HIDDEN HOWL

Chapter Twelve: Unspoken Fury

NASIR

I pushed open the door without a second thought, my mind consumed with the thought of Xerxes and the damn meeting he called.

Where the hell was Liam? Damn him for making me look for his ass.

I think I had seen Selene crying and running out of the gardens. I didn't bother asking her what happened, there was only one person capable of making her cry.

Besides, I really do not care to know what conspired between them. If we can get rid of at least one of the Silverhade sisters, the better it will be for all of us.

I searched the entire garden but my damn brother was nowhere to be found. There was one last place I could check.

If he wasn't there then I would be forced to ask Selene.

Please be at your damn yoga room.

I passed by Trinity's room a couple of times, and just like the other days since she arrived, her door was shut.

A part of me started to wonder if she died in there.

Why do I care? If she is dead then the better it will be for my brothers and I. At least we would be free of this embarrassment of a bond.

“Do not talk about mates like that!”

I rolled my eyes at Ren's words. He was obsessed with her. He barely even knew her yet all He cared about was mate. Mate. Mate.

Fuck.

I need to stop thinking about her. The more she remains out of sight, the more likely it is for me to forget all about her.

And at the end of the month I can reject her.

Once and for all.

But as soon as I stepped into the room, I knew my objective was far from being achieved.

“What the hell is going on here?”

The words were out of my lips before I could even stop them. I have never felt this way before.

I couldn't tell if it was anger, disgust or… jealousy.

There they were. Trinity and Liam.

The distance between them was too small, their faces too close. Her hands were just a breath away from his chest, and Liam—my brother—was looking at her with a softness I hadn’t seen him in a long time. My heart slammed against my ribs, something dark and tight coiling in my stomach.

Trinity's eyes went wide, her hand jerking away from Liam as if she had been caught doing something wrong, though I wasn’t sure what was more troubling—the way they looked at each other or the way she pulled away so quickly. Liam’s expression hardened instantly, a controlled look flickering over his face as he cleared his throat.

"What do you want, Nasir?" he asked, his tone as calm as ever, though I could hear the undercurrent of annoyance in his voice.

My breath came in harsh gasps, the anger was unexplainable—spilling from me before I had a chance to stop it. "Xerxes called for a meeting. He’s demanding our presence… Now."

Liam nodded, his expression shifting to something more neutral as he glanced at me briefly, then back at Trinity. "I’ll be there," he replied.

Before I could turn to leave, my eyes locked with Trinity's. Her gaze was fleeting—she looked away almost instantly, like she couldn’t bear to meet my eyes. That simple action, that avoidance, sent a fire raging in my chest. It made no sense, but it burned all the same.

I stormed out, fists clenched at my sides, trying to shake off the knot that had formed in my stomach. What the hell was wrong with me? Why was I so angry?

The meeting with Xerxes did little to quell the rage bubbling inside me. Liam and I sat across from Xerxes in the large, dimly lit room. It wasn’t the pack issues that were making my fists itch to break something—it was the way my mind kept circling back to that moment.

Trinity and Liam.

What was going on between them?

I thought we were all going to reject her at the end of the month? So what the f**k did I walk into?

Xerxes droned on about borders, patrols, and various pack matters, but my mind was somewhere else, trapped in that image of them. When Xerxes finally paused, looking between me and Liam, he didn’t miss the tension in the air.

"Anything else, gentlemen?" Xerxes asked, his gaze sharp.

Our silence was more than enough of an answer.

"Very well then. Onto the next matter. Have any of you seen Trinity?" Xerxes asked and I scoffed, earning the attention of both my brothers.

“Perhaps you should ask Liam. They were getting rather intimate with each other in the yoga room,” I said and Xerxes eyebrow raised slowly in question.

"Knock it off, Nasir," Liam snapped, his voice sharp enough to cut through the thick air between us.

But I didn’t care. My pulse was pounding too loudly in my ears, the need to say something, to make Liam understand, drowning out everything else. "You seem to have forgotten what she is. Or maybe you are letting that thing between your legs cloud your judgement. She’s wolf-less, weak and a liability to us.

"She is our mate!” Liam snapped, his eyes blazing with a fury I didn't know he could possess. “Now mind your business," Liam growled, his eyes blazing with a fierceness I hadn’t seen in him in a long time.

The air between us crackled with tension, thick and suffocating. Xerxes watched us, his gaze flicking back and forth between us as if trying to gauge whether this argument was going to explode into something worse.

I couldn’t stand it.

I stood abruptly, knocking my chair back in the process. "I’m done," I muttered, turning on my heel and storming out.

The sound of the door slamming shut behind me felt like a breath of relief, but that anger—it didn’t go anywhere. It lingered, gnawing inside of me, unanswered and unresolved.

What the hell was wrong with me?