Careful, Leave The Pandora Closed

[TAMIKO]

"—Things are about to take a whole new turn and it would be a miracle if the world didn't collapse because the devil himself is back," Igor explained softly to Tamiko.

He was stroking his erasthai's hair and loved the feeling of it, but that was also how Igor also knew that there was more to Tamiko the outcast that Alpha Ashton wasn't willing to tell the world.

And maybe that was also why he wasn't shocked when the heavily-armed Grealor warriors, led by alpha Ashton himself, had come to Tamiko's.

"I guess you heard that the big bad Zaffuto is alive and kicking, huh, Ashton?" Igor teased as he looked at the alpha who looked so frustrated like there was a kind of hell that was waiting for him. Oh, but there was one that Tamiko was preparing for him.

Seeking alpha Ashton here with the guards got Tamiko suspicious as hell. He wondered why the man who didn't care about him had been so quick to show up with guards when he was here with Igor.

It wasn't like the alpha didn't know Igor was in Grealor. Then again, the realm had just heard about the rise of the dark and ruthless king.

Maybe alpha Ashton was hiding something, something that could get him in so much trouble with the lycans. Well, having a lycan youngling in his pack was a reason for him to panic, but was that what this was really about?

Would that be enough for the bad alpha to be standing before Tamiko, staring at Tamiko like he was his only insurance to a life Tamik didn't even know of yet?

Wasn't he being a little irrational?

"It's time for you to leave Grealor, Igor," Alpha Ashton said, and this time Tamiko's soft gaze disappeared, and in its place was the cold face of a man who had been yearning to punch Alpha Ashton into tomorrow.

Suddenly, Tamiko didn't care that he was the soft boy Igor had known, he didn't care that he was supposed to let himself be free.

Alpha Ashton was daring to do something that he shouldn't have and if Tamiko wanted to leave, not even Alpha Ashton could stop him. At least that much Tamiko was certain of.

"Hear that, dusha? This coward wants me to leave Grealor. It makes me wonder if he's hiding something that he wouldn't want a lycan like me knowing, right?

"He should be happy for me that our grandmaster is back and alive and yet he looks so pressed like his face is stuck in his ass or something. Maybe we should try squeezing our unicorns from his ass, right?" Igor said to Tamiko who was glaring at Alpha Ashton.

Igor wasn't even worried about Ashton's antics. If anything, the only thing that mattered to Igor was his erasthai, the only man whose attention meant the most to him.

Oh, Igor wasn't scared of the werewolf guards. He had fought a worse set of people and won, so this just didn't make him feel like he was cornered.

"I think it's time for you to leave the shelter, Alpha Ashton. I didn't see any bylaw in Grealor that forbids a WEREWOLF from having friends over in Grealor, no?

"Unless you know something that you aren't telling me," Tamiko said, the heartless tone making the guards who were with the alpha wonder what the fuck had happened to the meek slave they had been used to.

But then again, that meek slave had been thinking so much about what he was supposed to do and he had decided to stand up for himself and the man who had taken an interest in him. It didn't matter that his true nature would be seen.

Tamiko wasn't going to fall for this bullshit that Alpha Ashton was spewing. If he wanted Igor out, he had to have a good enough reason, or Tamiko would have to show the alpha the door himself.

"You little outcast. You think that now Igor is here and you have the power to defy me?" Alpha Ashton asked angrily and Tamiko just stoked at him like he had been waiting to do this for a really long while now.

This alpha was way in over his head and maybe Tamiko needed to snap him back to reality, right? Perhaps that would teach the dumb alpha to stick to his lanes, lest the ugly truth shows up and he wouldn't even be able to do shit about it.

"Careful how you tread, alpha Ashton. You might open a pandora you aren't ready to share with your pack just yet, and that wouldn't be good for you, don't you think?" Tamiko said as he walked towards the Grealor alpha.

His steps were so calculated and his stance so intimidating that even the guards who were standing with the alpha instinctively took a step back.

The Grealor wolves had seen how Tamiko was built and what he looked like when he was pissed. They knew he would never act on it, and maybe that was why it was easy for them to take advantage of him.

However, with Igor here to fight his battles for him, they weren't sure it was a smart idea to engage Tamiko and Igor the barbarian right now. It would be crazy.

But did they just step back because of Igor, or because of Tamiko's eyes that were flickering between black and golden? He was dangerous from the get-go and now he seemed to have an enabler, would he really stop?

Would Tamiko take the chance and try to live like tomorrow was his to own and even all eternity?

"You think you're smart threatening me? Igor will be gone soon enough and it will be you here in this pack. It's too soon for you to be celebrating the limited freedom, Tamiko," the alpha said, not backing down.

He was an alpha and he had his subjects in the same room as him, so he wasn't going to show them that beyond the facade he was putting on, he was scared of the boy before him.

Tamiko had grown so much over the years and now that he was twenty-five years old, alpha Ashton should have expected that he would have the desire to go back home and that Kawai would start calling.

Expectedly, Kawai had come calling in the form of Igor, but Ashton was hoping to thwart those attempts. Then again, would he be able to control this version of Tamiko?

If anything, did he ever have control over Tamiko, or had Tamiko been a good submissive who didn't want to fight with anyone through and through?

"Oh really now? The way I look at it, you are the one who should be careful. Whether Kosta is here or not, I am not going to be slaving in Grealor again.

"Now I can see you want me to stay in your home, but you must give me a good reason not to want to leave and cripple Grealor as it is," Tamiko said with a laugh as he looked at the clueless alpha before him.

It was then that he realized that Gabe hadn't even told his father that they were mates. Tamiko had threatened him, but would Tamiko keep the same promise? Would he not tell anyone that he was Gabe's mate, or would he tell it to the alpha here and now?

"Or maybe you aren't even in the know yet. If I were you, I wouldn't treat me differently, or you might risk a rebellion from your dear son, alpha Ashton. Now we both know Gabe goes crazy for things he takes an interest in.

"Surely you didn't think he was bullying me for fun, right?" Tamiko added and the alpha looked at him like he really wasn't sure what Tamiko was talking about.

Of course, he couldn't connect the dots and thankfully the man with him hadn't yet, or it would have been long and awkward.

"What the hell are you talking about? You don't have a right to speak to me like that!" Alpha Ashton said and Tamiko let out a dark chuckle in warning.

The alpha just stared at him, trying to hold his gaze, but the truth was something that Tamiko knew would forever haunt alpha Ashton, and Tamiko was going to use it to taunt him.

Then again, what truth was Tamiko referring to?