Chapter 3

I changed out of the dress, resisting the urge to rip it to shreds. Instead, I laid it on the bed. Not it’s fault I screwed up. I changed into a tank, jeans and my boots and sat on the bed waiting for Father to come. I didn’t think it’d be long before what happened got around. As soon as the door opened, I stood in military rest.

His eyes blazed amber as he stared at me from the doorway, his expression twisted in a fury. Father straightened his posture, visibly taking a deep breath. “Well?”

“I’m sorry, Sir.”

“You’re sorry? That’s all you have to say? I have spent the evening attempting to find the pack’s new alpha only to have you assault the hosting alpha’s son in front of everyone, and the only thing you have to say is you’re sorry? I have never been more humiliated in my life, Girl. I can only thank God, you’re mother wasn’t here to see this. All you had to do was smile and be friendly to the men there. What kind of girl are you if you can’t even do that?”

I clenched my teeth together to keep from saying, I was the girl he made me. After Brandon had left, he pushed me to be more like a boy, more like the son he’d lost. I couldn’t tell him though, he didn’t care — the alpha got what the alpha wanted, period.

“ It’s disgusting and embarrassing,” Father spat, his face reddening. “It would be better if everyone if you remained in this room until we return home. This way you can’t cause any more trouble. If th-”

“She didn’t cause any trouble,” someone said, surprising both of us. It was the guy - Dean. Behind him were his parents, none of them looked pleased.

“Excuse me,” Father said, looking unsettled at the three standing in the hallway.

“She didn’t cause any trouble,” Dean insisted. “It was completely my fault.”

Alpha Brent cleared his throat and gave Father a tight smile. “I was hoping your daughter could clear up the events of this evening so I may fully understand what exactly happen.”

“Of course,” Father said, stepping aside, shooting me a look, no doubt in warning.

The alpha, his mate, and Dean came into the room, making it feel super crowded. My skin itched having them all inside.

“Please tell me what happened this evening?” the alpha asked.

I glanced at Father then back to the alpha. “I punched your son, knocking him out.”

A rumble came from Father. “He means why, Girl. Why did you hit him?” The alpha’s brow furrowed as he glanced at Father.

Damn. “Of course, sorry, Sir,” I said, scrambling for an answer, but nothing was coming to mind. I couldn’t bring myself to say the M-word, or I panicked and simply reacted.

“Well,” Father demanded when I didn’t say anything.

“I pushed her obviously,” Dean jumped in. He took a step in my direction, but when I stepped back, he retreated. He flashed me a quick grin. “You don’t need to cover for me. Everyone knows I can be an idiot and say stupid crap all the time. It’s cool.”

I glanced at him, confused. What was he doing? I turned my head to the front, staring straight. “I’m not covering for anyone, Sir, Alpha. My actions are my own.”

For some reason, the alpha smiled. “So I see. Alright, I’ve seen and heard enough. I do not want any more violence here in the pack house, is that understood?”

“Yes, Alpha, I understand, Sir.”

Again he gave me another small smile that disappeared when he turned to Father. “I believe my son has the right of it, this is all a misunderstanding, and if it doesn’t happen again, I’m fine with forgetting it ever happened.”

“You are a generous man, Alpha Brent and it won’t happen again.”

The alpha nodded and left the room, followed by his mate. Dean again started to step towards me when Father stepped between us. “Thank you, Alpha’s son, for being so understanding of my daughter’s slip of control.”

A flash of frustration had passed through Dean’s face before he grinned at Father. “Sure, no problem. Welcome to Blue Crescent.”

When he left Father growled at the closed door. “Well that was not so bad,” he said then turned to me. “But I don’t like that boy, he’s a ripe idiot. Nothing, but a clown, from what people say. I want you to stay away from him.”

No problem. “Yes, Sir.”

He let out a little growl. “I don’t like his father much either. All this anti-violence stuff. We’re werewolves. We are violence. I see why Black Mountain wanted to kill him.Weakness is ripe here. You will stay out of sight as much as possible and maybe I will be able to fix this mess.”

“Yes, Sir.”

##

The next morning, Jon came by to see me. He grabbed a chair and sat down in it, with the back of the chair against his front. “So how bad was it? I need to know how much I can mess this guy up?”

“What?”

“The guy you hit, how bad can I mess him up.”

I shook my head. “Jon, if he needed to be messed up, you don’t think I would’ve done it by now?”

“Yeah, but it’s cleaner if I do it — make sure you have an alibi.”

I shook my head, hugged my legs to my chest. “He didn’t do anything, it was me.”

“Come off it, I’ve seen you take a lot of crap from people, and you didn’t hit them outright like that. He did something.”

“He didn’t,” I insisted, and my cheeks warmed. “He just...he’s...God, Jon he’s my mate.” There I said it.

Understanding blossomed in his face. “Ah, um, hm, why didn’t you tell anyone.”

I shrugged, looking at my hands. “I don’t know.”

“Perhaps you should use te—”

“No, Father doesn’t like him, thinks he’s an idiot. If I told him...no, let’s stick to the plan of the fake mate.”

“Alright, well until I find someone how about we go do something.”

“ I’m supposed to stay out of sight,” I told him.

“So we’ll go to the gym. You need to blow off some of steam. We can’t have you go around punching people, so time to put that energy to some good use. Besides, you haven’t done anything since we got here. I can’t have you getting flabby on me. So get your ass up off that bed.”

“Alright, let me get changed and we’ll go. The gym sounds a lot better than sitting here,” I said, and as he started to leave the room, I cleared my throat. “And Jon, you ever hint I’m getting flabby I will crush you, got it?”

He snorted and rolled his eyes. “Bring it, McFlabby,” he replied then left.

I grinned and changed out of my jeans into gi pants, and leaving my shoes here before joining him outside. As we walked, people avoided us, or more like it was me. From the angry glares, I’m pretty sure it was me they were avoiding.

“Wow, looks like this Dean guy is popular,” Jon whispered to me.

“Good, I don’t want to make friends,” I replied keeping my voice hard. I didn’t want them or Jon to know how badly I really felt about hitting him or how people now hated me for it.