Chapter Fourteen #3
“Dripping loud and clear like a leaky faucet in the middle of the night.”
“So, you’re not going to put it to a vote or consult it with your pack first?”
Shane bit down on a mouthful of noodles to make the excess bits drop into his carton, then finished off what was in his mouth before replying to her test. “If I know what my pack needs and the town meets all of the criteria, then I don’t see a problem with going forward without a formal meeting.
Might as well drop a pin on a map and tell them to load up.
” He paused and pointed his chopsticks at her.
“That was sarcasm too. I wouldn’t just throw them in a moving van and haul them off without warning. ”
“I hope you wouldn’t, but … something just seems off about you moving forward with a proposal to Dominic before you clear it with them first.”
Again, that seemed too Isaac and not enough Shane. Didn’t he want to run the pack differently? More diplomatically? Everyone’s opinion and thoughts mattered, after all.
Shane set down his lo mein carton to take up the bag of wontons. “I’m alpha. I don’t have to clear my decisions with anyone.”
He said it so coolly, so calmly as if it were an indisputable fact. But they weren’t Shane’s words. The tone, the voice, everything sounded too much like Isaac.
Kimberly shook her head. “But what if there’s something you missed? What if Oakfield is too far from some of their extended family and they don’t feel comfortable with the move? What if—”
“Then they can leave.”
Just like the news that he kicked Andy out of the pack, this new nonchalant attitude toward throwing away pack members made Kimberly balk.
“So, it’s my way or the highway?”
Shane crunched into the wonton, and her words seemed to give him pause, but not enough to change his mind. “Yep. And I’m not going to listen to any bellyachin’ about it either.”
Kimberly stared, hard and unwavering, but he didn’t seem to care.
“You can quit trying to stare a hole through me,” he grumbled. “I’m not budging on this.”
Kimberly let out a frustrated huff. “I don’t remember you ever being this bullheaded when we were younger. You always considered others before yourself and gave people the benefit of the doubt. I can’t remember you ever holding a grudge or being mean-spirited for no good reason like this.”
“Well, life happened and showed me that’s not the best way to get through it.” He took another bite of his wonton, a show that this conversation could not and would not bother him. “The shifters who understand will stay, and those who don’t want to cope will leave. It’s that simple.”
Kimberly might as well have found out that he was a closet serial killer or rapist. This all came as an absolute shock to her system, her nerves scorched by his confession.
“Until you’re left all alone,” Kimberly snapped. “An alpha without a pack.”
“Yeah, like Gage.”
“Gage has a pack,” she growled. “It’s just not big, so you don’t respect him as an alpha.”
The heat in her comeback didn’t faze him. “I can respect that he was given the role, even if he didn’t earn it, but he’s got some big shoes to fill. Doesn’t matter how big the pack is. If an alpha can’t keep his shifters in line, then what good is he?”
Kimberly slammed her carton of orange chicken on the counter, chunks of rice jumping over the rim.
“Keeping control over a pack isn’t all an alpha does, Shane.
He protects. He comforts. He supports. When someone is in trouble or having a hard time, you don’t kick them out for having a moment of weakness.
You work it out and remind them that they belong to something bigger than themselves.
Being an alpha means using your dominance to help the pack, not push them around. ”
“Tall words coming from someone who can’t shift and has no dominance. You’re barely a shifter at all.”
That was the last straw. Spurred forward by an enraged wolf in her chest, Kimberly charged right up to Shane and slapped him hard across the face. His head jerked from the impact and a plume of red immediately bloomed across his skin.
With those words, he had gone too far.
“Fuck you.” Kimberly hissed the words with such trembling venom.
She hoped that, combined with the slap, was enough to bring him back to reality, to force an apology, to exorcise the demon of his father from his body.
Shane didn’t dare move or seem to breathe. With no sign of hope, Kimberly spun and rushed out of his apartment, slamming it so hard she wondered if the door cracked. Tears burned in her eyes as she took to the stairs.
Just before she reached the floor below, she heard Shane let out a deafening roar, followed by indistinguishable crashing of heavy things against floors and walls.
Kimberly paused, fear and pain tempting her to go back and fix it.
But there was no fixing this. Shane had made his choice to push her away.
Now, he’d live with it. Kimberly quietly declared herself no longer his, not when his father continued to call the shots in his head.