A MAZE OF GREED

"Then why the hell you didn't tell me that she is my MATE?"

Edwin's voice thundered inside the closed room, sending a chill into Rees's bones. His eyes went wide, not because Edwin got to know the truth. It was bound to happen sooner or later. But he was caught by shock at the possessiveness and fury that Edwin's voice and eyes held.

Rees didn't answer. He couldn't. He needed some time himself to get his head around the fact that his worst suspicion had come true.

Ruth was Edwin's mate!

Edwin has a human mate!

Ruth, who hated Edwin with every cell in her body, was chosen as Edwin's, the alpha of all the alphas, mate by the Moon Goddess!

'What game you are playing, Moon Goddess, please show some mercy on your children!' He pleaded mentally.

But destiny was already written, and it was immutable.

"Speak up!" Edwin struggled hard to not allow his wolf to come out. Because if he did, then Rees was a lump of dead meat.

Rees's wolf was alert and ready to defend if the time called for it. But he didn't want to aggravate his master more.

"Master, please! Calm down! We need to talk." He said guardedly with his head bowed a little. His eyes cast downwards but enough to see Edwin's face.

Edwin gnarred. No one could tell him what to do. And how could his bodyguard order him that he needed to calm down after him hiding the truth about his mate?!

Edwin had a soft corner for Rees. He considered him as his friend, but that was not the case with Edwin's wolf. Edwin's wolf had been trained and made to rule, to not trust anyone except himself, to dominate everyone around him, to keep them under his paws.

Rees didn't look up to meet Edwin's eyes, or his actions could have been misunderstood as an act of defiance. It was not only his master, but this time he was dealing with the leader of the entire breed, the alpha of all the alphas.

Rees had to show his submission to Edwin's wolf, to his power and his rule.

He raised his hand to keep on the middle of his chest in a fist and bowed deeper. It was a gesture of submission that Edwin's wolf recognised.

Edwin again bared his teeth with a snarl, but he pulled out his claws from Rees's neck. The wound was deep. The blood oozed through it. But Rees choked a hiss of pain.

After a couple of heavy breaths, and staring at Rees's submissive form, Edwin stepped back from him. His body still shaking with anger and a sense of betrayal. If it not for Edwin's human form, then his wolf would have torn Rees into shreds.

Rees panted shallow breaths, yet to move from his submissive gesture. He waited until Edwin made a strange noise at the back of his throat.

Taking it as his cue, Rees relaxed a bit, but his guards were up. The pain in his throat was excruciating, but he kept inhaling deep breaths. With his werewolf power, it would have healed in less time. But this wound was inflicted by the pureblood leader of the breed. It would take more time to heal, but Rees would survive that.

Rees knew that he had to put a lid on his apoplectic master, and there was only one way to do that.

Keeping his head low, he hurried to the closet on the right side of the chamber. After opening its door, it didn't take him long to fetch an amber coloured bottle, similar to the one he used in Edwin's headquarter building.

Edwin's obsidian eyes attentively followed Rees, but he didn't move. Taking advantage of his silence, Rees poured a glass with water. Then opening the amber coloured bottle, poured a few drops of the dark liquid into it.

He mixed the content in the glass well, till it turned a colour of pomegranate, dark red, redder than the blood.

Rees slowly walked towards Edwin, then got on his one knee, offered the glass to him.

"Young Master, please take this!" This time he looked up at Edwin to show him how genuine he was.

"My loyalty was, is and always will rest with only you, milord! I can never think of betraying you or hurting you in any way. I'd rather die before committing such a sin! Please, my master, alpha of all the alphas, take this drink."

Edwin's features softened after hearing Rees's honest words. He eyed the drink in Rees's hands then took it wordlessly. Edwin took the brim of the glass between his lips then gulped down the whole content that tasted sweet to his wolf.

As soon as the rufous coloured liquid went inside Edwin's body, it spread like bolts of light through his veins. Its effect was as fast as its speed in his body that resulted in the whimpering of Edwin's wolf.

His wolf growled, still angry, but slowly his nerves relaxed. The bloodied claws returned to the original size of the human nails. The sharp teeth got replaced with pearl white teeth. His obsidian eyes turned back to their cerulean blue colour.

And now Edwin's human form was back in complete control.

As soon as Rees got convinced that his master was back, his body slackened visibly. He didn't mind the pain in his neck, for he was relieved that Edwin was back before anyone outside the closed door could witness the rage of his wolf.

The events since the last evening had Edwin knackered. His head felt heavy. Disconsolately he slumped down on his bed, his head between both his hands.

Rees waited for some moments to pass while carefully observing his master.

"Take the chair."

Rees would have mistaken Edwin's words if it had not for his sharp hearing capabilities. He obediently pulled a chair near the bed, where Edwin had seated.

"Sit!"

Rees followed.

Another brief moment of silence passed, then he heard Edwin speak again. "When did you find it out?"

Edwin looked up at Rees with indistinct emotions lingering in his eyes, and Rees gulped nervously. After the incessant inner battle of months, he finally found a voice to tell his master the truth.

"When I met Ruth for the first time on a Sunday breakfast, something about her caught my attention, especially of my wolf's. Her scent... it felt familiar."

Edwin's eyes perked up at Rees's face. Confusion was clearly visible in those cerulean blue orbs.

"I smelled that scent once in your chamber." Rees answered Edwin's obvious but unvoiced question tilting his head to the brown piece of cloth.

"But I couldn't point out the memory of that scent at that time. The more I talked with her, the more I knew about her, the more interested I became in her. She is a kind and truthful person, a friend that I always needed."

Edwin listened to everything patiently, but his jaw remained ticked. His human side was proud of his mate. He was happy that everyone praised her, but his wolf didn't like the fact that another male was showering praises on his mate.

"I asked Ruth if she knew you, but she denied, neither you ever told me where you got that brown cloth. Every time Ruth's name was mentioned I saw the sudden changes in your behaviour that I had never witnessed before.

I thought... I thought maybe..."

"Maybe I was just eyeing her for her beauty and body the way I do to other women around me?!" Edwin filled in the blanks that Rees couldn't.

"Forgive me, master!" Rees was quick to bow his head in apology.

Edwin sighed, rubbing his temple. "You don't need to apologise, Rees. It was not your fault, the image that I have created for myself... it is just difficult to believe when my feelings are genuine and when it is only a play."

Edwin shamelessly admitted and there was not a tinge of regret in his words. Instead, he was proud of his disguise and it was not wrong to say that he was a womanizer. A brazen and heartless one!

Rees chose to not comment on it and moved further with his side of the story. "But the thought that Ruth might be your mate crossed my mind for the first time at the night in the woods.

The way you became possessive over her, your worry for her safety, your anger on her stupidity, everything made me suspicious."

"You tried to keep her away from me, didn't you?" Edwin was too clever for his own good.

Gulping down nervously, Rees answered, "She was curious, very curious about the O'Dell family and... you. I realised that she was hiding something from me and somehow she knew you."

Edwin's eyes darted to that brown piece of cloth again. "She was here, Rees. She was here with Thea on the night of the celebrations." That night, her hazel eyes, everything was still a fresh memory in his head.

"I know, master. Thea told me about that night after I told her my true identity. They both were scared of you and didn't want to put me in trouble because of that passage in the compound wall... I showed Thea that secret way. I used that to meet her while on the duty."

Rees couldn't meet Edwin's eyes. This guilt he was carrying for months and after Thea told him how she and Ruth misused it, he cursed himself more than before.

"I figured that much!" Edwin's voice was gentle, playful even.