Alpha Brothers - The Beta (book 2)

Chapter 21

Chapter 21
Archie
"Princess, this is never goin' to work," I told Amy as I stumbled behind her. I just wanted to go back to bed.
"Yes it will. They shouldn't know anything different," Amy said in denial as we came to the library.
"I think your underestimatin' their intelligence. I'll give you the twins, but Callum will figure it out sooner or later."
"What about Malcolm?" She asked trying to catch me out.
I shrugged, "I doubt he's goin' to be in the library. Which by the way, how do you know that they're even in there?"
Now it was her time to shrugged, "I'm going on a hunch. Now start yelling at me."
I looked at her with a dumb look, trying to see if she was really going to do this. She egged me on making me roll my eyes.
"Amy why are you bein' so difficult?" I yelled, trying to get into it, but it wasn't working.
"I'm not, your just being a pig!"
I frown and whispered, "pig?"
"Just keep going with it."
I rolled my eyes, "your just bein' a princess!"
"Well that's my name isn't it!"
"There's a couple of names that I can think of - ow!" I yelled when she slapped me.
I eyed her off, getting frustrated with her but she actually looked like she was enjoying it.
"What the hell?" I yelled.
"I'm so sick of you!"
"Oh my god!" I groaned before she turned for the door, "Amy!"
"Leave me alone!" She yelled storming into the room.
I was so confused, I didn't know what was real and what was fake. Was she really pissed and was that just acting? She stormed over to the lounge and flopped down by Graham.
I was wrong before. Everyone was in the room. Well, except for Malcolm. My gaze found its way to Callum who was trying to hide his smirk as his eyebrow raised. Maybe he was even smarter than I thought.
"Hey, what's going on?" Liv asked, popping up from the lounge.
I signed, "Ask your sister?"
Amy looked up to me with a panicked look. It was your stupid idea I wanted to tell her.
I frowned as I watched Graham's eyebrows come together as he looked at her. He slightly sniffed the air around her before getting in close. Damn, he could smell my shampoo.
"Well, your stupid brother in law, and his big - Graham what the hell are you doing!" Amy snapped turning to a confused Graham.
He narrowed his eyes at her, pointing to me, "you smell like Archie and you're wearin' his - oh my god you hooked up!"
"Finally!" Liv and Allie yelled in unison.
"We did not hook up!" Amy reassured them making me want to laugh at her determination to keep us a secret.
"Oh yeah, why do you smell like his shampoo?" Graham asked her.
"Wait," I started, "how do you know what my shampoo smells like?"
"Oh come on Archie, I steal it all the time."
"I knew it!" I yelled, "so not only do you steal my condoms but also my shampoo."
"Please, Archie, I caught him wearin' my slippers once," Allie told me.
"Brother, you have a problem," Callum added from his desk.
"Oh come on guys," Graham groaned, "now is the time you gang up on me. Siblings steal stuff all the time."
"Amen to that," Liv agreed.
"Hey!" Amy yelled, "I don't steal stuff."
"Come on Am, my white jeans didn't end up in your wardrobe by themselves."
"You were neglecting them. That's a crime," she told her.
"Yeah, if the jeans were a child!"
I chuckled watching their arguing. Callum's chuckles caught my attention making me move over to him.
"So how did it happen?" He asked.
I shrugged, "I told her that she didn't have to try for me. One thing led to another -."
"But you haven't marked her yet?" He asked, already knowing the answer.
I shook my head, "no, she wants to take things slow."
He snorted, "You, slow? Is there ever such a thin'?"
I shrugged, "for her, anythin'."
I tapped the table to stop my fidgeting. I hadn't always noticed the Malcolm shaped hole in the family moments, mostly because I didn't care. But I felt it more than ever now. He should be here.
"Um, Callum," I started, "where's Malcolm?"
"Where he normally is," he said reminding me of a time that I had answered him the same thing, "the attic."
