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I laugh and shake my head. “What, now I’m family? Funny, last I checked, you shunned me and banished me from the pack along with your grandson—the Blood Alpha's son!” I tell him.
My father growls, his eyes darting around to his pack members who watch on.
“Inside!” he spits through gritted teeth.
“No, you won't save face this time. Now do the right thing and sign off on the petition,” I tell him.
“This debate will not be settled in front of my pack!” he snarls, stomping back down the steps.
“You meanmypack? I am the rightful heir tothispack!” I tell him, and murmurs break out around us at the challenge.
“Sign the petition, John, or you leave me no choice,” I tell him. Despite my blistering hot rage at him, I am surprised at how cold and calm my voice comes out.
Ava laughs, and my mother's mouth opens and closes like a fish as she looks nervously between us. The sound of screeching tires and the roar of an engine tearing through the streets can be heard easily as the car drifts through the streets. I know it must be Valen; I can feel him getting closer to me through the bond. His panicked voice is flitting through my head, wanting to know what’s going on and if I’m alright, yet I can't answer without becoming distracted.
My father laughs. “You dare come here and threaten me?” he growls.
“It's not a threat, Alpha. Threats mean you can back out, mere words, not actions. I intend to do what I say. Words are of no use to me. Actions are. So, final warning,” I tell him.
He laughs and shakes his head, stepping down the last step. Now he’s pissed off. But I won't back down—not this time. I’m not a little girl anymore. I’m not a child. And if there’s one thing being on my own for so long showed me, it’s that I don't need a pack to fight for me. I can stand on my own two feet and still succeed.
He scoffs, folding his arms across his chest. “Think, Everly, just because you have Alpha Valen behind you now doesn't mean I will submit. Your mate doesn't scare me.”
“I don't need him to challenge you—and I would never ask him to—but as the rightful heir to this pack, I have every right to challenge you formytitle. Now sign the damn petition. This isn't about me or you. It’s the right thing to do!”
“They are rogues for a reason, Everly. You can't expect us to suddenly grant them back their rights for their misdoings,” he states. Whispers break out from the crowd that has gathered. Turning, I see most of them are in agreement with my father, which just makes this even more disgusting. They’re sheep, all of them.
“Misdoings? They are rogue for having a fucking child, the same as all of you here. The only difference is they were banished for who fathered them, their children then forced to live in poverty and with the weight of their parent's so-called misdeeds on their shoulders, labeling them for something that shouldn't be shameful,” I tell them.
“How can you say that? They are home-wreckers, whores,” comes a voice from the crowd. I look around and see Amber’s surly face sticking out in the crowd. I turn to look at her as she steps out from behind my father’s Beta, who is also her father and my family’s neighbor.
“So, what does that make Micah?” I ask her. “You dare label my friend because your mate stuck his dick in someone that wasn't you? Sorry to tell you, Amber, but clearly you aren't aware how a child is made. You seem to have it stuck in your head that Micah tripped and fell into her vagina.” My crude words earn some whispers and a couple of laughs, but I’m done being slut-shamed, done hearing the term rogue whore.
“She should know better!” Amber screams, her face turning red.
“And so should he. They had sex, and she got pregnant. Yet, she’s punished for it. How is that fair? How is any of it fair?” I ask. Fools, the lot of them. It makes me laugh.
“I could call out,” I look around at all the staring faces, “easilytenmen here I know that fathered an illegitimate child!” I yell, glancing around to see some men stiffen.
“You call us whores for raising the children you turned your backs on, yet we are the deadbeats? The scum of the city? The ones labeled? So where are all your labels, huh? Punishing your own children for something they had no part in. They never asked to exist—that was the decision of two consenting adults that had sex—yet you shame them, too, for who their mother is.”
“They made that mistake! They brought it on themselves! We are all taught the same thing: to save ourselves for our mates! I did the right thing, yet your friend has a child with my mate!” Amber screams at me.
“No, Amber, she had sex and got pregnant! Don't stand here and make yourself out to be better than her, just because no one here is willing to talk about the fact that the Beta's daughter was also the school bike. It doesn't make you any better just because you didn't get knocked up!”
“How dare you, I am the Beta's–”
“Whore? Half the football team ran through you from what I remember from school, but let's not mention that,” I tell her.
“And let's not forget half the school! Daddy must beso proud,” Ava chimes in behind me. Woah, clearly, these two aren't friends anymore.
“Ava, stay out of it!” my father snaps at her, looking lethal. Seconds later, Valen's car squeals as he drifts around the corner at the end of the street. Everyone on the road jumps out of his way as his car screeches to a stop in front of my father's house.
He jumps out of his car and growls, and everyone jumps back as my mate stalks toward us, only to stop when Ava keeps talking.
“Why? It's the truth. What Everly says is the truth! You all shunned my sister—your future Alpha—because she had a kid. Well, joke’s on you, isn't it? Because it turns out she isn't a rogue whore, and is mated to the most notorious Alpha in the city, the very man who fathered her child,” Ava says, pushing off the car to stand beside me as I confront my father and the pack that should have been mine. “But you knew that, didn't you, father? I knew it. We all knew it. Only one bloodline has those eyes,” she continues.
I turn to face my father, who does his best to look away. I glance at my mother, who looks down, confirming her words.
