After we shower, we make breakfast, and the morning passes by quickly. My phone rings and I duck upstairs to retrieve it from the charging dock.
I am a little surprised to see Angie’s name pop up on the screen. I answer it, swallowing the chunk of apple I am chewing on. “Hey Angie”
She says nothing, but hear her breathing before she hiccups.
“Angie?”
“I want to come home. Please, Kat. You have to help me,” she sniffles before crying. I look at the screen to make sure I saw Angie’s name.
“What? Why, what’s going on?” I ask her.
“Nothing, I just miss home. I hate it here,” she whispers, sniffling.
“Where is my brother?” I ask her, wondering if he did something to upset her.
“With Ezra at something, I don’t know, he never tells me anything,” she pouts. I think she is trying to think of anything that she would be upset about, maybe she is just homesick. “Please, Kat, you have to help me. I can’t live like this,” she sobs, and I spot Mateo walk into the room leaning on the door frame to see who I was talking to.
“Why what happened? You seemed all lovey-dovey here,” I point out, wondering what could be upsetting her.
“It was until I got here, everything is different here, it’s not like the pack back home. So I want to come home, please, Kat.”
“He didn’t hurt you, did he?”
“No, not in that sense, he is good, but I can’t live like this, no woman should live like this,” she hisses before breaking down.
“Who are you talking to? Did Alpha permit you to have your phone?” A strange man’s voice asks her in the background.
I am shocked by his words. Permission to use her phone?
“Give me that, who are you talking to?” I hear a scuffle before the man is on the phone. “Who is this?” comes a deep voice.
“Who are you?” I ask back.
“Darnel, Alpha Andrei’s Beta, now who is this?” he demands,
“Katya Hartley, Luna-”
He cuts me off. “Oh, Alpha Ezra’s mate, sorry Luna, Andrei isn’t here, he is meeting with your mate. I will let him know you are trying to get a hold of him,” he says before hanging up the phone.
I stare at the screen, shocked he hung up on me and that he would talk to his Luna like that, let alone someone else’s.
“What the fuck was that?” Mateo growls, and I look at him.
“I don’t know, but Angie sounded scared of Darnel, she didn’t even say anything back to him,” I point out. Angie is brave and fearless, hearing her like this made my insides twist with worry. What was going on over there? Who was Andrei’s pack that they could break her spirit like this?
“Andrei and Ezra are on their way here. I’ll find out what’s going on, but we can’t do much now, Kat. She is no longer a pack member,” Mateo points out, like he could tell where my thoughts were going.
“He is my brother. What’s he going to do? Tell my dad?” I huff.
Ezra and Andrei arrived 20 minutes later. Mateo and I were going over the mail that came in, and he was trying to show me how to sort it out, telling me what is priority and what’s not, when Ezra walks into the office with Andrei behind him.
“Find anything?” I ask them.
“No, the trucks were empty, and only the drivers were there, they loaded up supplies and left,” Ezra answers, a worried expression on his face
“That’s a good thing?”
He shakes his head. “No, why would he take armored cars? He is up to something, I sent the scouts back to his border.”
“Wait, you pulled yours from the border?” Andrei asks sharply.
“Well yeah, I told them to follow the trucks, why?”
“I pulled mine, thinking some of yours were staying to watch,” Andrei confesses.
“I told you this the other day, mine would follow,” Ezra tells him with a growl.
“I must have misheard you, I have been distracted… fuck!” Andrei growls.
“Mateo, mindlink Alex, tell him to check the game cameras to see if anyone left,” Ezra orders him, and Mateo’s eyes glaze over. I turn to face Andrei.
“How is Angie?” I ask him, and his head whips to me.
“She is fine, why?” he snaps.
I shrug. “Wondering why she wants to come home.”
He growls. “You spoke to her, when?”
“Don’t growl at me, Andrei, now tell me why Angie seemed petrified of your Beta and why she wants to come home? You better not have hurt her,” I threaten him. Ezra looks at him.
“No, of course not, she is my Luna, she just doesn’t like how I run things in the pack,” he admits, and Ezra shakes his head at him before sitting at his desk.
“Why?”
“I told you when we first met Andrei and his pack is different from ours, it is no secret Kat, I knew Angie would struggle to adjust to his way of running things, but she wanted to go,” Ezra explains, defending him, which shocked me, but he doesn’t look like he agreed with Andrei.
“Different how?” I ask, looking at Andrei.
“She will adjust. I am not changing shit, the pack has been run like that since the beginning, it works, and that is how it stays,” Andrei declares.
Ezra scoffs, shaking his head.
“Explain,” I insist, wondering what the heck he means.
“I don’t need to explain my pack business with you, Kat, sister or not. I don’t interfere with you and your mates, so stay out of my business with mine,” Andrei warns. Ezra growls at him, and the look he gives him makes me shiver. “You do your thing, I will do mine,” Andrei snarls to him.
“So you would have no problem if I suppress Kat like that?”
“She is your mate, not mine,” Andrei snaps.
“What is that supposed to mean?” I ask, looking at Ezra.
“Andrei’s pack lives in the stone ages when it comes to equality, women have no say,” Ezra explains, and I stare at my brother.
“What?” I ask, horrified. Though, sweat beads on Andrei before he shakes his head, shaking off whatever came over him.
“She will adjust, women are to be seen, not heard, that’s how it is, you want your women running around doing whatever they please? That’s up to you, Ezra. I don’t need your help running my pack,” Andrei scoffs.