Page 3 of My Brutal Alpha

Mom sighed. “We spent a long time tracking you down…we thought we’d never find you.”

“That was the goal.”

Dad scoffed, bordering on losing his cool before he reigned himself in. “We didn’t go through all this effort for no reason…you have a responsibility to take care of, and we expect you to see to it.”

My brows narrowed slightly at that, confused about what he could be talking about. “What responsibility?”

As much as I wanted to know, something about it made my stomach sink. Those old instincts started to bubble up again, but I kept them down.

Dad looked at me and forced out a breath. “When you were younger, I made a promise to Kody Arron, the alpha of our neighboring pack.”

“I remember him,” I muttered, keeping that look of skepticism. “What was this promise?”

A brief moment of hesitation hung between us before he continued. “I promised that when his daughter, Nora, turned eighteen, you would claim her as your mate.”

Everything around me halted at once as his words sank in, and my breath caught in my throat. The thought alone seemed so ridiculous that I couldn’t even wrap my head around it. “What?”

He sighed, eyes not wavering from their serious gleam. “You heard me. She recently became of age, and Kody expects this arrangement to be completed soon.”

Regardless of how long I let the idea simmer in my mind, there was no escaping the shock, disgust, and raw anger that consumed me all at once. My brows pinched together as I looked at him.

I took a moment before I spoke, allowing those emotions to coat my words. “How could you agree to this without asking me first?”

Dad, looking anything but remorseful, shook his head and put a hand up as if to ease how damning the revelation was. “The deal was made years ago to fortify our peace, but there’s nothing we can do about it now…if you don’t comply, we will pay for it.”

Mom’s face cracked enough to show genuine fear. “If you don’t do this, your dad could have his alpha status contested…we could lose everything.”

While that younger version of myself wavered slightly at hearing that claim, I had to remind myself I wasn’t stuck in that way of living. Things were different, and that wasn’t my life anymore.

Pushing that fear down, I looked between them with resolve. I wouldn’t give in to what they wanted—I couldn’t. It was a ridiculous promise for them to make on my behalf anyway.

The last time I saw Nora, she was a child. The thought alone made my stomach turn.

“I’m not in your pack anymore, and I don’t have to follow through with any promise you’ve made,” I muttered, not relenting. “I won’t do it.”

Dad looked prepared to snap, but Mom stepped toward me, eyes pleading. “Ezra—”

“Leave,” I growled through grit teeth, walking past them to reach the door. “Now.”

I could tell that Dad wanted to give me a piece of his mind, likely because they assumed I would simply cave and give in, but Mom put a hand out to stop him before she looked at me again. “We’ll be in the area for a little while…when you change your mind, we’ll be here to work out the details.”

When.

Like hell.

Even more enraged, I snapped over my shoulder, “I said go! Get off my property, and get off my grounds.”

My words clearly stung to some degree, but as they fixed their mouths into straight lines, Dad let go of a breath before he led Mom off my porch.

Grinding my teeth together as that anger pulsed within my chest, I pushed my way inside and slammed the door, already seeing red.

My chest heaved with those agitated breaths, forcing myself to try and calm down.

But seeing them and hearing those demands, as if I owed them anything, felt like a knife to the chest.

I couldn’t stand the thought of following through with their ridiculous agreement. There were so many reasons why I couldn’t—why I wouldn’t.

Namely, I wasn’t prepared to take anyone as my mate out of some twisted duty, and I certainly wouldn’t take a freshly eighteen-year-old…and one I had known when she was just a child.

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