AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“No, it’s not that,” Jared interjects. “The alpha has some powers, and one of them is the alpha command. If he decrees something, we physicallycan’tdisobey him. He forbade the entire pack from speaking to you about the pack, period. He gave us special permission to prepare you for manifestation, and that is all.”
Resentment rises in my chest. “You know, this is all kind of bullshit. Why didn’t he tell me all of this himself? Why doesn’t he just give me answers now? What would it harm? I’m going to ask him.” Throwing back the blanket, I stand and march toward the suite door, the guys scrambling to their feet in my wake.
Even though it’s dark in the hallway, I am familiar enough with this house to know where I’m going. First I throw open the office door, but it’s dark inside, so I move on to my uncle’s suite of rooms. I’ve never knocked on this door, but I swallow down the nerves and bang loudly. The guys are a few steps away as if they fear the doors will fly open and he’ll shoot flames from his mouth like an angry dragon.
I wait several minutes, but he doesn’t appear. Frustrated, I try the knob, but it’s locked.
“Argh, where the hell is he?” I growl, then think of one last place he might be.
Brushing past the guys, I walk back down the hallway and push my way into the library.
There’s no fire, just a few candles, but sure enough, my uncle is on the couch, reading.
The guys wait in the doorway, but I march in and stand in front of him.
He doesn’t look up. “I see you boys completed your mission.” His voice is low and neutral.
“Yes, alpha,” Milo answers in a similarly neutral voice.
“Good job. Now you should return to your homes. You’ll see Layla in the morning at school.”
“Goodbye, Layla.”
“Bye, Lex.”
“See you tomorrow.”
Just like that, without a second’s hesitation, they’re gone.
I watch them depart into the darkness, then turn back to my uncle with an incredulous expression. “Whoareyou?”
He sighs, then looks at me for the first time. “I’m your uncle, your mother’s brother, and I’m the alpha of the Smoky Falls pack.”
“That’s why you think you can just boss people around? Because you’re an alpha? What about-”
“Yes,” he cuts me off. “I can boss people around precisely because I’m the alpha. It’s called compulsion, and I, and to a lesser extent my beta, can use it to manage the pack. Sometimes it’s the only way to make sure everyone continues working for the harmony and betterment of the pack.”
“By taking away their free will? That seems pretty shitty to me.”
“I understand why you feel that way. Your mother also disliked the idea of alpha compulsion. But we only use it when necessary, I assure you. I couldn’t have the town telling you about us before you were ready to hear it. I wanted to make sure the news came from someone you connected to, someone who felt like a friend. That’s why I chose those three to tell you.”
“Who’s we?”
“Excuse me?”
“You said ‘we only use it.’ Who is we?”
“I told you, me, and my beta.”
“And who is your beta?”
“I should have thought that was obvious. She’s here all the time. Roxanne is my beta.”
The realization zoomed in on me with the force of a Mack truck.
Roxanne is the beta, and she can use compulsion.
My constant need to do what she wanted, to obey, to throw myself into my studies for the year we were in LA, to follow every order for my physical therapy.
