The Claim ✔️ *Editing*

29. Coming To Terms

Titus POV

I slid further down my seat and ran my hand over my face. It had been exactly eight hours since since we had been attacked. Brinn's mother went in search of her and Owen and ended up being caught in the middle of the war. The savages pushed a knife into her abdomen. It was a gruesome sight. Brinn and I caught the aftermath, but it didn't make things anything less harder on her.

Her mother has been in surgery for the past five hours. Richard sat a few seats down from me with his head in his hands. Owen took off a few hours ago. He had witnessed his mother being stabbed and his father completely annihilate two of the predators. His life would change from this point forward. He and Brinn had gotten into a huge fight the moment we entered the infirmary. It was mostly him yelling and her crying. He was just angry and needed someone to blame, but I had to step in before things got too messy.

Brinn's sobs shortly turned into sniffles, then eventually to soft snores. She laid her head in my lap as I caressed her soft blonde locks. Taylor bandaged her up a few minutes after we entered the infirmary. Her arm should heal in a couple of days. She was exhausted, we all were. What started of as a reunion of peace and unity, quickly turned into bloodshed and loss. We let our guard down, and that was a mistake.

Richard stood abruptly, hands balled into fist and teeth clenched. I'd seen that look before, a look of belligerence. His eyes grazed gold, a sign that his wolf needed to be let out. "I'm going for a run. Have someone notify me when she's out of surgery. I want to be the first to see her." He commanded his Beta. He ran his hands over his face before he made his way to the exit.

My mother and father walked in a couple minutes later. They came to us after we arrived to the pack hospital to make sure we were alright, but left shortly after. "Jill is still in surgery?" My mother asked as she sat on the opposite side of me. "Yes." She shook her head at my response. "For the sake of her pack, I hope she survives this. Or we'll have another war on our hands." I rolled my eyes at my mothers blatant disrespect. Jill was dying and all she could worry about was a war. I couldn't blame her though, her parents taught her a different way of life. No humanity, no culpability.

Although she had gotten better over the years, her true self would always come out to play. "Rachel, war is the last thing on our mind right now." My dad said as he stood over her. She sighed as she crossed her arms over her chest. "I'm just saying, we have to think of the pack."

"You are not an Alpha Rachel. I do not want to go through this again!" And there it was, a fight for dominance. A fight that my parents had many of times throughout my childhood. My father was traditional and believed a female should stay at home and raise their pups, no involvement with the pack. That was a problem for my mother. She was born to lead and anything less was a slap in the face to her. I could see it in her eyes, the true meaning behind her actions. She didn't believe my father was strong enough to lead.

It infuriated my father. I watched him hold back many of times, and I watched him put her in her place many of times as well. But there was one time that stuck with me, and her as well. As she didn't dare to challenge him again after. I had just turned ten. My mother was feeling rather ballsy that day and decided to disrespect my father in front of the pack. A mistake she would never make again.

I got pulled away before I saw her punishment, but I knew it was bad. The little fight she had left quickly deteriorated after that day. No one speaks of it, but my father sometimes has to remind her of that day to get her to stand down. It hurt him to hurt his mate, but an alpha's pride sometimes gets in the way of their choices. I couldn't afford to let that happen.