Behind Closed Gates [Edited]

Chapter Eleven

Elliot quickly left his family's side when the meeting was over. Rage still rattled in his bones at the verdict reached. He marched into his room, a private quarter of the Silverwood packhouse and slammed the door behind him, fists shaking.

A heist. They were going to break his mate, his beautiful silver-coated mate, out of the zoo. He should be grateful that they were actually getting her out, that it was an official creed, but he expected it to be tonight. Or tomorrow.

What Marie was pushing for, a long and thought out mission to steal a well-guarded wolf, that would take months. Months. How was he supposed to wait that long? His father's laws were all that was stopping him from running down there and tearing apart the zoo brick by brick and holding his mate.

Elliot stared out the window, rage settling down, as he thought about breaking in tonight. What was truly stopping him? He could get in, he knew the routes now, he could sneak past and knock out the guards and rip apart the bars and save his mate-

The door opened. Elliot spun around to see his sister standing there, dark eyes measuring him up. She shut the door behind her and crossed her arms.

"Glad to see you're not planning on sneaking out and rescuing your mate." Thalia raised an eyebrow at him.

Elliot's lip curled up. "I've waited years to see her, to have my mate. So the fact she's out there, in a cage, just out of reach kills me." His fists shook again. "I don't think you can understand that."

Thalia clenched her jaw. "You've found your mate. And after being told that your mate is your other half, your equal, the one person who could truly love you, you can't be with them. Because they're stuck, trapped..." Thalia sat down on one of the plush chairs in his room, her glare softening slightly. "I understand."

Elliot's anger eased. He sat down across from her, rolling the tension from his shoulders. "Have you heard from him?" He whispered, not knowing if there were people outside who were overhearing this conversation. Her mate's identity was a closely guarded secret that only he and a few guards knew.

Thalia's eyes glimmered. "Not for a few months." She admitted. "I hear reports of his team working around the other pack areas. He hears reports on where I am, no doubt. They've been silent for a while though."

Elliot nodded slowly, fiddling with his knuckles. "The hunters have quietened down." It was another thing to worry about as the future king - the deadly hunters who were hellbent on squashing the wolf population. They claimed they were too dangerous to roam freely and were doing humanity's work. They treated vampires the same way but wolves were easier to kill now that the hunters discovered their bane - silver. And now with the wolf priests gone, the only ones who could turn humans to wolves, the hunter's were quickly plummeting their population.

And the leader of the hunters happened to be Thalia's mate. The Wolfsbane, the Slayer, was Thalia's equal and enemy.

Thalia cocked her head, a strand of hair falling over her face. "This heist Marie's talking about...it's going to take a while, isn't it?"

Elliot stiffened but nodded. "Unfortunately. What she's suggesting... We have the power to go in tonight and get her out, but we have to obey our rules."

"No reveal of werewolf culture." The corner of Thalia's mouth lifted a little. "Shame, really. Would save a lot of time."

Elliot snarled in agreement and began pacing his room again. "How do you cope?" He said, staring at his little sister.

Thalia stared at her hands for a while, silence cloaking the room. "It's been three years and four months since we first met." She smiled softly and stared up at her brother. "Do you remember that day?"