Page 83 of Escalating Alpha

“Yeah, much better to do what you did,” Jason drawled. “I thought my dad was—actually, they might be on the same level of fucked in the head, but at least I had my mom.” He realized how bad it was to say that and rubbed my back.

“What else?” I asked Clayton my voice emotionless as there was a ringing in my ears.

There were a few other things that Clayton didn’t know if they were actual accidents or for sure. Basically, Stacey cut it out when I started talking and could snitch on her. Then she just wanted to ditch me.

I had to walk away from the conversation—the situation—all of it.

I had to or I was pretty sure I would walk away from my life… Again.

No, I hadn’t last time but just reset it when I got the apartment. That was what I was feeling. I wanted a huge fucking reset and not just on my personal relationships this time.

All of it.

I wanted someone to set me free like I had Virgil. So I walked away from the conversation before I did or said something that I would regret. I really only had one thought in my head as I did.

Where is the off switch to stop letting my family hurt me and caring?

20

I actually kept my shit together after the conversation with Clayton. I didn’t even cry and just took a beat so people weren’t worried and thought it was valid.

But a part of me died inside. I feel numb and cold most days. My wolf is all over the place learning how bad it really was and not able to do anything.

My siren wants blood. Stacey’s blood. Maybe even her husband’s blood even if he was completely innocent. All I knew was that the well of my anger was deep and I had no idea how to fucking handle that.

There really was only so much fucking therapy I could have or could help.

That was the only real negative or hit though… Besides the four dead shifters from St. Louis. We had no idea what was going on there. Councilman Antony was clueless. So were the several other council investigators they sent. I even got Nina in to see the bodies and she had no idea. She couldn’t say it wasn’t magic because of how long it had been.

So that was horrible, and I was really sure it wouldn’t be the last we’d hear about this. For now, there wasn’t anything I could do. We had no leads and knew nothing. It pissed a lot of us off.

However, the case against the St. Louis officers stuck. The AG was pushing the case along much to the shock of a lot ofpeople. There were police unions who wanted to start shit over it, but when we gave them the non-public details, they had to back down.

Plus, anyone was pretty stupid to come after me at the moment. I was fairly untouchable in the media when the whole world thought the former president and First Lady took out a hit on me and my son. I feel guilty sometimes but… Not much. Fuck them and their hate.

The new Alpha of St. Louis took our warnings seriously and was making it clear to anyone who would listen that the previous Alpha was nuts and nothing he said about me was true. That the man hadn’t even met me until recently and he was so over the top that that was why the guy took over.

He painted himself the hero a bit too much, but at least he was handling the mess their pack had made. He was still suspicious for taking over the way he had and whatever was going on there, but I couldn’t handle all of the problems in the wolf world.

I couldn’t handle them all in my own fucking world.

The three pack takeovers already on my plate are going well. Amazingly well. The assholes in Memphis got a serious wake-up call when the Alpha family who was desperate for a home and refugees said there was no way they were taking over such a disgraceful pack that bastardized so many of our ways. It was kind of hard not to laugh, but it hurt Virgil.

I hadn’t gotten the details, but some of those “elders” had tried to throw their weight around right after the Alpha landed and he handled it like I would… By throwing some elbows and quick punches. The whole family—and my cousin from Greece—were disgusted and asked for a different pack.

I snarked a bit that I’d get right on that and take over some more packs.

But I probably would.

Fuck.

It truly seemed inevitable at this point, but we did it well. People prospered when I took over because I worked with everyone and wanted the best for people. Maybe others should learn from that and try to do the same instead of just saying I needed to take over more packs?

I doubted it, but I could hope, right?

Deanna Maze is an amazing kid. Topher adores her and probably has his first crush? I can’t really tell because he’s a baby and it’s not like he gets it all. I just get images from him that he wants kisses and attention from her like Reagan gives me.

That’s probably a crush in baby?

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