The Alpha's Gamble - Chapter 74: Chapter 74

NOAH
I needed this year to be over.
Everything from start to finish had been nothing but colossal fuck-ups and headaches, one thing after another in a never-ending loop. And it didn’t seem like we were about to get peace anytime soon. Logan was pouting in the armchair, shifting it to half-face the wall as he gulped down another shot of whiskey. The fucking brat. I ripped the bottle from his hand just when he was about to pour himself another one.
I shoved it into the cabinet and slammed the glass door. If I couldn’t drown my mind in booze, then neither could he. I needed everyone sharp right now, and Logan was getting on my last nerve.
He was acting like a child, pouting because I exerted my dominance over him, which I rarely did.
And never had I done it in wolf form.
He felt belittled, small, and ashamed.
But the little prick had nearly killed Maddie, and he didn’t give two shits about that. After she was knocked out, we took her back to the mansion.
The healers helped force a shift to ensure she returned to human form before waking.
Now she was resting on the couch in the office, and we still hadn’t told my father or Clara.
We weren’t sure whether it’d even be a good idea to include them, considering who it was that knocked her out. The door opened, and Trevor walked in, chest heaving and shoulders raised in a bow. The strength he possessed was out of the ordinary for a regular wolf; he hadn’t shown it before, not even when he lived here. I opened my mouth, about to speak, but then I saw the shadows crossing the wall as two people appeared behind him. Clara and my father hurried inside, each wearing a death glare and a contorted expression that outweighed the other.
They let the door fall shut behind them, and my father kneeled next to the couch, searching Maddie’s unconscious face. I wasn’t sure what he was looking for, maybe he wasn’t either.
But he had apparently used up his time when Trevor stepped in between them, forcing a distance between my father and Maddie. They shared a look.
One that spoke volumes without any words being uttered, threatening, defensive, and hate-filled.
“She tried to kill my sons.”
“No,” Trevor said, cementing his position in front of his daughter, blocking her even from Clara.
“Her wolf did. Maddie had no control.” My dad scoffed and wrinkled his nose.
“You know as well as I do what that means. A person who can’t control their wolf is a danger to everyone. I can’t allow her to try that again.” I listened, but I didn’t intervene. Not yet.
But if he thought he was laying a finger on her, he had another thing coming.
I would sooner go to war against my father than let him hurt Madeline.
“Maddie has been training her entire life.
Her psyche is stronger than anyone else I know, and she has never displayed any of the symptoms a person shows before they gain an uncontrollable wolf.”
“What symptoms?” Logan asked out of the blue, and I wanted to slap him silly. He better shut the fuck up and not say another word, that’s exactly what I hoped my glare told him.
When he leaned back in the chair and shut his mouth, I assumed he got the message.
“Symptoms of paranoia. Weakness in combat. Mental disorders like hearing voices and depression.
All signs of a weak mind, a weak human, and therefore an unfit vessel for a wolf,” our father explained.
Logan better keep his trap shut. If he uttered a single word, wait. He probably didn’t know about Maddie. She wouldn’t be dumb enough to tell him.
“Have either of you noticed anything off about Maddie?” I kept a straight head and locked eyes with my father. He was trying to look past any blocks I put up and see the truth in my eyes, but the old man taught me well.
“No. None,” I said, and his focus shifted to Logan.
“Son?” Logan’s head turned left and right, slowly, confidently, painfully.
Like he wanted to say yes, but he knew it wasn’t warranted. The sound of skin rubbing against leather turned everyone back to Maddie when she stirred awake on the couch, fisting the pillow under her head before rubbing her temples.
“What the fuck?” Her voice was hoarse, and wrinkles formed around her eyes as she pressed them shut.
“Why is my head throbbing?” It had to feel like a hangover. She was used to those. And I’m guessing the pain wasn’t too far off.
“Maddie?” Trevor squatted beside her.
“Dad?” Her bloodshot eyes took in her father’s appearance, and she pulled the blanket higher as she sat up to face us.
“What happened?” she asked, a dull pair of eyes bewilderedly scanning the office and the faces staring down at her.
“Oh sure. First, you try to kill me, and now you don’t remember. That’s fair.”
Logan tapped his hand on the leather-covered armrests and scratched his nails into the rip he’d already created. Maddie looked genuinely confused.
But when Logan spoke, her eyes doubled and she buried her face in her hands.
“I tried to kill you?” Her voice was muffled in her palms but audible nonetheless, and Logan pursed his lips and nodded. It’s not like Maddie was the first wolf who tried to kill him; she was just the first one from our pack. And I guess the first one that almost came close to succeeding. An uncontrolled wolf can’t be compared to one who co-lives with its vessel.
Because they aren’t attached, emotionally or physically, to their human, their strength is raw power.
When I saw my brother rising to his feet and stepping closer to the couch, I shifted my position and made sure to block him before he got too close. His eyes narrowed on mine, that same old monotone expression that hid feelings I’m sure he didn’t have glinted back at me, and he grinned.
“Good to know where I stand with you.” He pulled the door open and stormed down the hallway.
Maddie dragged her hands down her face and looked down the office, biting her lip when she saw Logan disappearing around the corner.
“What’s going to happen now?” Trevor asked as he rose. My dad stepped back. He threw a quick glance, one I didn’t like, at Clara, who bowed her head.
“Nothing. Had the situation been different, I would have had to… come up with some form of disciplinary action. Most likely resulting in Maddie’s immediate departure from the pack—”
“Fuck that.” I stepped in, and my father held up his hand to silence me.
“But I won’t.”
Trevor released a breath, and I stepped back, but something changed in Maddie’s face, and her eyes fell to her hands.
“Because you don’t have to,” she said, mostly to herself.
“I won’t be your problem to solve for that much longer.” What does that mean?
Trevor’s eyes shifted to Maddie, and the office fell silent. Maddie raised her head and locked a pair of fierce eyes on my father.
“The Ember Ring will take care of that. Right? Take the burden off your hands.
Why shun me from the pack when I’ll be dead in less than two months?”