“Once Reika calms down, she can come back home. But until then, keep an eye on her,” Ryker said before walking inside. I looked at Ace.
“I told her to be home by dark,” he said, and I nodded before opening my car door and climbing in.
Ace climbed in beside me, shutting his door, and I started the car heading home. “Drop me at Melana’s on the way.”
“I swear to god, Ace, if you being with Melana fucks everything up, I will fucking kill you,” I told him.
“If anything, it will stuff me over. You didn’t do anything. Besides, I never wanted Melana. She was just a distraction,” he said, and I rolled my eyes. I doubted Melana saw it that way.
I dropped Ace at Melana’s apartment in the city, and he told me he would run home when he was done dealing with her. Driving home, I pulled up out the front and leaned my head against the headrest. Tyrant was pissed off that we had just let her run off.But what does he want me to do?I couldn’t control her and tell her what to do. She wasn’t even aware we were her mates, and the last thing I wanted her to think was that she was unwelcome here or force her here and have her hate me for it. Opening the mindlink, I felt for her teether. All our packs now branched off each other. Under the Alpha King’s rule, we now had a link to any of us in an alliance well, except for Alpha Jamie’s pack. He liked to make things increasingly difficult, and I knew I would have to deal with him sooner or later. I knew his pack warriors would have alerted him to Lucy’s presence when she stepped across the border.
“What, Tyson?” Lucy asked when her side of the link opened up.
“Just checking on you. Make sure you come back here before dark. I don’t want you roaming the streets,” I told her.
“Yeah, whatever you say, Alpha,” she said, and I could hear the aggravation in her voice. Sometimes, I think she hated being the only one out of my entire family who didn’t have an Alpha aura or the ability to stand up for herself. Especially against her mother now that she was mated to my brother.
“You don’t need to call me that, Lucy. You know that,” I told her. She didn’t answer, but I could feel the link open still and knew she was listening.
“What are you and Mitchell doing?” I asked her, trying to keep the jealousy from my voice. I hated how close they were even while she was away. I knew she never went a day without talking to him, even if it was just text messages.
“Nothing, but Meredith invited me to stay for dinner, so I will head back after that.”
“I will come to pick you up. I don’t want you walking in the dark.”
“No, I am good. Mitchell can run me back,” she said, and I sighed.
“Fine, but not late, Lucy. If you aren’t going to school, you can start training with me in the morning.”
“What? Yelling at me wasn’t enough? Now you want to beat the living daylights out of me?”
“No, we can discuss it when you get here. Not late, Lucy. I mean it, or I will come and find you,” I warned her, and she cut the link off. I had no problems grabbing her while she was kicking and screaming. I was used to her defiance and the major chip on her shoulder. Though it had gotten worse the last year or so. She very rarely talked to us anymore, or if she did, she shoved us out when we became a little too nosey when we would mindlink her.
Ace and I have discussed that something was off with her, but then we saw her and she was her normal loud bubbly self. She was hard to take seriously, and it didn’t help that she was constantly in trouble with some authority figure. Still, something was off. I could feel it. Tyrant could feel it too. She changed. Something within her changed, or maybe she was just becoming more aware of the bond and didn’t know what to make of it without having a wolf.
Chapter ten
Lucy
Mitchell’s mom made beef stroganoff for dinner. It felt weird sitting at a table eating with a family. Usually, I was in a dining hall full of others like me, the chatter was endless, and you could blend in easily and remain invisible. Mitchell’s father was on pack patrol, so he didn’t join us. It was just Meredith and Mitchell. His mom asked a never-ending amount of questions.
“Have you found your mate yet?” Meredith asked, and I saw Mitchell give his mother a look.
“What?” his mother asked, shocked by his glare.
“You know she hasn’t got a wolf,” Mitchell told her.
“Neither did Queen Aria when she ruled. She still found her mate,” Meredith told me. Aria was my stepfather’s mother. Even though I wasn’t technically related, she always treated me as if I were her grandchild. I loved my family dearly, but they didn’t seem to understand what it was like being an outsider and a constant disappointment. I knew what they would think, I was not stupid or blind. They thought of me as troubled. A mess they wished could clean itself up. We ate dinner in a comfortable silence after that, and then I helped Meredith do the dishes.
Mitchell walked into the kitchen before grabbing his keys. I told him about being expelled but didn’t give him a reason. I just let him make it out how he wanted, I didn’t care to explain myself. No one would believe me anyway.
“Want me to run you home?” Mitchell asked, grabbing his car keys. I also hadn’t told him I was kicked out. Sometimes I wished I were human. They didn’t realize how free they were without having to worry about pack issues, mates, or no mates. None of them had to be the illegitimate child of the Alpha Queen.
“No, it’s not far. I want to go for a run anyhow,” I told him, grabbing my jumper and pulling it on. Mitchell gave me a hug and walked me to the door.
“I can run you back?” he offered, but I shook my head. I wasn’t even sure where I was going myself.
“Nope, I am good. It’s still early. I will see you tomorrow.”