Chapter ten
(Thirteen years old)
Letting Go
Darius entered his family’s cave to the sound of Raven’s muffled sobs. He walked to the son’s room to find the boy curled up in his blankets, crying into his pillow.
“Raven?” he said softly, not wanting to scare him.
Sitting up, Raven wiped his face and reached out for his father.
Going to his side, the alpha knelt down and took the child into his arms. “What happened?”
“D-Daven said I was an-an omega,” he wiped his face. “He said I was going to-to be someone’s b-bitch.”
Darius squeezed his son to his chest. “Don’t say those things. They’re not true.”
“But it is!” wept Raven. “If-if I don’t get a mate,” he covered his face with trembling hands. “I’m worthless. I can’t do anything. I don’t want to have a mate though.” He peered up at his father. “I don’t want one, because he’ll be mean just like all the other dominate.” He hid his face in his father’s chest.
Tucking his child’s head under his chin, Darius held me close and hushed him until Raven cried himself to sleep.
***
Darius sat among the mounds of fur in the living chamber of his cave, trying to think how to handle this. Daven know better, but the boy was already to the point where yelling would only make him more bitter toward his brother.
His eldest son entered with an arrogance about him. “You wanted to see me.”
The alpha forced back his anger. He was not going to yell; it had never gotten anywhere with Daven. Not to mention Raven was sleeping in the next room and wanted nothing to do with his brother at the moment.
“Sit.” The dominate motioned to in place front of him.
With a sigh, Daven did as he was told.
“Why?” asked Darius, folding his arms. “Why do you say those things to your brother?”
The dark haired boy shrugged. “He pissed me off.”
The alpha ground his teeth together. “I don’t know what to do with you.” He rubbed his forehead. “I yell at you, threaten to lower your rank, and you don’t even care. What do I have to do to get through to your, Daven? Please tell me, because I’m running out ideas.”
The boy shrugged again. “If you’d stop babying Raven all the time, you won’t have to,” he muttered.
“Alright out with it,” stated Darius. “Now’s your time. Whatever bothering you, I want to hear it.”
“Everything my fault,” said Daven firmly. “Raven gets hurt, and it’s my fault. He runs off when I tell him not to, and it’s still my fault. He starts crying over nothing, and it’s my fault.” He met his Alpha’s gaze. “You’re always on his side, and I’m tired of it.”
“You’re his older brother. I expected you to take care of him, especially because you’re a dom-”
“I don’t care!” snapped Daven. “Just because I’m the dominate and he’s a stupid little sub, doesn’t make everything’s my fault. I tell him no, and he doesn’t listen and then he run to you, and I get in trouble. I’m sick of it, and I’m sick of him.” Daven bowed his head and bit his lip.
Darius watched his son for a moment. “I’m harder on you, Daven, because I have to be.”
“I’m tired of being blamed for something he does,” muttered the boy with his shoulder sagging. “You never yell at him like you do me. I do something wrong, and you act like the world going to end, but Raven does whatever the hell he wants and nothing happens.”
“Do you really believe that?” said Darius. “That your brother feels nothing when his Alpha raises his voice to him. I do it to you because you can take it.” He shook his head. “Your wolf is strong Daven. I knew that the day you were born, but Raven his can’t handle it. I have to be protective of him,” he sat back and let out a deep breath, “and I guess I expected you to be too.”
The guilt was starting to sink into the future dominate. “If he’d just listen to me for once,” breathed Daven.
“You don’t understand how much Raven looks up to you.” Darius peered into his son’s brown eyes.
“Everyday pack members say things about him, but it’s only when you call him a worthless sub, a bitch, or an omega that he lets it show how much it hurts him.”
Daven flinched at the words, regretting have uttered them to his little brother only an hour ago. “I’m sorry. I was mad about you grounding me. I blamed him for it, even though I did go outside our territory without permission. I didn’t want Raven to get hurt, and I regret doing it.”
“I’m sorry to Daven,” breathed Darius. “I do blame you for things that I shouldn’t. I expected a lot out of you. You’re going to be a leader of his pack one day, I can sense it, and I want you to be a great Alpha one day.”
“I’ll try harder to be nicer to him,” replied Daven. “I might get mad at him sometimes, but he’s still my brother. I don’t mean to make him cry.”
Darius nodded and patted his son’s back. “I going to let you and Jagger start going out with the hunting party again, but I better not ever hear you call your brother an omega or a bitch again.”
Daven nodded, giving his father a small smile. “I won’t.”
“Good because one day Raven is going to have a mate and if he finds out you called your brother that, he might knock you around a little.”
The boy simply laughed. “Face it dad, you’re never going to let anyone near Raven. Either that or he’s going to be a beast, and I do have something to worry about.”
“Watch it boy, or I’ll put you on food clean up,” said the alpha with a grin.
“Yeah, yeah, whatever dad.” Daven stood and headed back to his room to tell Jagger they’d be heading out tomorrow with the hunting party.
***
Summer was coming to an end, and Raven was running out of time to ask his father something that he been contemplate all during the break. Darius was relaxing in his bed with his eyes closed. Raven created into the room and knelt beside the bed.
“Dad.”
