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Nobody should be able to make her feel less than. Regardless of whether she is prey or predator, she’s better than every damn person in this room, including me. I just wish she saw herself the way I do.
“Pike, dear, why don’t you come sit with us?” Rebecca calls as he pushes Serena’s chair in. Her voice is sugary-sweet and fake as hell. “I’ve saved you a seat next to Harlow,” she presses, as if that’s supposed to make it better somehow.
It doesn’t, and Pike makes no show of hiding that, a frown tugging his lips down slightly.
“Nah, I’m good, Ma. I’d rather sit with Serena and the guys,” he tells her, his voice neutral despite his obvious distaste at the idea. Too bad the same can’t be said for his mother.
Her face twists at his words, and we all know it’s not from his wanting to sit with us so much as from his wanting to sit with Serena.
“She wasn’t asking, son,” Victor says, his voice gruff and eyes hard as he stares Pike down across the table. He’s trying to intimidate him. It’s something he’s done since we were children, and usually it works, but not tonight, it would seem.
No, tonight Pike looks up, meeting his father’s eyes as he takes his seat next to Serena and finally stands his ground.
“No.”
That one word cuts through the room, and it’s as if time pauses. I’m not sure I’ve ever heard Pike defy his father. There have been a few times over the years when he’s stood up for Serena, but most of those were done in private, not with an audience, and never so abruptly.
His father seems just as shocked as the rest of us. For a moment, he stares at Pike as if he’s unsure he heard him right. I count the seconds, waiting to see how long it takes to sink in. Fifty-three seconds. That’s how long he makes it before he pushes up from his chair and slams his fists on the table, and everything wobbles.
“You will come and sit next to Harlow and stop with your stupid childish game!” he shouts, stabbing a finger toward the empty seat. “We let you have your fun. Now it’s time for you to grow up and do what is needed as the next Ashwood Alpha.”
Nobody moves as we watch, waiting to see what will happen. Serena sits with her shoulders slightly hunched forward, trying to make herself smaller, and I feel my temper flare. I know her well enough to know she’s probably blaming herself for their fighting. And while she might be something they disagree on, this has been a long time coming. Pike and his father have never gotten along. Victor has spent years bullying him and treating him like shit.
If anything, Serena gives Pike the courage to stand up for himself. It kills me inside to think she’s beating herself up about this when all she does is help him. Like the rest of us, we’ve seen the damage Pike’s family did to him growing up. Nothing about Pike’s family or childhood was loving or nurturing, so much so that he didn’t know what to do when we genuinely cared for him.
He gets it now, though, and it seems he’s finally had enough.
“No, Father, I won’t,” Pike says, pushing from his chair as well. He looks so much like his father. They share the same long blonde hair and powerful jaw, but where his father is cruel by nature. Pike is only cold when it’s necessary. This happens to be one of those times.
“This isn’t a stupid game. It’s my life. I am grown, grown enough to know this.” He opens his arms wide, and I’m unsure if he’s referring to this dinner or the house, but I guess it doesn’t matter much. “Isn’t what I want. You can keep the Alpha role or give it away. I don’t want it. I don’t want anything from any of you,” Pike spits the word. His face twists with disdain as he looks around the table at everyone but us before once again meeting his father’s eyes across the table as if daring him to argue. “I have a family right here,” he says, looking around at us before his eyes land on Serena, who’s still bent forward, looking small and sad.
“The only difference is they care, unlike the rest of you,” his eyes cut to his mother as she watches him, her own wide in shock. They shouldn’t be; everything he’s said is true, but she would never see it that way. Much like her husband, she believes they are doing what’s best for their kids, future, and pack.
They’re wrong. They live an outdated lifestyle demanding purity and segregation between predators and prey. Many of the older generations still live that way. It’s one of the reasons Serena’s life is so hard. All because she was born prey.
His father’s face is so red I worry he might pass out or pop a blood vessel as he fumes.
“You will not make a mockery of this family,” he barks, his eyes shining as his beast presses to the surface. My own stirs, waiting and at the ready, just in case. I have no doubt we can take him in a fight, but that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be messy with so many people here. It’s something I would rather Serena not be here for if it came to that.
“You will come and sit next to your fiancé and stop this nonsense right now!”
His father’s words ring out around the room, almost deafening, as they sit heavy in the air. Even knowing their parents were trying to set them up, hearing it spoken aloud is worse.
The room is silent except for Serena’s sharp intake of breath, which cuts through me. One little sound shouldn’t be full of so much emotion, but it was. Even without looking at her, I felt it the same way I always do.
Unable to stop myself, I turn toward her and find her looking up for the first time since entering the room. Her eyes are locked on Pike, who stares Victor down, with a murderous rage.
Pike never wanted to be engaged to Harlow. He’d fought it for as long as he could. It was something Harlow started working on when we were young. Originally, she tried it with me, but my parents knew better than to push me. Oh, they tried, but I refused. I would have walked away and never looked back before that happened. A luxury Pike didn’t have with his beast’s need for a pack.
Something Harlow knew and was happy to take advantage of. Like the bitch she is.
Serena’s eyes well with tears as she presses a hand to her mouth in disbelief, shaking her head. It takes everything in me not to go to her. What I can’t stop is the rumble that builds in my chest seeing her sadness, and I’m not the only one who notices.
Pike glances down at Serena at the sound, clearly sensing the reason for our anger. Pike's eyes soften for a moment before he turns his gaze back to the other side of the table.
“She’s not my fiancé. I did everything you wanted for years! Jumped when you told me to, ran the business, did the hard jobs, and I never complained.”
Pike doesn’t shout, his voice level as he speaks, even as his fingers clench into fists at his side. “Harlow is a nightmare. Worse than that, she’s a fucking monster, and I won’t spend the rest of my life tied to her just because it will help your social standing.”
