The Ugly Truth
seven
*FOREST*
My parents are already asleep when we get back home. I make sure to thank Lissa profoundly for her help tonight and send her home to get some much-needed rest. It’s just Martin and me left, now.
I don’t feel like going to bed yet. My thoughts are a whirlwind in my mind and won’t let me rest.
“Do you care for a drink?” Martin asks me all of a sudden. “I’ve found a new brand of beer recently, and have two bottles left.”
“I didn’t know you drank beer,” I say. Most people around me are wine drinkers.
“I am a beer geek, you could say,” he admits.
For a moment, he stays quiet. He doesn’t say anything or push me into joining him. What a nice change for once. It gives me room to think my answer through and not say yes immediately. After a while, I realize I might not necessarily be up for company, but a cold beer certainly sounds nice.
“Alright,” I say.
While following Martin to his private cottage, I keep worrying about what to talk to him about.
He is going to be my future beta, but I don’t know him at all.
My parents chose him. I keep wondering what to say, trying to think of several sentences and talking points.
Smalltalk has never been my forte, which is why my parents always send Lissa with me to gatherings I am supposed to attend.
“It’s still warm. We can sit outside if you want,” Martin offers.
I nod, and he disappears into the cottage, just to return five minutes later with beer and some chips. “I wasn’t prepared for a guest,” he tells me.
“Didn’t you eat anything during the gathering?”
He shrugs. “It wasn’t the type of food I like.”
I nod, taking a handful of the chips he offers me. I wasn’t a fan of the food either.
Silence engulfs us, the feeling of discomfort growing inside me. I should say something. An alpha is able to hold a conversation anytime.
He is my future beta… so we should be able to connect somehow, or rather, I should be able to connect to him. It’s on me.
What can we talk about?
The evening? The evening sucked big time, and he was just there to keep an eye on me. So, I am sure he was either bored to death by it or at least inconvenienced. I don’t know much about him, so maybe I should ask, but then that would be embarrassing to admit how little I know.
Maybe work…
I feel lame for having to resort to talking about our rank and work, but I can’t come up with anything else.
“How is your training going?” I ask awkwardly.
“My beta training or actual warrior training?” he asks.
I have no idea. “Both, I guess.”
“I am really trying to learn everything a beta should know,” he says, moving the can between his hands. “So, okay, I guess? There is always room for improvement. And the pack structures are…” His voice trails off.
“Are what?” I ask curiously.
“They are meticulously structured,” he says.
Is it me, or did he just sound evasive? Its structures… How else are structures supposed to be than… structured? I want to ask more about it, curious to know what he truly wants to say, but as usual, I miss the right moment, and he continues.
“As for training. I am doing quite well, but I could do with a stronger sparring partner.”
“You must have surpassed most of the warriors by now,” I muse.
He nods. “I am not sure if I am really good, though.”
I look at him, wondering what is expected of me to say now. Should I set him up with someone better? It makes sense that he is the best in his group, or he wouldn’t be in the running for beta. Or maybe he is just an overly hard worker. Or he believes he is better than he is.
I doubt the latter is true, though. He doesn’t come over as a show-off.
I am not sure how I should react, so I stick with the first thing that comes to my mind. “I could be your sparring partner.”
Martin looks at me, surprised.
Shit, probably a bad suggestion.
I should save my dignity and offer him another solution while I still can.
“You would do that?” he asks.
“Yes.”
“I would like to take you up on that offer, then,” he says, surprising me once more. “You are very strong.”
That’s one thing I can agree with. Despite all my shortcomings, I have one strong point, and it’s literally my strength. Still, hearing someone acknowledge it just feels like something deep inside me gets nourished a little. Martin said it so randomly, like it’s a fact. You are very strong.
“Send me your schedule,” I say. “I will work something out.”
Suddenly, the silence doesn’t feel as suffocating anymore. For a moment, I even contemplate asking him about Jordan, and why he looked so restrained when Lissa mentioned him in the car. But maybe that’s pushing it a bit too far.
I don’t know his stance on things, and I don’t want to inconvenience him by asking difficult questions.
Martin and I spent an hour together, drinking our beer, mostly in silence.
When I return to the pack house, I feel like I was able to unwind a little.
Silence, when being with someone, usually makes me freak out.
I feel the constant need to break it and say something, but Martin didn’t look like he minded.
Or maybe he did, but was trying to be polite.
Whatever it was, it looks like he was trying to get to know me a little. Maybe his parents, or mine, pushed him to it, but I don’t mind either way. It’s good to know my beta a little better.
Most pack members are deep asleep by now; many houses are dark, and barely any sound can be heard aside from some cottages where younger wolves live. They still seem to be up and partying a little. I glance at the screen of my phone, noting that it’s 2 a.m. by now.
The packhouse itself is almost completely dark, though, which is not unusual for this time of the night.
The offices and alpha suites are located there.
My parents and I each have our own, fortunately, and then there are the suites of some elite warriors.
Other than that, the packhouse only has official rooms and leisure rooms, which are either for work or for all pack members, like the dining hall, the kitchen, and several offices.
I am about to open the door to the separate staircase, which will lead me to the private area of the alpha family and then up to my own suite, when I notice some light coming through one of the doors.
Odd. This area is solely for the alpha family, and guests when we host them.
It consists of a private dining room and living room, and then further upstairs, our two suites.
Usually, no one else enters, and so late into the night, my parents should be asleep.
Maybe someone forgot to switch off the light.
I decide to take a little detour to do that, reaching out my hand to open the door when I hear voices from inside. The deep voice of my father can be heard, and Mom’s. But there is a third voice, too.
Is that Lissa? I thought she went home to get some sleep?
I should probably just go inside to greet them and see if they are having any problems. Surely, something has to have happened if they are meeting so late. Maybe they tried to invite me too, but didn’t find me as I was still out.
I pause at my own thoughts.
Dad could have linked me, though. Why didn’t he?
I don’t know what it is or why, but just like with my talk with Jordan, I feel a tug in my stomach. It’s probably ridiculous, nothing, and I am just being silly… but the feeling remains, even when I try to tell myself that I am being completely paranoid.
Darien.
My wolf is with me in an instant, very much to my surprise. Usually, I need to poke him a little, as he doesn’t really like talking to me an awful lot. That was fast, I add.
Something feels off, he growls.
I feel the same, I say, glad that he shares my gut feeling. Maybe I should talk to him about Jordan, too. Certainly, he has an opinion on who to choose as our allies and who we make deals with.
Now, however, we have more urgent business.
I need your enhanced senses, I say.
That, and we need to be quiet, he mutters. Do you need me to come fully forward?
I should be okay if I don’t move too much, I say. But stay with me.
He nods.
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, and demanded 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.”
What?! Darien growls. We never promised such a thing!
We really didn’t. Sure, I was contemplating the thought sometimes, but deep inside, I always agreed with Darien that she is not the right person for us, and that I want to meet my mate.
“With his meek personality, it will be easy for you to win him over,” Mom says.
“And if nothing else helps, we can make him drunk or give him a potion,” Dad adds. “Then you can do the deed.”
“I could try to get pregnant that way,” Lissa muses.
“An honorable man like Forest would never ditch a pregnant woman,” Dad chuckles. When he says ‘honorable’, it sounds like an insult.
“No one stands in your way, Lissa,” Mom says. “We didn’t get rid of that other girl for nothing.”
At that, something inside me freezes, a cold hand suddenly grabs my heart. It doesn’t just stop at me; the cold enwraps Darien as well, putting us both in a state of utter shock.
The other girl?