Bully Alpha Daddy (Gold Wolves Black Ops #1)

Chapter 5 - Mira

“So, what sort of things do you like doing, Dani?” I asked.

Dani shrugged, fiddling with her clothes and hair as she refused to look at me. “I don’t know. Stuff.”

I closed my eyes, trying not to scream in frustration. Dani wasn’t making my life any easier. I could tell she was a smart kid, but she was also stubborn, and she was making it perfectly clear that she had no interest in having a nanny. Every time I had tried to connect with her, she’d countered with stony silence or unhelpful comments.

“What type of stuff? Playing with dolls?” I asked. She wrinkled her nose in disgust. “All right, that’s a no. What about… reading?”

“Reading is boring,” she grumbled.

I tried not to let my annoyance show on my features even as the frustration continued to mount. My eyes swept across the room, searching for something that looked well-used. My gaze landed on a massive marble run set, half-built but clearly loved as if it had been assembled and reassembled several times.

“Do you like building things?” I asked, nodding at the set.

She followed my gaze. I saw her eyes light up with excitement even as the rest of her expression remained carefully blank.

“Maybe,” she allowed.

“I used to love these things.” I grabbed the set and brought it back, spreading out the pieces. “I think I’m going to play with it some. If you want to help, then you can show me the best way of building it.”

Dani watched me toy with it for a couple of minutes. Then, she sat cross-legged and began grabbing pieces and snapping them together, constructing a narrow bridge that the marble would descend on.

We worked in companionable silence. I didn’t want to prod Dani more than necessary. Baby steps. After a little bit, however, she asked a question that nearly rocked me backward.

“Did you know my dad when you were younger?” she asked out of the blue.

I hesitated, mind spinning. The answer should have been a simple “yes.” After all, it was the truth. But something about admitting it made me hesitate, as if saying I knew Declan all those years ago would somehow make all the things he did when we were younger more real than they already were. Thinking about it would pull up more memories I had buried.

“What makes you say that?” I asked.

She shrugged, fiddling with the doll in her hand. “The way you two talk to one another and look at each other. None of the other nannies acted that way around him.”

“And how many nannies have you had at this point?” I asked.

Dani gave me a dubious look. “You’re changing the subject.”

“And you’re clever,” I said. When Dani continued to stare at me expectantly, I sighed. “Yeah, I knew your father, but that was a long time ago.”

“What was he like?” Dani asked, her eyes wide with curiosity.

I opened my mouth, then closed it, thinking about the question. How the hell was I supposed to answer that?

When I thought of Declan when he was younger, everything was marred by that final interaction. Even before then, he had been selfish, entitled, and an asshole just because he could be. He could get away with just about anything with impunity, and he took full advantage of that. He would be charming to you one minute, then rip your heart out the next. He was brilliant and strong, but he’d used that intelligence and strength to put others down.

Except I couldn’t tell her any of that. No matter what I thought of Declan or what he had done in the past, I didn’t want Dani to think poorly of her father.

“He was very smart,” I began. “And a lot of people looked up to him. He was a strong leader.”

She straightened with pride at the words, and I was glad I hadn’t told her everything.

“Were you two friends?” she asked.

“No,” I said. “Not really. He was friends with my brother, though.”

“Uncle Jackson?” she asked.

Hearing Jackson’s name from Dani, especially with the “Uncle” attached, took me by surprise. Before I could get over it, the doorbell rang once, then started ringing over and over again, someone jamming their finger repeatedly against the button. My brow furrowed as I straightened, head tilting toward the sound.

“Was your dad expecting anyone?” I asked Dani. Whoever was at the door was definitely insistent. There were plenty of people I could think of who would want to talk to the alpha, but that number dwindled when I tried to think of anyone who felt comfortable ringing the doorbell this much. That number dwindled to basically zero when I combined that number with people who wouldn’t know he was at the office in town. Anyone who felt familiar enough to ring the doorbell like this would surely know that he wouldn’t be home right now.

Dani shook her head. “Not as far as I know.”

“Right.” I stood, brushing off my knees. “You stay here. I’m going to see who wants to talk to your dad this badly.”

The bells stopped briefly, then resumed as I trotted down the halls. It wasn’t until I got closer to the door that I caught a familiar oak and vanilla scent, one I had known since birth. And I realized that who was standing at the door wasn’t here for Declan at all.

They were here for me.

For a brief moment, I considered turning around and not answering the door, maybe pretending I had never heard the bell ring in the first place. But I knew who was there, and I knew they wouldn’t stop until they spoke to me.

I hesitated, then took a deep breath as I gripped the handle and pulled the door open to see my brother glaring down at me.

I hadn’t seen Jackson in years. I had cut him out of my life when I ran away. Like Declan, I could still see the younger version of him in his gray eyes and the way his brown hair fell across his forehead in a messy swoop. But he had grown into his lanky frame, his gangliness replaced with lean muscle, and the boyish youth in his face had melted to show high cheekbones and a square jaw.

The way he had matured into his natural good looks made me even more self-conscious than normal about my flab and how I had never been gifted that same glow-up. His slightly thin lips became even thinner as they stretched into a tight line.

