Chapter 76: No... Don't Say That

[GREALOR]

"Your father is awake," Galya said to Gabe who was seated outside the pack house. It had been a week since the Lycans had taken Tamiko, and there were no demands made yet.

At first, Gabe thought they would bring him back when they got tired of Tamiko's silence and probably nuisance, but when the third day passed and they hadn't brought him back, he began getting worried.

He tried to reach out to Tamiko, through their mind link which was strangely open, but all he got in response were long grunts like the young Lycan was in pain.

Gabe figured that maybe Tamiko didn't need them to communicate, but when the next four days yielded the same results, Gabe began getting worried.

He knew that the Lycans didn't know of Tamiko being the lost prince and there was a really high chance that Tamiko was being tortured or punished for being a runaway Lycan.

Oh, but Gabe was stressed.

He felt like he had turned the young Lycan's life upside down and with him in a territory he knew nothing of, and Igor gone, Gabe knew Tamiko would be in his hell, courtesy of Gabe, again.

But was Tamiko in hell, when he had managed to get the barbaric king to smile thrice in the past week alone, without putting in too much effort?

Was he truly in danger, or was Tamiko slowly becoming the danger that Gabriel and everyone in Grealor would think twice before running away from?

"Are you even listening to me?" Galya asked again when she realized that Gabe had zoned out.

She had studied him and she knew the Grealor alpha was in love with Tamiko. It was risky to some extent, yet crucial to their plan of winning against the Lycans if ever there came a time when they needed to have a treaty.

"What the hell is it this time? Are you back to tell me I shouldn't daydream about Tamiko's robbery being tortured in Kawai for all we know?" Gabe said irritatedly and Galya just let out a string of laughs.

She had seen this man in so many forms but him sitting there like he was thinking of his life's choices were just not what she had expected. If anything, it didn't suit him. But then it wasn't like there was a way around that at the moment, right?

"I said, your father is awake. And he called the both of us," Galya said and Gabe just stared into the distance.

Yesterday, he had sent Zakhar to clean it up and then he'd gone to make sure that everything was the same. They had returned the letters and instead of putting them in the drawers, they left the letters at the table and signed them in the name of Igor.

They wanted to make it seem like Kosta had come, taken the letters, and then returned them. That was something that would bite them in the ass, but no one was counting this time, right?

"Let's go," Gabe said defeatedly, getting up and heading to the pack infirmary.

He wasn't in the mood to bicker with Galya because she didn't know what it meant to be with a mate who didn't beat her. Or to be the reason her mate suffered.

It was a fate so cruel, but did it even fit Gabe to be playing the victim at the moment? If anything, he was the one with a mate who swore to reject him, if he so much as told anyone about their mate bond. Fantastic, yeah?

"Alpha, we are here," Galya said to Alpha Ashton, seeing as Gabe was still in his world. It had just been one week without Tamiko and he was acting like his entire world had come to a stop. What the hell was he even to make of that?

"How are you both?" the alpha asked. The blade he had used against Tamiko had had so much magic and affected him brutally, but thankfully, Zula, the warlock of their pack, knew how to deal with such and she had managed to heal him.

The alpha had been awake for the past few days, but he had told Zula that he couldn't be seen by anyone until he felt better. So today, he was probably level-headed and an alpha that his people knew of, right?

"We're fine, alpha. It's good seeing you this healthy. The goddess answered our prayers for your health," Galya said, and Zula just looked at the woman as if to ask her if all her magic wasn't the one that had heard the alpha dumb enough to go after the world's most protected kid.

"You look depressed, what happened?" Alpha Ashton said to his son who had been quiet the whole time. It was like Gabe wasn't sure if he was to be happy that his father was alive or if he wanted to ask if they could get Tamiko back. And he made his choice.

"We gave up Tamiko to the Lycans. I want him back, father. Can you help?" Gabe asked making the alpha sit up, despite Zula's attempts to hold him back.

Gabe's voice wasn't pleading in any way, he was stating it to his father, as if to tell the alpha that if he didn't help, Gabe would make his way to the deadliest lands to ever exist, all for a mate who wouldn't hesitate to kill him if he so wanted.

"Slow down, son. Why the fuck would you want to get Tamiko— wait, you GAVE him to the Lycans? What the fuck were you guys thinking? What the hell Galya?" the alpha asked his anger to resign as his blood pressure shot up.

He had heard the rumors, but a part of him was hoping that it was Konstantin who had come for them because Chief Konstantin had promised to never oust Tamiko from Grealor if the kid didn't want to.

This just didn't make any sense to the alpha and it was safe to say that the father was disappointed in his son… for the thousandth time ever.

"Who took him? The barbarian? The dark king? The Lycan Lord? Who the fuck took our only bargaining chip to the dammed fucking Lycans?" alpha Ashton asked as he looked around the room, the disappointment in his face so clear as day.

Gabe, who was waiting in silence, had since hoped that what Galya and Gabe had mentioned earlier had just been a lie to make Gabe believe that they were just kidding, but hearing his father speak up about this, Gabriel Grealor wasn't confused.

He didn't know once again, if he needed to be sad that his mate was not home, or the fact that his father was using his mate as a bargaining chip. Was power that important? Or was Gabe just a dumb son who wasn't included in high-level secretive operations?

"Lord Sadako. He came because a Lycan was killed at the border and wanted Tamiko for—" Gabe stated and the alpha just facepalmed. He couldn't believe this. He just couldn't understand what the fuck had just happened.

"Oh great. Just great. I fell unconscious for three weeks and you have already given the kid back to his uncle, the man who hates wolves more than life itself. Congratulations, son.

"You just sentenced the entire pack to death by Lord Sadako's hands," Alpha Ashton said frustratedly and Gabe felt his heart sink into his stomach.

He hadn't expected this, not once did he ever imagine that Tamiko loved that people would go to war for him. Well, someone did murder the queen just to get the king's heir, who miraculously ended up in Grealor...so he should have done the math, right?

Maybe Gabe didn't know what his father had done, but as he watched his father start sweating profusely, he wasn't sure what the magnitude was, but Gabe knew they were fucked. Perhaps the alpha was right?

"I can fix this, father," Gabe said and it took everything in alpha Ashton not to curse his son.

"And how do you plan on doing that?"

"I can play hurt, so Tamiko comes for me. He cares," Gabe said and at that, even Galya laughed when the alpha did.

"Tamiko, you say? He cares for YOU?" the alpha asked amusedly. However, before they could continue, Judd rushed in.

"Excuse me, but the royal Lycan convoy is at Tamiko's shelter… With Tamiko."