Alpha Brothers - The Cold Hearted Sister (book 5)

Chapter 32

Chapter 32
Nicholas
It had been two days since Bleu had vomited outside our door. No one had said anything more about what had happened, just placed it in the backs of their heads until there was more information to go on.
However, progress had been made. I was now welcomed into family conversations and even joined in with family jokes. Callum's, Malcolm's, Archie's and Graham's suspicions were put aside for the sake of their sister. I had quickly figured out who everyone was and what they brought to the family.
Callum and Liv were of course the parents. Everybody – including the pack – went to them for advice and looked up to them as a role model.
Malcolm is the brother in the background. Allie told me that he had come a far way since he first came back into their lives, but still, he had no interest in being in the spotlight. Instead, he did a lot of things behind the scenes, helping his brothers where he could. Tarna was his rock. It was like he couldn't make it through each day without holding her hand. A part of me – the Macangus side of me, I guess – saw that as weakness. But I also saw it as strength. They were stronger together and weaker apart.
Archie and Amy were difficult to read. Half the time, they looked like they wanted to kill each other. But as I watched them, I realized how much they depended on each other. Archie was a motionless solider without her, trapped in his own thoughts and Amy couldn't seat still, waiting for him to return. So I guess that firry anger that they felt towards each other, wasn't anger at all. But instead passion for each other that they probably didn't really understand. Even after all these years with being together.
Graham earned his name as the Trickster, I knew that the first time I met him at that club as he tried to pick up another lass. I had heard stories from Davy that he was a pussy, trying to follow in his older brothers leads. But that day with Bleu, I could see that he was now his own man, looking after his own things and not in anybody's shadow. He was still a raging bull but his Little Witch tamed and calmed him. Bleu was a little harder to read because I didn't know her or met anyone like her. But I had noticed that she was quite shy and easily embarrassed. But Graham seemed to stable her nerves and gave her courage that she didn't think she had.
"Nick, are you listenin'?"
I blinked, returning to the library at the sound of Allie's voice. I looked around the room, wondering how I could get so off track. The others didn't notice. Malcolm and Tarna sat on one lounge talking to Archie and Amy on the other.
Graham and Bleu sat by the fireplace, trying to get warm as they talked amongst themselves. Allie sat between my legs on the floors with Bee resting on her thighs, giggling and blowing slipt bubbles.
"Sorry," I said, "What did you say?"
"I said, isn't it amazin' how much she look likes Tarna," she repeated.
I tilted my head, looking at her features more closely. My eyes flicked between mother and daughter, finding some similarities like her chin and a small freckle on her neck. I then looked between father and daughter, noticing she had the same pale blue eyes and black hair. Finally, I looked between aunty and niece, finding even more similarities.
"I reckon she looks more like you," I said smiling, rubbing Bee's belly that was covered in a yellow and white striped jumpsuit with a bee on it.
"Really?" Allie asked, looking for the similarities herself.
"Aye, she has your blue eyes," I stated, brushing under her eyelids.
"Huh, they're Patterson eyes, they don't count," she corrected, making me huff.
God, she was so stubborn.
"Your nose," I said, running my finger tip down her button nose.
She twitched, not wanting to believe me.
"And your pink lips," I purred, brazing her soft, kissable lips.
At that, Bee began to grumble waving her arms about,
"What? What did I do?" Allie asked, panicking as Bee's cries grew louder, "I'm sorry, fine. You do look like me."
"She's just hungry," Malcolm chuckled, picking up the month-old baby and carrying her over to his mate.
I chuckled too, hugged Allie closer as my eyes became glued to the little family.
Tarna had pulled the pillow out from behind her and rested it on Malcolm's knee to lean on. She then pulled a cover over her shoulder to give herself privacy, cradling Bee's little body as she fed.
"Aw, Tarna you're a natural," Allie cooed, resting against me.
"Hardly. I've had a month's practice," Tarna played down.
"Please, you were good the first time," Malcolm told her.
"You were, I was there," Amy backed him up, making Tarna blush.
"Hey, how did you go in the birthin' room?" Allie asked, making Amy quickly go silent.
"What are you talking about? I was great. Saw my niece come into the world. Birth is a beautiful miracle."
Allie and I both scoffed, seeing through her little lie.
