Page 10 of Candy & Her Saints

And he fucking looks like one now.

For a moment, Dad’s step falters.

Then his burned coffee stench begins to settle, and he laughs.

“There it is: The Snake spirit. You spend too much time around Omegas. You should be challenged more often. It’s good to bring out your primal, Alpha side.” Dad gives a nasty smile, closing the gap between us across the kitchen.

His footsteps on the hard floor sound too loud in the silence.

I bite my lip.

“Why are you here, Dad?” Vito’s gaze is hard.

Dad slaps Vito across the face.

The crack is so loud that I jump.

Vito is knocked across the counter, catching himself with his hands but knocking his hip on the metal side.

He lets out a pained gasp.

Dad towers over Vito, pinning him down by the back of his neck. “I like spirit but not insolence. I’m the Head Alpha and I go where I fucking like. I don’t care whether your name is on the deed, son. I own this building. I fucking own you.”

“Shit.” My own panic forgotten, I scramble out from underneath the counter. Fury surges through me. I forget my own fear in my protectiveness for my brother. “Let him go.”

“Dy, b-b-be q-quiet,” Vito struggles to gasp out.

My knees feel like buckling. Dad’s calculating gaze slides to me, where I’m standing at Vito’s side.

Vito’s still shoved face down across the counter.

Vito’s shaking. I know that it’s not from fear but rather, frustration that he can’t fight back. He’s wanted to since we were kids.

Yet a Head Alpha both by law, tradition, and in society’s eyes has the ultimate authority.

Dad could send Vito to the Alpha Center to be conditioned on training courses or force him into matching with an Omega, if he disobeys.

He could separate us forever.

Dad’s behavior crosses the line of what would be considered abusive in most packs.

Perhaps, we could legally get emancipated from him.

But who would care about what happened to someone in the Snake pack?

We’re criminals.

Kids of mafia.

Trash.

At the same time, Dad has wealth, influence, and power that winds like strangling ivy all the way up American elite society — including politicians, bankers, and movie producers.

People are terrified of him.

Nobody would stand with us against him.

Who would be brave enough?

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