Page 28 of Malcolm

Robert chuckled. “No, she left because she’d been in love with someone else.” He sighed. “Your father did what Damondid to your sister; he forced his mark on her during the blue moon.”

Malcolm tensed as Robert continued speaking. “Mating, the desire to mate, runs in our blood. The desire to pair off with our chosen guides us in most of what we do, but Alpha’s have the terrible ability to force a mating on the omegas or, more so, their females, and sadly, too many use it to their advantage. Gaining a sick satisfaction at attaining one-sided devotions from the females.”

“So—that’s why he didn’t stop Damon back then.” Malcolm sneered, “It would have made him a hypocrite.”

“True. Luckily, your mother was able to break her emotional attachment to him and leave to be with the man she truly loved,” Robert said.

“Right, leaving us behind,” Malcolm said with scorn.

“Not by choice; she wrote me often to send her news of you and your sister.” Robert explained, he grimaced, “Your father and I fell out, when he discovered what I was doing.”

“So what? The moral of the story is our family is a lot more fucked up than I originally thought,” Malcolm retorted scathingly.

He should never have come back.

He hated how nothing his uncle said surprised him anymore.

Robert nodded, “Well, the moral is that this Clan, our pack, had deep-seated issues, and if you hadn’t left after you killed the Alpha, you would have been the next to suffer for it.”

Malcolm stiffened, gritting his teeth together so tightly they creaked.

“Your father knew that Damon’s sycophants would hunt you down and murder you. They would make your life miserable, and not counting what they would do to your sister.” He side-eyed him. “The minute your father called the council, he betrayed the very people he’d been serving. I think it was thefirst of the two things he ever did right. Killing Damon then may have been the right thing to do, but you’d have been surrounded by enemies who’d want you killed if you’d stayed.”

Robert stared down at the small cabin roofs and the broad stretch of rolling hills in the distance. “At first, I was pleased by your actions. The clan had ignored your sisters’ pain for too long, but the price was too heavy for you to pay for doing what you did.”

“So, he accused me of murder and kicked me off our land to save my life,” He couldn’t believe it; he shook his head. “You know that’s not easy for me to believe.” He stood. “You don’t have to lie to me.”

“I’m not because shortly after he called the council, he called me.” His uncle said, looking up at him from where he sat. “He asked me to come and take over. At first, I was against it, but he explained his plan to clean and clear our land of the elder's infestation and, once you returned, give you a chance at being Alpha once more, a chance he took from you all those years ago.

“I don’t want it,” Malcolm snapped, going to walk away.

“It does not matter what you want,” his uncle growled. “It’s done, and you know better than anyone else what runs in your veins, and that’s the blood of a true Alpha. A true leader. You were not born to take orders from some slick tongue fox in the city. Some part of you knows that to be true.”

Malcolm ignored his uncle’s words and continued walking away, leaving his uncle behind. He’d endured the pain of being ripped from his people and had his reputation shattered, and his uncle wanted him to return and fill in the role of Alpha simply because he demanded it. Was the man insane?

Malcolm didn’t want anything to do with this world of tradition and rules that had allowed his sister to become a victim and him, dishonorable. He had one job, and Alek? That vampirecould go fuck himself, too. If that damn blood sucker had a hand in this, he’d rip his head off the minute he saw him.

How could he be the Alpha, after everything he’d been through? No, he wouldn’t do it. Fuck them, and fuck their need for a leader. There were many strong men in this clan, he didn’t need to take the position.

“Malcolm?”

He’d just reached the back gate to the line of cabins when a soft voice called to him. He looked up, and met green eyes that he knew well. The last time he’d seen them, they’d been cloudy with pain and tears. The eyes were a softer green compared to his own eye color, and her hair was brown and braided back. She wore a soft white cashmere sweater over jeans. “Morgan?” he whispered in shock and bitter happiness.

She nodded; he could see the red of her eyes. He looked away from her. “What do you want?”

Biting his bottom lip, he chided himself. He shouldn’t lash out at her; it wasn’t her fault. He’d made the choices he’d made, and he needed to face them.

“I’ve been writing you,” she said softly. “I should never have put you in the place where you had to make such a brutal choice for me.”

He jerked his head up. “What are you talking about? You had nothing to do with my choice to kill him.”

She shook her head. “I couldn’t fight him to save myself. At that time, I was too scared to even breathe, much less go against him, and you knew it,” she said, her voice becoming thick with tears. “I—That night, I was going to end it all. I was going to cut the cord between us, and I failed. I got scared, and he caught me. I?—”

Malcolm moved before he could second guess himself, grabbed her, and pulled her into a hug. “I did what any brother would do to the man who did that to you.” He bit back the thickcoat of tears that wanted to fall from his eyes. “You don’t owe me anything for doing what I did. I take full responsibility.”

Morgan pressed her face against his chest, his fingers curling in his shirt. “I’ve missed you, Malcolm.” She drew back. Her eyes were filled with tears as she looked up at him.

He offered her a painful smile. “I’ve missed you too.”

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