Alpha lycan mate

Chapter 6: THE TRUTH BEHIND THE SILENCE

Amara’s POV

My lips formed a thin line, all pain and fatigue. I revealed the truth to my father about the kiss, about the betrayal and shame Alpha Alaric brought upon our family. But the look in his eyes told me he did not care. He did not care one bit. I wish the man had struck me, hit me across the face in a fit of rage. At least then I would not have been disappointed in him. Alpha Alaric was not a man to display feelings of love or affection. He was a proud Alpha, and I had accepted that he would never change. I had accepted it all my life.

Something inside of me snapped loose, the disappointment and grief curling around my throat. I laughed, high and unrestrained. It sounded strange in the still silence of the room.

“I think you have lost your senses,” said Alpha Alaric darkly. “You did not take your medicine.”

He advanced on me, a feral gleam in his eyes, but my mother stopped him with a pleading look. He roughly shook her off, and she straightened, the mask of resigned acceptance falling back into place. She knew there was nothing she could do. This was not the first time I had seen her flinch before him, and it certainly would not be the last. Women, in this world, were always at the mercy of men. Even the daughters of Alpha Alaric, even a Luna of another pack, had to put up with the tyranny of men.

“Why are you so angry, Father?” I managed to get out between fits of laughter, the words slurring together. My head throbbed, but I fixed him with a wild, desperate stare. “You always said I was fickle and delusional, that I saw things that were not there. I am simply giving you what you asked for. Nothing has changed.”

He slapped me across the face, but I laughed right back at the sting of his palm.

“I am not mad,” I said, my voice shaking as I tried to stifle my laughter. The more I tried to stop, the more I seemed to slip into madness. “Look at me. You are going to throttle me where I stand like some kind of madwoman.”

I met his eyes, taking in the sharp angles of his face. He was older than I looked, fifty-five or so. His dark hair was graying at the temples, and there were lines of experience etched into his skin. You would not know he had been as strong as he was from the way he stood now. He was stiff with fury, but there was something else in his stance now, too. I realized with a sudden jolt that I was not the fragile little girl he had raised. I had grown up. I had gained strength and experience, just like him. I could hurt him, too. Strike at the same places he had hurt me. Make him feel the sting of his own cruelty.

I was not helpless. And suddenly, with the knowledge came the full force of old disappointment. It hit me like a slap to the face, knocking the wind out of me. Why was I always the one to suffer? I felt so very, very weak. Maybe, just maybe, I had always been weak.

I was weak. Weak, weak, weak. And when weakness was beaten into you again and again until there was nothing left, then the only sane thing to do was to give in to it completely. So I laughed again, harder than before, until I felt like I would never stop. My sides shook, tears of pain and frustration streaking down my cheeks.

“Look at you,” I whispered, my voice coming out somewhere between laughter and crying. “Stand like a stone statue, ready to throttle me.”

I watched him for a moment. He watched me in return. It was not the first time I had seen him like this, but this was the first time I had seen him without the mask of disappointment. And it terrified me. I knew I was supposed to be scared of him, obey him. Every fiber in my being screamed at me to shrink back in the face of his anger. But something deep in my soul, in my very bones, told me I was not as weak as I had been.

“Why?” I finally asked, the words coming out as a whisper. It was not like me to ask questions. It was not like me to be so openly defiant. But I had to know. “Why did you take his side? Why does his honor matter more than my pain? He is a stranger to you. I am your daughter.”

I straightened, pushing my shoulders back. I was shorter than Alpha Alaric by a good head or so, but I stood my ground. My mother had taught me well. She had raised me to be a proper Luna, noble and dignified even in the worst of circumstances. I would show him now, this man who had raised me and then cast me aside like old cloth, what it truly meant to be a Luna.

“You speak of family honor,” I said, lifting my chin. “Tell me, Father, does that not include our daughter? Does having a stranger in our house, sleeping in our bed, not tarnish the family name? Does it not make you look like a fool in the eyes of the other Alphas that you cannot even protect your daughter from being insulted in your own home?”

