Page 19 of A Chance at Redemption for the Alpha
We look like shit,I observe to my wolf.
Amos hasn’t said anything at all since our mate bond broke, but now he raises his head to look at me. Speakfor yourself,he grumbles.I am still a catch!
I chuckle, only to feel another jolt of pain go through my body. Fuck! But there is no time to be weak and whiny; I’ve cried enough. Now it’s time to finally act. I make sure to clean myself up, feeling how bit by bit my strength returns. Perks of being an alpha’s child.
I am nowhere near what I used to be, but I am going to get there again.
When I make it out of the bathroom, I almost stumble back in shock. Beta Floyd is leaning against the wall next to my bed, holding the needle of the IV drip. I almost believe he will try to overpower me and force the needle back inside my arm, but to my surprise, he just puts it to the side.
“Sit,” he says. “You will just over-exhaust yourself.”
I am too dumbfounded to argue, so I sit down on a chair next to my bed, watching how Floyd does the same. For a while, neither of us says anything, then I clear my throat.
“Mom thinks we will make up,” I say. “Like this is a normal fight between brothers. I love her, I really do, and I think she is an amazing person, but at the moment she is only seeing what she wants to see.”
“She is desperate and lost,” Floyd says quietly.
“My bond to my mate is broken. My bond to my brother is so weakened, it’s barely there. Identical twins rule together because of this tight bond, but when it’s gone, there can only be one alpha. I lost my rank, everything. How can I stay, Floyd?”
“You can’t,” he says.
I stare at him. “What?!”
“You can’t stay,” he repeats. “Your father didn’t ask me to come, but he hinted at it. I know my alpha, he is my best friend and like a brother to me. I know what he wants me to do, although we can never talk about it. He can’t be complicit in this, Marcellus. Your mother would never forgive him. But I can help you. This is a secret we can never talk about, though. I won’t tell anyone in the pack what happened today. No one will know. The only thing I will ask from you is that you keep this secret between us.”
“Are you serious?” I ask him. I was wondering how to get out of the pack. I am pretty sure Mom has an inkling that I want to disappear and has the place guarded. Besides, I need some stuff. But this is all too good to be true. “Where is the catch?”
Floyd laughs bitterly. “I don’t blame you for not trusting anyone around you anymore. In a way, all of us failed you in our own way. One of those failures would have already been bad enough, but they accumulated. Olive, Eugene, your father… even your mother, and me.” He rubs over his face. “I know I have been pretty hard on you, maybe a bit too hard, because Isaw your potential,” he says. “And I know you didn’t always like me. Listen, I know your brother and your mate were desperate, I know they were acting out of panic, but it’s not an excuse. And I can’t imagine what kind of pain you are going through right now. No one should need to face something like that.”
Suddenly, there is a lump in my throat that I can barely swallow. It hurts, but it’s good that someone acknowledges all that happened for what it is.
“Eugene has an awful lot to learn,” he continues. “He needs to grow if he ever is to become a decent alpha, and frankly, he would have needed you more than you need him.”
“What?”
“You are stronger,” he says. “You have a strong moral compass, you always stand up for those in need, and you try to see the bigger picture. When you were mated to Olive, you didn’t act selfishly. You tried to find a solution that would keep your bond to your brother intact, and with that also keep the pack in balance. All of these are pretty good alpha qualities. Eugene might be strong, too. His charisma is his strong point, and he is a good strategist, but he is more arrogant and more shallow. The alpha spoiled him way too much.”
“He really did,” I snort. “Good thing someone else sees the favoritism.”
Floyd sighs. “Everyone has to lie in the bed they made,” he says simply. “And I hope the one you choose for yourself will be warm and comfortable.”
I swallow thickly. “Thank you.”
“You will wait until night,” Floyd tells me. “Stay in this room and play the good patient. If I find you leaving before I give you the go-ahead, I will seek you out personally and whoop your ass. There is no way I will let you become a rogue.”
I stare at him. “What are you plotting?”
“Nothing,” he says simply. “I’m not plotting anything. I’m just helping my best friend’s son. Here.” He hands me a piece of paper with a name and contact dates on it. “This is a good friend. We go back a long time. We both grew up in a small pack that was ripped apart by a vicious rogue attack. He lives in a prestigious pack now and is the current beta. Tell him, I am the one who sent you, and he won’t ask any questions.”
“Floyd, I don’t know what to say,” I exclaim. “Thank you. And I didn’t hate you.” I tilt my head when he raises his brows. “Well, sometimes I did.”
He crosses his arms in front of his body. “So, what are you going to do now?”
“Wait until night like a good, obedient boy,” I say.
“Nice to see you getting some of your bite back,” he mutters.
“How will I know it’s time?” I ask him.
