Crossing Paths With The White Wolf

Natalia

POV

"So, let me see if I have this right. We're staying the night in the home of the family and pack you tried to destroy by kidnapping its Luna? And earlier, when Alpha Markus was talking about her being taken twice. At least one of those times was you?" I asked him. Hestia was seething with jealousy and I was having a hard time controlling my own. No one said anything and I was getting angrier by the second. "What the f**k? Someone answer me? Did he really kidnap Luna Celeste?" "Yes, I did," he said.

"And you just forgot to mention this minor detail when you volunteered to help me? What, did you think I wouldn't have anything against being under the same roof with two underage girls under my care with a woman kidnapper. Were you obsessed with her and couldn't bear to see her happy and PREGNANT with her mate?" I was practically screaming at the end, my eyes were black as Hestia pushed forward. She was crushed and angry that our mate had wanted another person as a mate. He was supposed to love US. "It wasn't like that." I turned to Luna Celeste who was talking, but she was looking at Helios, not me. There was sadness in her eyes. Helios wasn't even bothering to respond. He just looked at the floor.

"Why are you protecting him? How can you even stand being under the same roof?" I said.

Alpha Markus walked back in then and stopped at the door as he read the tension in the room. "What's going on?"

"How can you allow the man that kidnapped your mate under your roof?" I demanded. Was everyone here crazy?

Alpha Markus looked at me, then at Celeste and finally at Helios. What surprised me was the look of sympathy that crossed his face as he saw Helios looking at the ground.

"Alright, how about we pick the meeting up tomorrow morning? I think we need to have a conversation," Alpha Markus said as he stood next to the open door. Everyone filed out, with Gonzalo hesitating before Celeste nodded at him and he left as well. Hestia was whimpering at what I'd said to Helios now, regretting pushing me past my breaking point. The crushed look on his face had been enough to extinguish her rage and, despite what we'd just learned, she still wanted her mate. I could feel her hope that we just didn't know the full story, and that there was a reasonable explanation for everything we'd just learned.

"Listen," Markus started once everyone was gone, but Helios stood up.

"Don't bother Markus. Natalia has been taking everything to do with me the wrong way since we met. I really don't care anymore." he said, and Hestia whimpered again at the lack of emotion on his face. It felt like he was rejecting us. The thought caused more pain in me than I thought it would. "I don't really care what you think of me anymore. I am tired of fighting you to let me help you. It's happening, deal with it. You can do whatever the f**k you want after that. I have a past, and one I never said was perfect. You sit there and make assumptions about who I am without having any kind of information. You think the worst of me. Welcome to the club." He spat.

"Helios..." Celeste said gently.

"No Celeste, I haven't been able to do anything all week without her accusing me of something. I don't need her help hating myself more. You and my sister want me to help her, fine. I will help her. I owe both of you that, but I don't have to like it. I need air," he said, and pushed past Alpha Markus. I stood there, feeling like I had been slapped. Hestia was growling not at what he said to me, but at me, because everything he said was true. I had pushed him away all week and it looked like I had pushed him far enough for him to finally want nothing to do with me. I should be happy to finally get what I set out to do, but instead all I felt was pain.

"Markus..." Celeste said.

"I got him Tuli. You talk to her," he said, and exited the room.

"Sit. Please," she said.

"I don't want to si-"

"SIT" she demanded and, for some reason, I was compelled to do so. It was weird. I was immune to the Alpha command. It was one of my gifts. I had never been made to submit before. Not by an Alpha, let alone a Luna.

I looked up at her as she paced the front of the room. I felt like a child about to be scolded. She paused twice. Trying to think of what to say, before she would start pacing again. I saw through the window of the conference room as Helios was walking towards the forest. Markus stopped him and they talked for a bit before I saw Markus jump away and Helios looked back at the packhouse before he followed. I was surprised to see both of them jump over the forests. What the hell were they?

"You hurt my friend," Celeste said, and I flipped my attention back to her and I almost pushed out of my chair in alarm. Her eyes were on fire. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened her eyes, they were back to their normal blue. "Imagine you have 5 siblings. You're the youngest of the bunch. You love your mother more than anything in the world," she said.

"-"

"Just...listen please. Now imagine you walk into the room and your siblings are trying and succeed in killing your mother. What would you do?"

"Kill my siblings" I said without hesitation. She nods.

"Helios was born in the middle of a war. His siblings were fighting with his mother and they eventually killed her. He vowed to kill them and hunted down his siblings for most of his life. What he didn't know was that his mother had been corrupted and possessed by a demon and his siblings were just trying to end her torment and protect him."

My heart was breaking for Helios as I listened and Hestia was howling in my mind. "But, what does that have to do with him kidnapping you?" I asked, the story didn't add up.

