Page 69 of Red River

"Why even involve Principal Vernon? We can just call them now!"

In a rather theatrical gesture, I took my phone and smacked it onto Igor’s keyboard, making him twitch slightly.

"In a normal situation, I’d feel sorry for you, Igor, but the fact that you went to complain to people who don’t actually have your best interests at heart—the same people who side with the bullies—tells me you’re desperate to end up at one of those nice camps as soon as possible!"

I lowered myself over him slightly and narrowed my eyes.

"What happens in those camps is no joke. Here at school, they call you a ‘pretty alpha’ and make sexual remarks about you. That’s just a small taste of what they’d call you in the camp. You’d regret throwing away the chance at a normal life, just because you hate Archer so much."

But Igor didn’t seem to hear me. Again, it was exactly as Archer said. I was speaking a different language—we just couldn’t communicate with each other.

"From the day we got here, you stopped being my dad and turned into his whore!" he snapped. "Do you actually care if I end up being everybody’s whore in the camp?"

I closed my eyes, feeling my energy drain. A wall. An unbreakable barrier. No connection.

"Alright, so what now? Tell me, Igor, what do you think I should do here? What’s your perfect scenario?"

Igor shot me a sideways glance.

"I had a plan. I was going to apply for early legal adulthood. That way, I wouldn’t need a guardian, and we wouldn’t have had to come to Archer."

"Do you not understand that you’d go intoMusth?"

"So what? I’d mature physically into a full alpha in a few months, and that would only make everything better—"

I grabbed my head in frustration. He was completely out of touch with reality.

"Do you even know what happens to teenage alphas inMusth? There was a family living just a few miles from us—a father ran off with a new omega, abandoning his kids. His sixteen-year-old son took over his ‘responsibilities’. The kid started by locking his dad in a room and taking away his phone. And whenMusthfully kicked in, he raped him! Over and over. He didn’t stop until someone at the omega’s work noticed his absence and sent people to investigate."

For the first time since Thomas died, I saw that expression on Igor’s face: panic and disgust. He shivered and clenched his fists.

"I would never do that! Have you lost your mind? I’m not some sick freak!" he yelled. "You must think so little of me, Dad—"

"River, can you leave us alone?"

Archer’s calm voice came from behind me.

I was absolutely relieved the conversation was ending because I had lost hope that I could ever reach Igor.

Archer was right.

Igor needed to hear the alpha’s language.

ARCHER

After I finished talking to Milo, I knew it was time to move on to the main subject.

However, before entering Igor’s room, I pulled out my phone and made a few preparations to ensure my conversation with the teen would have the right impact.

When I stepped inside, I found a pretty shaken River. I could almost physically feel his despair, his inner conflict.

"River, can you leave us alone?"

River’s eyes were red and watery. He looked completely emotionally drained, like he could barely stand. He just nodded and walked out, wobbling a bit.

Igor’s gray-green eyes met mine. He looked like he wanted to smirk sarcastically, but his split lip stopped him.

"Okay. Life lessons. You hit Riley, and you got away with it. You wanted to hit me, and you got away with that too. This time, you hit someone again, but they fought back. What conclusions have you drawn from that?"

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