5. Lucas
5
Lucas
“You did the right thing, Son.” My father, Alpha Ramos, claps me on the shoulder as I watch my uncle David carry my Kaylee away. My face burns from her claw marks. Judging from how the blood continues to drip down my face, I know these marks will leave a scar. A scar that will match the pain in my heart.
She is my goddess-given mate, and I hurt her. I rejected her, like my father told me to do before he sent Marilyn and her goons to attack her. I thought he would be happy I found my mate when I burst into his office as soon as I woke up at eight in the morning. I wanted to watch her sleep. Wanted to hold my Kaylee close, and tell her I love her. Instead, I got up, got dressed as quietly as I could, then made my way to my father’s office. He was in the middle of talking to Marilyn, and I sent her out. I did not want her to know Kaylee was my mate just yet.
When she left the room, I explained why I had disappeared last night. That Kaylee and I had found out we are mates, and that I wanted to end the arranged marriage that was made ten years ago. But my father was still set on me marrying Marilyn. He told me to hit Kaylee if she brought up us being mates during her interrogation in front of the pack. I was shocked and asked what interrogation, when my father told me he had just told Marilyn to attack Kaylee.
I stood from my seat, ready to run and protect my mate, when my father gave an alpha command and forced me to sit down. I begged and pleaded with my father to let Kaylee go. That she did not deserve to be hurt after her parents gave their lives to protect us, but he reminded me of that stupid marriage arrangement. That if I did not marry Marilyn, everyone in Oak Fur would die, including Kaylee.
“I am going to my room,” I mumble, shrugging my father’s hand off of me. I can’t be near him right now. I can feel the anger and hate I have for this man coursing through my blood. If I stay near him any longer, I will attack him and will lose badly. I am just glad he is not questioning why I disobeyed his orders and did not hit Kaylee like he wanted me to.
“You did what you had to do, Lucas. Had you ended things between Marilyn and you, her father would make good on his promise to destroy Oak Fur and take our land, all because I killed his mate,” my father states. It is a warning to me. Reminding me that the reason why I am being forced to marry Marilyn is because he killed her mother.
The pack begins to disperse now that the show is over, some whispering about how the pack will change when my aunt and uncle leave. Aunt Amelia was furious when she learned what we had just done to Kaylee, before denouncing her role in the pack and breaking all ties with us. She told me I will regret losing Kaylee, and will realize that mindlessly listening to my father will lead me to a life of misery. I asked her if Kaylee had a betrayal mark like me, but she told me that Kaylee attacked me after I rejected her, and therefore will not bear the mark, before she left chasing after Uncle David. She is my father’s older sister and should have been the rightful alpha, but pack law states only males can ascend as alpha.
Giving a final glare to my father, I make my way inside the pack house and move towards the stairs. I need to get away from everyone and calm the rage and pain inside me before I attack a pack member unprovoked.
“Lucas,” a sickly-sweet voice calls out to me as I begin to climb the stairs of the pack house. Turning to look over my shoulder, I see Marilyn standing in the doorway of the sitting room, a smirk on her bright red lips. The bruise on her face is gone, fully healed. I think back to the claw marks on Kaylee that reeked of wolfsbane. How the clothes I left her were torn and covered in her blood.
“Is that bitch gone?” she asks, her smirk growing. I growl, rage simmering inside me at the disrespect she shows to my mate. Everything happened because of Marilyn.
Within seconds, I am in front of her, my hand squeezing her throat as I glare at her with hatred. She has always hated Kaylee. Always found ways to antagonize her, all because I was her friend.
The only reason I have to worry about Marilyn’s father attacking Oak Fur is because of Marilyn herself. When she was eight and I was ten, my father and I visited Blood Oath to sign a treaty of alliance. We would have become each other’s allies and helped in times of war. But Marilyn saw me at the welcome dinner and became obsessed with me. As the only daughter to the strongest pack, Marilyn was spoiled to the point that if she wanted something, she got it.
She told her mother she wanted to keep me as her playmate and make me fall in love with her. That night, I was kidnapped by the Luna of Blood Oath and taken to an abandoned shack. My father came to realize I was missing and tracked my scent, where he attacked those holding me hostage, including Marilyn’s mother.
She died just as Alpha Nathaniel Cross rushed into the shack with his daughter in hand. They watched my father kill her mother, and that is when Alpha Nathaniel gave the ultimatum. Force me to marry his daughter Marilyn at age twenty-one when I become alpha of Oak Fur, or watch everyone in Oak Fur die. My father said he would take what happened to the council, but Alpha Nathaniel laughed. He pointed out that we were on his land. That we only had an additional ten people, and they were at the pack house. No one would believe my father that his mate had kidnapped me. But with her dead body and my father’s scent on her wounds, they would believe my father attacked and killed her for no reason if Alpha Nathaniel stated so.
“She is gone, thanks to you,” I growl, my face inches from Marilyn’s eyes as I think about the event that led us here. She always got her way since she arrived at Oak Fur ten years ago. Whatever she wanted, my father would give her without hesitation, because the threat of Oak Fur being destroyed loomed over us. The only people to ever oppose Marilyn over the years are either dead or leaving by tonight.
“We may be engaged because of my father killing your mother, but remember it was your fault she died,” I remind the bitch who struggles to breathe, my rage boiling. I need to get away from her before I accidentally kill Marilyn and Blood Oath comes for revenge.
