Chapter 357

My hands fly to my mouth and my wide eyes look at Tyler in disbelief.
“Stop!” Tyler gets out. He’s breathing heavier now, but he is still walking forward. He clearly does
this a lot.
“Why? You haven’t made a move on Sky and you won’t now that you have orders. She should know
what we put up with from our leaders if she chooses to stick around.” Robbie looks back to me,
“Tyler has never once ‘cheated’ on his mate bond. So she has never suffered. I say it’s bullsh*t and
you should make her pay.”
“I said enough! Let it go. I made my choices, so did you. Enough.”
I am at a loss for words. How could someone be that cruel? And he just lets it happen. Is this really
what the mate bond is?
Tyler takes another deep breath and stands up a bit straighter. “I think they are done, which means
we need to get to the rec center, they will be on their way.”
We head back to the truck and start our drive to the rec center in silence. I wonder if I will be able to
tell who his mate and their leader are?
Whatever happens both of these people need to be punished for what they are doing to other
people. I don’t know Robbie’s story, but I bet it’s something similar to Tyler’s. The way that they talk
and act like this is a normal occurrence. It can’t be. Giving up and then torturing your given mate
can’t be the norm for them. I hope they both figure out better ways to live and get out of this sh*tty
excuse for a pack. If this is how the Rogue King or his minions live and treat their pack members, I
can’t let them win. We have to stop them, no matter what. This is awful and I only know two people
being harmed by the situation.
We are the first to arrive, which sets Tyler and Robbie at ease a bit. They must get punished if they
are late. Within the next twenty minutes the rest of the runners show up. There aren’t as many as
normal, which strikes me as weird since this is the only time most of them get the chance to shift.
I don’t fail to notice Janice walking up with a couple other girls and they all look a little irritated, well
more than usual anyway. I wonder what’s going on with them?
“Where is everyone?” I ask Tyler in a low whisper, but I know most of them can hear me.
‘It’s a nice day so a bunch of them are already out running and are going to meet us at the shift spot
and run from there.”
It sounds like the lame answer it is, but I go with it. I just need to get on this run and get moving. So,
I nod my head and follow Tyler and Robbie closer to the group. I do notice that Mike isn’t here yet
which is strange. He’s usually one of the first, but the way he was acting before I’m not mad about
his absence.
“It’s time.” Janice calls out to the small group. “Let’s run.” She turns and starts to jog off and we all
follow. I notice we are moving much faster than our normal ‘jog.’ Maybe Tyler is right and everyone’s
wolves just want to get out and run while the weather is nice.
We make it to the shift spot in less than half the usual time. Everyone is breathing heavily, but no
one looks too winded. Several people have already changed and shifted. We are in the middle of
the pack and Tyler and Robbie both wait an beat before changing and something in their demeanor
has shifted.
“What’s wrong?” I ask them both, stepping away to give them space to change.
“Nothing, just…” Tyler starts.
“Don’t tell me ‘nothing.’ I can feel it, something is going on. There are no extra people meeting us
here and we got here in half the time. Something is up, every single one of you is on edge. And
Mike and some of the rest of the regulars are not here.”