Alpha's Boys [Sequel]

Eighteen

Caden.

"Caden, have you seen your brother?" Mom asked.
"I have a brother?" I scoffed.
Mom gave me a side look and then tapped my leg to indicate that I should get off the kitchen counter where I was sat. I ignored it and continued swinging my legs and then grabbed a bag of chips and munched on them noisily.
"I guess he's just busy that's all," she said.
"How busy can he be? We've not seen him in like a week,"

"Alpha duty is quite demanding, sweetheart, you should know that, you've grown up watching your dad,"
I rolled my eyes at her. "Yeah but Corbin isn't an Alpha yet, I don't know why he's prancing around like he's just been crowned King of the Universe," I said, spraying crumbs everywhere.

Mom raised an eyebrow at me and folded her arms. "Jealous, are we?"
"Wouldn't you be?"
She moved closer and dusted the crumbs from my shirt and then rested her hands on my shoulders, her eyes pierced into mine.
"Honey, I need you to try and support your brother in all this. He would do the same for you."

I looked down. "Well it's not exactly easy on me too you know. I want it just as bad as he does," I mumbled.
Mom's warm hands moved to my face and she cupped my cheeks, stroking the snub of my nose with her thumb.
"I know you do, Cay, I know," she said "Maybe one day you'll get your chance, okay?"
I scoffed again.
"Unlikely,"
"Don't speak like that. You could be Corbin's Beta if you wanted -"

I pulled my face away from her hands then and scowled.
"I was born an Alpha. There's no way I'm settling for anything less," I snapped.
Mom gave me a tight smile and wrapped her arms around me into a tight hug. She felt warm and snug and I found myself wishing I was small enough to climb into her lap and be held all day just breathing in her comforting scent and not having a care in the world.

Mom pulled away and brushed her fingers through my hair.
"Don't ever change, sweetheart." She said then she sighed and turned to leave.
"I wasn't planning on it," I said and grabbed the bag of chips and munched loudly on them. After a moment, there was a loud knocking at the kitchen window. I looked out and saw Corbin's mate, Avri, standing there.

I jumped down from the counter and opened the door. Her face lit immediately as she stepped in.
"Corbin -" but when she saw it was me, her face dropped and her whole body slumped and then she wrapped her arms around herself. "Oh, it's only you,"
"Great to see you too,"

She didn't look amused. In fact she looked a little disheveled, her hair was unbrushed and she wore a huge sweater which hung off her, her face looked tired and it looked like she'd gained weight - but of course I wasn't going to tell her that.
She sat down at the kitchen table.
"Where's Corbin?" She asked.
I shrugged and say back up on the counter with my chips.
"Beats me," I said.
"He's your brother,"
"He's your boyfriend," I retorted.

Avri sighed and rubbed her temples.
"I really need to speak to him, Caden,"
"I honestly don't have a clue where he is, now that he's Mr Hotshot, leading packs and stuff,"
"I haven't heard from him in like a week, do you think he's okay?"

"He's fine, I promise,"
Avri stopped rubbing her temples and wrinkled her nose at me.
"Can you not eat those chips? The smell is making me sick,"
I looked at her, unsure if she was serious or not but seeing her tired face, she did look really ill so I decided to not be difficult and to just put them away.

I licked my fingers and she groaned in disgust.
"What's going with you? Why do I suddenly disgust you?" I asked.
"I think you disgust everyone, Caden," she said and she started rubbing her temples again.
"True," I admitted "Hey, you want some water? You look terrible,"
Avri narrowed her eyes at me. "Thanks."