The Love of a Lycan

At first Hope didn't really noticed it, but then again from the way Calleb talked to her and how he looked at her whenever she was near him, made it obvious that the Gamma didn't like her.

And Hope didn't know why he was treating her with animosity.

"Because you smell like a rogue," Calleb answered curtly. He crossed his arms and expressed his disinterest toward her openly.

Not only Hope, who was surprised by Calleb's bluntness, but Raine also was taken aback by his attitude. As long as she could remember, Calleb was the most bubbliest person that she had ever met, but now the way the Gamma looked at Hope, it seemed like he was holding some sort of deadly grudge toward her.

"Calleb," Raine admonished him for behaving with hostility toward Hope. "She is not a rogue."

Calleb shrugged his shoulders. "She and her mate doesn't belong to any particular pack, so they are rogues in my opinion."

"They are with the centaurs," Raine retorted. She couldn't believe that Calleb thought that way about Hope. What was wrong with him? Since the day they fought with the devil, Calleb would look distracted and became moody occasionally.

"You can't call those creatures as their pack just because they have been staying with them." Calleb made his point.

"I am sorry." This time, Hope spoke in a rigid tone when she cut the conversation between Raine and Calleb. "Do I know you? Or, have I offended you in any way? I don't think you have the right to tell me how to live."

"I don't," Calleb said simply. "But, since you ask me why I don't like you, then that's my answer." afterward Calleb waved his hand at Raine and walked out of the tent, not before notifying Hope again. "Go back to your tent."

The moment Calleb was out of sight, Raine and Hope looked at each other in confusion.

"What is wrong with him?" Hope frowned, she disliked to be treated that way when she didn't even know what she had done wrong to him.

Raine approached Hope and smiled awkwardly. "Maybe this long journey had exhausted him. I will talk to him later, we need to sleep now, tomorrow will be another long journey."

But, even Raine knew that didn't answer the question; why Calleb treated Hope with such hostility.

Hope reciprocated Raine's smile. "You don't have to talk to him about this. I don't really care what he thinks about me. Even before I met the centaurs, according to his logic, I have been living as a rogue since the day I could remember, so it doesn't bother me. I am happy to live with the people that I love."

==============

Lilac had been listening to the discussion between Jedrek, Lyrus, Eaton, Theo, Warlock and Rowan for almost two hours now.

They were talking about the attack in the region under Jedrek's territory, the rogues that wreaked havoc in east region and the tensions in the society due to their family members who kept disappearing, never to be found again.

"So, what do you think?" Jedrek asked Lilac all of a sudden, because the guardian angel had been a good listener since the start of the meeting and didn't voice out a single word.

"You keep killing their family members, so this situation was something predictable," Lilac replied simply.

"Those people had lost their beast spirit, they are no longer shifters, and will live as the puppets of the devils. We don't need any further additional support for our potential enemy," Theo retorted.

"Those people had families, they had brothers and sisters, had mates who was waiting for them to come back and probably some of them had felt something wrong had happened to their other half, that is how the mate bond works, right? And now, if you keep covering up the truth, the situation will only get worse." Lilac glowered at Theo. "And the moment they learned the truth, it will be hard for all of you to fix the situation." The guardian angel stared at the people inside the room sharply, including her mate beside her. "After all, this is what the devils wanted. They are plotting for you to go against your own people."

Since, Jedrek wanted Lilac to speak up her mind, so the guardian angel thought it would be better for them to listen to her point of view as well as her dissatisfaction with the way they handled this situation in the most barbaric way.

After Lilac's long monologue, the room fell into silence, as their attention was trained on her. However, the lycanthropes were haughty creatures, they wouldn't admit it easily, especially when the suggestion came from the guardian angel.

"So, you want to say that we should return those people to their families, let them live among the society and when the time came, the devils can use them to kill our kind from within? Do you think they will let us kill their family members, even though we let them learn the truth?" Eaton remarked. "That's ridiculous."

This was also one of their reasons why they killed those shifters that had lost their soul, because if they didn't kill them right away, it would be a disaster if their family protected them when Jedrek took action.

Lilac narrowed her eyes at Theo. Since the first time they met, he had been treating her less than she deserved. Even though, the guardian angel managed to whip his a** with her roots.

"What do you think is best to do now?" Warlock asked, but when he realized Lilac's position, he added reluctantly. "Luna…"

And Lilac answered truthfully. "I don't know."

"You don't know and you sit there like you know the solution for this issue," Theo sneered and he was rewarded by a sharp glare from Eaton.

Lilac chuckled when she heard that and Jedrek slightly shifted his gaze toward his mate, curious about what she was laughing at.

"You made this decision without asking me, all of you even put me in the dark until the situation got out of hand, and now when the situation had become like this you are complaining that I'm not able to provide you with a plausible solution?" Lilac jeered.