Filed To Story: Secret with Betas Daughter: Skylar Story Series
Dakota slams the door shut and takes a deep breath. When he turns around he avoids eye contact with me and stands next to Cam on the other side of the bed. They both look sad and lost, like the little boys used to know.
“What did they say mom?” Cam finally asks after a long silence.
“Nothing yet, we were waiting on you. He’s here and alive and that’s the most I know.”
She finally stands and walks to them wrapping them each in an arm. They both tuck their heads into a side of her neck and wish could take a picture of the moment, even though it is not an ideal situation, this moment is special and precious. These massive guys lean into their mother, who’s at least a foot shorter than them, for comfort.
The lead healer walks in and looks around the room at all of us. I lower my head and make myself as small as possible back by the cot Luna and I were just sitting in.
“You can speak, everyone here is family.”
My head shoots up at the Luna’s words. But I don’t get to question them when the healer starts to speak.
“There was a significant amount of damage from the wood. The Alpha’s entire oblique muscle on his left side will more than likely have permanent damage. Splinters also pierced his kidney, part of his liver, the lower lobe of his lung and his intestines He has a lot of healing to do and after don’t recommend he remains in the Alpha position, you boys should prepare yourselves.”
She gives the twins a serious look. This is not a suggestion. “For now he is stable and we are monitoring him hourly. He has not opened his eyes yet, but I believe he will when he’s ready. Let us know if anything happens or changes.”
She looks each of us in the eyes, then turns and leaves, taking the buffer of her neutral presence with her.
I stayed against the wall next to the cot, wishing it was on the wall closest to the door, not the furthest. I just want to leave. My chest still hurts and I know it’s not from the fight with the Alpha or being thrown by him, it’s from seeing them.
I don’t know why the Luna wants me here. This just isn’t my place. I take a deep slow breath and steel myself to just move towards the door, it won’t go unnoticed and it will be super awkward. I turn and start walking.
“Skylar Makain, stop right there. You will stay in this room until the Alpha wakes up. He needs you.”
“Why?” I ask, still facing the door. My voice is more confident than I expected. “I have a team to organize and patrols to work out. I need to coordinate with Delta Kyle and I am going to be bombarded with questions from people in the waiting room. Please let me do my job.”
“Your job is here right now, and you can organize everything from this room, don’t run away from us.”
She doesn’t sound angry or sad, she sounds hollow, all business.
Now I am angry. It licks up my insides like a flame and I see red. My wolf is letting her anger seep into mine as well. She has felt just as betrayed as I have. Wolves are pack animals, they need their pack and she was just as betrayed by them as I was. This woman has been like my mother for a very long time, but when push came to shove, it was not me she chose to protect.
“You have made it very clear where I fall in your list of priorities, Luna. I have not run yet and I don’t intend to, this is my pack just as much as it is yours. Why would I want to stay in the company of people who openly despise me, think that I’m a traitor and would sacrifice my pack? did my duty, My Alpha is safe and protected, I am not needed here. I will send Gamma Brett to stay with you. I think you need to be with someone at all times until the Alpha wakes up. And as we are all aware, no one from the pack is allowed to mindlink with me. So I cannot coordinate with anyone while I am here.”
I turn to leave again, feeling very much like the teenager I never really got to be. But, proud for sticking up for myself for once. I love them all, but it’s not enough right now, they need to love me the same amount in return.
Firm hands grab my shoulders and I stiffen. He doesn’t try to move me, just keeps me from opening the door. I take a breath in and that’s when I noticed it, I can smell Cam’s thick citrus smell, but faintly blending with that is her. The smell might be a day or so old, but it’s there on his skin. He’s been with her, they probably both have. It takes everything for me not to let the tears behind my eyes fall. I took another deep breath willing them back and it was a terrible idea.
“Please stay Tiny, he wants you here.”
I shrug his hands off. “If you put your hands on me again, I will remove them with the weapons you gifted me. And we have had this conversation before Cameron. We are not friends, only my friends get to use nicknames.”
“And get to touch you apparently.”
Kota says bitterly.
I turn sharply. “So we’re going to do this now? Fine. Everyone knows you haven’t been allowed to touch me, talk to me or in general come near me.”
Kota rolls his eyes. It pisses me off. “Had s*x with Kaley in the last two days?” I go directly for the lowest blow and look between the two of them just staring at me open mouthed.
“I don’t know what you’re…”
“Talking about?” I narrow my eyes. “Remember. I can smell the difference between you two. You may dress and act the same for everyone else, but you can’t hide from me, Dakota. Do you think I wouldn’t smell her all over you? Go be a hypocrite to someone else.”
They both have the decency to look ashamed at least. Even the Luna stays silent. None of them explain or defend themselves. I don’t break the silence, they can live in this awkward moment forever, I have time apparently.
“Skylar, you don’t understand, this is so complicated, so many more things are at play here that you realize.”
Cam, always the placating one.
I just laugh, I’m not touching that with a ten foot pole. I don’t know if there is some way that Kaley can listen in on their conversations, but I don’t want her knowing we suspect her and her father of this whole f*cked up situation. We still haven’t put all the pieces together yet either. I know there is something I am missing.
“Please stay, just until he wakes up, he wants you here for a reason.”
Luna Ava is pleading with me, still tucked under Kota’s arm.
New Book: Returned To Make Them Pay
On her wedding anniversary, Alicia is drugged and stumbles into the wrong room—straight into the arms of the powerful Caden Ward, a man rumored never to touch women. Their night of passion shocks even him, especially when he discovers she’s still a virgin after two years of marriage to Joshua Yates.