The Arrangement
Chapter Twenty-Two

After Madeline had showered and dressed she walked down the stairs in search of Dylan. Her guard trailed in front and behind her, and while she wished she could block them out, it was impossible to do so.

The moment her feet hit the bottom of the stairs, the brunette of her best friend was all the warning she had before Casey threw herself onto her. She held her friend fiercely.

“Are you alright? You went into shock and I couldn’t get anything out of you- Wait a minute.” Casey paused. She leaned in and sniffed her. “You smell different. Did you and him- Oh my god, you guys did,” she squealed.

“Casey, you’re going to burst my eardrums if you keep it up.” Madeline had her hands over her ears for dramatic effect. She lowered her hands as soon as her friend quit squealing. She smiled shyly. “And yeah, we did.”

Casey started squealing again, but it didn’t stop there. She grabbed her shoulders and shook Madeline until her teeth rattled.

Madeline pushed her away. “Why do you seem more excited about this than me? I’m the one mated to him, not you.”

“Because my friend is finally happy. I mean look at you, you’re glowing and everything. You look like you’re in love. And I’m so happy that you’re happy. I can’t wait until you start popping out little pups. I want one of them named after me, or all of them.”

Madeline smiled. “I am happy and I am in love.” She shook her head at her in amusement. “I am not going to name my children after you. So, forget about it.”

“And why not? Casey would make an excellent name for a girl. Or you could even do Cassidy, and Casey for short.”

“I said no.”

She pouted, but before she could say anything, the front door slammed open, shaking the walls and an angry voice bellowed through the House, “Where is she? Where is she!”

It all happened in a blink of an eye. No one was able to move fast enough to stop it. First a fist flew at her head, connecting with her jaw. Then she was slammed up against the wall, with a very angry Dylan in her face. His hands gripped her neck, squeezing, cutting off her air supply.

“This is your fault! It’s all your fault that she’s dead!” He all but yelled at her. Angry tears slid down his cheeks. “It should have been you in that body bag! It should have been you!”

Madeline’s guards were there in an instant, reaching out to pull Dylan off her, likely kill him too, for raising a hand against the Luna. But Madeline raised her hand, a silent command for them to back off. She could handle this herself.

Madeline was not a trained warrior. She didn’t have years and years of experience of training. But she didn’t need years and years of experience to take down a seventeen-year-old boy whose head was clouded with rage. She just needed to keep a level head and she would be able to overpower him. Though it would help if she could breath.

She let go of his wrists and quickly grabbed hold of his face, digging her thumbs into his eyes until he released his hold on her. She drove her knee between his legs and pushed him away from her. Her guards restrained him before he could jump her again.

“Oh my god, Madeline! Are you okay! Do you need help? Should I get Emerson?” Casey frantically asked, though she stayed a few feet away, as did all those who were there.

Madeline waved her off. “I’m fine. Just need to catch my breath.” Her voice was a little hoarse but with some water and some time to heal, she would be perfectly fine.

She stood from her crouched position. She faced her guards and the young, heartbroken wolf they had detained. “Let him go,” she commanded.

Her guards were flabbergasted. “But Luna, we can’t just-”

“You can and you will,” Madeline interrupted. “Now let him go. I can take it from here.”

They were reluctant, but they let go of the wolf. The moment they backed off, she swept in like a vulture. She grabbed his ear and pulled. She yanked him down to her level.

“Now, you and I are going to have a little talk.” At the calm of her voice, many wolves in the room backed. They knew it was never a good sign when their Luna became so deathly calm. They had only seen her like this once before, when a pack of children were picking on an Omega boy who wasn’t even six yet. She had those boys doing Omega work for a week while the little Omega boy got to play games with his Luna.

Not having let go of Dylan’s ear, she dragged him out of the House. She found a secluded area in the woods. A little pond with some fish and a toad relaxing on a water lily. Madeline let go of his ear and took a seat the rock, and being a good boy, so did Dylan.

“If you’re going to kill me, get it over with,” He said in a voice that was…nothing, monotone. It was as if he was already dead.

“No, I’m not. Though I know that’s what you were hoping for when you attacked me. That someone would kill you and put you out of your misery.” Madeline crossed her ankles and folded her hands in her lap. She stared at the peaceful pond. “Though that wasn’t the entire reason why you attacked me is it?”

He said nothing for a few moments. And then he said in a hoarse voice, “It’s not fair, that you get to live and that she had to die. She was good. Sweet and innocent. She didn’t deserve t-to, she didn’t deserve her fate.”

