If I stayed outside playing too late, the door was locked when I got back, and she wouldn’t answer it. I slept on the front porch a lot.
School was a godsend.
For hours every day, I could pretend she didn’t exist.
And I made a lot of friends so I could stay over at their houses as much as possible and see what it was like to be around normal parents.
Of course, once I got older and I started to look like an adult Alpha compared to my classmates, those sleepover invites dried right up. The front porch kept me out of the rain for a year or so until my mom tossed my meagre possessions on the front step and told me to leave.
She couldn’t stand to look at me anymore.
By that time, I understood what had happened to her, and despite how fucked up it was, I knew my only choice was to go.
So, I devised a way to sneak into the gym at nights, and I kept everything I owned in my locker there. I opened my own bank account and savings account when I started to make money at the track, and I deposited most of it, only keeping cash for food.
I have more than five million in the bank now, and I don’t know why I’ve been holding onto it so hard. Back then, I knew I was saving so I could buy a car, and a place to live.
Now? I have a nice car, but I’ve been making my mates live in a tiny apartment when I could have bought us a home. It’s crazy. I don’t know what I was waiting for.
Shayne isn’t broke, either. He made a lot of money flipping houses for a few years and now he just wants to look after our pack. None of us need to work.
I’ve been searching for a purpose for so long.
That’s what lead me to calling the Alpha Alliance.
I felt like I needed to be doing something with my life.
I researched so many careers, and none of them were what I was looking for.
I think I know now why that is.
Purpose wasn’t missing from my life.
She was.
Robin.
She’s what I’ve been waiting for.
And now that I know that I’m happy to wait.
Chapter Forty-Three
Shayne
Falcon is eerily cheerful on the drive to Cressidan City. He’s quiet and focused, but there’s a semi-permanent smile on his lips and his usual road-rage-ready state is nowhere to be found.
Not a single curse word escapes his lips, even when he misses a chance to zip into a better lane, and, even more remarkably, he barely shakes his head when an idiot comes close to sideswiping us. That’s usually a horn-blasting offence.
“Are you feeling okay?” I ask.
He glances at me. “Yeah. Why?”
“You’re acting kind of … I don’t know … Like nothing’s bothering you.”
He shrugs as he slows down in line with the traffic in front of us.
We’re probably halfway to the city now. It’s been almost two hours since we left the apartment, and when I look over my shoulder Harper is completely absorbed in a show on his phone,eyes wide as he watches the screen, the tiny sound of voices coming through his earbuds when I strain to listen. Jay is dozing next to him, sitting up so straight his head is almost touching the ceiling, with his arms crossed in front of him.
