52: A Family Meeting

Quincy St. Martin

“Chin up, my love.” He places his fingers underneath my chin and literally lifts my chin up. “They can’t touch you anymore,” he says as his eyes trace my face. “They tried to beat you down, break you, and crush your spirit. But they failed because my princess is strong.”

Pride shines in his vivid green eyes. “So you're going in there with your head held high.”

He’s giving me a pep talk, but all I can think of is how I want to kiss those sexy lips again. Oh, God, I’m so hormonal!

“I wish you could’ve met my Nana. She would’ve loved you,” I tell him instead.

This is not the first time that I wish she could’ve met him. I’m sure they’d have gotten along famously.

“Of course she would have.” His words sound cocky, but he flashes me an adorable, almost shy grin. “Your Nana wouldn’t have been able to resist my charm. She would have wanted me for herself. You would have had to fight her for me.”

Actually, he’s not that far off. If he had given my Nana that panty-melting grin, she might’ve claimed him for herself, because my Nana was outrageous, just like this prince in front of me.

“You are so outrageous! If your head gets—” I suddenly clamp my mouth shut.

“Yes?”

“Never mind.” I can’t believe I almost walked right into that one.

“Oh, come on! You’re about to say something about my head?” His expression is hopeful as well as mischievous.

“Nope!” No, I’m so not going there.

“Awww…” He looks downright disappointed now. Almost pouting. “You were about to say, ‘If your head gets any bigger, it’ll explode.’ Then I would have said, ‘Hey, I have something else that’s big.’”

“Shut ~up~!” I can’t stop the bubble of laughter bursting from my lips. He’s incorrigible!

He chuckles, eyeing me with a look of amusement. “I love it when you laugh,” he murmurs. “Ready to go in now, princess?”

I nod, and he drops a gentle kiss on my lips. Sweet and reassuring. My lips tingle from the brief touch. I love it that he knows how to make me laugh and loosen up. The more time I spend with him, the deeper I fall. The pull between us feels so much stronger now.

I can feel it stretching tight, and it’s hard for me to stay away. I know it in the way he can’t keep his hands off me.

I’m afraid, one day soon, he won’t be able to stop his lycan from claiming me.

We twine our fingers together like it’s the most natural thing in the world and make our way back to the huge gray building where the pack community hall is. It’s scary how synchronized our movements to each other have become already.

He touches the doorknob, and I square my shoulders. Our eyes meet. He has that cold, arrogant, almost bored look on his face as he pushes the door open.

The force of his lycan energy and power radiate off him. I know he must look and feel intimidating to others, but he makes me feel safe and protected.

The hall is full, and everyone falls silent as soon as we enter. I can feel all eyes on us as we make our way to the front where all our friends are.

His big warm hand gently squeezes mine.

Lord Archer is standing at the very front and center, as if he’s in the middle of talking to the crowd when we walk in.

He has a tiny smile on his lips, while his golden cat’s eyes follow our movement. When we both reach him, he bows quite dramatically, “Your Highnesses.”

Caspian ignores him as he pulls me to sit next to him on one of the chairs facing the crowd.

“Lord Archer,” says Caspian, motioning to Lord Archer to come closer. He rests his arm on the armrest and leans farther from me when the man approaches.

He whispers something in Lord Archer’s ear. Lord Archer’s watchful gaze unhurriedly slides to me while he nods a couple of times.

I can feel all of their eyes on us. I know my mother and her family are in there among the crowd. I stare straight ahead and ignore the whispers. I know some of them think that I’m an awful daughter.

I told Caspian that I don’t care about what’s going to happen to them, especially to my mother. I don’t know if that’s completely true. I would like to say that I stopped caring that day in Beta St. Martin’s office when she didn’t bat an eyelash as her brother was choking the life out of me.

Unfortunately, you don’t have an off button in your heart. Right now I’m trying my best not to care. Caring for people who don’t care about you hurts.

