Cole's POV
I wake up feeling hungover. Not barf-in-the-toilet hungover; more like don't-even-think-about-talking-to-me hungover. I guess that's what you get for spending the night at the bar. My idea of a perfect day consists of staying in bed and not doing anything, but Dad has other plans. He has meetings planned the whole day and since he thinks I have to act as if I am his oh so holy son I need to be by his side at each and every one of those meetings. I know I was supposed to not go drinking yesterday, in fact the last thing I remember my father saying before I walked out of the house was, "Cole, I swear to God, if you think you can't get away with drinking without me knowing you are immensely mistaken. You better be fit for tomorrow or I will send you to your grandparents." I might as well start packing my bags now I guess.
"Cole, please tell me you are ready." My sister Kelley sticks her head into my room. When she sees I am sitting on the edge of my bed she looks at me as if I grew a second head. "Are you crazy? The meeting starts in two minutes; Dad is literally gonna rip your head off. Like seriously, you'll be decapitated and I'll had a headless brother."
"Just calm down will you? I can get ready in two minutes, just bring me a cup of coffee to the conference room and I'll just put on some pants and then meet you there." I say as I stumble across the room to a pair of jeans laying on the floor. I take a whiff of them before pulling them up my legs. I put on some deodorant to mask the horrible smell coming from my body as I have not showered in two days and then I head over to the pack conference room.
I meet Kelley in front of the door and she hands me my cup of coffee.
"Thank you sister dear. I love you."
"Yeah, whatever. I just don't want to see you die." Kelley calls over her shoulder as she walks down the stairs.
I take a deep breath, preparing myself for my father's wrath, and step into the room.
The big room is filled with at least fifteen men all sat around a large table in the middle of the room. On the table is a model of our pack's land. The map pretty much stretches across the whole table with our tiny town in the middle and the forest, which is what is more important to us, encircling it. But the map is not what everyone is looking at; instead all eyes are on me. Great, so much for being inconspicuous.
"How nice of you for joining us son." My dad glares at me. Through our mind-link he adds, "We will talk about this later. Sit down and try to at least act professional."
I look around the room to see I am by far the youngest here. All these men are board committees and most of them are in their sixties. My Dad, the Alpha, is in his early forties and so is his Beta, Beck. Except for the Alpha and Beta the men in this room are only in charge of everything strategical, they do not actually fight whenever there is a conflict with another pact or rogues. You must earn your position at this table, unless of course you have the marvelous luck of being born into the Alpha position like me. Jason is lucky enough of not having to be here until he actually is titled Beta and that is not for many of years so until then I get to endure these meetings by myself. Yay.
"Today I want to discuss mine and Cole's meeting in British Columbia with you all. I regretfully have to say that we have not been able to reason with the Okanagan Pack. They still believe that it was in fact our fault that the rogues attacked while they were here and they want revenge."
"What do they want to do?" Derek, a man two seats away from me asks.
A picture of Mia flashes before my eyes before I push her out of my mind again and concentrate on what is happening around me.
"Alpha Alexander feels attacked and wants revenge on losing his family. You do not need to worry about your families though; he has it sought out for my family. Alpha Alexander threatened Cole while we were in BC."
"Why Cole?" Beck asks. I can see my father glaring at me. I know I brought it upon myself at our meeting up in Okanagan when I called Alexander a p*ssy for crying about losing his family. Hey, I was pissed off he was blaming us. Jason lost his sister in that attack as well; I lost someone who was like a sister to me. Someone who had her whole life in front of her, someone who had hopes and dreams lost them all in a second because she was brave enough to stand with us and protect her pack. So if they think that the attack was our fault, that we wanted it they are very mistaken.
"Let's just say he did not show the respect he should have." My father answers, then he continues, "But if it is truly the case, that Alexander only wants to attack Cole, we are at an advantage, because as Cole so blatantly mentioned in Okanagan, he only cares for his X-Box."
I can feel the knot in the pit of my stomach growing. My wolf is also becoming more and more anxious. He doesn't like where this is going and to be honest neither do I. They will continue about hypothesis about how they will protect my mate once I find her. I don't even want to think about Mia anymore; I have made up my mind on what I am going to do and that is stay as far away from her as physically possible.
"Are you even listening Cole?" my father asks me, his voice harsh.
"Hmm, what'"
"We are discussing your future and your mate and you choose to space out? Do you want your mate to get hurt?"
"I don't even have a mate." I snap back at him.
"You will eventually and trust me when I tell you, you will not want to lose her." Dad growls at me.
"I just won't have a mate." I state and lean back in my chair.
I am pissed off, because once again my father thinks he knows how to solve all of my problems. My wolf is pissed off, because the men are discussing a hypothetical mate that does not exist and he does not want to think about any other girl except for Mia.
"You can't just not have a mate." My father says calmly. Too calmly. He is angry and trying very hard to not attack his only son.
Feeling risky today I smirk at my Alpha father and say, "Watch me." Then I stand up and walk out of the conference room. I walk into my sister who is sitting a foot away from the door eavesdropping on every word we say, just like she does at every other meeting there ever is.
"Cole! What the hell is wrong with you? Go back in there and apologize to Dad." Kelley yells at me as I storm past her.
"Apologize for what Kelley?" I turn around and yell at her face.
"For disrespecting him! He is your father and Alpha!" Goody-goody two shoes remarks while she glares at me.
"Oh my God Kelley you just are truly the perfect daughter. Never questioning a word he says. Don't you realize he is controlling our lives? My life and my future is my business and he as well as you need to realize that."
"You are the future Alpha; when the whole pack's future depends on which stupid mistakes you make then it is his business."
"Well maybe I don't want to be an Alpha." I yell at my little sister at the top of my lungs. I know the neighbors could here that and that is not really good as no one should know their future alpha is seriously debating his future. At this moment, I don't care, though. I need to get out of this f*cking place and calm down before I tear this place apart.
I storm out of the house and get into my truck and drive. I don't even think about where I am driving to, but before I know it I am about half a mile away from Mia's house. I slam on the breaks and pull over to the shoulder of the road. I am too close to Mia, I can feel her even more than I usually do. My heart starts beating faster and my breathing becomes heavier. This is not supposed to be happening. Mia is supposed to have a calming effect on me, not make my heart race even more. My brain is whirling with thoughts and emotions. Of course now is the time I start recalling the events from Friday. That boy's hands on Mia, her lips on his, the way she had just walked up to him and kissed him. All I can see is red.
I need to get away from everything. I can't take it anymore. My dad pressuring me into all of these Alpha duties, my wolf pressuring me into claiming Mia, the overwhelming need to protect Mia from any harm that could occur, the thought that I may never be able to hold her and call her mine.
I can't do it. I won't do it. I need to get away from this all before I break to pieces.
Love y'all! Super tired, so it is not proofread and it is also not extremely long, but I felt inspired to write something today so I did. xxx