The Alpha's Gamble - Chapter 21: Chapter 21

“Hear me out!” he whipped his head around to look at me. “We drove to the Timber Pack, you maimed one of their precious mercenaries in front of his fucking Alpha. Now, I’m not judging, you know I love it when you get all Alpha beast on their asses, but it’s the why that’s bugging me the fuck out! You did it for her, didn’t you? For Maddie,”
The way a subtle note of disgust dripped from her name had me clutching the wheel to keep my hands occupied so I didn’t knock out my brother and maim him too.
What the fuck was happening to me? I knew that girl would become a problem, but not like this- not to where she consumed me.
I pressed my lips together and sighed in relief when we drove across the border and up to our house.
Logan was heaving, his eyes bloodshot from containing himself, and the door slammed hard when he stepped out of the car. I halted to a stop from the sound. Not my fucking car.
I shot my hand out and grabbed his collar, fisting it as I pulled him to me.
“You can pout all you want, but you never take it out on the car.” he should know that by now. The little punk pulled his arm down on mine, cutting off my hold on him, and he stomped off toward the house.
He’s had the same stomp since he was three; it never changed, not with me. Though if someone else were to piss him off, he’d just kick their ass or fuck their brain until they couldn’t tell an illusion from reality.
The wind blew in around me, shifting a breeze from around the house, and I closed my eyes when her scent invaded my mind, and my chest tightened.
Don’t look for her. Ignore it.
Go talk to Logan or go for a run or take on an extra training session and beat the fuck out of a warrior.
The wind blew past me again, enveloping my senses and made me weak in my fucking knees.
Ah, fuck it.
With long strides and a torn mind, I was inside the house within seconds and followed her scent to the terrace.
The doors stood open, curtains fluttering from the wind, and from around the corner, I saw her sitting hunched with Clara and my dad. Maddie was quietly looking out over the backyard while her mother said something that made my dad laugh. Why did the sound make me want to rip my ears off?
“Son,” he said and gestured for the chair beside him when I joined them. Maddie’s head whipped around, and she did a double-take before rolling her eyes. Something twitched in me at the sight, and I watched her lift the cup to her lips and take a sip of her coffee as she shifted her back toward me.
“Please sit; we thought you boys would join us sooner.” Clara’s voice was sweeter than the sugar she’d put out for the tea; it irked me to listen to it, but I allowed the polite smile to grow on my face and give her a false sense of hope that we were bonding.
That bitch hit her daughter, I had plans for her, but they would be long and painful, drawn out over time until the last strings of her sanity snapped one by one.
The chair screeched against the white concrete, and Clara winced. My dad cleared his throat, and Maddie eyed my movements with furrowed brows, squinting those eyes with a wrinkle forming around her nose. I dragged it around the table and fisted the back of Maddie’s chair, pushing it a few inches to the side to create space between her and her mother, and then I plopped the chair between them.
They looked at me like… I don’t know, neither one showed what they were thinking, but Clara plastered on a delighted smile. The homewrecker probably thought I wanted to be close to her. Maddie shifted uncomfortably and raised her knee but then let it fall with a hiss. Her bones still hadn’t healed.
Something told me that the baby blue dress with ruffle sleeves wasn’t her idea of attire, it barely covered her knees, showing the bruises that were fading slowly, and her thighs…holy fuck.
Against my better judgment, I leaned down and grabbed the seat of her chair, pulling her closer to me until her seat was glued to mine.
“What are you-“
“Have you eaten?” I asked and grabbed Clara’s version of a sandwich, it was barely bigger than my finger.
Maddie’s eyes fell to my lips when I took a bite of the fluffy bread; it wasn’t too bad, honestly.
A lock of hair fell across her eyes, and she turned her head.
“I’m not hungry.”
Grabbing her plate, I put three of the miniature sandwiches on there with some cherries that had been bathed and dried in the sun that peaked through the shade.
It never stopped to amaze me how whenever I visited the Timber Pack it looked like the fucking apocalypse was taking place but here at the Obsidian Pack, the sun almost always shined.
“Eat.” I pushed the plate in front of her and grabbed another sandwich. I’d have to eat the entire plate, and even that was just a snack, but what I was craving was a thick, bloody piece of meat.
“I said,” she pushed the plate away, “I’m not hungry.”
Clara giggled awkwardly, and I looked at where her fingers patted my arm, sending waves of disgust through my body.
“She’s stubborn,” Clara said and looked at her daughter. “Although I must say it’s nice to see you thinking about your weight for once,” she laughed.
What did the bitch just say?
“Don’t kill her,” Onyx warned.
“No, don’t worry. Death would be far too kind.”
What I had planned would make death seem like a children’s party.
They continued talking, with Maddie sitting quietly in her own thoughts.
“Stop slouching, sweetheart; it’s bad for your back.”
Maddie straightened with a scowl, and her fingers turned red when she tightened her grip around the ceramic cup.
“Don’t look at me like that. I didn’t raise you to be rude.” Holly hell.
A crack was heard from the cup, and Maddie’s chest expanded from a deep breath about to burst.
The chair pushed back and just before she rose, about to give her mother a piece of her mind, I dug my fingers into her thigh and pushed her back down- gluing her ass to the chair and pushing it back under the table.