Bonding With The Enemy (BxB)✔

Chapter 16 - Disillusioned

"Why wouldn't he say anything?"

"Maybe because no one was willing to listen?" Darren suggested.

"Why didn't he move packs?"

"Not everyone has the money to move on a whim."

"You did, and you were still in school."

"I had a rogue uncle to move in with. I was one of the lucky ones."

Jasper grasped the steering wheel tightly, his jaw clenched and his eyes focused on the road. After seeing Nolan's breakdown, the two departed quietly and the Alpha began asking questions, mostly to himself.

It was so strange seeing how confused Jasper was. One would think that knowing how to be a decent person would be common sense, but not to him. He seemed to be completely blind to how damaging his actions were. Had none of his Betas ever tried to stop him before? Was it true that no one ever reprimanded him? Not even Liam?

Darren decided to pry now that his curiosity was peaked. "That was a pretty bad breakdown he had. What the heck did you even do to him?"

Jasper sucked in a breath as he stopped at a light. "I don't know. I didn't think-"

"If you're about to say 'I didn't think what I did was that bad' again then you can shut it right now." Darren scolded. "Remember the last time you said that? I had to point out that you were justifying emotional manipulation just because it was something YOU were doing. It doesn't work that way jack ass. Think of everything you did to Nolan, then imagine you saw someone else doing that to him."

The Alpha fell quiet, but from the look on his face, Darren could tell he was thinking seriously. "I...Threatened to ban his family as soon as I become Alpha."

"WHAT. THE. FUCK?!" Darren glared at him. "Why the fuck would you do that to him? The guy's a twig who would lose a fight with a duck! Why threaten his whole family?"

"I wasn't actually going to do it!" Jasper rushed to explain himself. "When I was picked to become Liam's successor, I thought I had to assert myself to prove I deserved it. I was a kid, I didn't know better! But Nolan didn't think I was a good fit and started trying to spread rumors about me, so I threatened him to make him stop, and he did."

Darren recalled the many times he saw the scrawny kid with an armload of books, tagging behind Jasper in the hallway. "Did he become your errand boy so you wouldn't ban his family?"

"Kind of."

"Did you ever apologize? Or tell him you were kidding?"

The Alpha fell silent, and Darren practically facepalmed. "Are you serious? You just assumed after graduation that you could pretend you were friends and act like it never happened?"

"He never brought it up!"

"Right, and now the guy is having anxiety attacks every time he see's you because he probably still thinks you're going to ban his family."

"But it's been years! He should have realized by now that I'm not actually going to do it. Plus it's not like I could just go around apologizing for every little thing I did. It'd make me look pathetic."

"Who the hell told you that bullshit?"

"EVERYONE!" Jasper shouted, hitting the gas and ripping away from the stop light a little too fast. Realizing what he was doing, he quickly slowed back down to the appropriate speed limit. "Liam assigned me some of his Betas when I was first picked. They gave me advice and I did whatever they suggested because I thought it was what Liam wanted. I was afraid that if I didn't meet his expectations, he'd choose someone else."