Not Mine

Chapter II

"If you do not shut up, I swear I'll kill you." Patrick growled loudly, looking up at Rob from his position on the couch.

"Bring it on, pup. I'm stronger than you, smarter than you, older than you and I outrank you. I'll wipe the floor with you. So go on, take a shot!" Rob scoffed, as he stopped pacing and peered down at Patrick. Thomas snarled from the other side of the room.

"Are you threatening me on my own land?" Patrick roared, bolting up off the couch in a quick leap. He shoved Rob's chest with his hands but neither of them budged.

"No. I'm stating what will happen if you lay another hand on me. So shove me again, kid!" Rob yelled, chest-to-chest, right in Patrick's face. The tension was finally reaching boiling point. Both of them kept a steady glare at the other, waiting for the first move to be made.

"If you two don't cut it out..." Tobias muttered under his breath, his arms folded over his chest as he slouched on the other couch.

"What are you going to do, beta?" both men yelled at him together before looking back at each other with serious distain.

"Don't tell him what to do!" they snapped at each other, again word for word. The synchronization was only making the pressured atmosphere even worse. Both of their chests were rumbling with growls.

"What gives you the authority to command my Beta, runt?" Rob snarled.

"He isn't your beta anymore! He is going to be in my pack!" Patrick seized Rob's shirt and Tobias dived between them to stop the fight breaking out.

"Guys, please! Act your ranks, stop all this petty fighting! It's not going to bring her back!" Thomas yelled over the snarling. "No disrespect to any of you, Alphas, Beta. But this is ridiculous!"

Tobias, Rob and Patrick all slowly pulled their glares away from each other and looked across the room at Carter's cousin. The impertinent tone in Thomas's voice stirred their dominant wolves. Just because he was Carter's family didn't mean he could talk to all of them so insolently. Patrick opened his mouth to drag him back in line but Tobias spoke first.

"He's right." He sighed. The fighting was stupid and pointless, and it was time for all the childish bickering to end. Both Alphas looked ready to fight with him again, but he shook his head. Rob's plan may have been super attractive, Thomas Miller agreed with him too, but the massive flaws in the plan were clear. But, just as Patrick had said, it was irrational. They couldn't just storm the Crowborn land and take Carter back by force. Alpha Markcus had warned them of the threats from Jonas, and the dangers they faced. He had even gone as far to admit their major disadvantages, something that a proud but weak Alpha would never admit. Alpha Markcus was the strongest Alpha Tobias had ever met. He admitted that they didn't have the high ground in this fight, so he knew not to waste time, or lives in trying, before they knew they had a chance. Markcus confessed that he had only been on Crowborn land three times, and that wasn't nearly enough to have a clear layout of the land. All information from all the neighbouring packs was contradictory and confused, and it seemed as if anything to do with the Crowborn Pack and their land had been redacted. There wasn't enough valid information; they couldn't even begin to form a battle plan or a break out strategy. They needed to stop preposing preposterous ideas, like erratic, suicidal idiots and start working together.

"This power-fuelled bickering is getting us nowhere." Tobias sighed. He looked to Patrick, trying to appeal to him to see sense. He could tell that neither of the Alphas wanted to back down first, they both wanted to be stronger. Yet even though he had only known Patrick for a short period of time, he knew that he had a better chance of appealing to his logical side. Rob could be impulsive, just like his father. Tobias could tell that Rob was feeling isolated and abandoned, with no one else on his side and on top of that his new power as Alpha made him want to express dominance, especially on a different pack's territory. Nothing was in Rob's favour. Even his best friend, was the mate of the girl he had an instant attraction to. Patrick could be the bigger man right now; Tobias wasn't sure that Rob could be.