I smile. “I told you from the very beginning, I’m good at hiding out in the open. It’s a requirement when you’re one of the last of your kind and you spend your entire life simply trying to stay alive.”
Chapter 52
The Afterburn
LUKE
TWO WEEKS AGO:
March 17, 2025: 9:22 a.m.
Alpha Kings Mansion: Conference Room
After Jessica leaves us in the alley, she disappears for two days. She won’t answer her phone. No one knows where she is. The media goes crazy, highlighting her on every news channel. The paparazzi and reporters camp out in front of our home, Whitemore plantation, and our hotel in the city. My parents, including Anders, practically climb the walls with worry. Has she been captured or hurt physically?
I’m sure she harbors some emotional damage after the day she had. The twins keep trying to reach her. She won’t respond to their calls or those from the guards to whom she is especially close.
Sixes finally admits that she knows where she went and reassures everyone that she is fine.
On the morning of the third day, she finally responds to Jeremy’s text and tells him she’s on her way home. When she arrives, we all wait for her in the conference room. Before she can even sit at the table, both my parents, Anders, and the twins lay into her.
I sit quietly. She never once addresses what happened between her and me, and I won’t bring it up. Sometimes, our parents and family just don’t need to know. If she would talk to me, I hope to clarify my actions. I want to start over. But for now, other matters require our attention first.
Anders slams his fist on the table, drawing my attention back to the argument. Jessica refuses to back down, even with sound reason. Some part of me feels that she has every right to be upset. So many secrets were kept from her, meant to protect her. Even her becoming mated is designed to protect her. She is so damned stubborn. She honestly believes she doesn’t need a mate.
Maybe she doesn’t.
She’s successful in her own right, independent, and able to protect herself. But she doesn’t understand that she needs a mate and the backing of his pack to protect her pack.
I glance over at my brothers, red-faced. My mother looks on the verge of tears. My father’s jaw tenses as he grinds his teeth. Everyone is wearing casual clothing, faded jeans and plain t-shirts. But the intensity of the meeting makes it feel like we should have worn something more appropriate for business or war.
With palms planted on the table, Jessica stands, leaning forward, and mirrors Anders’s stance. Ice crystals form around his hands.
I pinch the bridge of my nose and sigh. “Jessica, knock it off!” I yell. Somehow in the heat of this argument, I think they all forgot I was even sitting here. Jessica is the last one to turn thoseclear, icy blue eyes on me. Her oversized sweater slides down her shoulder. Wayward strands fall into her face.
A growl escapes her lips. Fuck it, so much for sweet talk. She always responds better when we fight anyway.
“Sit your fucking ass down, and listen,” I bark.
Her eyes narrow, and she sneers, “Fuck you! What makes you think I will listen to anything you have to say?!”
I lean over the table. “Stop acting like a brat and sit down!”
Thunder rumbles in the distance. “A brat? You think I’m acting like a brat!”
“As a matter of a fact, I do.” I clench my jaw.
“This is my life, Luke. I don’t need a man to help me lead a pack!”
“No one said you couldn’t. This is about laws and rules. This is about protecting youandyour pack.”
“Ican protect my pack. I can teach them how to protect themselves, if that’s what they need!”
“Yeah. Right. You’ll teach a bunch of geriatrics and pediatrics how to fight a war, if that’s what your stubborn ass brings to them. You, out of all of us sitting here, know this pack. Haven’t you taken a good look at them? There are no young adults, no warriors among them. If an Alpha shows up with his pack and decides to take you out, what about them? What about their lives and their families? You would rather leave them vulnerable for your own selfish reasons?”
Her spine softens, and she lowers her gaze. She knows I’m right. This pack she acquired comprises elderly men and women, too old to learn how to fight, and the younger ones are just too young. I never really understood why there were no teenagers or young adults in the pack. I assumed they all left for school or jobs, but none of them returned. Where are the young parents to the children?
She drops herself into her chair with an exasperated sigh. She rubs her hands against the worn fabric of her jeans. I can hardly suppress a chuckle at the sight of the chucks she’s wearing. Between the twins and me, we must of have bought her numerous identical pairs of those shoes. Because she simply won’t wear anything else. Between her chucks and hoodies, she considers both to be her security blanket.