"Amy, you were screamin' louder than I was," Tarna stated.
Amy scoffed, being forced to retreat from her lie, "Yeah, well, let's just say it took awhile for me to get back on the horse."
"Aye," Archie sighed, leaning back, "And the horse has been well ridden."
"Ew," we all groaned.
"Baby present!" Allie shouted.
"That's bad, even for you," Malcolm said throwing a pillow that had been on the ground already.
"I hate men!"
We froze as Liv stormed through the double doors and Callum quickly following through.
"Hey, Liv," Allie said cautiously.
"Everythin' go okay at the Ramsay Pack?" Archie asked.
"No," Callum sighed, "apparently not."
"He was a sexist bastard and hated the very idea of a woman takin' the lead!" Liv argued.
I didn't know about the others, but I stayed as still as I could, praying she wouldn't see me and turn her firry gaze onto me.
"To be fair Liv, Old Ramsay probably couldn't stand answerin' to a human more than a female," Graham told her, making me blink.
He had more guts than I did.
"It shouldn't matter!" she yelled, turning to Callum, "you married me. Not some werewolf up-nose bitch."
"Aye and I agree. He shouldn't have ignored you like that," Callum said in an attempt to calm her down as he rubbed her upper arms, "But these old Alphas follow tradition, it's all they know. It's goin' to take some of them time to adjust to this system."
"Well, you and I both know that I don't have time," she growled, getting out of his grip and moving around to the arm chair.
"Why?" Allie asked, "You goin' somewhere."
Liv froze, like a dear in the headlights, returning to the calm Liv I had met the other day.
Spying the plate of cookies, she asked, "Do they belong to anyone?"
"Go, take them," Tarna said, frightened herself.
Liv snatched one and sat back into a chair with a huff, taking bites out of her cookie. Callum slowly made his way behind the chair, his eyes filling with love as he looked upon her. Everyone else saw a ticking time bomb, but he saw something else as he leaned on the back of the chair and started to play with her blonde curly stands.
"I'm just goin' to stretch my legs," Allie told me, patting my legs and moving to her feet.
My eyes became glued to her moving body as she arched her back and shook out her arms, trying to wake up her body. Reaching her arm behind her shoulder, she scratched the blade, revealing the branding scar.
"Allie," Amy started, worried, "what the hell is on your shoulder?"
Allie froze and so did I, not wanting to reveal the truth.
"Is that a brandin'?" Archie asked.
In a blink of an eye, she tried to make an escape. I stood, about to chase her but Callum had caught her first.
"No, don't," she cried, as Callum locked her arms to his chest.
Archie paced over to her making me swallow. Pulling down her sleeve, he revealed the M shaped brand mark.
"It's a brandin' alright," Archie confirmed backing away from her.
Allie punched her way out of her brother's grip, looking furious that she had been taken advantage like that.
"An M shaped brandin'," Graham growled, turning his fiery gaze to me, "and to think I was beginnin' to like you."
"Leave him alone, Graham," Allie snapped, pacing to my side, "he had nothin' to do with it."
"He's a Macangus isn't he? Of course he had somethin' to do with it," he said, standing, "Allie, they branded you like a horse goin' to market!"
"He wasn't there, he didn't have anythin' to do with it!" She growled.
"Then where were you?" Archie asked, staring at me and looking like he wouldn't believe a word I said.
Clearing my throat, I explained, "Hector wanted me to take a group of wolves to do a boundary check and make fake tracks to throw you off our scent."
"So you left Allie, by herself, in a place where everybody hates her, undefended?" Callum asked.
"It wasn't like that, I didn't have a choice," I told them making them scoff, "Hector had given me his word that he wouldn't let anyone touch her. But he went back on it."
"Well, what do you expect? I've never trusted a word that's come out of his mouth," Malcolm scoffed.
"You don't know him like I do," I said.
"Sounds like we know him better," Archie muttered taking his seat again.
"Listen, I would be dead right now if it wasn't for Nick," Allie snapped, "if Nick hadn't gone on that check, Hector would have suspected earlier somethin' was up and killed me."
"But, why didn't you tell us about it?" Liv asked, looking more hurt about that.
"You wouldn't have understood. Maybe Bleu and Tarna. But last time I checked, the rest of you haven't been tortured," she explained, making me swallow.