"I am related to one of those people, his siblings. He kidnapped me not because he was obsessed with me, but because he was on a path to avenge his mother. The gift I have, my sight? I was able to take him back to that time so he could see what actually happened. When he understood, he stopped. No one is harder on Helios than Helios. He feels every life he took in his quest for revenge. He's been trying to make it right ever since, but he doesn't see all the good he did even before that. My friends that were saved from the bad Alpha? When they turned 19 and got their wolf, the Alpha sold some of them on the black market before we could save them. Helios, without hesitating and without knowing them, bought them, brought them back to health and then erased the nightmare they had lived through and helped them start a new life. Even when he was hunting me, he helped people. I was kidnapped, yes, but you should have seen him. He was waiting hand and foot on a 4-month-pregnant she-wolf he supposedly planned to kill on the next full moon," She seemed to chuckle at the memory, "I was with him for two weeks and I saw the type of man he was. I even tested him. I sent him in the middle of the night for mint chocolate icecream in the middle of Mexico City. He was gone for 3 hours and I was asleep by the time he got back."

She sobered up. "I know it may seem like a vague story and it is. It's not my place to tell you who he is or who his siblings are, so I won't. But the story I told you is no less true. It happened. The reason why Markus doesn't blame him or hold it against him, is because he shares my gift. He saw what happened to Helios. He was there when Helios found out the truth. How hard he is on himself, and Helios has done nothing but help us since." She took a deep breath. "Everyone has skeletons in their closets. Everyone has that thing they wish they would have known sooner, or done differently. He's a good man. I see the way you sneaked glances at him when you didn't think anyone was looking at dinner," she said and I blushed. "I'm not saying it to tease you or call you out. I'm telling you because I saw Helios sneak those same glances at you. He likes you, Natalia, but because of what happened, he thinks himself a monster. Your words just further cemented that ridiculous self-assessment. White wolves are said to be the wolves with the purest hearts. So pure that no color can penetrate their fur. That is the myth we're taught growing up. Helios is a man on a personal journey of redemption. He will never make the first move. He doesn't believe he is worthy of having someone love him, let alone someone with your wolf's legendary reputation." She looked at me and then got up. "I know I shouldn't meddle, but I care about him. It's none of my business what you do, but I think he'd be worth the risk. I'm going to go get my pups from their grandpa. If they fall asleep in his bed, the poor man just sleeps on the couch." She chuckles as she heads to the door and stops and looks at me again. "Think about it, and I think you two are due for a deep conversation. I think once you do, you'll probably find that you're perfect for the other." I stayed in the conference room for a long time, lost in my own thoughts. Hestia left me alone to think, but I could feel her sorrow at what we had just heard. I saw Markus and Helios walk out of the forest and back into the packhouse. Celeste walked out with the stroller and I saw her talking to him and hug him. Markus patted him on the shoulder and all three walked in. I thought about everything Celeste had told me and, if I were to be honest, there was a lot she was right about. I wouldn't have to fight the bond so hard if I didn't think he was a good man. From how he treats his friends and the girls to the company he keeps. What he did for Mama Isabel. My mate was a good person, and I felt like s**t. I needed to talk to him. I needed to explain and come clean. I stayed in the conference room for a long time, lost in my own thoughts. Hestia left me alone to think, but I could feel her sorrow at what we had just heard. I saw Markus and Helios walk out of the forest and back into the packhouse. Celeste walked out with the stroller and I saw her talking to him and hug him. Markus patted him on the shoulder and all three walked in. I thought about everything Celeste had told me and, if I were to be honest, there was a lot she was right about. I wouldn't have to fight the bond so hard if I didn't think he was a good man. From how he treats his friends and the girls to the company he keeps. What he did for Mama Isabel. My mate was a good person, and I felt like s**t. I needed to talk to him. I needed to explain and come clean. Turns out when you want to have a private conversation with the man you baselessly attacked to apologize and tell him that he's your mate but you can't be with him, so you need to reject him and that's the reason you've been so mean to him, the world conspires to keep you apart. After breakfast and the meeting in the morning, he and Markus went off to do something. Celeste pulled me the other way, making sure that the girls had everything they needed for the days that they would be staying. She introduced me to the other ranked females who were slightly miffed at me for yelling at Helios, but slowly warmed up to me. I got some clothes ready in a backpack for Eun-Kyung and Celeste made me add a bunch of drinks full of electrolytes and snack bars for her. I was thankful she thought about that. I know Eun-Kyung will need it.

Then, before I knew it, it was time to go. Helios was barely acknowledging me now and it hurt. Hurt worse, knowing that I deserved it. I only hoped I got a chance to talk to him before it was time for me to go home. Mate is home - Hestia growled before she blocked me.