Fifty–Two
Alexander’s POV
I couldn’t believe it.
It wasn’t like I was oblivious to Antonio’s resentment for me and our family. It wasn’t like I had absolutely no idea of the underlying tension, enmity, and most of all, the constant competition that he was always trying to stir up between us. It had always been like that.
Ever since we were little boys, Antonio had always wanted to be and seem more than he really was. In a group of taller boys, he wanted to seem taller, in the midst of boys that seemed strong, Antonio wanted to put up an uncalled–for fight, wanting to appear stronger, and as bad as this all sounded, it was all much worse between the both of us.
After all, we wouldn’t have gotten here if he hadn’t coveted the Alpha position so much.
But still, I didn’t expect him to take it this far and maybe that was stupid of me but I thought Antonio deciding to go rogue was him accepting his fate, even if it wasn’t in the best way for him or anyone in our family.
I knew that he had been gathering up a bunch of people, setting up a pack of some kind, I believed, considering that it was his obsession to rule one but who would have thought he was planning to come back to fight for Red Moon? Or maybe I should have thought, maybe I was slow for not even suspecting his hand in this. Was he even planning to fight for
Red Moon or did he just want to seek revenge?
Would he hurt Isabella? Would he hurt my mate to hurt me? Would my twin brother really do that? Even as the thoughts raced through my head, I knew the answer.
I sped back to the pack house and raced up the stairs. I needed to let off some steam and the unlucky victim of my anger was no one other than my dear Beta. I barged into his room and scoffed when I saw him half laying, half sitting, with his back against the headboard, legs crossed, reading a book. He sat up abruptly when he saw me.
Well, at least he’s proved that he never liked Isabella and I had been an irrational prick.
“Looking for clues in there?” I hissed and he dropped the book to his side, getting up.
“I’ve been looking, I just came back in, actually. What’s the matter? Is something wrong? Did you find something?”
Maybe I was indeed crazy but why was he so calm? I yelled at him, I’ve been yelling at him, at everybody and they’ll speak back calmly, understandingly. I hated it! Maybe I was just looking for a fight.
“Yeah, we should go pick a fight with Caleb after this. He is not as sentimental, just rile him up a bit.” My wolf piqued in. He was just as restless, but I pushed him to the back of my mind.
“The door was already open when I got there,” I said quietly, a growl accompanying my words.
Blake frowned, his eyebrow going up as he took a step
2/6
forward, “That’s impossible. I have the only key.
“Apart from Isabella’s. Guess what I found there.” I said,
pulling out the crest badge from my pocket and holding it out in front of him.
It took a second, but his eyes finally widened in recognition. “No.” He whispered.
“Yes. Yes, Blake. And what I want to know is what everyone has been doing while Antonio’s men now waltz in and out of the pack. How come there are no eyes on her apartment? Or are the eyes aiding the enemy? Is everyone aiding him?! Is that why they’ve been functioning so easily inside the pack all this while and even now in this so–called state of emergency? Is the heightened security for fancy?!”
“Calm down, Alexander,” Blake said quietly.
“Don’t fucking tell me to calm down!” I yelled in his face, so loud and with so much anger that I felt my wolf surface and I could imagine that my eyes had gone black. “Don’t tell me to calm down like I’m acting irrationally or I don’t have a reason to be angry. DON’T!” I growled and saw Blake actually flinch.
“The idea that he has people on the inside makes a lot of sense. I agree with you. I will find them, I promise.” He finally said after seconds of silence from him and heavy breathing
from me.
Iran my fingers through my hair as I paced around the spot I was standing making a very irregular circle on the ground with my invisible footprints until finally I collapsed unto Blake‘ s bed, my hands not leaving my head as I felt my breathing slow but to normal but it didn’t stop there.
3/6
My hand slowly went to my top buttons, undoing them as I knew exactly what was happening… It embarrassed me. I felt like my whole body was getting submerged under water as I now struggled to breathe and unfortunately, Blake finally caught on because I started to hear his voice somewhere at the surface but it sounded muffled and I couldn’t make anything out of it. Until my wolf decided to take up the mic.
He said, ‘Breathe‘! Breathe you big oaf, breathe! Is this your way of giving up? Is this your way of accepting defeat? Cause I won’t let you!
“How are you so chirpy?” My mind’s voice wheezed out in reply as I tried to push him back to no avail. I was too weak.
I could almost imagine him rolling my eyes as I continued to hear Blake’s muffled voice and finally allowed myself to do what they were saying. The first breath into my lungs felt like a slap and I ended up with a coughing fit.
Blake slapped his hand against my back and as he did, it felt like I was being pulled out of the imaginary waters until I was finally back again at the surface. The coughs had died down and I was left staring at Blake’s floor, taking lungfuls of air until I was finally able to breathe normally.
“What was that, man?!” Blake yelled, his voice panicky, “You scared me!”
I threw his hand off my shoulder and got to my feet, making to leave when his hand clamped down on my shoulder once more, this time to restrict my movement. I looked down at his hand, “What are you doing?” I hissed.
“I let Ryder and Chloe go.” He said and I turned back to him, my eyebrow raised urging him to continue.
“I’m sure you knew your accusations were wrong but still you didn’t let them go. How do you think Bella would feel about what you did to her friends when she comes back?”
A growl bubbled inside my chest, “Bold of you to assume she will just show up when all you do is lay around and do nothing.”
Blake’s jaw ticked, “I don’t lay around and do nothing but I think Isabella could really use even a little bit of faith from you, her mate. Maybe if you had even the tiniest bit of faith that we’ll find her, we would have found her by now.“”
I glared at him before shrugging off his hand once more. “I think we’re done here,” I said, turning on my heel but Blake only walked around me so he was standing at my front once again.
“No, we’re not. Why did you hide the fact that you and Isabella were mates all this while? You always yelled at her, you were always angry with her and this one time you even made her cry. It’s a wonder you’re going ballistic now.”
“How dare you?!” I yelled, pushing him back till I slammed his back onto the wall, causing the books on his shelf just beside us to fall off one by one.
He pushed me back, but my grip against the top of his shirt did not budge. He kept talking anyway.
“The ball wasn’t even over when you started yelling at us to find her. She had been at the ball, why did she run off? You were not going to accept her once again, was that it? You made her run off, into the danger that was awaiting her, wasn’t that so? You danced with a lot of girls at the ball except your own mate. Even when I danced with her, she kept
glancing at you. And I kept asking myself why because none of it made sense to me. First, you were indifferent and now that she’s missing, you’re going crazy.”
“Fuck you, Blake!” I spat as I unhanded him. This time he didn’t hold me back when I tried to walk away and I was glad he didn’t cause this time I’d have punched his face right into the wall.
Just before I left though, I hesitated. I hated his reasoning and even though I felt like I couldn’t care less about him at that moment, I cared about what he thought regarding Isabella and I.
“I was never indifferent,” I said. “It looked like what it looked like but I was never indifferent and I was always going to accept her when I felt the time was right. I may have been wrong about that right time but I was never indifferent, Blake.“
