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A GRIM MELODY throbbed in every corner of my brain. Slowly revealing my face in shame to the Alpha brought me no pride. Bad luck always ensued when encountering the Alpha on unfriendly terms.
Each step up the stairs felt like the echo of my hollow soul. The baggy tee-shirt that Rylan gave me swayed against my waist. My feet groaned against the steps leading to the red abyss of the Alpha's ire.
His face grew more precise and more apparent as I trudged to the top. A mess of thick spikes in the hue of dried blood failed to conceal his piercing eyes. Those dead irises—black as coal—sparked dangerously between Rylan and me. His eyelids hung low. He furrowed his brow. Red seared his cheeks. He clenched his fists.
"How dare you!" The Alpha's words snapped against every boundary of sound, making it rattle like a snake's tail, only he possessed more significant venom than the slithering threat. At least the reptilian had no other choice if he either felt threatened or required food and could be scared off. And for those unfortunate victims who lost a battle to the serpent, at least they died with dignity. "You"—his finger pivoted between us, Rylan and me—"betrayed my trust! I kept you in the warmth of our town, safe from humans, safe from harm, safe from our enemies. In exchange, I ask very little but for mutual respect of wolves, and you ignore them."
The Alpha seized my wrist and yanked me out of the staircase. His grip compressed against my skin, every second becoming more and more unbearable. His darkness blurred as tears welled in my eyes. But his fire made my eardrums tremble. "You bitch!"
"What did you just call her?" Darkness laced through Rylan's rising voice.
The Alpha yanked me over to his side as he sifted his son. His fingers blazed around my wrist. "I called her a bitch!" He threw me to the floor. "She's a worthless whore—"
"Call her a whore one more time!" Rylan cracked his knuckles. "I swear, you'll regret it!"
"I had such high hopes for you." The Alpha shook his head with a smirk. "Such high hopes. You were my son, my heir—"
"You never treated me like a son." Flares burned in Rylan's voice. Tears wriggled down his face. They must've been hot as hell. "If you were truly my father, and if you loved me, you wouldn't have ignored me. You would've listened to my poetry instead of slapping my face, kicking me, and ordering me to grab you a beer. You would've listened to my ideas for how to improve Howl Falls. The Moon Haven allows you to choose your mate. They've even adopted a new religion—Ecumenical Catholicism, which accepts same-sex couples. Zavory Piper wrote me about it. We need to try a new approach. It's 2020, after all. And the best part, she said it's safe for us to lurk into—"
With a growl, the Alpha lashed Rylan's face with the back of his hand. "You are not my son," the Alpha snapped.
"And you're not my father," Rylan replied with cold eyes.
