CHAPTER 34: LOYALTIES
CHAPTER 34: LOYALTIES
Florence POV
It felt like I wasted an eternity eating a simple bowl of soup that, in all honesty, should have only taken me ten minutes at most. However, in my nervous state, I swore it must have taken at least twenty to thirty minutes—long enough for the Omega maid to start clearing her throat.
“The Alpha,” she mumbled beside me. “It isn’t a good idea to keep him waiting.”
In the end, I had to settle for leaving a small portion of the soup in the bowl. Slowly, I stood to my feet and walked toward his office, each step as deliberate as I could make it. His door was already open, so I couldn’t use the excuse of waiting outside for him to invite me in.
I walked in slowly, my head tilted down toward the floor, finding fascinating patterns in the marble and then in the carpet near his desk.
“Not on the floor,” he said. “Look at me, Florence.”
A strange mixture of shivers and fear jolted down my spine as he called my name with such intent.
“Look at me,” he said again, and this time, my body moved to obey.
“Tell me,” he said, his voice low but steady. “I will listen. Do you want to leave?”
I bit my lip, finding him leaning against his desk with his arms folded across his chest. The motion caused his biceps to strain against the white button-down shirt he wore.
“I don’t...” I began to stammer.
“Take your time,” he said. “I’m not rushing you. I won’t take you anywhere unless you want to go. I did promise you freedom.”
A small breath of relief escaped me as I recalled his words exactly: You are free here.
Maybe, just maybe, I could trust him.
“Do you want to leave?” he asked again.
Slowly, I shook my head.
“You said I am free,” I said.
“Truthfully, Scott...” I hesitated, then shook my head. “Scott was never going to have me. At least not until you.”
I felt his eyes on me, boring holes into the wall.
“Look at me,” he said again. “I want you to look at me while you talk, and I want you to look at me while I talk. Do you understand?”
I nodded, cleared my throat, and finally looked up at him.
“I don’t want to leave,” I said softly.
“And about what happened?” he asked. “I didn’t plan it. Never in my life would I have thought I would be hurt like that, but somehow…”
“Somehow you still yearned for him after all that? Is that why you’ve protected him for so long? You would have told me otherwise. You would have told me that he was here, that he was one of those who had killed the children of this very pack, in this academy—a place where they should have been safe. My pack should have been safe. Are you a spy?”
His voice was quieter than when he had interrogated me in the car, but it was just as chilling to me.
“Did you tell him how to get here? That you were at the academy?”
“No!” I shook my head so hard I felt my brain rattle inside my skull. “I didn’t do that, I promise,” I said, placing a hand on my chest. “I didn’t know he would come. He wasn’t supposed to be there,” I said. “It was all a mistake, and I didn’t mean to protect him like that. It’s just… it’s hard.”
“If I did something wrong, would you protect me like that?”
The question shot through me, leaving my mouth hanging open. I stood there, speechless, staring at him for several long moments.
“I believe it’s a simple question,” he said.
“I don’t know,” I finally whispered.
“You don’t know?” he repeated, his voice sharp. “You don’t know because of what, exactly? You don’t know me? You think I’m evil? Or something else? You don’t find me appealing enough to get me out of trouble?”
“No!” I shook my head.
“Then what is it?” he asked quickly, his words like knives cutting deeper into me.
This time, though, it seemed I had built up a slight resistance to the pain his words carried.
“Tell me, Florence. I’m not going to hurt you. I just want to know where your heart is.”
“I didn’t think you could make a mistake,” I said quietly. “And I don’t think you could do anything wrong.”
My voice was so soft that I even struggled to hear it.
“I think some things are beyond you.”
“And not him?” he asked, his tone sharp. “Do you humanize him while making me seem as unapproachable as possible? Do I not have parts of me that are man? Is he the only man? Why?”
He stepped closer.
“Why do I feel like you would still defend him again? If I told you I was going to attack his pack tomorrow, why do I feel like you’d beg me not to?”
The truth was, I would beg him not to. The loss of life was needless. But I also knew his argument would be sound—just as the lives of his pack members had been taken, he would be forced to retaliate in kind.
Still, his argument was founded in pain, and I was wrong. Yet pang after pang arose in my chest, making it difficult to let go. It felt like I had a hook lodged inside my heart, threatening to tear it apart with every action I took.
“I would say it’s unfair,” I said softly. “I would say that you’re wrong.”
“And what do I tell the parents of those who need justice for their children? Are their lives not precious? Is it fair for me to question their grief?”
“Who are you loyal to?” he asked.
The truth was, I had no answer.
“And you?” I asked, bitterness rising within me. “What of Rose? What will you do with her? Do you somehow equate the death of seven children and the injury of eight others with the antics of a jealous woman? You could have told her to leave.”
“You leave me no choice,” I said, shaking my head.
“If you will do nothing, then neither will I,” he said firmly. “If you will hold on to relics of the past, then so will I. If you will not let go of him and his crimes against me and you…”
He raised his voice slightly, but this time, I wasn’t as afraid.
“Then neither will I. Loyalties, Florence. Perhaps yours can be questioned.”