Chapter 34
1576words
The room instantly became filled with immeasurable tension when I heard the name “Luke”.
"Alpha!" Henry looked at me in panic, almost having a whiplash from how fast he turned his head. "Do you want to leave? I'll buy you some time."
While controlling my breathing, hiding the bits of pain and fear surging through my veins at the mere thought of my father possibly beating me to death, I went silent and thought things through.
You're a fool, Kylian!
Whenever things like this happen, I would always end up shutting myself down for a second. All I could do was internally curse myself for being such a wuss when things involved my good-for-nothing father.
If others knew what kind of effect Luke had on me – how I tremble at the mention of his call for me – they'd laugh at me for sure.
Luke's no longer the Alpha; I am. No matter how powerful he used to be, everyone could attest that I'm now far more powerful and stronger than he was. He's no match for me.
But all those years of the abuse I faced from my father were embedded into my soul and traumatized every inch of me.
Until now, like a helpless little pup, I still tremble and breathe rapidly at the thought of him punishing me for a happening I had no control over, for something that wasn't my fault.
If things didn't go his way, he'd vent it out on me, and I could do nothing about it.
"Why are you so mad about it? This is all for the best!" My mother's voice rang from outside the door.
Not a second after, my father roared back, voice booming through the hall. "The best? Are you hearing yourself?"
With how intensely he was speaking, a slight vibration radiated on the nearby walls and ground, which I was sure the other members felt.
My mother gasped. "My head's as clear as day! You should let it go. Della should leave the Dark Moon Pack. It's long overdue!"
My heart trembled at hearing that. How could she decide where my wife, my Luna, and my love should be? Della belongs nowhere else but my side.
"An omega like her isn't worthy of our son, an alpha, to begin with! Flora is a much better choice! Della is nothing but a bitch, while Flora is very kind and gentle. So just let that Della slut her way around and divorce Kylian! Don't trouble your son about this anymore!"
My mother kept on reasoning with my father, but her reasons were something unacceptable to my ears.
What surprise me most was how Natasha, my mother, could say those words so easily after how good Della had been with her. For years, Della had been tolerant of her, enduring all my mother's words and schemes.
And my father, he wasn't thinking about anyone. It's all just for his own benefit.
"Your son is an Alpha! Kylian's an Alpha! He can't just divorce a Luna for a mistress; that would be a big joke! Our pack will be a laughingstock! Don't be stupid, Natasha!" he shouted back.
Though they were outside, I could already imagine him pointing a finger at my mother with gritted teeth and narrowed eyes.
"Regardless of whether Flora is his fated mate or not or who his true love was, the point is that he was rejected by his own Luna because of his mistress! This is a huge scandal!" Following his words was a loud bang on the wall.
He probably punched the wall, causing my mother to scream from the top of her lungs.
"This scandal is already spreading wide! It brought shame in our pack, and I'm going to teach your spoiled and stubborn son a lesson! What a useless kid! He can't even guarantee the honor of his pack! Is that what you call an Alpha?"
With that, the door was kicked open, and my furious father came inside, immediately finding me and glaring in my direction.
"You! Selfish bastard! I didn't raise you up to be a disgrace!" Luke cursed as soon as he set his eyes on me, not minding that there were other people in the room.
"Leave! All of you!" Henry attentively ordered everyone, and like a plague was inside, everyone scattered away faster than a blink of an eye.
With a heavy and firm step, Luke started aggressively approaching me.
Seeing him looking at me like that and hearing his footsteps tantamount to his attack on me, I was brought back to the past – to my childhood I worked so hard to forget.
Suddenly, I was that poor kid again who was being punished with a silver whip by the Alpha… by my own father. And that was just even for some minor mistakes. What about now? He see this one as a huge mistake; what more could he possibly do?
While I was frozen in my past, I felt a hard, weakening slap landing on my left cheek, pushing my head to turn to the right and blood to drip from my burst lip.
My breathing became heavy, and my chest was rising and falling while my heartbeat went wild.
I could feel my eyes changing and my wolf fighting for control of our body.
"Fight back!" he was shouting inside of me, trying to suppress my control.
I clenched my fist and my jaw as I tried my best to stop him from taking control and possibly killing Luke. My wolf was beyond angry.
Not only did Luke hurt us, but he also stepped on our title as the Alpha. He looked down on me and my wolf and called us incapable.
He challenged our power. But still… he was my father.
This is a pathetic truth. No matter how ruthless and cruel he was to me, he's still my father, and I couldn't bear to hurt to kill him.
"We can win! He's no match for us!" My wolf kept on shouting at me, but I couldn't move.
It wasn't because I cared for him or I couldn’t defend myself. It was… me… the child in me. The traumatized child within me.
I could feel every pain of strikes he sent in my way. I could smell my own blood pooling around me whenever he beat me. Suddenly, it all felt so real and familiar. That feeling made me helpless and frozen.
Before I knew it, I was already knocked to the ground, and Luke was pinning me beneath him.
"You're a freaking failure!"
"A good-for-nothing child!"
"You never learn your lesson!"
"You're a disgrace in this pack!"
Every sentence, he would follow it with a punch in my face. By now, I could surely guess there were already bruises, cuts, and blood on my face.
Fuck! I'm so helpless!
"You're not helpless, just too kind. You need to fight! You can fight!" My wolf, the Duke, kept on reasoning with me, but nothing registered in my mind.
"Agh!" he shouted as he pulled me up in the air and threw me toward the opposite wall, nothing, everything in between.
I slid into the wall and onto the ground, coughing up blood as I watched my father look like a monster while he took his time walking toward me.
And again, he kicked and punched me as he ranted on, "If you can't manage your Luna and mistress, you should have just killed them instead of letting the Lycan Prince allow your Luna to send those stupid divorce papers! You're useless!"
Luke grabbed my collar and pulled me close to his face. His eyes turned red from anger. "Even after I passed the Alpha position to you, you're still a fucking useless like you've ever been before!"
Duke yelled in pain, his roar seemingly radiating all over my body. "Why aren't you doing anything? We're an Alpha! This should happen!"
He was almost begging, heartbroken even.
I wiped the blood in my mouth and painfully replied, "Luke is my father…"
Luke's abuse had been imprinted in my soul since I was a child. I couldn't resist his strikes even if I could. It's become like a habit… a muscle memory, to just accept all the blows he sends my way.
No matter how powerful I am and I could be when standing in front of him, I'm still powerless.
I could barely open my eyes anymore. My breathing almost stopped, and my heartbeat was weak. I'm at the edge of giving up and willing to accept death as my own father continued to send attacks my way without any hint of mercy.
That was until… I saw a light shadow in my peripheral vision.
What's that?
Despite the weakness, I felt compelled to turn my head and look at the door. My eyes widened when I saw a pure white she-wolf standing mightily in the doorway.
I took a whiff, and I couldn't believe it.
Am I hallucinating? This couldn't be real. Right?
That scent… It's so familiar. I could recognize that anywhere. It's Della's scent. But how? She's an Omega; that's a known fact. How could she have turned into a powerful wolf? That's just…unbelievable.
My vision was blurring, but I could see a glimpse of how she bared her teeth and raised her sharp claws in the air as she jumped toward my father.
