Lydia is sitting in the middle of the gym alone with a fifty-pound weight on her chest while she does sit-ups. The lights are off and I can hear Watch The World Burn from her headset as she breathes out heavily every time she lifts her body. I've never been this upset about anything and I'm not going to pretend I know what she's going through.
One thing I do know is that I don't want her to go away. She practically raised me. I don't know what to offer her or what to say that would be enough for her to stop thinking about running away. Lydia loved my brother before he became anything. I don't think she understands that Jayk isn't with those girls because he loves them. Something inside of him broke when Danica rejected him. I doubt my brother is ever going to love anyone ever again and he doesn't know how to explain that to her.
"You have a very loud presence," she pants but doesn't stop.
I make my way over to her and take the heads
Jayk "How much of that did you hear?" Lydia sighs as she pushes herself off the floormat. "All of it," I answer honestly. "She's right you know. We have literally anything you can think of here at the moment," "Best pre-workouts," she holds up her water bottle. "You were just going to leave?" I ask. "Yes," she gives me the same honesty. "I would rather go feral than stay here and watch your fuckery," "I don't want that for you," her honesty always hurts, but I don't know how to talk to her anymore. Not without hurting her feelings. "Now that you're the alpha, what you want is the only thing that matters, huh?" she sits on the bench behind her. No matter what I say to her, even if I sugarcoat it for her, it doesn't change a thing. "What you feel for me is nothing compared to what a mate bond feels like," I sit across from her. "You can love someone with you
Wolves don't play nice. That's the way it is. Any sign of weakness and a target is painted on the back of your head. There is no room for weakness in this world. Not anymore. The wolf population became uncontrollable when the alphas figured out that they could breed with mortals and create powerful Alpha pups. Humanity was chased out with the brutal war to try and combat all shifters. Long story short, Humans lost. Those who are left, they stay hidden. They only come up when it's essential to them.The Alpha King was dethroned and murdered in front of all the packs. The royal families were all executed down to the young for consorting outside of our kind. Those who were born hybrids who could only partially shift were all hunted down and executed. Six pups from the royal guard were allowed to live. These were the pups born of real matings. Mate to mate. These pups were raised in a struggle to remove any or all trace of humanity in them. Reprograming them to keep the emotional attach
I rush down the stairs and into the kitchen to grab something quick to eat. Jay is sitting at the kitchen island in front of the fridge. He's reading the paper. My little stunt has brought a lot of attention to the once-great pack. I didn't think it was worthy of front-page news but there we are. The title reads "Warhead Deactivation". I take a bagel, cream cheese, and strawberries from the fridge to prepare my breakfast. "Are you going to school?" he asks putting the paper down. I look over at him and see his entire demeanor fall apart. Whatever attitude he was going to hit me is forgotten when he sees the thing on my face. "What do you think?" I ask. I know exactly what he's looking at. The bruising around my eye where he had slapped me got a lot worse overnight. My eye is nearly shut with swelling. A couple of blood vessels popped. Half the sclera of my eyes is red instead of its usual white. The claw marks aren't any better. I'm not staying home because of this. If people wa
When I finish eating, I check on Micca who only finished eating half his pastrami sandwich before he fell asleep again. I retrieve the first aid kit from my room so I can stitch him up. Danica had tried to help but when she got too close he growled out angrily in his sleep. The cuts ran down his chest to his stomach, thighs, arms, and back. They're deep like someone wanted him dead. Ghost stands in front of Danica protectively. It makes me smile at her. "What?" she asks. "It's weird. That bitch hates everyone. She's protecting you from him," I inform her. Danica reaches for Ghost's ears and the crazy dog let her scratch them. "She doesn't even let me do that," "She's just a big baby," Danica coos making Ghost wag her tail. "Traitor," I huff looking down at the dog. She growls at me. "Where are you from?" "Eastend," she says looking around. "What the fuck are you doing out here? Are you lost?" I ask, wrappi
"Is this Ghost when she was a puppy?" Danica asks. Ghost jumps up at the mention of her name. Danica is looking at the picture frames in the hallway. "Yeah, that's what she looked like when Jay brought her home. She's four now," I nod. Ghost runs down the stairs and starts to bark wanting to go outside. The sound of her bark makes Danica jumpy. Her eyes flare a deep almost red amber. The eyes of a wolf who's familiar with killing. "You'll get used to it," "I've never seen her breed all white before," she says as we make our way down. Ghost starts jumping up and down around her as she opens the back sliding door. "Yeah, she's pretty rare. Not a lot of people have an albino Weimaraner. Jay likes things not a lot of people have," "He's kind of weird," she says mindlessly as she watches Ghost jump around in the backyard. "You can close it. She'll scratch the glass when she's ready to come back in," she shuts it
"How long have they been gone?" Danica asks. Ghost begins to growl in the car. She leaps out of the window taking her position in front of Danica. Three cars drive in, parking behind the Jeep. I can still drive out if I need to. The guys both come over to me taking their usual defensive positions "Dan, you're serious about this bitch?" Gwen asks rushing in front of the others. The four others with her are definitely Gwen's brothers. Ghost keeps barking at them. "Calm your dog," one of the older guys growls. "Ghost, hacke(heel)," I order, calmly. She sits but doesn't move away from Danica. "Impressive, Tyler," the guy steps forward. "I'm..." "I know who you are, Geo Parker," I hate having to do this. Even if it is my fault. "You have some nerve coming into our house after putting hands on my sister," he says. "I'm not here for you or her. I'm here for my girl," I say. Th
We get through two weeks without bringing what happened up mostly because she's always locked with him in his room. Willingly, Jay hands me the keys to the Jeep for us to use. I stop at the red light and glance over at her. She feels different. Stronger. She feels a little like him. Reeks of him as well. I look ahead as the light turns green. I gently press on the gas. "This is a little awkward," she says softly like she's embarrassed. "It's a lot awkward," I grin before popping my neck. I park outside the gym the twins own and climb out. I haven't been here since my brother slapped the fuck out of me. I take my bag from the back seat and jump out of the car. "Do you have a license?" "Yes," she nods as I pull the door to the gym open and hold it until she walks through. I can't stop staring at her and I don't know how to ask everything I want to without getting grossed out that she's my brother's mate. "Ladies," Miles greets
The drive is a little over three hours and when we get there it's dark out. Dad brought me here once. It was the place where he told me he met Mom. It was one of the things he did for me when he was sober. I sit at the spot where he said he spotted Mom crying. I don't remember what Mom looked like. I was three when she was killed, but I can imagine what my dad looked like trying to console her. Giant intimidating man, nervous at the fact that she was crying, trying to flirt to make her feel better. I'd witnessed his awkwardness several times when he was trying to be sweet. It's where I get my awkwardness from. Jay gets his assertiveness from our Mom. Or so dad would accuse him of. His go-to was you're just like your mother, Jaykob when Jay would get into trouble."When did he bring you here?" Jay asks sitting next to me."I was eleven," I say. "He came here a lot. I used to follow him and one day he just offered,""How did you figure it out?" h