As usual, he looks earnest and slightly angry. His eyes look dark as he focuses on the door and on the people inside the room.And just so you know,he says, before fully focusing on our task.Jordan gives me the creeps.
He does?!
Yeah. Fucking believe in your gut feeling, for once,he growls.It’s not too shabby.
And we are on it again. He usually keeps telling me to be more confident and to believe in myself more, but it’s hard to do that when I know I am an overall failure to my rank. Not even my own pack members respect me much.
If it were up to Darien, he would have come out already and shown them how strong we are,anddemanded respect, but I don’t want to hurt anyone. I want the pack members to like and respect me for me, and not because my wolf happens to be stronger than theirs.
There is no time to argue with him now, though, so I lean closer to the door, allowing his senses to take over.
I am probably just being silly, or completely unhinged, by eavesdropping.
The voices in the room are getting more distinctive, and I catch their words now.
“So, that’s how the evening went,” Dad muses. “Good thing you were there, Lissa.”
“I tried my best,” she says. “But it wasn’t easy.”
“We know, dear,” Mom says. “And we truly appreciate it.”
“Without your help, Forest would stumble through these evenings like the incompetent idiot he is,” Dad snarls.
His words make me flinch. He has never had a high opinion of me. I know; I always have known it. Whenever I returned home with mediocre marks, when I didn’t have many friends or wasn’t popular, or when I wasn’t able to show my dominance, he showed his disdain. I guess I am just not the son he hoped for.
And I do get it; for an alpha, I am meek and indecisive. Still, hearing him say it so bluntly stings.
“He really is,” Lissa says. “I don’t understand how he can be such a loser with all the opportunities he had and still has!”
Now her words even shock Darien.Fucking back-stabbing—
Don’t give in to your anger, now,I warn. My voice sounds hollow to my own ears, but there is also a sense of determination I feel now.I want to hear it all!
He looks surprised but then nods.
“Be a bit more patient,” Mom tells her. Of course, she doesn’t defend me against Lissa or Dad, either. “It will pay off for you.”
“Yes,” Dad agrees. “Lissa, Forest needs you at his side. We all know it.”
“He kept talking with the loser alpha of that small pack,” Lissa complains. “And then when I dragged him towards Alpha Jordan and his friends, he was barely able to utter a word.”
“For the next meeting, we should try to have you go alone,” Mom says.
What?! That’s insane! They can’t have me skip an alpha meeting!
“We need to come up with something for that to work,” Dad says. “I will think of something. Maybe I will send him on a trip or a training class somewhere when the next meeting is up. Then you can go in his stead, Lissa.”
“Do you think you will be able to do that?” Mom asks.
“Of course, he listens to everything I say,” Dad snarls. “Zero backbone, that boy. And so easily manipulated.”
“He needs a capable luna, or he won’t be able to achieve anything,” Mom says. “We are almost there, Lissa. We haven’t prepared you for this task just for the fun of it. You are made to be luna.”
“Do you really believe that?” Lissa asks. She sounds shy suddenly, but I don’t buy it.
My palms were feeling sweaty at first, but now they are dry. My whole body has frozen. All I can do is stand there and listen in shock.
“Of course!” Dad exclaims. “You will become luna! Forest will take you as his mate.”
