Chapter Six (Who wants to Hear a Bastard Speak)

CHASE LUCAS POV

I slowed down my walking pace when I began to hear their voices from the largest living room where all family meetings usually took place.

They were talking about Oliver's mating with the Blood Venom royal girls and the conversation was one that interested me. 

I heard my step mother, Maureen's voice first. 

"It is not so muc harm as your father makes it seem. Both are the royal girls and it means nothing to me."

She was saying. I turned and asked Pedro to leave me alone. I was going to stand there and listen.  They would have the conversation with me in the room anyway.

But maybe they would not talk as freely while I was there. 

But my father, the alpha of the Moon Howlers pack had asked me to come home and join this very important conversation and he had given me no choice in the matter at all. 

"But mother," Oliver Started to say in response to Maureen, "She is even more beautiful than the oldest, even though I'd rather be with the oldest. I don't know how cursed I had been to have allowed this to happen."

He said. It felt good hearing him speak with a wealth of self loathing. I reveled in it for as long as the feeling lasted.

"No, my boy. It was the will of the moon goddess and that is why it had happened. Don't hate yourself for it."

Maureen said, of course she'd do anything to make her son feel good even in his foolishness.

My father scoffed. That was his own contribution to the discussion. He hated when he thought any Lycan, especially those of noble blood were beginning to become slack in reasoning and started to make mistakes that could be avoided, and he hated physical weakness even more. None of those incompetencies were associated with me and Maybe that was why, despite his tough and unyielding exterior, he harboured a fondness for me that was only known by me. 

"The guests will arrive soon and we'll be meeting them,"

Father said.

Oliver shook his head subtly and turned to his mother. 

I was right by the door now but none of them had seen me yet. 

"What business does a bastard have with royal affairs?"

He asked. His mother shrugged, an equally disgusted look on her face. 

"Well, he is my son and he will be given room to speak when I want his opinion."

My father said. 

"This meeting is about me and the two she_ wolves I have concerns with. It has nothing to do with some illegitimate son of an unknown woman."

Oliver said. It was not foreign to me, the things they said about me. It was not unusual for Oliver and Maureen to use the most demeaning words on me, but it didn't make them become better than me. Oliver was one person who was always intimidated by me and struggled to be better than I was. I didn't see myself as his rival and the constant competition made me feel nothing but pity for him. 

"Who really wants to hear a bastard speak in the congregation of nobles?"

He asked further, not willing to back down on the topic. 

Maureen nodded.

"Definitely not me. I'd rather listen to the noise of a running car."

"That is enough. We are not here to talk about Chase and demean him. He is my son and you will deal with it."

Father said. But often, his commanding nature never intimated those two who were a pain in his ass, something he would never admit to, but I was well aware of.

"You defend him always, my lord," Maureen started, she had worn the tone with which she talked about my wrongs to my father, "He is the same son who had almost made a number of other werewolves perish in an autocrash because he was drunk driving."

She said. I saw the look of surprise flicker into Lucas's face, but it only stayed for a few seconds and then he was wearing his usual improbable expression again. 

"He had taken all those men out, drunk to stupor and then driven the same car he ought not to have driven in that state. Is that the son you want, my lord? Is he the son to be proud of?"

She asked. She never stopped making Lucas try to see reasons why I should not be anywhere near the royal household, she either invented untrue tales, or she drew his attention to my mistakes which she usually embellished and exaggerated, still, Lucas was sure I was still his son. The First fruit of his loins. 

For the first time since I had been standing there, Oliver saw me. He stared at me with disgust that he could hardly  conceal and I stared back at him with cold eyes.

Lucas followed his eyes and so did Maureen whose gaze was filled with contempt for me. 

Contempt that she too could not hide. 

"Chase. You know you should be here often, why did you..."

"What now, father?"

I asked before he was done talking. There was an obvious look of surprise on his face when I interrupted him.

"No one needs an unwanted stranger in the company of nobles. I've said it before, people should go where they are wanted and not where they are totally unwanted."

Oliver said. He was not looking at me or anyone else. He didn't have to, even the blind would know I was the one he was referring to and I was not ignorant of that fact. 

"The one son who would have led to the death of Many."

Maureen said with a good dose of loathing. 

"And who would forget the one night the pack house had almost been set ablaze because of the unusual wiseness of the bastard?"

Maureen asked no one in particular.

My father left the living room and took the inconspicuous door that led to his study. 

I spun on my heels and started out of the living room.

I heard Maureen tell her son,

"You don't have to worry, you can get both girls only if you heed to my advice."