“Hmm…” replied the Alpha not moving from his position.
“Can I ask you something?” Raven ran his hands down a lock of his mid-back length hair.
“Sure, Raven,” yawned the Darius. “What do you need?”
The boy bit his lip, worried about how his father was going to react. “I want to go back to school.”
Darius sat up and stared at his child. “No.”
Raven’s shoulder sagged. “But dad, I really want to.”
“No. Daven and Jagger have finished and so are you.”
“Please.” He grabbed his father’s hand. “I don’t want to quit.”
“You’re not quitting, you simply finished,” said the alpha firmly. “You’re not going Raven. End of discussion.” Settling back into the blankets, he returned to his previous position.
“Will you think about it?” whispered Raven.
His father muttered something before rolling over. “Fine. I’ll talk about it with your mother tonight, but don’t expect me to change my mind.”
The boy smiled slightly before leaving his father to get some rest. He ran outside to find the other boys lounging on the rocks. The hunting party this morning had left Darius and Jagger exhausted. Raven sat down next to his brother.
“What are you so happy about?” asked Daven.
“Dad said he’d think about letting me go to school.” He pulled his knees to his chest and rested his chin on them.
The older twin just laughed to himself. “You’re so weird.” He tasseled his brother’s hair.
“I like school,” said Raven. “It’s something I’m good at.”
The boy around him started to laugh.
“One more year and I’m done,” said Archer. “Unlike little Saigon.”
Titus’s son kicked his friend away from him. “Not funny. Maybe I can convince my parents to let me quit early?”
“WIR only goes to the seventh grade,” stated Jagger. “Do you really think your dad going to let you go to a human school?”
Raven nodded. “Midfield has a private school for werewolves.”
“So that’s what you been talking to mom about,” said Daven with a grin.
The long haired boy simply nodded. “She think it’s a good idea. They have a special branch for werewolves like me.”
“Don’t get your hopes up,” said Daven. “It’s going to take a miracle to get dad to agree to let you go.”
***
“No Storm,” said Darius. “Why on earth would you think I would agree to send to sent him to the Midfield Academy, anyways?”
She eyed her husband. “Because it’s the only school that takes precautions when it comes to keeping dominates separate from subs. He’ll be with going to school with boy just like him that understand what’s he going through.”
“No. I’m not sending my son away to some stupid academy when he shouldn’t have even started school in the first place.”
“Darius, stop being such an overprotective father and realize that this is the best thing for our son. Because if you’ve forgotten, you’re not the only one that get to decide here,” stated Storm with anger in her voice. “He’s my son too.”
“It’s not safe.
Storm rolled her eyes. “That is the stupidest excuse I’ve heard. Midfield is the strictest school in the country. Dominate aren’t even allowed on or near the sub campus. Not to mention they have a fully trained security team to keep the boys safe.”
“Like I believe that,” scoffed Darius. “Why would they care about a bunch of omegas?”
Storm put her hands on her hips. “Because just like you, all the subs that go to that school fathers are highly ranked werewolves. So don’t call them omegas, because Raven falls into the category.”
“Sorry.” Sighing, he rubbed his face. “I don’t want him to go.”
“Darius, he wants this. He wants to be with boys like him and being able to continue school is just a bonus.” She walked over to her mate and put her arms around him. “I’m going to miss him too, and it’s going to break my heart not to have my Raven with me everyday, but this is the best thing for him.” She tilted his face toward her. “You know it, you’re just afraid to admit it.”
“He’s not going,” said Darius firmly. “Raven is stay here where I can keep him safe.”
Storm hugged him tightly and laid her head on his shoulder. “You can’t lock him up forever. Both our boys are growing up,” she said softly, doing her best to calm him down. “Daven apart of the hunting party and gaining the respect of the dominates. And Raven is turning into a beautiful boy that any dominate would be happy to have as a mate, and he really only wants to make you proud.”
“I’m well aware that my son is attracting too much attention.”
She cupped his cheek. “You can’t him locked away forever. One day a man is going to win his heart. Don’t you think it would be best to let him experience life before that happens?”
“I can’t protected him if he’s in Midfield,” said Darius, his defenses falling.
“You’re not always going to be able to. You’re going to have to accept that.”
He turned around and pulled his mate into his arms. “Fine, he can go.”
***
Darius found the boys swimming at the river. He hadn’t slept well that night with his head filled with nightmares of all the things that could go wrong. His youngest son spotted him and flashed him a smile.
“Raven come here for second,” called the alpha, waving his hand at him to come over.
The boy swung his feet out of the water and went to sit on a rock next to his father.
Darius took in a deep breath. “I’ve talk with your mother, and we decided to enroll you at Midfield Academy.”
“Really!” yelled Raven, hugging his father. “You’re really going to let me.”
Darius smiled. “If I hear you’re slacking off at all, I drag you right back home. You’re going there to learn.”
“I won’t. I promise.” He tightened his grip. “Thank you. Thank you so much. I’m going to go tell Daven and Jagger. I can’t believe this.” He jumped off the rocks and ran off to where the other boys were diving into the water.
It was nice to see his sons so happy, but Darius was already worried about Raven, and he hadn’t even left yet.