~Tristan~

"The council!" 

I gasp as I burst out of my deep slumber and I hear a small groan come from behind me. Sitting straight up, I move to jump out of the half-empty bed but an arm stops me. 

"Don't bother," Remy grumbles and I look over to find Mason and Noah were long gone. 

"How could they leave without me? I wanted to be apart of it and I told them so. I can't-" Remy pulls me back down to the bed with such a force that I fall back onto the pillow with a thud. 

"The meeting wasn't for us Tris. They're debating whether or not we're going to war with the Crimson clan or at least how we will get our revenge. You would be too biased to sit in and so would I," He calmly explains and I hate to admit it but he's right. 

"I know I'm right," Remy's deep voice rumbles across the bare skin of my neck and I turn over to look at him, propping myself up on my elbow. 

"How do you know what I'm thinking?" I ask, narrowing his closed eyelids.

"After everything we've done, you don't have to bare my mark for me to already know what you're thinking." He chuckles and I find myself staring at the scars on his chest. Many of them I've seen before because I treated them. Unable to stop, I trace the one that almost killed him.

"That's a scary thought," I say and now his hazel eyes open wide to find my hands wondering every muscular crevice of his chest. 

"Why is it scary? I thought it would be a good thing?" He asks and holds my hand steady. 

"Because I'm scared of what might happen when I do," I whisper, stretching each syllable and suddenly I'm pushed into the bed with Remy on top of me. His eyes glitter in a neon green that tells me his wolf is close to taking control. I bear my neck to him with a small moan as he smells the crook of my neck and traces the scent to my ear. 

"Are you trying to find out?" He asks and I thought he'd never ask. I was already turned on by just his voice and him pinning me down definitely wasn't helping. I wanted Remy just to myself for a bit. To rip my little boxers off and have his way with me until I passed out from the amount of natural control he has over me. 

The worst part is, this wouldn't the first time I've felt this way. 

"Oh shit, really?" Noah called us out and Remy sat back on top of me with a wide smile while I was thankful the blanket was hiding just how much I was suffering. Not like it was the first time but it was a first with Remy. 

"I was trying to keep him from going to the meeting," Remy pretends to be the innocent one here and I quickly catch my breath. I feel like he was purposefully pressing down on my groin just to torture me further. 

Mason and Noah shrugged it off as they came into the room and Remy finally shifted off me.

"What happened? Did you reach a verdict?" Remy asked and I sat up again on my elbows to watch my mates. Whatever the news was it wasn't good with the heavy silence that took place. Mason sat at the edge of the bed while Noah stared out of our bedroom window to the courtyard below. 

"We're going to kill their alpha. We deploy in an hour and we should be back at the end of the month," Mason tells the news how it is and it's as if time stands still. 

"Mason and I will be leaving with our army, you two will stay here and hold down the castle," Noah tells our fate and I know Remy doesn't like that at all. 

"What do you mean? I'm going with you." He argues with Mason, standing up to do so but it looks like Mason doesn't have the energy to argue. 

"You not leaving, that's final," Mason says and Remy snarls. 

"I am your Beta! It is my job to always fight by your side!" He says and I would have pulled Remy back because I know it's not smart to push Mason's buttons when he gets like this but it was too late.

"And it is a BETA'S job to become the temporary alpha when I am not there. The one and only reason why you have been tied to my hip since birth. So you can make decisions like I would, so you can fight for our people like I would, and so you can protect Tristan, Juniper, Waylon, Cyprus, and Clementine like I would. This has nothing to do with Rowan's death," Mason stands up to him and I whimper as I'm forced to lay back from the sheer amount of alpha energy he pouring out in order for Remy to obey but it wasn't working. 

"This is my revenge, Mason! He was my mate! If you force me to miss out on strangling that man with my bare hands I will never forgive you," Remy clenches up his fists and as much as I wanted to stop him, both Noah and I were frozen in place. 

"Then it will be my cross to bear," Mason huffs and Remy cries out of anger, swinging his clocks Mason in the jaw. I know Mason could have stopped it if he wanted to, but he takes it instead. Closing his eyes to accept the pain and Remy jumps back, clearly in pain over what he's done. 

"I'm sorry," Remy gasps, holding his fists as if it had a mind of its own when he did it. 

Mason nodded, standing at the end of the bed as he opened his eyes again and looked down.

"Noah, we're leaving in an hour. I'm going to go say goodbye to the children," Mason says in a quiet voice that I know all too well. 

He's hurt but not broken. 

When he leaves, the energy dies and Remy sinks to his knees, holding his head in pure regret. 

"You know there have been so many times where I've wanted to hit that man but never actually had to balls to do it. I'm impressed," Noah tries to joke around to make Remy feel a little bit better considering the man was about to rip his hair out. I hop down onto the floor, gently rubbing his back. 

"It wasn't his idea Remy. He fought for you to come but the elders convinced him that it would be wiser for you to stay here instead of leaving the pack defenseless. I could have done it but like he said, you were raised for this not me," Noah gently ruffles his hair before leaving to find Mason. 

"That only makes it so much worse," Remy grumbles and I hug him from behind. 

"Hey baby, it's okay. He was kind of being a jerk," I agree with him and Remy chuckles a little bit. He wasn't crying, mostly because he had no more tears to cry, but he was just a ball of high strung stress and intensity. 

"But Mason doesn't really hold grudges so you've got that and he also feels like crap for forcing you to stay here." I add and he finally cracks a small smile. 

"You say Mason doesn't hold grudges but he held one against you for three years!" Remy points out and I roll my eyes. 

"What's three years in the long scheme of things," I say and he groans into his knees. 

"I hit him,"

"You did and pretty hard too," 

"I hate myself,"

"Come on let's get their stuff ready, I'm sure you can apologize later."