An Alpha's Jealousy (Narry Storan) (Book One)

Chapter Eleven: Part Two

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"I'm going for a walk," Harry quietly mumbles as he opens the front door of his house only to be stopped by Anne's voice.

"What? Why?" Anne suddenly appears in the threshold of the kitchen, an apron tied around her waist and a wooden spoon grasped between her fingers. "It's getting dark, and it's cold outside. Why would you want to go out?"

"I just want to go for a walk, mum," Harry explains, his voice feeble and his heart still heavy with guilt.

"Now, you wait just a moment, mister," Anne's eyes narrow in concern as she stalks over to him and raises his chin, scanning his face. "You've been sulking ever since last week, but today, you've been even worse! Now, just what is going on, and do not give me that "nothing" excuse you're always giving me."

"It really is nothing," Harry weakly protests as his shoulders hunch inwards, trying to hide himself from the world and its hungry eyes.

"Harry Edward Styles," Anne's voice is hard and cold as she speaks, and Harry dejectedly listens to the mounting concern coloring his mum's voice, "if you do not tell me what is going on with you right this instant you will be grounded for eternity!"

"First, I'm an absolute prat to Niall, and now I'm worrying mum," Harry lists all the wrong things he's done today, which doesn't do anything but heighten the shame enveloping his sullen form. "I am on a roll today in making everyone miserable."

"Anne, dear," Robin's soothing voice captures Harry's attention, "if Harry wants to take a walk, we should let him. It might clear his head, you know?"

"But," Anne protests, her hands dropping from Harry's chin as she turns to his step-father.

"No buts," Robin firmly decides as he wraps his arms around her waist and, avoiding the spoon, kisses her lips. "Harry's old enough now to go out for a walk and return home safely."

Anne's clearly reluctant, but the thumbs up he receives from Robin is enough to make Harry move.

"I'll be back soon," Harry promises before rushing out the door and into the chilly evening. As soon as he's free, Harry begins walking to a local park located ten minutes away from where he lives.

"I was wrong," Harry's pensive mood continues as his legs led him to his destination without any instruction from him. "I was wrong. I shouldn't have treated Niall like I did. Bloody hell, I let him think he was a monster when, really, he isn't.    I'm t   he monster."

The realization is like a noose tightening around his neck, and for a moment, his breath is lodged in the back of his throat as tears spring up in his eyes.

Rapidly blinking away the liquid and clearing his vision, Harry returns to his melancholy thoughts, "He was just trying to comfort me, and I just    I just rejected it. No, I did worse than that: I twisted his good intentions to fit    my    beliefs."

"I suppose I can't blame Lou for not wanting to be friends with me, now," A bitter smile crawls over his lips, which were beginning to become cold and chapped. "I wouldn't want to be friends with me either."

Emerald eyes fall to the gray pavement as his self-loathing comments quiet, and the vicious hate cycle remains motionless until he arrives at the park and sees the last person he ever expected to see: Niall.

Harry's legs immediately halt, his eyes widening as he comprehends the scene before him. Niall was in a park, sitting on top of a circular park table, and looking up at the sky as if it was the most natural thing in the world.