Alpha, Not

Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Avery

"Please don't hate me." Pete had begged me. What the hell! His words keep echoing around and around in my mind. My thoughts are a jumbled mess right now; I don't know what I should think about him.

Honestly, I'm pretty sure I don't hate him. How could I? He's always been good to me, and he saved me from my former bullies and those rogue wolves. He couldn't be all that bad, could he? But how could he have done all those things to his mate. Especially when a mate was supposed to be the one who meant everything to him. If I understand what Pete and Andrew told me correctly, then Pete should have loved and cherished this Jaxon guy more than anything. Yet, he told me himself about all the terrible things he did. It's just so hard to reconcile the Pete I know with the Pete who did that.

There are too many things dropping on me all at once and I can't deal with all of them. First, there really are werewolves, they're not just a myth. Second, this guy that I've been dating, that I've started to really like is one; or was. (Does that even matter? It's basically the same thing.)  Third, not only was he a werewolf, but he ordered his men to rape and abuse another guy, a guy who was supposed to be his mate. Fourth, it seems that if werewolves are real, it's likely that other supernatural beings are real too. Fifth, ... no, stop already. Isn't that enough?

"I need time to think," I had muttered to him, before standing up from the bed and then walking out of the room. I didn't look back as I left.  I found my way back down to the main floor where the Alpha waiting, there was no one else there.

"Is there somebody who can drive me back home?" I asked. All I wanted was to wake up from this nightmare I found myself trapped in; the pack house was the last place I wanted to be right now.

He nodded, leading me out to one of the cars parked in the front of the pack house; we both climbed in, and he drove me back into town himself. It was a quiet ride; neither of us said anything the whole way there.

After he pulled up in front of my apartment, he stopped me briefly as I was getting out and said: "Pete is trying hard to make up for the things he's done in the past; he's changed a lot since then. I hope you will take that into consideration."

I nodded, not knowing how to respond to that, stepped out of the car and made my way up to my apartment where I fell onto my bed and cried myself to sleep.

***

It's been a week since I last spoke to Pete. I still haven't been able to think clearly about the whole situation. 'Today is going to be another one of those days', I thought to myself as I lay in bed trying to decide if I should even get up. My chest is already tight with emotions threatening to overflow and spill out all over my day. Not only am I still trying to resolve my feelings about the things Pete told me, but today is the anniversary of my mom's death. The day she was abruptly taken from me, because someone thought that getting shitfaced drunk and then getting behind the wheel of their car was okay.

That was the night, everything in my life changed.

Mom had taken on an extra shift that day because the overtime would be enough to cover the rest of the rent for the month. She always took every opportunity to take extra shifts at the hospital. Besides the extra money, she truly loved working with all the patients. She had gotten off work around the same time that the local bars were closing down for the night.

I was awakened by my phone ringing, the number on the display was mom's and I thought she was calling because the car broke down or something - it was always doing that. An unexpected man's voice spoke when I picked up, asking me if I was Emily Brown's family, which sent chills down my spine. After I had replied that I was, he informed me he was with the police, and there had been an accident. He told me that my mother had been hit by a drunk drive and that she had died instantly in the accident; that she hadn't suffered. He wanted me to come to the hospital to identify her body since I was the only relative in her contacts list.