Just My Luck

23○ Pressure

L A N D O N

Thing one and thing two began to pull Veryan from beside me and I could hear my veins snapping every time they touched him.

Before I contemplated grabbing them by the throat and hurling them out the window Xavier pushed his way to my side.

"Well boys, I have important business to discuss so please excuse us," Xavier said and his sons took the cue to take Veryan out of the room. Veryan didn't seem to mind the boys huddling around him as much as much as he seemed concerned with Xavier's presence. 

"I think-" Veryan began, but with a look from Xavier he refrained from finishing the thought and he left the room unresisting, which was uncharacteristic for someone of Veryan's caliber.

 "What was that Xavier?" I said, my feet itching to go after Veryan, but I pushed him to the back of my head as I saw the almost tactile anger on Xavier's face.

"How could you ignore calls from the fucking Council of Alphas?! I gave you this responsibility because I thought you'd be able to handle this better than your brother but clearly it was my mistake," Xavier gritted out. I had neglected calls before but this was the first time Xavier threw a fit about it. 

"If there is a call. Answer. It." I could feel his power seep out of his words, his demands overpowering, even my head had the urge to bend in submission before them. 

This was my answer. I was not the one with power here. I don't think I'd ever have the power everyone thinks I have. And in that revelation I realized that I won't be able to protect him. That seemed scarier than death itself.

"Listen Landon. Things are getting bad and you can't just sit here behind this barrier," he sat on the seat beside my father's bed, "You have to be focused. And goal-oriented. And ruthless..."

He stared at my father's frail body beneath the dust-catching sheets with remorse, or something of the sort. 

Xavier was the one who found my father's battered and beaten body and lugged him back to safety. I couldn't decide if I was grateful or unappreciative when I saw his bleeding yet breathing body in Xavier's arms that night. 

"You saved him," I said reluctantly, "And you keep him alive with all of this equipment here. So don't feel remorseful."

He seemed startled by my words, "Remorse? Of course I feel remorse. Yes, I...saved him but I should've brought him back...unharmed. Your mother too."

I stiffened at the mention of her. I never even got to see her body. I never even got to say goodbye.

"I'm sorry kid. For all of this."

I would only be able to comprehend the meaning behind his plain apology when our lives unravel to the point where we can't put ourselves together anymore. 

Xavier sighed, giving my father one last regretful look and turned to me, "Lots of things are happening and the council is barely keeping it under control. Given that there's no leader, since none of us would swallow orders very well, we all need to cooperate. Let's start by answering the phone first shall we."

I had hoped that I would be able go on a bit longer, sustaining my position of Alpha with only its menial tasks but now it seems like I would have to truly drench my hands in blood. I feel my back being mangled and pierced, and my spine almost cracks under the onus that I know I must bear. 

Yet I do not let myself fall to pieces since Veryan's words are still fresh in me. "You have a strong back." And that is all I have holding me together. I wonder how long before those words rot in me and I finally break and succumb to my pain.

Something tells me it would not be very long.