Forest Young and Rosea Bryce
ten
ROSEA
Iwrap the blanket around my frame, tighter.
Forest Young. I don’t know much about him.
The Young family was considered problematic by my parents, but during my later research, I hadn’t heard many bad things about Forest. Jordan, however, belittled him; I know that much.
But Jordan’s opinion isn’t worth a dime.
A man he disliked is probably much better than anyone he approves of.
Still, I can’t be too certain.
What do you think, Alora?
He is an alpha, she says.
Yeah, that’s the risk.
But he saved us, and he is very… she pauses. Respectful towards us. I don’t know, it’s a risk to trust him.
It’s always a risk, I mutter. People I trusted, like Clemmens, have betrayed me, so can I ever trust a complete stranger? But then, can it be worse than what my former friends and allies did?
“I am a little cold,” I say. “Do you have anything for me to dress in?”
“Right! Yes, I have.” He scrambles to his feet and reaches for a stash of clothes. He hands them to me, looking in the other direction. “I didn’t dare to dress you. Felt too invasive, you know. Sorry… I…”
His face flushes in a way I haven’t seen in a long while on someone.
It’s not just his face turning red, also his neck and shoulders.
For an alpha, he has some intriguing traits.
He seems to be empathic and considerate.
I wish more of them were like that. Maybe the world would be a little bit better then.
But is this enough to trust him?
I swiftly change into the clothes he brought me. They are probably from his grandpa, and definitely too large for me, but beggars can’t be choosers, and for now, I’m glad I am dressed. Everything else I will handle later. Somehow, I need to get to the funds I put aside.
However, while I have put some money aside, I am still just one single person against a sociopath like Jordan.
A man who has groomed his ranked members and warriors so well that they barely see his wrongdoings until it is too late.
An alpha, who made allies with the most disgusting pigs out there.
Jordan’s biggest advantage is that he is charismatic, and boy, did he use that well.
I could do with an ally, and I am well aware that I am out of choices. Glancing at Forest, it dawns on me that it feels like fate threw this man at me.
I take the bottle of gin in my hands again and have another sip.
Forest reaches out his hand, and I pass the bottle to him.
He takes a huge sip from it as well. Pulling his legs up a little, he rests his elbow against his knee, leaning his forehead against his hand.
“Do you want to hear something truly pathetic?” he suddenly asks.
“Anything that will distract me,” I admit.
“I am such a loser,” he mutters. “I am a complete failure as an alpha.”
“Somehow I have difficulties believing that,” I point out. He is of incredibly strong build; he looks stronger than Jordan, and a lot of other alphas I have met. There is no way this man is not strong enough to be a leader.
“You would be surprised,” he mutters.
“I am probably the wrong person to say that,” I say. “But if you want to talk, I’ll listen. It’s not like I can blab it to anyone, anyway.”
He takes a huge sip of the gin and hands it back to me. He is still not looking at me, though, and instead looks at his hands. “I am not good at communicating,” he says. “I lack social skills. I hate huge gatherings; I have difficulties making friends.”
“You are introverted,” I conclude. “Besides, diplomacy is usually more of a beta's strength anyway.”
“No one in my pack respects me.”
That surprises me a little. An alpha of his build for sure should be respected for his strength alone, not to mention his upbringing. Forest Young is an alpha’s heir!
“My parents and my supposed best friend have schemed against me for years,” he finally says. “I found out last night that they even killed my mate. A woman, I didn’t even get the chance to know properly. An innocent girl.”
I sit up straighter. “Wait, what?!” When he reaches out for the bottle, I pull it out of his reach. He looks at me now, straight into my eyes, and what I see there shocks me. There is just pain, anger and betrayal.
A mirror of my own expression when I am alone.
“Fuck! I shouldn’t have said anything,” he groans. “I just couldn’t stop myself from blurting out the truth, to tell it to someone.”
“What happened?” I ask. “How… What’s going on in that pack of yours?!” When he stays quiet, I chuckle bitterly. Right. Why should he share his secrets if I didn’t give him anything in return?
It’s always a risk. Allies who I thought would stick with me forever have turned their backs on me in the blink of an eye.
At the same time, I know I have no other options. Forest has shared a secret with me, something that weighs a lot, and while there is still the possibility he is lying to me, my gut feeling and my experience tell me otherwise.
