CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT
ALEX DAVALO
She told him!
It looked like a regular Friday evening, safe for the sounds of the birds settling into their nests. The sun was dipping low on the horizon, painting the sky in hues of orange and pink.
Sandro and I were in the living room of our house, getting ready for the birthday party our buddy, Todd, had organized. It was supposed to be a fun night filled with laughter, music, and too much junk food. But before we headed there, we had one little mission to accomplish: we were going to stop by Nadia’s place and force her to attend with us.
She didn’t fit in, and Sandro and I had competed to outdo each other with our taunts. The idea behind our plan was simple. Not only were we going to drag her out of her comfort zone, but we also wanted to show her that she was still an outsider, especially after discovering that our shared mate bond tied us to her, despite what she thought. The truth was harsh-Sandro and I had flirted with better girls, and we felt unfortunate to have been mated to someone like her, someone we considered low-class.
As I rummaged through my closet looking for something decent to wear, I glanced over at Sandro. He was already there, standing in front of the mirror, adjusting his hair.
“Hey, are you almost ready? We need to head out soon if we’re going to make it to Todd’s party before he’s too plastered to notice us,” I called out, trying to keep my impatience in check.
Sandro turned to me with a grin, “Dude, I’m almost there. You know I can’t rush perfection.” He flicked his hair with a hint of arrogance, and I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. He always took forever to prepare, as if he were some lady going out on a blind date.
“Right. Because we all know how much effort goes into looking like you just rolled out of bed with a bit more gel,” I joked, and he threw a pillow at me in response.
“Keep it up, and I’ll make you wait even longer,” he snapped back, swinging his arm to point at me, but a grin broke through.
While we were still talking, the door swung open, and our father stormed into the room. He looked furious, and the instant I saw him, my stomach dropped. His face was red, and the fire in his eyes seemed like it could burn a hole in the wall. “Alex! Sandro!” he called out, his voice echoing through the room like thunder.
I stole a glance at Sandro to see if he had any idea why our father looked that way. His expression mirrored my confusion as we both exchanged worried glances.
“What’s wrong, father?” I probed.
“Why did you lie to me!?” he yelled at us, his voice sharp and cutting.
“Lie to you?” Sandro asked, his surprise evident and his eyebrows shooting up.
“What are you talking about, Father?” I added, my heart racing as I felt dread settle in my chest.
Still fuming, he continued, “Alex’s girlfriend called me. She told me that she and Sandro’s girlfriend are not your true mates. You paid them to pose as your mates just to make your mother and I think you’ve finally found them!”
Sandro and I both stood there, dumbfounded. Our hearts raced. We hadn’t expected this kind of confrontation. My cheeks flushed, and it felt like the world around us shrank into a tight little ball.
“Why did you lie to us?” our father almost screamed, the intensity still radiating from him like heat from a furnace.
We stood in silence, exchanging glances, waiting for one of us to break the ice. I could see the confusion flickering in Sandro’s eyes, just as I was sure mine mirrored the same. The tension made the air feel thick, and I opened my mouth to speak.
Finally, I gathered my courage, stepping forward slightly. “Father, we had to do it because we’re tired of being reminded that we need mates to be seen as leaders for the pack in your absence,” I said, trying to keep my voice steady, even as it trembled slightly.
Sandro nodded in agreement, stepping in to add, “We do not think we are ready to be committed to just one lady each. Please, understand.”
“I understand less than you think! You’re expected to carry on with your lives, not deceive everyone around you,” our father replied, his fury palpable.
“We apologize for deceiving you, but we had no choice,” I continued, desperate to make him see things our way.
“I hope you do not regret your decision,” he said in a voice that turned colder, filled with disappointment. I could see him turn to leave, and just as he reached the door, he shot back a final statement, “You have lost my trust, both of you!”
His words hung heavy in the air like fog, swirling around us and coming to a standstill.
The relationship we had with our father wasn’t perfect, but the idea that we had let him down so badly shot through me like a spear.
“What the actual hell was that?” Sandro finally burst out, throwing his hands up in disbelief. “How did things get so out of hand?”
“I don’t know!” I shot back, pacing around the room to burn off the adrenaline coursing through my veins. “It’s all Bethany!”
