AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Well,” she prodded. “Tell us, what’s going on?”
“Why did you drop the Dragon Hunters franchise?” Benjamin asked. Right. He didn’t even stop to say hello before he pounced.
I swallowed, jaw clenched. Of course, this was what they wanted to know. The last week was a blur of fatigue and desperation, but I should have known this part would catch up to me. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“It’s a fool’s move—”
“I said I don’t—”
“After all this time, going against our advice,” Benjamin said. “And youfinallyfound something to make us proud, all to just… throw it away?”
I grit my teeth, not wanting it to show on my face how much that hurt. I was Benjamin’s only biological child in the pack so his expectations of me had always been higher. Of course, I failed those expectations at every turn, no matter how hard I tried.
“Why am I not surprised?” Felix muttered. “You were always listening to your grandmother when you should have been spending your time—”
“Don’t bring gran into this,” I snapped.
“You’re the oldest, Rook. We always pushed hard.” My mother paused, glancing at Felix. “We recognise now that the whole… acting thing was our own failing.”
“What?” I asked, glancing between them. It was a surprise to hear any of them take responsibility for anything.
“We pushed too hard, and you pushed back—I mean, of course you did, you have a spine on you, just like your father.”
I blinked, trying to keep up with the conversation.
They werestillstuck on this?
It didn’t matter how many times I told them I’d chosen acting because I loved it—not because I was trying to get on their nerves—they wouldn’t believe me.
“We’ve been trying to give you space,” Benjamin said with a nod as he served my mother some of her favourite Mango Fritto Misto. He was rewarded by a sweet sideways smile from her. I lingered on that for a moment. I should figure out what Vex liked. That would help.
I wondered what she’d want if I brought her here? Had she ever been to a place like this before?
Would she even like it? It was pretentious as fuck, and I hated it, but then… I’d seen where she’d lived. Might this be agoodkind of different…?
Fuck me. I didn’t know where to start. The dreamboard was in her room, and there was no way for me to go in there without disturbing her. I’d tried to remember what was on it, but I hadn’t been paying nearly as much attention to it when we were there. I’d been in shock.
“But this is going too far, now,” Felix went on. “What was it? Some game by one of the Hightower brothers again—? I said they’d be your ruin, son.” I saw him rub the back of his right hand absently as he spoke. I felt a rare spark of gratitude toward Ebony—the only moment of gratitude he ever had and ever would earn from me.
“They are not good enough for you, Rook,” Benjamin said. “And now they’re going to sabotage this, too?”
“You have a strong aura, I’ve been saying for years, you should be pack lead,” my mother said. “They wanted your name to climb their way to fame, you should be the one—”
I grit my teeth. “Idon’twant pack lead.” I knew those words would land on deaf ears as they had every time I’d said them before.
“When are you going to grow up?” Felix asked. “Notruealpha doesn’t want to be pack lead, it’s in your blood—stop running from it. We didn’t raise a layabout.”
For the hundredth time, I wondered how pleased my parents would be if Ebony had been theirs, instead of me. Born into my family, he would have excelled. Instead, I was a disappointment to a pack who would have preferred a cold psychopath, while he was stuck with a mother who thought he was a monster.
“Can we drop this? The contract’s gone—and it wasn’t Love or Ebony’s fault.”
Still, I could feel that ancient pit of hopelessness stretching open beneath me as I looked around at them. Was it possible that the Dragon Hunterswouldhave been enough?
Maybe with it, I’d get smiles from them instead of this never ending disappointment and frustration. It’s why I stayed away from my family as much as I could. It was one thing to endure it, it was another to see them shower my siblings with praise for following the paths that had been laid out before them. It didn’t matter that I was doing better in my career than any of them ever had, even before Dragon Hunters.
I hadn’t chosen acting to disappoint them. I’d wanted to show them I could live up to their legacy—but while doing something I loved as much as Felix and Benjamin loved piano, or as much as my mother loved her singing.
“What about this gold pack drama?” My mother asked, startling me out of my thoughts. “You should be getting ahead of things like that.”
