“I might be your blood, but that doesn’t mean I have to be like you. You can rule how you want. I’ll rule how I see fit.”
He takes two steps towards me and pushes me back into the wall, but I don’t let him intimidate me. I shove back until my blood hums and his jaw clicks.
“Watch your tone with me,” he growls. “I gave you everything.”
“I didn’t ask for it.”
Ryker’s face twitches. “Have any women fallen pregnant yet?”
“No.”
“What the hell are you even doing here, Caleb?”
“Working on my pack,” I state. “Like an Alpha should be.”
Hey, are you there?
Evan’s voice floats through my head, and I try not to let the panic rise in my expression. Not when my father is standing this close to me.
Caleb?
Fuck.
I can’t talk right now.
My father’s eyes narrow, and I freeze.
Okay. I’m sorry.
The sadness that flows into my body feels like agony, but my father’s powers are unpredictable, and if he wanted to dig through my head to find why I’m distracted, he could, and if I have to push Evan away, I will.
I’ll never forget the time I was thirteen and became friends with a local boy from the town. He didn’t judge me because of my father and treated me like I was normal, but when I was meant to be out running errands, Ryker caught me with him.
The screams that fell from his mouth as Ryker broke both of his arms haunt me to this day. He told me I couldn’t have any distractions or friendships that would make me soft. Ever since then, I was terrified to even talk to another person, fearful that he’d hurt them to punish me.
“You are so ungrateful,” he snarls.
“All I want is to live my life as an Alpha,” I murmur. “Your brutality will be short-lived.”
He releases a low, sharp laugh. “Short-lived? It’s what will have me ruling this country one day. And when you bring in an heir, it’ll be our world. Once you see what you could have, I know you’ll come crawling to me, begging me for forgiveness for all these wasted years.”
My blood boils at his words.
“Youwilljoin me on a mission soon,” he says before taking a step back. “And I don’t care how I get you there. You’ll come to your senses, sooner or later.”
I grit my teeth together as a chill runs down my spine.
“I’ll be back, Caleb.” He straightens out his jacket. “And next time, I’m not going to be so polite about it.”
Then he’s gone. I slump against the wall as the weight of our conversation starts to drown me. He hates me. He always has. So why doesn’t he kill me? Because he wants a pure bloodline of evil, and yet I’m far from that.
Soon, Carson and Felix filter into my office. “What the fuck just happened?” Felix demands.
I shake my head. “He’s not going to give up until I’m on his side. All of this is persuasion, and when it comes to it, he’ll force me if he has to.”
“Which is why we need to implement this plan,” Carson says as he pokes his finger on the closed notebook on my desk. “Before things escalate.”
Felix nods in agreement. “We need to sit down right now and go through every single possibility.”
