo and I about what happened, instead she called for her mother.
She is led up the stairs and Mateo comes over to me, looking up and away when he realizes her ass is peeking out from under my shirt.
“Where are they?” I demand not taking my eyes off my mate’s retreating figure.
“In the cells, might teach them a lesson. Also Amy is involved. I sent someone to go get her,” Mateo explains and I nod.
“Is she okay?” He asks softly, looking up the now empty stairs.
I say nothing, I feel terrible that she was subjected to that in my house while under my watch.
“Why didn’t she just shift?” Mateo asks with a sigh.
“I don’t know, she must have panicked.” It is the only logical reason as to why she didn’t.
“Have you deleted it?” Mateo asks.
“No, I want her to so she knows it is truly gone."