“Sit down.”
Allie wanted to protest immediately because she didn’t want her brother talking to her like that, but there was nothing Allie could do. She knew the situation she was in. She needed him to have mercy on Justice and to set him free, even though he had broken a rule that Allie knew was a major one. She thought of Gabriel and the scars that he now bore. Was the same thing going to happen to Justice, or worse? Had it already happened? Her mind whirled with the possibilities.
“What the hell, Allie?”
She shrugged and asked him which situation he was talking about.
“How about the fact that you married Bishop and now you are running off? You sent me a message and I sent one of my best to get you. What happened? I find you shacked up with him later?” Ben was red-faced and she could see that he was not having an easy time of it. Likely, he felt betrayed in one way or another, but Allie didn’t feel like he had all that much right to get all worked up about it. She knew that he shouldn’t feel that way. She couldn’t say that though. Nothing she said was going to help.
“Is he dead?”
“Who, Bishop?” Ben asked with confusion. She tried not to feel hate for him, but Allie knew if he had done something to Justice, she was never going to be able to forgive him. She would hate him for the rest of her life if that happened.
“No, not Bishop. I am talking about Justice! What have you done with Justice, Ben? I need to know right now, because your answer is going to change this conversation.”
He looked at her strangely for a moment and then told her that he was going to do to Justice what was necessary.
“Is he alive then?” Allie asked with hope. It was all she could think about and when he said that he was, Allie could breathe again. She didn’t know that she needed to so badly. Allie was hoping that it would all work out. If he was still alive, then there was a chance that things could be okay. Allie liked to think it was true.
“Yeah, I wouldn’t kill him so quickly. Why do you care so much? What is it that I don’t see?”
Allie pressed her lips together for a moment. She wasn’t sure if he wanted to hear the truth, and she tried to figure out if that would help save his life or make things worse. Allie would have liked to have thought that it would be easy to see one way or another, but it wasn’t. She was so confused, and her hesitation did not sit well with Ben.
“Answer me truthfully, Allie, and stop lying to me. If you have no respect for me as your older brother that has taken care of you for years, then honor me as your Alpha!”
Allie scoffed at his tone and said that he wasn’t going to intimidate her anymore. “He is the father of my children, and I want them to have a father.”
“You were pregnant before you got married?” Ben asked with shock in his tone. Allie should have seen then that maybe she should have kept her mouth shut, but it was already out, and Allie didn’t know what else to say. She just blurted it out and now she was left with the consequences.
“You were together, and I had him watching you?” Ben’s tone was getting harsh, and Allie knew that she had to fix it all right then and there, or it was going to be complicated.
“I seduced him. He found me in the city, and I begged him not to tell. He didn’t want to do anything but take me back. I pushed him, made him do it. All of this is my fault and then I fell in love with him.”
“When Bishop finds out that you aren’t carrying his children…”
Allie made a disparaging sound. “He knew that I was pregnant when we went for the visit. He wanted to shut people up and so he said that it would help both of us, but then he wouldn’t let me leave. He doesn’t like women. That was his secret, and he knew mine. Now you know both of ours.”
Ben was quiet for a time, and he was still pissed obviously, but he didn’t seem as mad, and Allie liked to see that as a win. It likely wasn’t, of course, but there was nothing else that Allie could do but wait. Her life was in his hands as her older brother and Alpha. Allie was going to just have to wait and see. It wasn’t as easy as it looked though. It was too much for her sometimes.
“He was my best soldier.”
Allie didn’t think she was supposed to comment. It wasn’t like her brother was talking to her. He was talking more to himself than anything. “Wait, so you didn’t sleep with Bishop? It was never consummated?”
“Do you really think that I'm going to talk to you about that?” Allie asked with a smirk.
He gave her a dirty look. “Do you really think that you have a choice? You seem to think that I won't just take you back to Bishop. You know that he is threatening to go to war over this, over you. This is not going to end well, and it certainly isn't going to be pretty. You're going to have to tell me everything. You did this and you need to fix it.”
The worst thing was Allie knew he was right. She had not trusted him to take her feelings into account, so she didn't even think about the idea of going to him. While Ben had a reputation, she never gave him a chance to do the right thing. Allie was still pretty convinced that he wouldn't have, but what would have happened if she would have given him a chance? She would always wonder if it could have been better.
“I don't want you guys to go to war, but I don't want to go back to him either. Tell me what I can do to make this better, because I honestly have no idea. I hoped that things would work out better. I never meant for this to happen. You must believe me.”
Allie could hear the fear in her voice. She didn't like it; she didn’t like how he made her feel. She resented it in some ways, that he could make her fear him so much. Allie did not like the feeling at all.
“Why would Bishop be fighting this so much, if he knows that they’re not his?” Ben asked Allie.
Allie thought about it for a moment and decided that it had to be something about the fact that he was getting pressured because he had no heirs. Since he had no desire to make any, Allie figured that he would do what he could to fight it.
Ben just scoffed, “I can't believe we have to deal with this shit. You really know how to make it all a bit more complicated.”