It’s a risk, but I am willing to take it to get back at Jordan.
“I am Rosea Bryce,” I say into the silence.
He raises his head again to look at me, and frowns. I can almost see the thoughts in his head running wild. “Bryce.”
“Bryce,” I repeat simply.
His mouth drops open. “No way! You are Jordan’s luna!”
“Was,” I correct him.
He keeps staring at me, sometimes raising his arm a little and then dropping it again.
He looks shocked, and I am starting to wonder if this was a good idea.
Should I have kept quiet? Usually, my gut feeling is spot on.
The only time it failed me was with Jordan, and in my defense, he was my mate, and I was still very young.
Then, Forest suddenly jumps up, his eyes glinting in fury.
“I knew it!” he exclaims. “I knew that asshole was full of bullshit! What did he do to you?”
I hand him the bottle again. “You go first,” I tell him. “I am not budging on this.”
He looks me in the eye again and then nods grimly. “Alright, buckle up, Luna Rosea.”
When we have finished our stories, the sun is high in the sky. Forest goes and finds a few cans with food in the storage, tasteless beans in tomato sauce, but we are both starving and need something to eat.
Until today, I thought my own story was terrible, but what Forest told me is equally as insane.
“This is unbelievable.” Forest shakes his head. “I had a bad feeling about Jordan from the first time I met him. Fucking psycho!”
“I have heard Lissa’s name before,” I tell him. “She definitely had an affair with Jordan. I am aware of two times they met, at least.”
“How did you find out?” he asks, amazed. “Seriously, how come you managed to gather so much information while that asshole basically kept you away from everything? The things he told us at the alpha meetings… unbelievable.”
I had a feeling Jordan would twist the truth.
It doesn’t come as a shock to me. It will make it harder, though, to stir public opinion on him in a different situation.
“While Jordan did lock me in, I had a few chances where I got out. I used excuses like running errands and visiting doctors; not often, but sometimes I could. And he wasn’t as organized when he took the pack over.
I had many more chances to slip away back then, and I used every single moment to gather intel on him and to plan an exit.
Not that the latter worked in my favor.”
“It did,” Forest argues. “Or you wouldn’t have survived. You must have nerves of steel, Rosea! You are more alpha than I am.”
“I was just lucky to have had loving parents,” I say. “And they prepared me well. The knowledge and the skills I was taught came in handy. You didn’t have that chance, Forest.”
“Still, you could have broken,” he mutters.
I press my lips against each other grimly. “I wanted revenge.”
For a moment, he looks at me, mirroring my expression.
“I want the same.” He balls his hands into fists, then loosens them again.
“I am a lost cause,” he tells me again. It’s the second time he’s said it, but I don’t comment on it.
There is a reason this man has so little confidence, and it’s certainly not because he is in any way not made to be an alpha.
He is simply a different type of leader, and there is nothing wrong or unusual with that.
His insecurities and his self-loathing come from deep within.
“I am not much on my own either,” I point out.
“Rosea…“ he takes a deep breath. “Let’s work together.” He pauses, his face flushing again. “Well… I know you probably have different options, and I am aware I am not the best one out there—“
“Actually, you are,” I interrupt him.
“Because I am such a loser,” he sighs.
“No, because you are trustworthy,” I point out. “And genuine.”
He looks at me, surprised. “Wait, are you saying you agree to working together?”
I nod.
There is a shimmer of hope in his expression. “Do you have a plan, Rosea? You have one, don’t you?”
“Why do you think that?”
“Because even I can tell you are smart,” he points out.
“I told you, I just—“
“—just well educated and prepared.” He shakes his head. “Most lunas and alphas are that way, but you went far beyond that. It’s not just you having been a good student. You must be a kickass strategist.”
Maybe he is right. Planning has always been my strong point.
I am not sure if this is me being particularly intelligent or just having learned it out of a necessity to survive.
“I do have a plan,” I say, the wheels in my mind turning.
Now that I’ve met Forest and we plan on working together, I have so many more options.
“But we definitely need to shape out the details. You said you contacted your family before and told them that you are out for an appointment?”
He nods.
“Good, that comes in handy now.”
“So?” he asks me curiously. “What’s the plan?”
I raise my head, looking him straight in the eye. “You ran some errands today, and then, as fate would have it, you ran into your mate.” I pause. “Me!”