She tilted her head to him. “I know. Believe me, I know. What you’re feeling, what you’re going through, is what I felt when I lost my dear Lucas. I met him when I was young. I had not been a wolf for very long when we had met. And I did not have him for very long. Two years was all I got with him. Two precious years. And then he was gone. I wanted to scream, I wanted to kill the ones responsible, I wanted to cry, and I wanted to die. But those weren’t options for me.”

“So, what did you do?” He inquired.

“I survived, barely. I didn’t live. I didn’t laugh, I didn’t smile. It hurt every day. It hurt to see my parents happy, my brother happy. It hurt to see those around me happy because I wasn’t, and I was sure I never would be. I wanted nothing more than to end my life, end my misery. But here I am. I survived. And now here I am, living again. I am happy, I am smiling, I am in love again.”

“I don’t want to love another. Only my girl, my precious girl.”

Madeline sighed. “I’m not saying that you should replace another woman and take her as your mate. It is a very hard thing to do. It was very hard for me.”

“I don’t know what to do.” He broke and began to sob. It was painful to see, to watch. Painful to know that one of her Pack members was hurting so much. And it was painful because it brought up painful memories. “What do I do?”

“I can’t tell you that. I can only hope that you decide to survive as I did, until things get better. But I’m not going to stop you with whatever you decide to do. I’ll support you with your decision, as long as it doesn’t hurt others. All I ask is that you take a couple days before you do anything. Think it over. And then come back to me when you’ve decided. Go home to your mother and father. Talk to them. Talk to your friends. I’ll come check up on you later.” There was roar that ripped through the trees. Emerson. He must have been told what had happened. “Go, before he replaces you. I’ll convince him to leave you be, but if he replaces you first he’ll tear you to pieces. Go, now.”

He hesitated for a moment. “Thank you, for not giving up on me.”

“I will never give up on you. Now hurry home.”

Dylan wasted no time. He shifted and ran off towards the direction of his parents’ house. She would check up on him after she dealt with a raging Emerson.

Madeline was not happy when her mate’s brown wolf came crashing through the trees. “He’s not here. So you might as well go back to your desk.”

He turned his snarl on her. His overbearing self walked up to her and pushed his muzzled into her neck. He licked her neck, where she had bruises shaped like fingers. Her mate’s wolf circled round her, examining her and checking for any more hurts.

She sighed. “I’m fine you overgrown dog. Now back off and go back home. You have work to do.”

There was a rustle from behind then a naked Emerson came into her view. He gently ran his thumb over her tender neck. She winced slightly.

“See? You are not fine Madeline,” he said gruffly, “You’re hurt. He tried to kill you.”

He growled and his body began to shake, indicating that he was about to shift. Madeline leaned into him and wrapped her arms around him. She lay her head on his chest and pressed a soft kiss to his collarbone. His buff arms wrapped around her body, crushing her against him.

“He wanted you to kill him, love. His mate is dead and he is hurting. He wanted you to kill him so he could be put out of his misery.”

“Then I will.” He started to pull away from her but she held onto him tighter. She wouldn’t like him harm a hair on Dylan’s body.

“No. You leave him be. He doesn’t want to die.”

Emerson growled and cupped her cheeks. “He could have killed you. I would have lost you. I will kill him for trying to take you away from me.”

She clasped his wrists and leaned into his palms. “No, he wouldn’t have. I was surrounded by wolves and my guards were there. He wouldn’t have been able to kill me. He would have been stopped or killed before then. He knew that. He was hoping that they, or you, would have killed him.” She kissed his palm gently. “Don’t you remember what you were like when you lost Abigail? How you felt? Remember? That is what Dylan is feeling. Instead of trying to kill him, we should be there for him, supporting him, and helping in any way we can.”

Emerson bent his head and pressed his forehead into hers. Her eyes fluttered closed and she sighed. He pressed his lips gently to hers, then pulled away.

“Okay,” he breathed.

“What?”

“I’m not repeating it again.”

Madeline laughed. “Thank you. F-for listening.”

He smiled. “You’re my mate, of course I’ll listen to you. We’re a team, you and I. We make decisions together.”

Unfortunately, not all Alphas viewed it that way. Many believed that they were higher in ranking than their mate and Luna. By ranking standards, yes, an Alpha has more power than the Luna. But as mates, you are equal. Your power is equal. But not all thought that way.

Madeline smiled. “Come on, let’s go for a run.”

He grinned.

They pulled away, only for a moment so they could shift. A moment later, a blonde wolf was rubbing up against her brown furred mated. The Alpha nipped at her ear playfully and she yipped. With just the two of them, the Alpha and Luna could be as playful as they wanted. And they were. They ran, and chased, and play fought. The Alpha purposely let his mate win, though he would never admit to that. By the time the two had grown tired, the Luna’s blonde coat was now covered in mud and dirt and leaves. But she didn’t care, and neither did he.