I nodded and turned toward the other door on other side of the library. I kissed the crown of Amy's head, really tearing apart our little act.
"Oh Archie!" She groaned making me chuckle as I headed out the room.
I made my way up to the fourth floor and I took a couple of corners before I got to the part of the house that was its original structure. I found the metal stairs. Just as I went to go up them, Malcolm's voice stopped me, "Archie?"
I turned around and found my confused brother.
"What are you doin'?" He asked.
"I wanted to talk to you," I told him.
He nodded, "congrats on Amy by the way. I told you she would come around."
I would have questioned how he knew but I expect it from him now. He always seemed to know everything around here.
"That's not what I came to talk about," I told him.
"Okay, then what do you want to talk about?"
"I want to know who else you're responsible for killin'," I asked, not thinking twice about my question.
His head dropped down and I watched as he disappeared to a different place.
"Malcolm, I want to know," I told him.
"Why?" He asked, with a sniff. He was crying? "Do you think things will change between us?"
I shrugged, "I don't know. It might. But I know what it's like to have someone to love now."
"And you realized that just after one night?"
I shrugged again, "I think I realized it before but aye, I guess."
He nodded but stayed quiet.
"I know that Bonnie was poisoned," I told him, "I know that Nathair and Hector Macangus poisoned her with wolfs bane and I know that your wolf lost control to save you. But they told you that in the tunnels. Why did you go away for a year when you knew that it wasn't your fault anymore?"
"Because I didn't just kill Bonnie," he sniffed, wiping his nose and blinking away the tears, "she was twelve weeks pregnant."
My mouth dropped and my blood went cold. It explained so much. Hiding yourself away was one thing but disowning his wolf for someone that wasn't even your mate was a total different situation. But he had killed his kid. He lost his girl and his baby all because someone was selfish.
"Why didn't you tell me?" I asked.
"I couldn't," he sniffed, "I couldn't stand the disappointment. Killin' Bonnie was one thin' but I killed a member of our pack."
"No, you didn't. You were forced to," I told him.
"If it had been any other wolf, they would have died for killin' a member of this pack. If Callum hadn't gone soft -."
"Callum didn't want you to die and neither did the rest of us."
"I should have died," he said ignoring me once again, his voice breaking, "I wanted to. But death would be too easy."
"Malcolm stop -."
"I vowed that happiness can never reach me," he told me, "I know why your here, Archie. I watch all of you. And you have no idea how much I want to be a part of the family again but I can't."
I shook my head, "no Malcolm. You can. That vow thin' is ridiculous."
"Is it? I killed an innocent woman and her baby, my baby and then the way I morn is to live a happy life with my family and forget about the choices I've made."
I shook my head. I wouldn't hear this, I couldn't.
"Malcolm it wasn't your fault," I told him.
"You still don't get it, Archie!" He yelled, "Bonnie was poisoned, not me! Her wolf took over her and mine did the same. If my wolf had any mercy, any honour, it would have allowed Bonnie to live and me to die. That is a crime. It is a crime to kill someone that has done nothin' to you or to your pack. Bonnie did nothin' than bein' mated to an evil son of a bitch and falling in love with monster!"
He roared, being overfilled with anger. I watched as he forced himself not to snap but gave up and hit the wall. Pieces of brick cracked away filling the small corridor with dust. I ran over to him wrapping his head into a headlock. I was just about to tell him to control himself when he jumped in before me.
"You don't need to worry, Brother," he sniffed, "I can't shift anymore."
"One day you will," I told him, holding on to him tighter, fearing that I would lose him again, "one day you will let go of the guilt and the anger and you will be able to join us again."
He shook his head, "I don't think I ever can. I've been livin' with it for too long. I am the Lonely Brother after all."
"But you're my brother and that's all that matters," I told him finding the words the truth and not a lie. I was so tired of fighting him. He was my brother and that was that. It was time for me to let go of my own anger and forgive him.