"So you're telling me that someone took her away right in front of your eyes and you did nothing?" My father questions. His voice is low, shimmering with tension and obvious anger, and I feel like a 10-year-old boy again.
"Yes, Father."
"ALPHA!!!!" My father roared.
"How many times? How many times do I have to remind you that I'm not just your father? I'm an alpha of this pack and yours".
My mother steps in between as Father advances towards me, his eyes red with rage. His hands shake as he looks at me like I'm the biggest failure in this world.
"Robert. Don't forget he's still our, son. You might be the Alpha, but you are his father, not the pack members's ." Mom snaps at him, her tone nowhere near like usual.
Alpha Rob pointed his finger at Mom.
"You are the reason he is like this. You…you have spoiled him rotten. What did I say about dating that human girl, huh? I said to just have fun with her and discard her like usual, didn't I? But your son wanted to play house with her, and where did that get us? Exposed and vulnerable." He pushes Mom hard, making her fall on the floor. Donna Chester hurries to help Mom up.
I stay standing, not moving an inch. This is nothing new to me. Alpha Robert Jones projecting his own failure on me and Luna Amanda Jones being a poor wife and a good mother.
But Robert doesn't scare me. He used to, but not since that day. That day, I realized how weak and pathetic Alpha Robert was. That was the moment I refused to acknowledge him as Alpha.
"Alpha, you need to calm down. Your aggression is not helping the situation. What we need to do now is to try and find the girl and make sure she doesn't open her mouth." Beta Tom couldn't get more words out than that. Sometimes I wonder why he would even follow a weakling of a man like Robert. Tom is better suited to lead with his calm temperament and cunning mind than Rob.
Only he knows what he sees in Rob to do his work behind the scenes.
"She probably won't." Tracy stands up from the windowsill and saunters towards me.
"The way she broke up with him was an indication enough that she didn't want to have anything to do with him. She probably wants to forget about him or this town." She smirks, taunting me.
My jaw ticks, but I smile regardless, not letting her see the effects her words have on me. Tracy was always bitter about Lyra being my girlfriend, probably because I broke up with her abruptly and then ended up dating a girl a thousand times prettier than her.
"You would want that, wouldn't you?" I tilt my head at her. My voice dripping with sarcasm while she frowns.
"What do you mean?"
"You want Lyra ignoring and avoiding me so that you can go ahead and shoot your shot at me." Her face falls, and now it's my turn to smirk.
"What the fuck did you just say—?"
"Enough," Tom demands, cutting off his daughter. "This is not the time for your petty high school drama. ".
"But Dad—" Tracy starts, but one sharp look from her father renders her speechless.
Tom then turns to me."Why didn't you follow them?"
"I did. But I couldn't for much longer since I was following them in my wolf form." One more thing about Tom is that he never doubts my potential the way my father does, and that is exactly why I stay away from him as much as I can.
I don't want him to get suspicious.
"Have you ever seen that guy before? Was he a human or?" I knew it. He doesn't believe that a human could escape from my grasp so easily.
"I haven't seen him before, but he was no human." My useless father finally looks at me.
"What was he?" He asks carefully, dreading my answer. I love that look on his face. He is scared, and he should be.
"He didn't expose himself completely in front of me, but I did see his eyes and teeth. He was likely a rogue. He looked like one." My father pales as he stumbles back.
"You are telling me that a rogue took her away—"
"Did she go on her own, or did he force her?" Tom focuses on me ignoring my father. His eyes searching for something in my eyes. He should have known by now that he's not going to find anything in them.
"He used force. I was going to take her to my place after the intruder attack, but then he showed up, fought me, and kidnapped her." Tom tenses at that. He knows Lyra choosing to go on her own is bad, but if she was kidnapped, then that means they'll eventually find out about him.
Tom doesn't want anyone from the rogues to find out his secret. Not yet.
And Lyra being there will surely ruin his plan.
But he doesn't need to worry. Lyra won't talk about me or this town at all. Not in front of the rogues, at least.
As much as I don't want to admit it, I know she chose that motherfucker instead of me. She chose to leave with him instead of me.
That hurt me the more I thought about it last night, but my curiosity was bigger.
I thought she was hiding this past week, but it turns out she was doing her own research, and somehow she found the rogues before I did, before anyone in this town could.
I would have been proud of her in normal circumstances, but if her change in behavior or the look in her eyes is any clue, that means she had her first awakening.
An awakening that I wanted her to have while with me. That's the reason why I even brought her to this town. I knew the awakening was near; hence, I was not going to risk leaving her alone even for a moment.
But the rogue attack that day and Lyra breaking up with me ruined my plan. The look on her face that day, even though she was crying, her eyes were distant, almost like hers. I couldn't bring myself to keep looking at her like that.
She reminded me too much of her. That's why I let her go. That was the biggest mistake on my part.
Besides, I don't have to worry as long as the pendant still lies on her neck. As long as she's wearing that pendant, the second awakening can be avoided, and it'll buy me time.
Time, to change the past, present, and future.