Chapter4

#Chapter4

As Aiden Monroe stood in the center of the temple of books, his sorrow was so heavy, it threatened to crush him where he stood.

His fate dangled by such a terribly thin thread, gift-wrapped and placed into the hands of the beast of a man before him, and yet there was a part of him that had already resigned. It was hard to care when the only world you'd ever known had already combusted and left their remnants all over the ground you walked.

With a height of terrifying proportion, and shoulders wide enough to cover the width of two average males combined, Victor Lavoe was a sight to behold. Power radiated from him in thick, pulsating waves, suffocating the entire room with his sheer presence. His face, a maliciously beautiful structure, was set into a harsh cast, and as his eyes, the exact same vibrant blue as Eric's, settled on him, Aiden felt like he was sinking. It was as though the ground itself was reaching up, closing over him inch by inch.

And all he could do was stand and stare.

/"You should have known better than to bring him here, Eric,/" the Alpha said at last, his massive hands bracing down on the solid mahogany desk in front of him. Though soft, though a low grumble that stirred from deep in his chest, his voice struck the room like thunder. Aiden stepped back, flinching, struggling to breathe.

Eric, or Tall and Terrifying, as Aiden had come to call him, was standing in the doorway, a small entrance that was slotted between the two hulking, black marble bookshelves that submerged the walls. He shuddered beneath the brunt of the Alpha's attention, but masked it with a cold smile.

/"I was making a point./"

/"A stupid point,/" said one of the three men who were also in the room. Aiden knew they were there. He'd seen them when Eric had dragged him in by the scruff of his shirt. He knew they were there because he could feel their presence— the hairs on the back of his neck had risen, and his skin tingled beneath the weight of their gaze. But the dominance of the Alpha was a force he couldn't deny, and even though he wanted to, he found himself unable to turn to identify who had spoken.

/"Shut up, Remy,/" Eric sneered. /"Tell me again, why are you here? What do you contribute to—/"

/"Enough,/" the Alpha snapped, his eyes flashing with warning. The strike of authority silenced the squabble dead. /"You're brothers. Start acting like it./"

A chorus of /"Sorry, dad,/" rang out.

/"I'm not a brother,/" came a soft, chipper voice. It was one of the three men behind him, but even still, Aiden didn't turn. His bones were stone, and his bladder was jelly.

/"Hush, Mac,/" Victor Lavoe said with a deep sigh, but his eyes softened and a ghost of a smile traced his lips. He was devastatingly handsome, but it was lost beneath the sternness of his features; his face held the same cruel edges as Eric's, but it lacked malice. /"If you insist on reminding me that you're still here, I'll be forced to make you leave./"

The man, Mac, he assumed, laughed. It was a melodic sound, child-like and full of an infectious charm that lightened the atmosphere. /"I'll be quiet as a mouse. Although, I heard the mice by the creek the other day, and they're not quiet at all, Victor. They're actually very noisy and—/"

/"Mac!/" one of the voices behind him groaned. /"He's serious. He'll make you sit outside until we're done again./"

Mac laughed again but nothing else followed.

/"I don't see why Remy gets to keep his pet with him anyway,/" Eric sneered. Hatred swirled in his eyes as they fixed on a spot behind Aiden. /"Clyde doesn't bring his mate to official meetings. But of course, darling Remy can—/"

/"Enough, Eric,/" the Alpha said, shooting his son a dark look. /"We do not air our dirty laundry in the presence of . . . guests./"

Which had the focus snapping right back to him. The effect was instant, knocking him sick: waves of nausea rode against him like a rubber dingy lost at sea, and the taste of vomit was so pungent in his mouth that every dry swallow almost invoked another round of puking. He tried breathing himself out of it. The carpet, a thick padding of grey that felt like he was walking on a cloud, was much more expensive than the gritty floor lining of Marcus' apartment— he had an inkling that spewing his insides all over it would not be appreciated.

/"Marcus Matthew was once again unable to pay back the debt he owned,/" Eric said, lifting from his slouch against the doorframe. His frame straightened, but one hand braced against the one of the glossy bookshelves that bore rows upon rows of leather-bound volumes. They covered every available wall, excluding the wide-stretching window that overlooked the courtyard on Aiden's right, and the door itself.

The Alpha's gaze found him. It breached through his soul like a hunting knife through butter, and as a silent whimper sprung from Aiden's lips, it felt as though his every thought was now readily available to the man. Dropping his gaze, looking away, it was the hardest thing he'd ever had to do. It was like defying gravity itself. But as soon as he had, his swimming vision zeroing in on his battered converse, the smallest of relief settled over him.

/"That much I understand. The confusion lies in why you brought the boy back as substitute— better yet, why Matthew's had a half-breed in the first place. There are rules and that—/"

/"Exactly,/" Eric said. /"Marcus Matthew is in direct violation of not only the agreement he made with our pack, but the laws that bind his own kind. He's a scumbag. That's why he's hiding out among the humans. He had nothing else of worth to take, and I thought perhaps seeing for yourself that he was harboring a nihil would force your hand./"

/"Don't call him that!/"

Aiden recognized the tone as the man the Alpha had called Mac. His head, by some miracle, turned, and for the first time, he caught a generous glimpse of the other males in the room.

Two of the men held an uncanny resemblance to their father and brother. They both had the same dark, glossy black hair, and the same bright, bright blue eyes. Their faces, although holding their own unique element, were blessed with the same features that made their relation an instant fact. They both shared the same daunting height and build as their father two, but the man who was leaning up against the bookshelf at the end of the room, his shoulder creating a wave in the books, stood a fraction taller.