I stepped forward until I was close enough to see the anger in his eyes, to feel the heat rolling off of him in waves.

“If you do not care about my feelings, care for the sake of politics at the very least,” I continued, my voice ringing with conviction. “What will the other Alphas say when they hear that the mighty Alpha Alaric cannot even protect his daughter from being disgraced in her own home and cast off like used tissue paper? That Alpha Alaric hands his daughter over to be insulted and humiliated?”

I clenched my fists at my sides so hard I thought my nails might dig into my palms, but the pain was nothing compared to the ache in my chest. My broken mate bond and the dull, all-consuming pain of loss in my womb reminded me that despite everything that had happened, I would endure. I would survive. I had survived.

“The woman he chose over me was an Omega,” I continued, my next words coming faster, my voice growing stronger with each one. “One of the lowest ranks in the hierarchy of our pack. Think of the insult, Father. Think of what it means for the prestige of our family that an Alpha of the royal bloodline has been seen to have been unfaithful to his mate, the Luna!”

I met his eyes again and I saw the fire there, the anger sparking at the insult to his honor.

“Just like you,” I finished quietly, letting the words hang in the air between us like a dagger.

I knew the truth behind the lies all too well. After all, I was the daughter of Alpha Alaric. I had known the secrets that passed behind closed doors, the whispers that were hushed when my father’s back was turned. I knew the affairs that had gone on behind his back, but I had let it happen. I had let it all happen because I had been afraid, just as others had been afraid to speak out against him when he was first made Alpha. And all those fears had been twisted and turned into something else entirely in the years since, fuel for the fire now burning so fiercely in my chest.

I glanced at my mother, who stood motionless in the corner, watching, listening.

Did you know, Mother? Did you know all along and never stop him? I felt the cold fire of anger in my heart grow and expand.

“It is no wonder you are so willing to defend him,” I said, my voice barely more than a whisper now, but filled with such venom that it sent shivers down my spine. “You are cut from the same ruthless cloth. You believe you can do as you please and hurt anyone you wish to behind closed doors and get away with it, do you not?”

Alpha Alaric’s hand shook at his side. I could see the fury rolling off of him in thick waves, but he kept his mouth tight shut.

“You can hit me again if you like,” I said, pushing my chin up defiantly. “You can shut me up for a while if you want. But you cannot silence the truth, and you cannot stop people from finding out what goes on behind closed doors in this house.”

Alaric wasted no time, shoving me against my back. I gasped as the air left my lungs, but I bit my lip to keep from crying out in pain. I pushed myself up off the floor, shaking, but I refused to kneel before him. I could feel his eyes on me, taking in the hurt, anger, and most of all, the stubbornness in my stance, but he seemed to find it all very displeasing.

“Isolde,” he said, his voice like ice, snapping his daughter’s name like an angry dog. “Get her medicine.”

I saw my mother’s eyes flicker with something like concern as she hurried to his side. He reached into the folds of his dress and took out a small glass vial full of white pills. They were sedatives, very strong ones, capable of knocking out even the strongest of wolves. She gave them to him without a word, and he dropped to his knees beside me.

I tried to pull away from him as he gripped my chin, but I was too weak. His fingers forced my mouth open, and I felt two pills drop down my throat, but he held my mouth and nose closed until I swallowed them. Then, just as suddenly, he released me, and I coughed and writhed on the floor. My heart pounded in my ears, but I forced myself not to cry. Disgusted with myself, I pushed myself off the floor, but I could feel the dull ache in my jaw. My lip was swollen and purpled, and I suspected it might be cracked as well. My vision was swimming, and I wondered if I was bleeding from the nose as well. The medicine was potent, and I felt it start to take effect, but it was not as fast as it should have been. The last thing I saw before I went black was Alpha Alaric standing over me, straightening his clothes, as my mother watched with mournful eyes.