I took a deep breath. “Hey, Jackson.”

He glared down at me, disbelief in his eyes. “Declan told me, but I didn’t really think it was true,” he said. He brushed past me and into the house.

“Please, come in,” I said, voice dripping with sarcasm.

He shot me an irritated look. “You’re really going to play that game?”

I closed the door. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“The game where you act like you didn’t tell me you were moving into Declan’s house to work for him?”

“Seems like I lost, then,” I replied.

He shot me an irritated look that was so like the expression he used to give me when we were younger that I nearly started laughing. “I’m not joking about this,” he said.

“Believe me, I’m just as surprised as you are about this.”

“So, what, you just weren’t going to tell me?”

I held up my hands. “I was going to tell you eventually,” I said. “It’s not as though I could keep it a secret since I’m living in the same town and working for your best friend. I just was looking for the right time.”

“The right time would have been when you decided to move here,” he said.

The presumption in the words sent a new spark of anger rushing through me. “I didn’t know until I saw Declan,” I snapped. “And that’s beside the point. I don’t owe you anything. We haven’t spoken in years.”

“Yeah, because you cut ties when you ran off. Did you never even think about how I felt?”

I barked out a laugh. “Like you ever cared about how I felt.”

That seemed to take Jackson by surprise. His brow furrowed as he stared at me. “What are you talking about?”

“You didn’t particularly care when Declan or any of the others in that group were bullying me,” I said.

Jackson hesitated, though his anger appeared to have been softened by the comment. “Well, I was worried,” he said. “You could have sent a note at some point. One that wasn’t a couple of scribbled sentences, something that gave a bit more explanation.”

“You’re right. I’m sorry.”

The apology killed any fight he had remaining. “Well, all right, then,” he said, unsure how else to finish when the argument had died. A long silence permeated the air between us, neither sure what to say. It was Jackson who ultimately broke the silence.

“So, how have you been?” he asked.

It was such a brotherly question that I nearly burst into laughter, and I could feel myself relaxing some. “I’ve been all right.”

“And you’re here as Declan’s nanny just completely by coincidence?”

“Yes.”

“Seriously, though, why are you here?”

“I’m nannying for Declan. We’ve been over this.”

He shook his head. The shrewd look in his eye tied a knot in my stomach, and it was an effort to keep my expression neutral and unfazed even as I could feel myself start to panic.

“I mean, why did you leave your pack?” he asked. “Uprooting your entire life to take a nanny job isn’t something you just do on the fly. Not without good reason. So why did you leave?”

Part of me wanted to tell him. I wanted to tell someone what had happened. And if not my brother, then who else? But even as the words pressed against my lips, I held them back. I barely knew Jackson anymore. He was as much a stranger to me as Declan, even if he was my brother, and even if I loved him because of that fact alone. But I had no idea how he would react to my situation or what he would do. And in the end, the fewer people I told, the safer I would probably be.

So, despite the piercing stare and the skepticism in his eyes, I shrugged, trying to make it appear as natural as possible. “I just wanted a fresh start,” I said. “And this seemed like the best way to do so. I didn’t have any ties to the old pack, so I figured why not give it one last shot?”

It was close enough to the truth. I didn’t have to explain that I always felt like an ostracized outsider, or that nowhere had ever felt close to home. And I certainly didn’t have to get into the details of why I had decided to leave when I did.

The look Jackson gave me told me he wasn’t entirely convinced. But he also seemed to understand that I had no intention of telling him anything else. Instead of pushing further, he simply nodded.

“It’s good to see you, at least,” he said. “And it’ll be nice to have you around again. I’ve missed you. Really.”

The sincerity in his words took me by surprise, and I gave a small smile as a tiny kernel of warmth ignited within me.

“I’ve missed you, too,” I said, meaning it.

At that moment, the front door opened again, and Declan walked in. He paused when he saw the two of us standing there.

“Sorry,” Declan said. “I was hoping I would get here before he did to give you the heads-up. I texted you, but I guess you didn’t see it.”

“I didn’t,” I said. “But I haven’t looked at my phone in a while. It’s fine.”

He nodded, his shrewd eyes glancing between the two of us.

“Anyway, I’ve got to go,” Jackson said. “I sorta left a few things I should have been doing to come here. It’s good to see you, Mira. Really.”

He gave a short jerk of the head, then headed back out.

“You all right?” Declan asked me.

“Yeah,” I said. “Just taken aback.”

With that shock finally over and behind me, I pulled out my phone to check the message Declan sent me, only to get another jolt far worse than Jackson’s confrontation as I saw a different text.

Did you think leaving was going to make it go away? You’ve just made it worse. –H

A lump in my throat began to throb as I tried to swallow, reading and rereading the text, trying to process the words even as the panic began to churn inside me. I forced it down. They didn’t know where I was. I was safe. I just needed to keep my cool. Eventually, they— he —would give up, and I could stop worrying about this.

“Everything all right?” I heard Declan say.

I gasped and spun, stuffing my phone in my pocket so quickly that I nearly dropped it. Declan stood in the doorway, a slight crease in his brow as he noted my panic.

“Yeah,” I lied. “Everything’s fine.”