Cruel Alpha

Chapter 17

It was half-past midnight, Robin had a bottle of wine tucked between her leg, Lucien was slightly swirling his glass of whiskey. “So, she literally just showed up?” Lucien said with a raised eyebrow, Robin nodded. She was talking about the deal she has stricken with the Moon Goddess. “Well, technically yes. She was angry at me and Wilder for making tricks and refusing to obey her will or whatever.” Robin waved her hand around and Lucien snorted. “Sounds like a Goddess, demanding everything to go her way.”

“She told me ‘defiance is written in your blood’,” Robin remembered and drank more of the wine, it made the stories flow more effortlessly. Lucien looked at her with a smile. “I haven’t heard a compliment grander than that. You did right, soulmates aren’t part of our lives. No Oak Tails higher rank has ever been ‘mated’ with someone of their rank. Goddess always meddles to make us mix our blood.” Lucien put his glass down to make the air quotes. 

Robin nodded, Wilder was of Alpha family, he was from a higher rank than her. But when they had the incident of marking, the shape of the mark was of Oak Tails decent. Robin told this to Lucien, leaving out the part of how exactly she got the mark. “So, that Wilder is part of Alpha family. Is he related to that friend of yours who manages the museum?” Robin nodded, Lucien was eager to learn all the names and details about her life. Maybe she could convince him to trust them and tell the true purpose of her travels to her friends. 

“Yeah, that’s Wren she is the second in line to Alpha title and Wilder is her younger brother.” Lucien had a smile on his face. “Look at you, mated to Alpha line, have friends among them as well. You drifted towards the power, Robin. I am proud of what you have accomplished.” Robin felt warm inside, Lucien’s approval meant a lot to her; he was the only one from her past life to be here today, he was the only one qualified enough to judge her progress. 

“Was he that bad, then? Wilder, was he so bad that you went against the higher power to be rid of him?” Robin grimaced. It wasn’t about how bad  Wilder was, it was about the lack of choice. The Goddess gave every wolf one option and you had to blindly follow it without any reason or explanation. Not following it resulted in pain and punishment for both members. “I was going against the system. He was a bit too dramatic but other than that, he was an okay person.” 

Robin remembered the last time she saw Wilder; in the bar, with his head tucked between his arms. When he lifted his head to look at her, Robin noticed the tears at the corners of his eye, but he seemed so oblivious to them that Robin didn’t want to point it out and make things awkward for both of them. “Whatever kind of person he was doesn’t matter now, anyway. You are free of him, and basically anyone in River Banes as well.” Robin’s attention snapped to Lucien. “After all this time, you are home.” He said and raised his glass. “To Oak Tails,” Robin lifted her bottle in salute as well. For being home.

They drank further and Lucien moved on to ask specific questions about River Banes. He was wondering how modern packs were managing these days. Robin spoke of the Alpha family, she spoke of defence and their Pack Houses and the rogue wolf attack they fought off a few years back. 

“This is all very good, they have taught you well,” Lucien said as Robin yawned. “I live there, it’s part of my life, not a school.” She protested to which Lucien just waved a dismissive hand. “You lived there, it was part of your life. Just treat it as a very long boarding school. You stayed there, you made friends you learned lessons. But now,” in that part, he turned towards her and took her hands in his. “Now, you are home, Robs, time to use all this knowledge.” 

“Get my man another set of shots‼” Carter’s voice made Wilder wince and cover his ears. The club was loud, but somehow, Carter managed to be even louder. He pat Wilder’s back and sat down again. “You’ll see man, in no time, you will be back in the game." he offered condolences for Wilder’s state of relationship. Today Lauren moved into the pack to live with Edward. She texted him that, and many other messages Wilder was not keen on replying. 

Today, finally, he blocked her number. He was trying to move on and away from Lauren. Lauren, however, kept believing the notion that they could be friends which Wilder found extremely absurd, why would he befriend his ex who was in a happy relationship with her mate while he was still mad about it?

So, he drank the shots Carter got him and thought about getting back in the game, but he found it harder than usual. Seems like after you get your heart broken you lose your s*x drive. This is how, after a week of pondering, Wilder came to a realization that, maybe, drinking and trying to have one-night stands weren’t helping.  He declined Carter's offer for drinks at a bar and joined Theo and River on their drinkless movie night. 

Blair was heading out for the girls night when Wilder was her on the porch. They nodded at each other. Though Wilder didn’t have any common interests with Blair, thanks to River being her mate, they were forever tied to having interactions. “Good to see you moved away from drinking,” She noted and Wilder forced a chuckle, River was becoming a very unreliable keeper of secrets. He kept retelling all of them to Blair. “Yeah, I hope this movie can get me drunk enough.” Blair laughed as she made her way towards her car. 

Later, in between the commercial breaks, River spoke of things he should keep secret once again. “Blair was about to bail on her nights out, she says it doesn’t feel the same without Robin.” Wilder scrunched his brows, “Where is she? Didn’t the research end or whatever research supposed to do?” Theo threw a bag of chips at Wilder. “Please at least try to act smart. Research takes months, even years.” River nodded. “Yeah, but Robin was supposed to have a week on, a week off situation with the team but she hasn’t come back this week and just texted them saying they still need her there.” Wilder checked the date on his phone, this would make it 3 weeks of her being absent. 

The movie started and the boys' attention snapped to the screen, whatever they were discussing, was forgotten and replaced with the excitement for the final battle. Wilder tried to focus on the movie, he really did. But the prospect of Robin not being in River Banes and instead of staying yet another week somewhere else clouded his mind. He was used to the fact that she was there, always in River Banes or the city, poking fun at him whenever they saw each other. He kind of expected an alcoholic joke from her if they were to see each other today. 

Nothing has changed between the start and end of the movie, Wilder realized. Sure, the movie was fine, but he was still feeling like s**t. His mood didn’t change, though, the cause of it might have changed.