Page 9 of Scapegoat

It was the ‘fucking’ that made me aware of just how much trouble I was in. Like, I knew; of course I knew. There was no way I couldn’t. Sneaking off, disobeying Mum. They would have consequences and I knew them well, but this… I watched Mum square up to Greg, talking faster, louder, until it felt like every window in the street lit up and people peered out. Mum was creating a fucking scene and it was all my fault.

“I’ve gotta go…” I said, barely more than a whisper, but when I moved towards the door, they stopped me.

“You don’t.” Atlas peered down at me, as if begging me to understand. His big hands rose, then flexed in the empty air without touching me.

“You could stay here,” Xavier added. “It’s only a week until the choosing begins. Mum’s OK with it and—”

“Your mum is a fucking bitch and everyone knows it.” Jay always said what was on his mind, and now was no different. The other guys gazed at me steadily, willing me to understand, but his eyes dared me to walk out that door. “No one can stand to be around her, but…” His tirade seemed to lose steam, ending with a hard swallow.

“But what?” I asked, my voice growing sharp. “But what?”

“Your dad is weaker than your mum.” Still more truth bombs, but delivered much more gently by Jay. “He doesn’t have half her dominance. She bullies him, pushes him around…”

Jay had more to say, but I moved back towards the window, staring down at their dad and my mum.

Mum had calmed down somewhat. She wasn’t shouting now, instead talking to Greg quietly, intently. The two of them seemed to edge towards each other, something that had my brows creasing, though I didn’t know why. Greg raised a hand slowly, as if gentling a flighty horse, obviously talking her down from a ledge, and that’s when Jenny knocked on the boys’ door.

“You don’t have to go anywhere,” she told me, bright red spots forming in her cheeks. “I’ll talk to the alphas. There’s only a week to go.”

Her offer was kind: beyond kind. Pack members didn’t meddle with other families’ business often and she was volunteering to do that. But without the alphas’ support, we would get nowhere.

“Where is my daughter?” Mum’s volume ramped up again. Greg apparently hadn’t managed to restrain her for long. “You need to get Kaia and bring her out here now, or I’ll be forced to go to the alphas.”

Her voice, the determination within it, was what had my legs moving, forcing me to push past the boys, Jenny, and run down the stairs. Mum would call the alphas, make a fuss and get the Campbells in trouble, just like she would for anyone who tried to help me, so I moved faster, trying to head that off.

“You have no right…”

Her voice trailed away as I jerked open the door and stormed into the front yard. Mum pulled away from Greg, throwing up a hand when he started to talk faster, louder. Her eyes narrowed as she took me in, but she moved slowly, purposefully towards me, not letting out a breath until her hand wrapped around my arm.

Her fingers dug deep enough I knew they’d leave a bruise tomorrow, but I just stood there, bearing that pain.

“There you are.” Mum’s voice was a perfect facsimile of parental concern, at odds with her previous angry shouting, but consistency had never been her strong point. “I’ve been worried sick all day about you. Time to get you home.”

“The choosing is only days away,” Jenny said, now standing on her doorstep, her arms folded. “Kaia will be an adult then and get to decide her own fate.”

“And she’ll make the right choice for her family,” Mum declared, staring Jenny down.

Mum and Jenny had been best friends at school and had raised their kids together, hence why we were all so close. Then something had happened, something that made them both harden against each other, reducing them to the equivalent of spitting cats whenever they met. And as they stared at each other now, I realised there was a much stronger sense of animosity on Mum’s side.

But she never had that attitude when she saw my best friends.

Mum’s manner changed completely, all the tension leaving her body, a smile that was the equivalent of a lower-ranked wolf rolling over and showing her belly spreading across her face.

“Lovely to see you, boys. If you want to catch up with Kaia, you should come by the house. I know Anna would love to see you. She was just saying today how much she missed you.”

And there it was, the bone of contention. Mum was all about Anna, while no one else here was particularly captivated by my sister. Jenny, the dads and the boys just stared at her flatly until Mum’s fake smile faltered and then faded away altogether.

“Get in the car,” she hissed at me.

“Come by for dinner tomorrow,” Jenny told me. “You’ve got a standing invitation any night of the week. You know that.”

I was caught between two females who were far more dominant than me, while my status in the pack still that of a pup. I couldn’t argue with or talk back to either of them, even if they wanted contradictory things. Not until I found my wolf and worked out where I fitted in pack hierarchy. So I just nodded, not daring to say a word, sliding into the passenger side seat of the car, then closing the door.

Mum had more to say to Jenny, but her words were muffled by the glass. I just watched her step up to her former best friend, the two of them bristling with hostility as words were said, sharp gestures were made and things looked like it would either escalate into a full fight, probably in fur, or they would just walk away from each other.

They chose the latter.

I jumped when Mum jerked the car door open. She got inside and turned the key in the ignition, then took off down the road with a squeal of the wheels.

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