Glassed Destiny

The Elephant in The Room

"We could have told him about this sooner, you know," Skaal spoke in his head.

"Shut up," He paced the room, wishing that he could go against the orders that his brother gave him. "If I had done that then there's no telling how he would have reacted."

For once, he wished he didn't tell that woman something. She had no clue how politics worked in their family. She was barely being introduced to all of this. Indigo hadn't even known that she had glimpses of the future. And Jim had yet to get her to tell him what she had been seeing in her dreams.

And yet she still knew just what to say to Will to get him to order Jim into a room until he was allowed to come out. She didn't know it yet, but being her mate had already welcomed her into this pack. In Blacktooth, every member had a chance to make a request to the Alpha. It was still up to them as to whether they were going to fill that request, but they could still speak to him and ask for something. Jim could practically hear the questions of his brother's when she asked to see the elders. He looked at Jim with them, and he couldn't answer any of them. It brought back all those other times. The times that Jim had to pull away from here. The times when he would get back up after a fight and head home anyway, even with Will asking him to stay.

"You should eat something, Jim," Prue tried to persuade. "You're probably starving by now."

"I'm not hungry," he muttered, still pacing. He wasn't going to be able to do anything until he saw her come back. Jim could feel her anger. It reminded him of his own. But that had been a fire that had simmered and choked out long ago. Instead of it burning inside him, it just left him hallow inside, and lonelier than he had ever imagined he would be. Indigo's anger, however, seemed to bring it to life again.

Bringing that anger to life was not the best of ideas.

"If they hurt her, then I'm going to kill them."

"They aren't going to hurt her. They wouldn't, especially since they know she's our mate."

"The elders don't like anyone opposing them, Jim," Skaal reminded him. "That's why they don't like Will and Sbari. If she says something that they don't like, they will see her as their enemy."

He had a point, unfortunately. Jim hated to think about it, but that's how they were. The only reason they still liked him was because he knew how to handle them, and he left before they truly tried to assert their power onto him. The arranged marriage was a frightfully powerful part of their laws, in which the people of the pack could force the Alpha to marry a she-wolf that wasn't his mate in order to have a Luna. Jim had argued against that rule as much as he could, but he was gradually losing that fight.

He hated that. It went against his better judgement; his instinct. He was glad the day that he stepped down. Giving Will the title was the most freeing he had ever felt. Jim could tell that some of the members of the pack felt guilty, like they had pushed him away. But it was something that needed to happen. After all, an Alpha was never meant to lead without a Luna. And an arranged marriage would not have been in the pack's best interest either. It went against what they knew about their kind and their own religion.

It wasn't until he heard footsteps coming towards the room that Jim stopped his racing feet. Prue was probably so annoyed by him right then. He was glad that she wasn't trying to push for anything, because he was too worried to even hear any words come out of her mouth. The only thing that calmed his thoughts was the pause of time between the footsteps coming their way and the opening of that door.

William came in the room empty handed. There were a thousand thoughts that flew through his head from that alone. He could feel calm coming from Indigo, but he was still worried. He needed to know what had happened. What had she said? What had she told both the elders and Will?