My Alpha's Pain

Chapter 2: Down A Destructive Path

-Keith-

“Good, you found him!” my mother said, running down the stairs in her dark red nightgown, that swayed around her legs.

My father was right behind her. At least I believed it was my father. My vision was rather blurry, and if it wasn’t for my best friend Aiden helping me stand, then I would be on the floor.

“Where was he?” my father asked.

Aiden glanced at my other best friend, Logan, who just looked at me, while biting the inside of his cheek.

“At a club in town … drinking himself to death,” Logan said.

I tried to explain myself, but it just came out as a weird high-pitched sound. I didn’t even know I could make sounds like that.

“Again?” my mother asked, worried.

They both nodded. I could see the worry in my mother’s eyes and the anger rising in my father’s, before he looked at Aiden.

“Get him to his room. I’ll deal with him in the morning,” the old man growled.

I couldn’t wait! At least that was what I wanted to say, but no sound came out, as my parents left me to my friends, who both had to grab an arm and placed it over their shoulders in order to get me up the stairs and up to the third floor, where mine and my parents’ rooms were. I was dragged down the hallway till the end of it. Logan opened my door, and they pulled me inside, before throwing me on the bed. I groaned under the treatment, before rolling onto my back and finally being able to find my voice:

“Drink!”

Logan just sighed, irritated.

“No more!” Aiden yelled at me, but I couldn’t hear him.

“Drink! Bartender!”

“Sh*t! He still believes he is at the club,” Logan said.

Aiden just looked at me, rather pitiful, before he placed a hand on Logan’s shoulder, and pushed him out of the room with him. I knew what my friends were thinking, I was destroying myself … I was … At least I was going to. It was my plan to make a complete disappointment out of myself, so my father wouldn’t make me alpha. So far, I was doing a pretty good job, yet the old man still hadn’t told me I was enough of a disappointment to not follow in his footsteps, and I was getting more and more desperate to hear the words, so I was barely home. I drank until I couldn’t stand. I did ridiculous and dangerous things, going to illegal fight clubs underground, partying with the wrong people, doing illegal street racing, and still it wasn’t enough. What could I do to make the old man hate me enough?! Maybe tomorrow I would find out if it was finally enough. I hoped so. I was tired of playing this game.

***

“You’re a disgrace!” my father yelled, making my headache even worse and my ears ring.

“Tell me something I don’t know,” I groaned, rubbing my temples.

“Take those damn sunglasses off!” my father yelled, taking my sunglasses before I could.

“Hey!”

“Don’t you see what it is you’re doing, Keith! Don’t you see what you’re doing to this family?!”

I just rolled my eyes. The same words as always … yeah, I was the one destroying us, sure dad!

“Why don’t you tell me?” I asked sarcastically.

My father’s blood had to be boiling from anger, so red his face was. He grabbed his grey and dark hair and pulled, so I knew it hurt, then he slammed his hand down onto the table, making the things on his desk jump.

“Tell me what I have to do to make you listen, Keith! Just tell me,” he said in a desperate tone.

“Take back your announcement of making me alpha!”

My father sighed, leaning back in his chair. He rubbed his eyes tiredly, before looking at me again.

“You know I can’t do that.”

“Of course, you can! You decide who follows you, and that shouldn’t be me!”

“But it should! You’re next in line!”

“Only because Jace isn’t anymore,” I yelled back.

The room went dead silent, and pain shone in my father’s eyes. It was always the same. This conversation always went the same way. My father would ask me what it was he had to do to make me stop this crazy behavior, and I would tell him to announce I wasn’t going to the next alpha, taking over Jace’s rightful place, he would tell me he couldn’t, and I would bring up my dead older brother, making the room go dead quiet … Always the same.

“You’re next in line,” my father almost whispered. “This is the way things are.”

“Well, I don’t want to be next. It is Jace’s place in that chair. Not mine,” I said and got up.

“Keith …”

But I didn’t listen to my father. I just turned away and walked out of his office. I hadn’t done enough yet. I still hadn’t been removed from the alpha position. I wasn’t sure what else to do. I was already doing everything that would get someone removed, yet my father was not easily convinced. He still wanted me to be his heir, and I still refused. Would it ever get better between us, I wondered, as I walked to the stairs.

“Keith.”

As I came to the entrance to the house, I heard my mother call out to me. I looked up at her. Her long blond hair was loose, and she wore a white suit with white heels. She looked perfect and luna-like as always. She walked down to me, smiling sweetly. How she still held so much love for me, I would never be able to understand. I had done so many wrong things, and hurt her in so many ways, and she still cared for me.

“Come, you must be hungry,” she said.

“Actually, I was heading out.”

“After.”

“After?”

“You have eaten.”

My mother didn’t wait for me to answer her, but just walked over to the kitchen expecting me to follow, which I did. She made the best breakfast of all time. My stomach was already growling, as I sat down at the kitchen island, watching her prepare eggs, bacon and toast. She was humming a little tune as she cooked the food. I knew what this was, and it wasn’t just breakfast. Unfortunately, I was too hungry to care. My mother brought the food to me and a fork, telling me to dig in. Then she sat down beside me with a cup of coffee, before pouring me one too.

“Keith,” she said, after I had taken my first bite.

Here we go, I thought, waiting for her to continue.

“I’m worried about you.”

“Don’t be.”

“I’m your mother. I’ll always worry.”

“I’m fine. I’m still standing.”

“And for how long will you continue to keep standing? You’re killing yourself. Slowly,” she said in a serious and worried tone.

I really didn’t want to have this chat with her. It wasn’t the first time she had lured me with food to have a “chat” with me about my behavior, and it always ended the same way. Me, going out to do more sh*t, and not caring about her worry.

“Keith-“

“Mom! You know how to make this stop. So does dad. Make him remove me from the alpha position and I’ll stop.”

My mother became quiet too. She thought about my words, tapping her finger against the cup in her hands.

“It is your job to be alpha,” my mother said.

I shook my head, pushing the food away.

“No, it is Jace’s,” I said and got up from my chair.

“Jace isn’t here anymore!” I heard her yell after me.

I stopped for a few seconds. I knew it hurt her to yell those words. She had lost one son, and she didn’t want to lose another, yet I didn’t turn around and walk back to her. Instead, I left. Out of the kitchen and out of the house, going … I hadn’t decided yet, but I probably wouldn’t return for a few days.