Chapter 8

Blossom POV.

But while he could admire the girl for her boldness, he was at the same time frustrated and angry that she would speak out of turn. He was a staunch supporter of the Royal Court and the elders. It's why he was so taken aback just now at his son's words. He felt that Dean was needlessly pushing the envelope. He was probably right, in that the court would have a hard time doling out any punishment to the most powerful alpha werewolf in all of New Orleans. At the same time, Aries was angry and disappointed in what he saw as complete and utter disrespect on Dean's part.

Blossom stood her ground, keeping her eyes on the elders, willing them to acknowledge her. Several of the elders simply scoffed and went back to their side conversations. Others tried to stare her down to force her to look away. But she refused to do so. Finally, the leader among the elders addressed her.

His voice was loud and harsh. It was clear he was not about to let this young she-werewolf call the shots, which is how he saw it. If anyone was going to put forth a process for resolution, it was going to be him. "Am I to understand that you, a mere young she-werewolf, the substitute for a substitute as it may be, you believe you are in a position to address this court?"

"Your honor, yes, your honor..." Blossom began.

"Silence! Another word and I will have you thrown out and locked up! How dare you interject with your needs!" the leader interrupted her. He was an old and angry soul, well-known for his extreme conservatism.

Blossom felt her legs begin to grow weak. She knew she had been taking a chance, speaking up like that. But no one seemed to be making any moves to resolve anything. Were they simply going to stay here all day and night?

At that very moment, Dean decided he'd had enough. He was ultimately the true power here. "Stop!" he shouted, his voice booming with rage. "Everyone, just stop talking, stop yelling, and you—stop berating Blossom." Dean stared down the leader among the elders with his piercing light blue eyes which had somehow begun to take on a violet shade, as though growing in intensity. The old man, moments ago full of vigor and supremacy, seemed to shrivel up in the aftermath of Dean's harsh words. He and the other elders immediately grew silent, their eyes wide at the fury they heard in the alpha's voice. No one said another word. The crowd froze in place, obviously fearful that the alpha could take his rage out directly on them.

"Blossom, I will grant your request," Dean continued, turning his gaze directly upon her for the first time. "But we don't have to meet in private. Whatever you have to say, you can say to me here."

I was shocked that Dean was addressing me directly. He had just stood there, appearing completely aloof and disengaged throughout the entire process, other than when he dropped the bomb of how he was not accepting me as his mate. I wondered whether he had been this emotionless his entire life or if it was something that had developed following the death of his wife.

But now he was saying he wanted to hear what I had to say. And what's more, he wanted others to hear it as well. I suddenly went from feeling insignificant to feeling very worthy.

While those around me may have heard the fury in the alpha's voice, I heard only passion. If only I could direct that level of passion into his relationship with me. I surprised myself at that thought. At what point during this process had I gone from seeing Dean as simply my way out of an unhappy home to someone I could see myself genuinely falling in love with?

The thought of relationships drew my thoughts back to my sister Diana, whom I was missing terribly. Diana was the only person I genuinely thought of as family, and now she was gone.

I remembered when Diana confided that she was seeing her lover, a werewolf she was forbidden to see by our uncle because of some centuries-old disagreement between packs. That always seemed to be the case. Our generation had to live under centuries-old laws put into place after some ancient battle over territory or even she-werewolves. It was so archaic. Yet, we were living under the rules of the Royal Werewolf Court. Or, as Diana referred to it, "A bunch of power-hungry, stuffy old men who want nothing more than to put a stranglehold on our generation."

We were keenly aware that some of those "stuffy old men" were members of our extended family, though it certainly didn't mean we would be granted any favors.

Diana was so madly in love. I treasured listening to her talk about her lover, in minute detail. It seemed she could not get enough and was so happy for her sister. I never minded covering for her with our uncle. At least one of us could be happy.

Even before Diana came to me about it, I figured out that at some point, slipping out our bedroom window to steal a few hours together was not going to be enough for her and her lover. Diana was planning to be his mate. So, when the time came for Diana to talk to me about how she planned to run away, I had already developed some ideas in my head.

Diana may have been content to stay months longer, but when our uncle came to her and told her he had agreed with the alpha werewolf's pack to hand her over as a substitute for his dead wife, we knew time was of the essence. We also both knew the seriousness of what we were undertaking. With our uncle's promise to the alpha wolf, escaping could have serious—even deadly—consequences if she got caught.

We closely monitored our uncle's activities for the next several days and found that he always checked on us and locked our door at the same time every night before turning in himself. Diana could wait until our uncle made his nightly check before slipping out the window.

We had to be cautious, however. If Diana slipped out the window too soon after he had been at our door, it was likely Alejandro would hear the noise outside, and she would be caught. Once she cleared the house, she just needed to slip past the exterior security, and she would be free. Diana had slipped past security so many times, she wasn't at all concerned about it at first. But as the potential date of escape neared, we realized we had chosen an evening with a full moon. It was going to be much more difficult to pass by undetected. We had only four days after that before our uncle was going to force Diana to accompany him to the court. We would move the escape date forward three days, hoping for a cloudy night.