Page 90 of His Sunshine Baby

I follow Daniel’s little chin movement to look at my cousin Iris, sitting next to Levi. She is glaring at Jace, looking pissed. Is it because he’s making fun of her little brother? I didn’t think she would get mad at such a lousy joke. Jace notices too and stops laughing.

“Sorry, sorry, I was just kidding, heh? Come on, I’ll pay for the drinks.”

Since Iris is an alpha too, he probably couldn’t stand being glared at. But she soon calms down and sighs.

“That’s fine.”

I smile a bit. I forgot Iris is always a bit uptight about the pack’s rules. The guys move on to discuss the last fights that happened within the pack, joking about who is making progress or not. Meanwhile, George spots us and comes to take our orders, adding a freebie for Daniel. Those two are super close after all. When he leaves, Jace turns to me.

“By the way, Elena, I heard Diego’s back?”

He immediately gets a lot of glares and goes white. I sigh.

“Yes, he is.”

“I can’t believe Xavier let that fucker back in,” growls Orpheus.

“It's a difficult situation. He belongs to our pack and is a good fighter too,” says Iris, trying to defend her father’s decision.

“Come on, Iris, don’t defend that asshole. Everyone knows what an asshole he was to Elena,” growls her brother.

“But--”

“Elena, if you’re looking for a new boyfriend just to piss him off, I’m available!” says Jace with a little wink.

Daniel rolls his eyes.

“Moon Goddess, Jace, that is so uncalled for, dude. Get off your high horse a little, will ya? There’s a whole line waiting to date my babe, and you’re at the bottom. The very bottom, Jace.”

“I don’t wanna get anywhere near your bottom, Danny,” mumbles Jace.

Levi and Orpheus, who are sitting on each side of that idiot, immediately smack him behind the head at the same time.

“Ouch! What the hell?”

“Thank you,” says Daniel with a satisfied smile.

Iris and I laugh, almost spitting out our coffees. Damn, Jace is an idiot but a funny one. Levi growls at him when he protests again, putting an end to his childishness.

“But seriously, Elena, we got your back,” says Orpheus to me.

I smile at him.

“Thanks.”

They all give me some word or gesture to say they are on my side no matter what. I wish things had been this way back then. But the truth is, no one knew exactly what was going on between me and Diego.

Like Danny and I, Diego was some sort of pariah among the pack. His father was on bad terms with the Alpha and was always training him to become stronger. He had a rough, violent upbringing. His father justified anything with the werewolf condition. As an alpha, he had to be strong, to be tough, and not show his weakness. But Diego did end up showing his one weakness: me. I was the only girl he got along with, the only one he really liked. We fell in love like any other teens would have had they hung out together every day for years. We had grown up together. There wasn’t anything we hid from one another, same with Danny.

He was my teenage crush, as well as my rival. We fought a lot. Because we were alphas, we fought seriously every time. But as I learned later, being an alpha doesn’t justify violence. Diego didn’t learn that. He fought with anyone in the pack, weaker or stronger than him, and there weren’t many people who could stand up to him aside from me. As the years went by, his tendency to violence got worse. He injured several people in the pack under the pretense of “serious training,” including Danny. The Alpha got mad, but I would always find excuses for his behavior.

I was an idiot in love, and I didn’t know any better.

“Elena, babe?”

I return to reality when Danny puts his hand on my knee.

“Sorry, Danny, you were saying?”

---