“I will not tolerate your disrespect to my goddess-given mate, no matter what. I am only marrying you to prevent your father from attacking Oak Fur. Now behave yourself, or I will kill you personally.” With this warning, I throw Marilyn to the floor, relishing in her sorry state as she coughs and gasps for breath. She crossed a line today and she knows it, by attacking my Kaylee.
“You will behave as my Luna, or else. Understood, Marilyn?” I state, watching her closely.
“Yes, Lu—” I cut her off with a growl. The days of her using my name are gone. She harmed Kaylee. She has caused every bad thing in my life. My father says I have to marry her, and I will. But I will not treat her with respect from here on out.
“Yes, Alpha,” Marilyn grinds out, and I scoff in satisfaction. With Marilyn put in her place, I march up the stairs to my room. I need space and time alone.
Slamming the door open, I am finally able to calm down the rage that is simmering inside me. Only a select few are allowed in my room, and I am thankful for that. My eyes instantly zero in on the still-messy bed, Kaylee’s scent lingering in the air, mixed with a bit of Marilyn’s and her friends’. She knows she is not allowed in here and neither are her friends, but I can’t do anything to them. My father ordered her to provoke Kaylee.
My face continues to throb from the wounds still oozing blood, and I make a detour to my bathroom. I do not want to get blood on the bed that smells like my sweet Kaylee. I wince when the light turns on, my eyes adjusting from my dark bedroom to the bright fluorescent light of the bathroom. I know the wounds Kaylee left are well deserved, as I begin to clean the jagged skin. I pushed and sent her sprawling to the cold ground. Listening to her scream from the pain of being injured because of me, her mate, broke my heart. I know my father says this is for the good of the pack, but looking at the dark burgundy of a betrayal mark on my neck makes me wonder if I did the right thing. Kaylee is a beta wolf, with alpha blood. A wolf of strong blood that the goddess chose for me for a reason.
Growling with frustration, I decide to give up on trying to clean the wounds and take a shower to calm down. The warm water can flow over the claw marks and clean them better than I can with a cloth.
Stepping into my shower, I notice Kaylee’s scent from when I made love to her in here. Her sweet moans echo inside my mind as if she were still here in my arms. I close my eyes as the water runs over me, letting the memories of taking her first in here, as I had accidentally tackled her in the mud when the mate bond clicked into place. She begged me to wait until we were clean, but I wanted her, needed her, right then and there. She was so tight and pure, a virgin, unlike myself, and I relished knowing I could claim her as mine first and forever.
The water begins to run cold, and I realize I stand in my shower fantasizing about my mate without cleaning myself properly. Letting out a groan, I quickly scrub my skin and step out of the shower, wrapping a towel around my waist. Exiting my bathroom, I am blindsided when a fist connects to my face, anger radiating from my attacker.
Feeling the rage bubble inside me once more at the notion a packmate would attack me, their future alpha, I turn and raise my fist, but stop. Standing before me is Simon Thorn, Kaylee’s best friend and mine.
“I get off of fucking patrol, only to find out Kaylee is your mate and that you rejected her!” he screams in my face, his rage boiling over. My fist lowers as I take in his accusation.
“Simon, you have known for three years that I am betrothed to Marilyn because of what my father did. You found out by accident and were forced into a blood pact and sworn to secrecy, or my father would have killed you!” I begin, glaring at my friend as he seethes with anger.
“I had no choice but to reject Kaylee. My father placed an alpha command on me to reject and hit her!” I yell back, watching Simon pause for a moment.
“He wanted you to hit her?” my friend asks, his tone turning hard and his blood humming with a rage that I feel is directed at my father.
“Yes. It was the only part of the command that I could resist. The bond wouldn’t let me hurt her like that,” I admit, looking down in defeat. From the corner of my eye, I spot the pieces of paper in Simon’s hand and stare at them. They smell like Kaylee, and my heart clenches.
“What are those?” I ask through clenched teeth, glaring at the wolf before me. I know he only punched me because I hurt her, but I am still pissed off. I am his future alpha, and he has no right to attack me.
“None of your goddamned business Lucas,” he scoffs, turning his body to hide the papers out of my view.
“Just know that Kaylee wrote everything, from how she found out that you two are mates and the trial that she thinks was staged. You are a moron for listening to your father all these years,” Simon continues with a low growl. I growl back, not liking the disrespect from my friend.
“Like I said, my father went against my will and commanded me to do it. What would you expect me to do in that situation?” I ask back, watching Simon stare at me with disappointment.
“I would have expected you to be a fucking alpha, and fight for her. Kaylee would have trained and protected our pack from Alpha Nathaniel Cross.” His voice is quiet, but his words are filled with honesty.
“You don’t know that,” I scoff back, crossing my arms over my chest.
“I do know that. Kaylee was the alpha this pack needed, considering you just do what your father commands you to do without a fight. This time, I hope you don’t regret being a mindless puppet to him.” With his final words said, Simon turns on his heels and marches out of my room, slamming the door when he leaves.
Left alone in my room with Kaylee’s scent invading me, I crumble onto my bed and pull the pillow she slept on into my arms.
I won’t regret what I did to her. It had to be done to protect Oak Fur.
So why does my heart feel so broken?