No Distractions
BRUCE
As soon as I reach the pack house, I'm greeted by silence and the kind of looks that crawl under my skin.
The worst part? This reaction is coming from my own family.
I've only just arrived, but it seems they already heard about what happened in Alpha Selvar's pack. Well, calling him that is useless, anyway, because he's not an Alpha anymore. I stripped him and his entire family of their title, and someone else will rise in their place.
I can't have my subjects disobey me the way they did—if I let them get away with what they did, news of my cowardice would spread like wildfire, and I'd never earn the respect I deserve.
Soon, I'll be the Alpha King.
People need to both fear and respect me for my position to last.
"We need to talk," my sister, Megan says as she approaches me. My mother is behind her, her eyes on my face. I can't read her expression. "What happened?"
"Can we do this later?" I ask, not bothering to mask my irritation. "I've had a long trip and I really need to unwind. We'll talk later. I promise."
Megan nods, and then she stiffens when her eyes land on someone behind me. I'm pretty sure it's Opal. I pause to give my mother a brief kiss on her cheek, then I keep going up to the room, carrying our bags. I'm aware that she's following me, so we head to her room first, where I'll drop off her things and have a chance to talk to her.
During the ride, everything was tense and we didn't have a chance to say anything. I was fuming—and eventually, she fell asleep because we left in the middle of the evening.
Still—it's too early to talk about what happened. It's only around five in the morning. I need to shower, sleep, and try to forget this fucking evening ever happened.
But of course, that won't happen. This evening will haunt me forever, regardless of what I do.
Does that mean I regret what I've done?
No.
I have no regrets.
I turn around and Opal walks into the room. Her eyes are directly on my face, but she doesn't say a word. She closes the door, and we're alone at last.
"Tell me what it is," I finally say, breaking the silence between us.
Her eyes harden. "You lied to me," she claims. "How am I supposed to trust you when you didn't tell me the full truth about your past with Landon?"
"I didn't lie. I just didn't tell you the full story because I didn't think you needed to hear it at the time."
"That's still lying, Bruce."
Anger washes over me. "Telling you or not wouldn't have changed tonight's outcome, Opal. They still disrespected you and for that, they had to be punished. And that's the end of it."
She says nothing else, but her cheeks are red. I tilt my head to the side and ask her, "Why? Do you feel bad about what happened to them?"
"No."
"Good. Then we can bring this conversation to an end."
As I start walking past her and reach the door, she asks me, "What did Landon mean when he said those things about me?"
Panic grabs me by the neck. I can barely turn my head to look at her. A beat of silence passes as I think about what to say, but nothing springs to mind.
"He's a liar and a manipulator who'll always take advantage of any situation available to him," I finally answer. "You should've figured that out by now."
I close the door and take deep breaths as I head toward my room. My mind has never been this full. I'll have to answer to the Alphas tomorrow about this, but I intend to tell them the truth about the Selvars.
There's no reason why I should omit anything.
Just as I'm about to reach my room, I walk past my father's door and hear him cough. I didn't know he was awake at this time. I turn right back around and head into his room. His door is partially open—it usually is so that he can be heard if he calls for someone—and his eyes immediately meet mine.
I feel like I haven't seen him in ages.
"Bruce," he says in a low voice.
I approach his bed. He looks grayer than he did before, and I know he doesn't have much in him. Seeing him like this wounds me.
"Hey, Dad. How are you feeling?"
He coughs and shakes his head. The sound sends shivers all through me. It's the sound of death. "I...don't...think...I'm...going...to...stay...alive...for...much...longer...Bruce."
He says every word slowly and with a lot of difficulty. It's like he's struggling to breathe and it's suffocating me. "Too...much...pain."
He gestures toward an inhaler ok the nightstand and I help him take a few puffs. He holds his breath for a few seconds, then releases it, and his next few words are a lot clearer. "You must focus...on the war."
I nod. "I am. I'm trying to do whatever I can to keep the situation at bay."
He tries to shake his head but fails. "You have to...find them. Before they...find you."
I frown, not understanding what he means by that. I allow him to continue. "If they win...we're all dead. They can't win."
"I understand that, Dad."
He closes his eyes and seems to drift back to sleep, but I stand near his bed and watch him for several moments before turning on my heel and leaving the room.
I feel guilty.
I haven't been focusing too much on this war. In fact, going on this getaway was a tremendous waste of time. I shouldn't have gone, and I guess that's why my family's judging me for it.
I don't blame them. I've made many mistakes and this was one of them. Deep down, all I wanted was a chance to spend some time with Opal. I didn't care if it had to be in a place where Landon was.
And that's the problem.
I've been focusing more on Opal than what's truly important—the whole country is depending on me and I can't fail them. This thought sets my jaw, and as I stride toward my room, I make an important decision:
I have to keep my distance no matter how hard it may be.
If I don't succeed, we'll all be dead in a matter of months.
I can't have any distractions, and she's the biggest of them all.