You know what it means to be called a stranger when you thought you were family?
That’s what everyone else at this table felt with what I made them know my father said.
“How…” Jorja almost choked on her words, and when I turned to look at her, her eyes were filled with tears. They were wide and glassy like she was looking at a monster she hadn’t realized she’d raised and polished into a crown jewel.
Slowly, she tore her gaze away from me and swept it across the table her hand trembling as she reached for her napkin. “If you’d excuse us…” she whispered to everyone else who wasn’t family. She was humiliated.
“No,” I cut in, leaning back in my chair. “Everyone stays, Mum. This important.” I said calmly, almost kindly.
“This can not stand, boy. You have to reject each other immediately, My father didn’t wait any further.
His hand fisted on the table, the old Alpha instincts rising in a man far too broken to bear them now.
I turned to him, tilting my head slightly and studying him like a new species of worm. “And what makes you think you have the power to tell me that, Dad?” My voice stayed even and patient, like a teacher correcting a very stupid child.
Jorja inhaled sharply, fighting for control.
“On the day of the transition,” she began in a tight voice, “Jareel’s daughter was mated to her step-cousin. And we the entire Council – made sure they rejected each other.”
Her hands were trembling now as she gripped her wine glass. “Imagine what the pack will say when they learn that the same thing we condemned is happening in our own home.”
I chuckled, “I never asked anyone to do my Alpha duties for me, Mother,” I said, spearing another piece of meat with my fork. “That was your decision. Your guilt. Your belief. Your morals. Your need to appear righteous before sheep who’d stone you the moment you showed a crack. If you had consulted me before playing god with other people’s lives, you wouldn’t have this headache now.” I explained casually, placing my hand on Kasmine’s and intertwining our fingers where everyone could see.
Jorja’s voice broke. “How could you say that?” she gasped, her rage finally spilling over. She slammed her palm onto the table, the plates and cutlery clattering. “This is absurd! It’s an abomination! Incest! You are family!”
Jorja,” I called her by her name, “Kasmine and I aren’t blood-related. The Moon Goddess isn’t foolish, and she doesn’t make mistakes. But you? You mistake everything you don’t understand for evil. That’s your sickness, not mine.”
“Kester. The pack forbids such a union. It is… against everything we stand for,” My Beta spoke for the first time. I know his moral mind had dissected the situation properly, and he’d also marked it as a sin.
I turned to him slowly, letting my smile curdle into something meaner.
“And who exactly decided that, Lance? My pack now writes laws without my knowledge? Without my consent?”
He looked away, shame coloring his cheeks.
Good.
Kasmine heaved a heavy sigh, which seemed to have made Jorja suddenly aware that the subject of our conflict was sitting right next to me.
“Kasmine! Don’t tell me you want this. Don’t tell me…”
“Jorja. Please don’t put words in her mouth. She wants this. And that’s why we are here together,” I squeezed Kasmine’s hand slightly harder, enough that I felt her bones shift under my grip. “isn’t that right, baby?” I asked, turning my eyes to her with an intimacy so chilling that it froze the room.
Kasmine’s throat worked in a small, silent gulp. She looked at them before dropping her gaze quickly like a guilty child caught lying.
She said nothing.
I knew this was her chance to yell and tell everyone that she wasn’t cut out for this. But I made sure she didn’t dare it.
I mind-linked her, “Come on, baby. You wouldn’t want to find out what I’d do if you said something other than what you are expected to say.”
I felt her flinch.
Uh… Yes. That’s right,” She was almost inaudible.
“Then I’d rather die than watch this happen,” Jorja said harshly, and only made me chuckle.
“Then you’d be greatly missed, Mum,” I said and stood up.
I turned to Kasmine, sliding her chair back for her like a gentleman ading his bride to her wedding pyre.
“Let’s go home, baby,”
KASMINE.
We drove in utter silence.
Kester tapped away on his phone and tab. His attention was absorbed in anything but me.
He was almost ignoring my entire existence as if he had already moved past the damage he had caused. I stared out the window, barely blinking, my reflection smudged against the dark glass.
It seemed like luring a fish out of the water and letting die out there. He had just broken the news of us to everyone, pulled the rug out from under my feet, stripping me of every loved one I would have turned to for warmth whenever I needed, and now, he was actually ignoring me.
Good thing I had some time to reflect on many things, including the anonymous person who hadn’t sent me any texts for the past two days.
I didn’t know if I should be worried or relieved.
The car came to a stop in the parking lot, and the mini convoy that drove with us also came to a halt.
Before Kester could so much as move, I pushed open the door and climbed out. I couldn’t stand being near him. I just needed to go into my room, bury my head in the pillows, and cry out my heart.
But the moment I stepped into the living room, I stopped dead in my tracks.
What in the name of Selene is this?
My eyes scanned the vast living room.
The entire place was different.
The walls every single one of them were covered with pictures of me.
Paintings. Canvases. Polaroids.
Some were massive, taking up half a wall. Some were so small you could miss them if you weren’t looking hard enough. But they were all of me. Everywhere I turned, there I was.
Some were pictures from my phone. There was no need to ask how he got them.
Others were from my old photo albums, while there were some I didn’t even remember taking.
A painting of me sitting by a lake with my hair blowing across my face. Can’t remember taking that.
A photo of me laughing so hard I had to cover my mouth, caught mid-moment. No memory of it either.
Another one… I was right by the fireplace. Thankfully, I recognized it immediately.
I was seventeen, and it was a sunny afternoon.
I was holding my puppy
Zeus
– the tiny ball of golden fur wriggling in my arms while I grinned like an idiot. However, I gifted her out to a sweet little girl from our pack who loved her as much as I did.
Dad had taken that picture right after telling me I needed to stop grewing up so fast.
God, I hadn’t thought about that day in years.
My throat closed up.
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