Her indifference hurt more than I care to admit. Growing up, I always hoped that deep down my mother actually cared. I did some outrageous things to earn a tiny reaction other than the usual detached, uncaring expression she wore when she looked at me. I was just so pathetic. I was desperately hungry for whatever scraps of love she could spare me.

Indifference is worse than a look of disapproval or even hatred, because indifference means you don’t matter. Not even a little bit.

Lord Archer is now addressing the crowd again, explaining their future to the crowd.

The Loup Noir Pack is now leaderless. Even though Alpha Gordon and the werewolf council are temporarily taking over, the pack is unstable.

The investigation will continue. Their future is now uncertain.

All the neighboring alphas who are willing to offer help are here today. I don’t know if all the alphas are here with pure intentions. I’m sure, over time, some of the alphas will make an attempt to stake their claim to the land. That could easily turn very violent very quickly.

The Loup Noir Pack members who are under investigation will be taken to another location, while others are given the choice to stay or apply to move permanently or temporarily to other packs. After the initial statement, Lord Archer lets Alpha Gordon take over the meeting.

Alpha Gordon seems very patient in explaining and answering all the questions and concerns of the pack members.

“I need to get some fresh air,” I whisper to Caspian.

“I’ll come with you,” he says.

“No, stay. I won’t be too long,” I tell him, squeezing his hand. “Besides, I need to sort something out by myself.”

His eyes narrow. “I’ll come after you if you’re not back in ten minutes.”

“Give me thirty.”

“Ten,” he insists stubbornly.

I know he’s worried about my safety. He hasn’t let me out of his sight yet since yesterday unless he’s sure that I’m safe. That’s also the reason why he rented the whole hotel, which I think is a bit overkill. He doesn’t want strangers anywhere near me and have my safety compromised.

I resist the urge to roll my eyes at him as I get up and stroll out... before my meager ten minutes is up. I walk quickly up the aisle between the seats. Then I see her. My mother. Even sitting in the crowd with her fate in our hands, my mother sits proudly.

No emotion on her face.

That indifference again.

My half sister, Caitlin Rose, and her father, Jon, are both staring at me with part-anxious and part-amazed expressions on their faces, but they remain quiet beside her. Joelle sits next to her mother, Maria. Both of them wear the same wooden, glum expressions.

I thought they were all going to ignore me, but surprisingly, Maria rushes past the guards to land at my feet.

“They’ll execute him,” she says. “Please, he’s your uncle. Your flesh and blood.”

Yeah? He wouldn’t let me call him uncle. All my life, he’s always been Beta St. Martin to me. None of them ever claimed to be my flesh and blood when I was a ‘weak human.’

“He will be tried justly. They will not execute him if he’s innocent. He will get what he deserves,” I tell her flatly.

“They will kill him! You can’t let them do that to him. He’s your uncle! We’re your family! Doesn’t family mean anything to you?”

Her voice is getting higher, and she’s pushing up to get in my face. The whole hall suddenly falls silent. Everybody is staring at us now.

I remember how I struggled to stay positive every single day when I was around these people. They tended to suck all the positives from me. They left me wilted and sad at the end of every day. I turn away, and a guard pulls Maria’s hands behind her back and restrains her.

“No, you can’t do this to me! How dare you!” she yells.

“You ungrateful bastard! We took you in when you had nowhere to go! We were there when you needed us. We looked after you!”

I stop in my tracks and turn to face her. “Don’t fool yourself. I never needed you. You never looked after me. You starved me, and you abused me.”

I take a step closer.

“You robbed me of what little I had and you robbed me of my freedom. My ~flesh and blood~ tried to kill me before, and you were planning to kill me again. You were never my family, and you never will be. My ~uncle~ should consider himself lucky I didn’t rip out his spinal cord like I wanted to.”

Oh, how I wanted to.

My chest is feeling warm. I spin on my heel again and stalk away before I give in to my urge to rip ~her~ head off. I grab Jorden and Jonah by their arms on my way out.