Kissed by a Rose✔️

23) Pain of the Past

Minutes later, I found myself in one of Jordan's conference rooms with Theo and Griffin across from Mal and I. We sat down and looked at them expectantly as they stood there and appeared to be communicating without words. From what I gathered, they had an ability to read each other's minds to some extent, which allowed them to update one another periodically. With this, they rummaged through a file and began to get everything in order.

I felt Mals stare, and turned my head to look at her. She hugged me as soon as she saw me, but something seemed off.

"What's wrong?" I asked her quietly, still managing to catch both of their attention. She sighed.

"I'm worried about you Ade, that's all."

I felt my lips tip downward. "You promise?"

She purses her lips. "No, but I'll talk to you about it later," as she motioned her head to the men. We turned our attention to them, to find both of them with strained looks on their face.

After a few moments of tense silence, I cleared my throat. "So, who is it?"

Theos jaw hardened, and Griffins attention focused on the floor. I didnt miss the anger swirling in his eyes before dropping his gaze to the floor.

"Its a complicated situation, love," Theo starts when Griffin makes no move to. "It began years back when both of our families worked together, the way a pack is supposed to function. Griffin's father worked under the command of my own, and they were a damn good team. They didn't let outside factors effect their leadership, they acted swiftly and appropriately." Theo looks off into the distance, as if reminiscing for a minute. "My father was made to rule. He had the best judgement and knew exactly what was best for the pack."

"Theo," Griffin interjects, " we need to get to it."

I see him shoot a sideways glance at Griffin, an unreadable emotion in his eyes. His eyes evert back to me, and lock with mine, and intensity there that wasn't there prior when talking about his father.

"When he had my brothers and I, it was always clear who would take his place. I was first born, destined to lead. Alosious and River, the twins, were always going to have a say in what was right for the pack, but it came down to me. I had the final say. River was complacent with this, he knew his place," his eyes darkened slightly, "Alosious, not so much. He fought it at every chance he had to prove he was more suited then me. This never sat well with my family and I, considering he was disobeying the orders of not only his father but Alpha. Regardless, we sat back like fools, and let his behavior continue."

"Not without consequences. Alosious was always in some sort of trouble with my father. He spent the majority of his time serving his punishment and the other small remainder getting closer-," He paused and looked over at Griffin. Griffin nodded at Theo. "to Anna."

There was a pause, and Mal stole the thoughts out of my head. "Anna?"

Griffin nodded at her, a sad smile on his face. "My sister, princess, she's my sister."

If I didn't know any better, I could have sworn I saw Mals shoulders drop in the slightest. She looked at him hesitantly. "What happened?"