Fated

Chapter XXXI

Drystan

Drystan stared at the members of his mate's pack who were all frozen on the floor. Sebastian's mouth was slightly agape, his eyes moving between Cassie and Drystan unsurely. Drystan saw the battle in the little Luna's eyes, between her loyalty to her friend and the fairness in providing Drystan the information he ought to know. Her eyes met his. Then the Alpha give her the minutest nod, and she settled back into the floor, no longer meeting Drystan's eyes. Drystan sneered. The Alpha met Drystan's stare head-on, his gaze wary as if he was evaluating Drystan's character. The water in the bottle began to swirl.

Finally, Drystan's eyes settled on his mate. She was sandwiched between the Alpha and the Beta, and Drystan frowned at her physical contact with the Beta. His stance grew more rigid as he noticed the tear tracks on his Cassie. What was going on? 

"Oh, don't all speak at once. I almost can't make out the information in this noise." He stated in a monotone, staring at his mate who was not meeting his eyes. He waited another long moment, before he sighed and grabbed the water bottle. He turned towards the staircase, not noticing the longing in Cassie's eyes, and seated himself on the first stair. "Boy, it sure seems like it'll be another long night, huh?"

Drystan saw respect flare in the eyes of the Beta and the Alpha. They exchanged looks and the Alpha nodded. Sebastian hummed, noticing this interaction, before gently moving off support Cassie and standing up. Leaving Cassie alone on the floor, the five mortals moved towards the staircase, surrounding Drystan for a quick second. 

Drystan tensed, his eyes challenging. 

But the Alpha merely nodded, before leading his mate and the rest of the wolves up the staircase. Drystan got the message: he was getting alone time with his mate to sort their problems out but her friends were close enough to help her if that's what she needed. 

His eyes returned to his mate who was still trembling on the floor. 

Gently, as if approaching a wild animal, he started to walk towards Cassie. 

"My father was the beta of my previous pack," she suddenly announced, halting Drystan in his tracks. "He loved the authority and craved the power. He was good at it because he was ruthless and because he loved being ruthless. The problem was, he couldn't leave this craving at his office. First, it was the little things. If we didn't listen to him, he would verbally insult me or my mom. But he soon graduated to physical abuse. He beat my mom when she made a mistake and made her watch him beat me just for kicks. I was four when he started." 

"The thing was, nobody believed us. My father was beta so he was respected in the pack. I tried to speak to one of my friends about it once. My dad smashed two beer bottles on my head that night. I woke up in the hospital after two days. So mom and I sucked it up because we had no other choice. We couldn't transfer to another pack without alerting my dad."

"The Alpha didn't help you?" Drystan asked, his thoughts murderous. 

"He knew what was happening. He saw my dad throw a bottle at my mom once. He didn't react. Ever."

Drystan snarled. Cassie took a ragged breath. 

"Anyway, long story short, one day he threw a knife at my mother, narrowly missing her head. It was the first time I realized he would kill her, kill us. So I packed us a bag, somehow managed to handle my drunk mother, and got the hell out. All I know is that I ran and ran and ran until I couldn't run anymore. Unknowingly I stepped in this territory, and in a stroke of luck, Adrian's dad listened to my story before killing us as rogues and he accepted us."

Cassie took a deep breath as if steeling herself. "My mom didn't recover. She fell deeper into substance abuse. When I started school, I did something I swore I would never do, I went and found myself an older boyfriend who was just like dad."