"What I don't understand is, how could you let it happen?" Graham asked back to me.
"How could I know?" I asked, growing frustrated.
I was getting tired for always having to defend myself.
"Look, after I found out what had happened, I confronted my brother. And for that, I would happily see him dead," I snapped.
I thought he would at least half believe me, I thought they all would. But like Allie, they were all stubborn.
Archie scoffed, "so you would happily sit around the dinner table with the person that killed your father as well as your brother?"
"I have my own reasons for seein' my father dead, trust me," I growled.
He scoffed again, folding his arms, "I don't believe you."
"Neither do I," Graham stated.
"Hey, just wait a minute -."
"Urhh, enough," Allie frustratingly groaned, stopping Callum.
To me, she sighed, "Take off your shirt."
I swallowed, reading the look in her eyes. She didn't want me too, she could see the pain on my face, the shame and embarrassment. But they wanted proof and this was the only proof I had.
"How is that goin' to help?" Graham snapped, as I turned around.
"Graham," Callum snapped back, "shutup."
Swallowing, I dug up the courage to pull my shirt off to reveal my scars.
I heard a few of the girls gasp, the room turning to silence. I had never felt so exposed, like I was showing my soul to strangers. My hands shook from fear or nerves. Either way, I didn't like the feeling.
"Nathair gave them to him," Allie explained because I couldn't, "And before you argue, Graham, I saw it in his memories when I marked him. It's true."
"I believe him," Graham said, probably the first thing of truth he had said to me.
"But why?" I heard Tarna ask, "Why so deep?"
"Christ, you couldn't even heal properly," Malcolm added.
Allie turned to me, asking for my permission to tell. I nodded, not seeing the point as I pulled on my shirt again.
"Nick challenged Nathair when he was plannin' the first attack," Allie started.
"But why?" Bleu asked.
"Why would you want to go against you father for...the enemy, I guess?" Graham asked.
"Like, I said. I have my own reasons," when they looked at me with big wanting eyes, I sighed, "He killed his mate, my mother."
Automatically, their eyes widened.
"What?" Callum asked, being the only one that could talk, "Nathair killed his own mate."
"Not the first woman, trust me," I muttered before I could stop myself.
"Unbelieveable," Archie growled.
"I thought he was evil, but I never thought any man could do that," Graham stated.
As they talked about my father, my eyes slowly moved to a frozen Bleu, staring at something on the carpet. She became pale, her gaze not breaking.
"Bleu?" I asked, turning everybody's gaze to me before they fell on Bleu.
In a blink of an eye, an invisible force, forced her to arch her back. Ear piecing screams filled the room causing everyone to react. It all became a whirl wind, the noses playing with my senses and my mind. I couldn't think and that was affecting my vision.
Bleu's screams.
Graham's yelling.
Bee's crying.
And everybody else's shouting to get her to stop.
It was like a bomb had exploded in one room and we were all trying to escape the damage. My ears caught the sound of broken glass, allowing me to think for the first time in moments. My eyes landed on the large glass windows, seeing the cracks and shaking glass.
"Allie, get down!" I screamed, leaping on top of her before the two floor-to-ceiling windows blew up.
Allie's own screams filled my ears as I felt tiny parts of glass cut my skin.
"Tarna, get her out of here!" I heard Malcolm yell.
"Liv, get the hell out!" Callum roared.
"Amy –!" Archie stopped when everything suddenly became silent.
I thought I had lost my hearing. I could only hear my racing heart and Allie's hurried breathing. At the same time, we looked up, seeing the damage. Malcolm, Tarna and the baby were huddled by the door where they had tried to escape. Callum and Liv were curled up in the corner of the room, trying to shield each other the best they could. Archie was on the top of Amy behind the lounge, a form of their protection. Graham lied not fair from a dazed Bleu who was looking around the room as if she didn't know what happen. Blood dripped from her nose as she shook as if she was cold.
Finding Graham to her left, she mumbled, "Graham. W-wh-t happened..."
She didn't finish. Instead, fell into Graham's arms.
For moments, none of us could say anything. Too shocked to what had happened.
That was until, Amy stuck her head up from behind the lounge and yelled, "What the bloody hell was that?!"