Forever (Book 1) (Editing)

Chapter Forty Three

They were all looking at me like I’d lost my mind. And in a way I suppose that I had. How could I have been so stupid to have talked to her the way that I had? As a matter of fact, how could I have given her the ultimatum that I had? She had every right to be furious with me and in the end she was right. How could I expect her to trust me when I keep doing everything to show her that she can’t? It was one mistake after another where she was concerned. I’d been furious that she’d gone to see her father, but I knew it wasn’t done intentionally, just as she’d said. Even still I’d stripped her of her freedom and the moment the words had left my mouth I’d regretted them, but I couldn’t take them back. My reasoning was sound in my opinion. She was posing a danger to herself and had we not arrived when we had, for all I knew, her father could have killed her. She’d been stupid to throw that threat out at him.

Sighing I took my seat at the breakfast table as my mother dished out the food. Not a single wolf in the whole house was in agreement with me. Somehow she’d managed to keep them on her side. She’d earned what I’d begun to think she wouldn’t. They trusted her and at the moment, it was more than they trusted me. I couldn’t blame them. Greg’s words had hit me hard, right before his fist did. A part of me wanted to keep her in her place. I wanted the pack to look at her like the human who didn’t belong. I feared that by her being a royal, she would take over my pack and I would be the one who had to answer for everything.

I’d grown up expecting that I would always have the final say in all things that concerned us. I was raised to take my place as the Alpha at the top of the pack. The highest level of the pack that could be achieved. And now to be mated to someone who had more power and authority than I did, made me feel like I didn’t belong. Greg was right though. If I couldn’t respect my mate enough to treat her well, the way she deserved to be treated, then how was I going to accomplish such a feat with the pack itself.

I knew those few words were the reason they all looked at me now like I was crazy. I knew they were why when they caught my eye theirs would narrow and they’d lift their noses in the air at me. I could see how easily those words had convinced them that Lady was by far the better fit for the job. Through it all, she’d maintained her composure. She had said nothing to belittle me or my power regarding the wolves until I’d decided to try and ruin hers. Even then she’d issued a challenge instead of bluntly stating it like I had. And it seemed that this challenge was one that I was going to lose. And why? Because I was stupid enough not to use the logical part of my brain and think through my words before saying them.

The whole time she’d been out with my father I’d been stewing in my anger thinking of ways to punish her for what had happened. Even though I knew she hadn’t done it intentionally. I knew that her father had summoned her and that she’d been lost in her own thoughts. I could have stopped her before she ever reached him. I’d noticed the moment she was missing from the yard, but I’d decided instead to follow after her. My father’s desires were still ringing in my ears. He wanted this confrontation. And a part of me agreed that it would only help the cause, just as another was in full agreement with Lady that it should be avoided.

She’d made it clear to all of us that she wanted nothing to do with this man. She didn’t want to hear what he had to say. She didn’t want to have to look at the man who’d been good to her as a child and had changed so much since. She was hurt by him and the things he’d done already and was planning to do. Even though we didn’t know what his intentions were, they still hurt her. It wasn’t hard to see it in her eyes every time he was brought up. I knew her father was going to be a sore spot for a long time to come.

I kept my eyes cast down to the table as I began to eat. Lady hadn’t spoken a single word to me in four days. She would enter the room, take her seat on my right, eat, then get up and excuse herself from the table. She never looked at me, she never talked to me, she never gave any indication that I was even there at all. When I’d try and talk to her she would just continue with what she was doing as if I wasn’t even there. That hurt far worse than the other wolves of the pack. She was my mate. I could take being shunned by them easier than I could take it from her.