“Yeah, but this… this was just a mess!” Sandro replied, shaking his head. The frustration in his voice was undeniable. “We can’t let him think we don’t care about our responsibilities. It’s important to him! And now, look at where we are!”
“Calm down! It’s not like we had a manual on how to handle this,” I said, trying to maintain some degree of composure. “We’re just… young. We didn’t want to be chained down yet, especially not when our future still feels like a million question marks.”
Sandro crossed his arms, leaning against the wall. “Yeah, but we just took it too far. Now he thinks we’re a couple of deceivers. What if he starts thinking about our future as leaders? He might decide we’re not ready at all. We could lose everything!”
“Come on, let’s not jump to conclusions here,” I insisted, trying to comfort him. “Father is just angry. Once he cools off, he’ll come around. We’ll talk to him again, and hopefully, he’ll understand… maybe.”
Sandro nodded but didn’t seem entirely convinced. “But what if he doesn’t?”
“Then we’ll think of something. We always do,” I said, attempting to be optimistic.
The moment was heavy, a pendulum swinging between anger and despair, and couldn’t help but feel that our bond as brothers was going to be tested in ways we hadn’t prepared for. But before we could delve further into our fears, our father stormed back into the room again, catching us off guard.
“Did you think I was finished with this conversation?” he barked, his voice almost echoing off the walls.
“Sandro and I were just-” I began, but he cut me off.
“Enough! I want the truth. I deserve that much from both of you! We do not lie to each other in this family, regardless of how messy those truths might be!” He took a step forward, his face rigid with anger and pain.
“Father, we didn’t mean to hurt you or Mom,” Sandro said, his voice softening. “It just felt like we were being cornered. Everyone, including you, kept pushing us to find a mate, and we… we weren’t ready. Also, the bond wasn’t coming.”
“And you thought lying was the solution?” our father shouted. “You’ve disrespected your mother and me. Do you even understand what you’ve done?”
I felt the anger boil in my blood. “Father, it’s not like we’re criminals! We just didn’t want to be tied down! And we thought we could figure things out without all this pressure!”
“Pressure?” he replied incredulously. “You think I’ve put pressure on you? I’ve raised you to become leaders, to stand firm in the face of adversity! I have trained you to defend the pack! Do you believe that this chain of lies helps your case?”
Sandro glanced at me, then back at our father, uncertainty written all over his face. “But we thought it would help us, to let us be free a little longer. Father, no one is asking you to find mates for us. We want to do this in our own time,” he said, trying to present some way to ease the tension swirling around us.
Our father’s voice was filled with incredulity. “What if time runs out? You need to understand that being a leader is more than just about having mates. It’s about building trust, bond, respect. You’ve tarnished that!”
Frustration rolled through me. “We’re sorry! But we’re still young, Father! We’re still figuring out who we are! How can you expect us to suddenly know how to lead? We aren’t ready to just settle!
And it doesn’t mean we don’t care about our legacy. It just means we’re learning and growing, like everyone else!”
He stared at us for a moment, his anger morphing into a more contemplative expression as if he were evaluating everything we had said. “I thought you were beyond this stage, that you had matured. Instead, you’ve shown me the opposite. I expected more from you, the future leaders of our pack.”
Sandro sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. “We get it. We messed up. But please, don’t think this defines us forever. Give us a chance to fix it.”
I added, “We promise to try harder. We’ll make things right. If it means changing everything, then we will.”
“You both have made choices that have ramifications,” our father warned. “I need time to think, and I hope you’ll truly reflect on how your actions affect the family. Trust is not easily regained, so consider that.”
He turned sharply and left the room, closing the door behind him with a finality that echoed like the strike of a doom’s bell. The moment he stepped out, I felt the weight of despair settle fully upon my shoulders.
“What now?” Sandro asked, his voice shaky with uncertainty.
“I guess we wait,” I replied, my tone dreary as I collapsed onto the edge of his bed, attempting to process everything.
He nodded slowly, still lost in thought. “I just hope we don’t mess up even more.”
“Trust me. We’ll figure it out,” I assured him, struggling to convince myself more than him.
Beginning with teaching Bethany a lesson!