Caged

Chapter 3.

I made my way back over to stand in front of the window, leaning against the wall so that I could face him and still give myself a sense of space, regardless of how small it was.

His steel blue eyes watched me casually, observing my movements as he sat back into the couch, completely relaxed. He spoke lowly after several quiet moments. "I'm sorry about your mother Lili. I know that must have been hard for you to lose her."

My heart ached at the mention of that night and I clamped my jaw shut tight as I tried to resist the urge to let tears fall from my eyes. "Thank you," was all I could manage.

"I'd never agreed with my father's treatment of you two. He should have never outcast her. Especially not you for something he felt she did. It wasn't your fault."

My eyes snapped up to meet his and I could see the genuine emotion in his gaze as he continued. "I'd actually come to see you the next day, but when I arrived you'd already gone."

My jaw dropped slightly and I quickly closed it before turning to face him fully. "You came to see me? But you're the Alpha's son. The pack was forbidden to speak to me, especially you."

He nodded as a slight scowl replaced his neutral expression. "Yes, well, I did. When I'd come back, I waited to tell him you'd gone until that evening since you hadn't shifted yet. I thought you'd need time to get a head start. Once I finally told him, he lost it. No one had ever left the pack without his permission before. I guess since you were an Omega, you found the loophole."

"What loophole?" I couldn't believe what I was hearing. The young alpha of all people had come to see me. But why?

He leaned forward, pressing his thick forearms against the tops of his large muscular legs. His shirt clung to every crest and valley rippling beneath it and my breath caught slightly as I realized just how strong he truly was. "Well, normally for a pack member to leave they'd have to receive permission for the pack bond to be broken from their alpha. But since you were an Omega, there was no bond to break. You were free to leave all along, although, had he known he would have caught you and forced you to stay I'm sure."

"So you're saying we could have left this place long before my mom died? Why would we stay here then? Why would she want to?"

He shook his head and stood, walking over to stand beside me at the window. He leaned against the wall and crossed his arms across his broad chest before looking down to me. "I honestly can't say, except that she knew she had the Alpha's protection on these lands. She probably didn't want to raise her child as a Rogue. At least this way you had the Alpha's protection, and some form of a pack around you."

"Protection from what though? Why would she need protection?" My mind was reeling. We'd stayed by choice? How could this be true?

He ran a hand through his hair and shook his head again as his brow furrowed in concentration. "I don't know Lili. I just know there were rumors about...your father."

I stood straight as a board, my eyes widening as the last word fell from his gorgeous full lips. "What do you mean?"

He sighed as his face pinched into a scowl. I stepped closer to him, my hand coming up to rest on his arm. "What do you mean Everett?" My hand radiated with warmth and a jolt shot through me before I instantly dropped it away as my heart began to beat faster. I heard his increase as well and his eyes widened before his expression returned to a scowl. "Please tell me," I said quietly.

He sighed heavily and looked down at me with a hard blue gaze. "My father refused to tell me anything, but I had heard quiet rumors once that your father was actually another Alpha from a rival pack. That she'd refused to reveal him because she didn't want him to find you. If he'd known you two were here, and that he had a pup away from him, he could have come and claimed you both. My father could have seen it as an act against the pack and killed the both of you and sought war against the rival. There's only one pack I can think of that he hates that much."