The Two Alphas of Rosewood Creek [MxM]

Chapter 65- Nate

Nate's POV

Lost in thought, the soft, somber mood lighting from the hallway kept me awake. That was the excuse I made for myself when, really, it was something else.

Checked out, I wasn't fully present. Stuck in the past, back to when everything got fucked up—on the day of the attack. It was a vicious nightmare, relentlessly one that came back to haunt me every night.

Honestly, I wished there was a way to erase these triggering thoughts; this shit was too deep to be reminded of every damn day. But there was no running from it. What I would give to live in the previous iteration of reality, but that wasn't going to happen either, was it?

Especially with what I know now...

The scene was just as before, Theo running off to the closet to get River some clothes. The Alpha only did that to hide his tears. Not a lot of people knew this, but the dude was a total crybaby. Like, big time. Maybe not now, but he was always teary-eyed whenever I teased him back when we were kids. Running, always hiding behind his mom, it had become a sport to see how far I could get the boy to crack. Naturally, this changed throughout the years, and the tears became fists of anger. Still, it was fun nonetheless. As much as I wanted to laugh at him, I couldn't now, the same pain gripping my body as a few of my own tears escaped me. Seeing my mate suffer like this made an impact. It was clearer than ever just how much fear had infiltrated our sense of security.

Sticking close by to River's side, I removed my jacket to cover his naked body. I placed sweet, gentle kisses on his neck with my lips, my primal instincts taking over as I thoroughly rubbed my scent onto his body once more.

"Nate." The wolf leaned over, close enough so I could only hear his faint words. "Tyrus tried to kill us," he whispered.

"What?" A quick intake of breath left my lips. Unprepared by the bomb that just fell on me, I thought I had misheard him.

"I don't understand." The shock temporarily shut my brain down. Taken aback, I about lost myself. If it wasn't for his trembling voice shushing me to be quiet, I really would have. River looked deep into my eyes, the striking lavender conjuring images of sweet flowers swaying under the moonlight. The wolf revealed something even more gruesome.

"And he's the one who killed Theo's mom," River divulged.

The heavy stillness that followed made me check to see if this was a dream. Pinching myself, the pain only brought me back to reality. My heart sped up, a wave of disgust hitting me, slowly turning the pages, beginning to process everything as it was.

"Tyrus did what?" I had lowered my voice, too. Before I could lay into questioning the wolf some more, Theo returned. Holding my composure, I tried to act as though everything was fine. Theo wasn't stupid, immediately sensing my frazzled energy. I was only thankful to distract him with some silly nonsense.

That night I didn't sleep a wink. How could I? It was as if I had been slogged with a bucket of ice water, everything coming in waves and submerging me in total disbelief. Disbelief that the Beta would actually do something...or rather, that he was capable of such a thing.

Toiling in the silence, my imagination ran over every possibility where River could be wrong. That he had utter foolishness, but something Ezra said really shook me.

'If Tyrus really did something like this, maybe he's the reason why Vince got away.' The wolf was also caught in my web of frantic conspiracy theories. As easy as it was to logically deny this and cast off River's rambles as a pure misunderstanding,  I couldn't—

River would never lie to me. My chest tightened, sadness clutching my aching heart as I looked over the two others sound asleep in my bed. Tyrus had crossed the line. And if I had my way, I was going to make him pay for this. For Remy... for Theo.