Page 22 of Cruel Alpha Beast
Rage burning up inside of me at this lack of trust, I protectively reach my arm around her shoulders and pull her in closer. Instead of retracting from me again, like she did when I held her hand, she merely goes rigid against me, but makes no steps to leave.
Progress, I suppose.
“We can have our meeting later today,” I tell the other two alphas. “I’ll call you.”
Jasper nods his head, but Ellis just stares at me. Lacey still at my side, I lead her back down the path, taking a turn that will get us back into town.
“Where are we going?” Lacey asks.
I relinquish my arm from around her and put my hands in the pockets of my jeans. “I was going to walk you to Greg’s. Thought you could pick up Shea and get her ready to go home.”
Lacey nods solemnly. “I’d like that a lot.”
“Home…being our house,” I say, just in case.
“I know,” she mutters. “If I go back to the coven, I’ll be exiled forever.”
My gut twists. It sounds so cruel when she says it like that.
The paved streets are quieter than usual this morning, making the silence between us thicker. There are still so many things I need and want to say to her, but I just can’t do it.
“Um, Sawyer?” she says in a small voice.
“Yeah?” I respond.
Looking down at her, she has a contemplative, sorrowful look in her eye—one that breaks my heart to gaze at.
“When you told Danielle and Monroe that keeping Shea and me safe was your biggest priority…” she starts. “Were you telling the truth? Or were you just telling them what you thought they wanted to hear?”
Her question breaks my heart even further. I knew I left a bad taste in her mouth, but maybe this is worse than I thought.
I look her directly in the eye. “It’s the truth, Lacey. I’m not the same Sawyer you knew five years ago. Being an alpha has made me grow up a lot. I look back on a lot of my past decisions, and I wish I could change them. But all I can do is be better going forward.”
“Good.” Lacey nods in contemplation as we approach Greg’s doorstep. “I have noticed a change in you. I want you to know…”
“Thanks,” I say, resting one foot on the bottom step.
“But you have miles to go if you really want to make things up to me,” she tells me.
I nod my head, fully ready to take that on. “I promise you, Lacey, I will do everything I can to prove myself to you.”
Chapter 9 - Lacey
Wearing a watermelon-themed dress Monroe sewed for her over the winter, Shea skips ahead of me on the sidewalk. I follow right after her, keeping my phone glued to my hand in case Danielle or Monroe calls me back with more information.
It’s been an hour, but still, nothing. And so, I’ve decided to take Shea on a little walk through town. I point out the school where I went, leaving out the relentless bullying and exclusion I faced. I show her where her Uncle Greg taught me how to swim, ignoring the part where Jasper and Ellis used to splash me as hard as they could when he wasn’t looking. I even let her play on the small playground with some of the other children in town, hoping she doesn’t notice the looks some of the other mothers are giving me.
The last stop on my mental list is the graveyard, where countless ancestors were buried before our time. With a heavy heart, I take Shea’s hand and direct her toward a small plot on the ground where two glossy stones lie in the grass.
“Here are Grammy and Grampy,” I tell her gently.
She swings our hands back and forth and stares down at the graves. “Why are they dead?”
There’s a knot in my throat that I’m finding very difficult to wash down. “They got into a car accident. They were driving to a store outside of the valley, and another driver was distracted by her dog in the backseat. Grammy and Grampy didn’t make it.”
“Are you sad, Mommy?” Shea asks thoughtfully.
I nod. “Yes, I am.”
