Heated Summers

Chapter Seven

"People think a soul mate is your perfect fit, and that’s what everyone wants. But a true soul mate is a mirror, the person who shows you everything that is holding you back, the person who brings you to your own attention so you can change your life."
~Elizabeth Gilbert

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Chapter Seven

"Is she safe?"

Leonardo didn't peer up from the papers littering his desk as he listened to his youngest son ask increasingly agitated questions about his sister. He refused to acknowledge his sons when they showed even the slightest hint of weakness. It wasn't acceptable to let a fellow predator see your weakness lest they use it against you during battle, even if they were family. It was a rule he ingrained in their brains from a young age. His eldest sons understood the importance of stoicism, but his youngest, the closest emotionally to his daughter, had the most trouble in trusting that his sister was safe and out of potential harms way.

"Father? Please tell me she's okay...That she's safe." He heard the faintest tremor in Ashton's voice and for a split second, Leonardo felt his armor waver.

"She's safe, Ashton. I promise you that."

Ashton's brows furrowed. He narrowed his pale eyes on the man sitting calmly across from him.

"But she's in pain, isn't she? I've heard the women's talks about what it's like if they don't have a mate to help them through it. The pain is excruciating. Is Ashlin in that kind of pain?"

Leonardo felt his hackles rise at the accusation burning in his cub's eyes. Ashton was a little over twenty-one, a man in human years, but a cub still in his eyes. With pale green eyes and dark as night hair, Ashton was the one who most resembled him in appearance, but was the one he clashed most with in personality. Ashton saw things in black and white; Leonardo had spent years living in the grey. His youngest was also the one most protective of Ashlin, the one most willing to go against Victor, his eldest and most physically dominant of his sons. Leonardo knew that if Victor would see over his ego, he'd recognise Ashton's strength for where it lay and not constantly try break him into submission. Leo knew he should be more involved when it came to his sons, but he let them sort it amongst themselves. The only one he did bother to interfere with was Ashlin. But she was different. She was his little angel, his princess.

It would be a cold day in Hell when he let her back onto these lands.

"You're a cruel bastard, you know that?" Ashton snarled, eyes flashing the yellow of his wolf.

Leonardo levelled his son with an appreciating stare. He stood, unfolding his large body from the old chair. He stretched to his full height, rolling his aching shoulders. Ashton, wisely, took a step back, the waves of his father's dominance washing over him, threatening to knock him to his knees if he so much as breathed.

For several tense seconds, father and son stared down at each other. Hostility rolled off Ashton in fierce waves, but Leo simply responded with a cool glare. It was Ashton who broke the silence.

"Dad, I -"

The door to Leo's study was thrown open and a woman strutted in, cutting Ashton off mid sentence. 

"You wanted to see me, Alpha." 

Leo closed his eyes and scrubbed a hand down his scruffy face. He didn't look at the completely nude woman who stood in the middle his study, face blank of all emotion. Leo would never admit it, but he was unnerved by the eerie woman whenever she was in her human form. Her stoic aloofness matched - maybe even surpassed - his own indifference.