One Dark Night

Chapter 5:

Xavier's POV:

Two things kept me up that night. One was the sound of Dakota running down the hall as Aidan screamed and cried, followed by her trying to soothe him. The second was something I was unaccustomed to. Guilt.

I shouldn't have told Seth that she was harassing us. I shouldn't have turned Brent against her. I shouldn't have slapped her. I shouldn't have hit her with the dodgeball. I shouldn't have had sex with Lydia.

Since being here, I realized her life was pretty rough. I just felt bad I was making it worse. But I couldn't help but hate her. She didn't wait for me. She was ready to be with someone else from the first night we met. She couldn't be my Luna. They would never respect her. And I'm not sure I could ever forgive her for betraying me like that.

After that night, I was a mess. Finn was furious with me. He wanted me to go back and claim our mate. She was gorgeous. Someone else could take her. But what he didn't understand that she didn't care about us. That she probably wouldn't care if someone else took her. I went on a rampage and trashed my room. I got drunk and decided to smash every car in our garage. I threw myself into football, but I got violent there too. I was suspended for three weeks when I went too far, tackled a kid and kept going after him again and again throughout the game. He left the game on a stretcher with a broken neck. My grades stayed ok, but my dad and I fought constantly and I started to ignore my Alpha duties. I also turned to girls a lot. Finn gave me so much shit after every time. But I had needs. He was livid that it wasn't Dakota I was with. But he still didn't get it.

"I'm sorry Alpha, I think he's s-sick," Dakota's nervous voice came from across the hall. In my thoughts I hadn't noticed Alpha Lincoln had gotten up. "Aidan, shhh you're okay."

"Dakota it's three in the morning. Calm him down!" he snapped tiredly.

"I-i'll take him downstairs." she whispered. He grunted in reply.

I had noticed the weird family dynamic going on here right when I walked through the door. I mean I had reason to hate her. I didn't realize her family hated her too. Until Seth explained how his mother had died, at Dakota's fault, which only proved that she was unfit to be my Luna even more. She didn't even call her father 'Dad' or 'Daddy' or anything like that. Just 'Alpha' and he usually just ignored her. And Seth absolutely despised her. He was the worst to her, but when she wasn't around he wasn't that bad of a guy. I couldn't help but feel Finn's temper spike when Seth hit her this morning, or when she flinched every time someone tried to touch her. OR when my Beta tried to get cozy with her. She hadn't gone on the run with the rest of the house tonight either, and it was almost like she wasn't a pack or family member. Anyone could see she wasn't eating and was working a lot. It was definitely sad But I still couldn't stop seeing the image of her with that other guy in the woods, and my pity vanished.

I heard the creak of the stairs and Aidan's whimpering, and Finn told me to go after her. But I rolled over and turned my phone on, plugging in my headphones and tried to fall asleep.

I woke up early the next day and went down to the gym to get in a workout before she made breakfast. I stepped up to the treadmill and started running to warm up. I would go easy today, we had football practice later and everything. Once I was all warmed up, I started my eight mile run, and then my two mile cool down. I tried my hardest not to think about Dakota and where she was and what she was doing and if she was okay or hungry or crying or if she was in pain or thinking about me, but Finn was taking over. As much as I hated my mate, I could never get through a day without thinking about her.  About an hour later I was wiping the sweat off my forehead with a towel from the shelf and a bottle of water from the gym fridge. I looked at my phone and saw it was only 5:30. I figured I could shower in the locker room down here and then enjoy some coffee. I quickly jumped into the icy spray of the shower and washed my body hurriedly.