Chapter 42
Chapter Forty-Two
Falcon
Some time between last night and this morning, every last drop of tension leaked out of my body, leaving me in an oddly serene state that I can’t say I’ve ever experienced before.
It’s not like I’m happy about the long drive out to the city, or the thought of speaking to Lana again so soon after she warned me about lying to her.
I know it might be a while before she lets us visit Robin.
All the same, I’m in the calmest mood I’ve ever been in when I finally get behind the wheel.
It doesn’t matter how long it takes, I guess. All that matters is I know she’s doing well now.
Not knowing was driving me insane. Actually getting to see her was exactly what I needed.
At least I knew what I had to do.
It’s just crazy that I didn’t realize why it was turning me into a psycho.
I switch on the air-con as I take us out of our sleepy, familiar little neighborhood.
It’s been a long time since I really lifted my head to look around me.
We live in a place that’s so clean and quiet that it’s idyllic, and I’ve had my pack crammed into a tiny two-bed apartment while I was trying to figure out which life path to choose, like a moron.
It’s not like I don’t have money.
When you’re homeless at fourteen, thanks to the trauma your mom has from how she ended up with you, you learn how to make money fast. As an Alpha, I had it easy. My instincts were sharp.
I made a killing at the track, after I procured a fake I.D. from a kid in one of my classes.
It helped that I was already tall and muscular.
No one ever mistook me for a minor.
I never quit school, because I didn’t want to waste money on an apartment or a motel room.
Sneaking into the gym after hours was easier.
I slept on the couch in the football coach’s office for years and no one suspected anything.
Those were crazy days. My mood was pretty fucking awful the whole time.
Comes with the territory when the only family you have hates you.
It took a while to realize I could find a family of my own.
Shayne showed me kindness when he had no reason to be nice to me, not after the way I treated him in high school. He told me he forgave me. That he knew I must have been going through something. Then he asked me how I was doing, and I lost it.
It was six months until graduation, and my mom had just died.
She’d left me everything.
The woman who had tried to kill me multiple times over the years, had left me her house and everything that had ever belonged to her.
Almost as if she actually loved me.
In reality, she couldn’t stand to be around me.
I know I reminded her of Frank Palmer.
That’s why she left me with the neighbors at every opportunity.
I barely slept under the same roof as her while I was an infant.
And the older I got, the more she left me to fend for myself.
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.