Page 10 of Alpha Chase

“The guys and I want you to feel like you can come to us with anything. You’re one of us, after all. We should’ve brought you in a lot sooner. We wanted to, but your dad wouldn’t allow it…”

That gets my attention. I flicker my gaze back to Gray, eyes narrowing. “He what?” I growl, sitting up straighter.

Gray leans his elbows onto the desk with a heavy sigh. “He wanted to let you be a kid, not have you worrying about the security squad or pack duties…”

“What?” I snap, cutting him off again. My blood is boiling in my veins at his revelation. I told my dad so many times that I wanted to join the other alphas and be involved with the squad-so many times- and he always made it seem like they were the ones who weren’t on board with it until I was out of high school. And now to hear I could’ve been part of it all along rather than feeling like a goddamn outsider all this time?

Gray quiets, pressing his lips into a tight line. “He was just doing what he thought was best. You’ve gotta know that. Everything he did…”

I zone out again as he talks, mind reeling. I shouldn’t be surprised to find out about yet another lie spun by my old man, but each one cuts deeper than the last. Worst of all, the asshole had to go and die before I could confront him about any of them, so now I’ve got nowhere to direct my rage. It feels like a fist around my throat, slowly strangling me. I stare at the picture frame behind Gray, eyes focused on the sliver of paint on the wall beneath it that’s brighter than the rest, drawing attention to the fact that it has been knocked off kilter. The rest of the wall is slightly faded from the sun’s rays. Gray’s still talking, but I don’t hear him. My heart’s thumping, ears ringing.

“I gotta go,” I blurt out, pushing to my feet abruptly.

“Chase, wait…” Gray rises to stand, too, but I’m already halfway to the door.

I swivel back to face him once I reach the doorway. “Will you fix that?” I growl, pointing at the framed picture behind him. “It’s fucking crooked. Or just take it down, I don’t care.”

Gray’s brows draw together in confusion as he looks over his shoulder at the picture, then back to me. “What? Yeah, I…” he turns at the waist and tips the frame back into position, then faces me again. His eyes are sympathetic as he reaches behind his head to rub the muscles at the base of his neck. “I wish you’d just talk to me, man. I’ve been through this, I understand…”

“You’re wrong.” I shake my head, scowling. “Nobody understands.”

Two Months Ago

“Have a seat,” Rob says, gesturing to the chair opposite his desk.

I enter his dimly lit office and slump down onto it. My whole body aches from fatigue, but my mind is still too twisted up to attempt sleep.

Rob scrubs a hand over his face. It doesn’t look like he’s slept much, either. Dark circles are etched beneath his eyes, and for once he looks every bit his forty years, the fine lines around his eyes and mouth suddenly so much more prominent. He heaves another sigh as I clench and unclench my fists- the way he’s dragging this out is grating on my last nerve.

“Talk,” I say bluntly, skewering him with a glare. “And don’t fuckin’ lie to me, Rob. I’ve had enough lies to last me a lifetime.”

Rob’s jaw ticks, his lips set in a tight frown. “To answer your question, yes. I knew your mother was alive.”

It feels like an icepick has been lodged in my chest. My throat tightens as I ball my hands into fists again, Rob’s words settling over me.He knew. Meaning my dad knew and chose not to tell me. Worse- that he deliberately lied to me.

“Why didn’t he tell me?” I grind out, staring blankly down at the surface of the desk. “Why’d he lie?”

Rob blows out a breath, folding his hands on the desktop. “He did it to protect you, Chase. When he realized you were still hoping she’d come back, he wanted to help you move on. Because he knew she wasn’t.”

The dagger in my heart lodges itself in deeper.

I was around twelve when my dad relocated our pack to Colorado to join the six-pack alliance. I threw a fit about moving, saying that if Mom came back, she wouldn’t be able to find us. That’s when Dad told me she was dead. If he did it so I’d give up hope for her coming back, it worked- the last flicker of hope for her return was extinguished from then on. Now I’m not sure whether I hate him for lying to me or love him for wanting to protect me. Maybe both.

We didn’t have the closest relationship, but he was still mydad. We just butted heads like every teenager does with their parents. Now I regret every argument, every word said in anger. I can’t let myself think of it too much or I’ll drown in my regret.

I’m having trouble reconciling the woman I remembered as my mother with the one I ran into on the battlefield yesterday. My mom was never particularly warm, but she wasn’t a cold-blooded killer, either. What happened to her in the years since she left? How did she wind up with the shadow pack, so devoted to them that she didn’t think twice about killing her own son?

“How’d he know she wasn’t coming back?” I ask, lifting my eyes from the desk to meet Rob’s. “Did he know she was with the shadow pack?”

From the way Rob winces at my question, I know his answer before he even verbalizes it.

CHAPTER SIX

Vienna

“Heygirl!”Icallto my friend Nessa as she walks in the restaurant at the lodge, pulling her long dark hair into a ponytail as she walks.

“Hey!” she calls back, flashing me a bright smile. Nessa has so many beautiful features- full lips, high cheekbones, almond shaped eyes- but her smile is by far her best. You know that cliché phrase about how someone’s smile can light up a room? Nessa’s the kind of girl that phrase was coined for. I had a shitty morning, but her smile improves my mood in an instant.

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