Page 83 of A Second Chance for the Beta

“From what I know Silas and Marcellus met when Marcellus was a rogue and became friends from there on. They built this program up together.” She pauses. “Silas is an ancient vampire andfull-blooded,as some elitist vampires call it. He was fed up with the elitist ways of other old vampires and quit.”

“Interesting,” Raffy mutters. “I’ve heard most ancient vampires hate everyone and everything outside their kind.”

“You will soon see for yourself,” Annie says as we pass by two guards who wave us through. Soon we park in front of what I assume is the packhouse. It’s a beautiful old building, almost looking like a mansion. I can see parts of it being renovated at the moment.

A tall, strong man greets us. He has rather long hair and a beard. He almost reminds me of Raffy, but he looks edgier and much more confident. His features are sharper, and his gaze a bit on the harder side.

“Alpha Marcellus,” Annie greets him after she gets out of the car.

“Luna Annalise,” Marcellus replies, politely shaking her hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you again.”

Annie introduces all of us before Marcellus leads us into the house. I see a young man peeking out of a room. Our eyes meet and I smile politely at him. He nods at me but then disappears again. Marcellus has noticed him too but doesn’t say anything.

“How is Benjamin doing?” Annie asks quietly.

Marcellus furrows his brows. “Barely talks,” he says. “It’s a long process. I wonder…” He pauses while opening the door to an old yet beautiful living room for us. It feels a bit like we traveled in time. Everything looks antique but tasteful and inviting. “I’ve heard his story and how he acted in his old pack. I thought he would be difficult to handle, and I would need to make sure he won’t fall into old patterns or start bullying someone, but nothing alike happened.”

“It was a mask he wore,” a calm voice interrupts him. “He wore it to protect himself and to survive the abuse. Once the mask was ripped off, his whole existence started to crumble.” A tall, slender man appears. He wears his hair in a long ponytail and looks almost… gentle. He squeezes Marcellus’s shoulder, and the two of them exchange a brief gaze.

Interesting. I thought Marcellus had a mate in his home pack; something about her choosing his twin brother over him. Maybe he has finally moved on. It’s not my position to pry, although these two are quite the intriguing pair, judging by their past.

Silas approaches Annie, taking her hand and kissing the back of it. “The charming Luna Annalise,” he says smoothly. “It’s an honor.” He turns to me, kissing the back of my hand as well. “And the smart Beta Ella, as I’ve heard.”

Good thing Dante and Liam aren’t here, I think with a grin.

“Thank you for having us, Silas,” Annie says.

“I’m not going to lie,” he says. “Your message had me curious. You mentioned a teenage hybrid and a vampire who hired a group of mercenaries to hunt her?”

“Exactly,” Annie says. She hands Silas the photo. “It’s about this man.”

Silas frowns, eyeing the picture. It’s silent around us while he keeps staring… and staring. “No way,” he mutters.

“What? You know him?” Marcellus says. “Come on, talk to us!”

“Aloysius,” Silas says. “But why?”

“Wasn’t that your brother?” Marcellus asks. “The one you led your old coven with?”

“Yes, and this here”—he turns the photo to show it to us—“is one of his lieutenants.”

twenty-seven

A Tale of Two Brothers

*ELLA*

Silashasservedustea and some tramezzini sandwiches by now. It was kind of amusing to watch him argue with Marcellus who offered to help, but apparently the man is hopeless in the kitchen. Now that we are more comfortable, Silas finally tells us more about what he knows.

“Aloysius and I led one of the biggest covens together,” he explains. “I will spare you the details, but we had a huge fallout not too long ago. I believe that we don’t own the world just because we are old and immortal. While Aloysius thinks every other being is below him and downright trash. That’s the short version of it, and we went our separate ways. I took my most loyal followers with me; some that were in between chose their own paths, and the elitists and hardliners stayed with him,” Silas says.

“What was it about?” Annie asks. “Your fallout. You said you want to spare us the details, but it seems like your brother has always been a hardliner. What made you finally pull away from him?”

“I’m not going to lie,” Silas says. “For a long time, I agreed with him that we are better and stronger than everyone else and that every other being should serve us. Then, however, Aloysius actually impregnated a human woman. He was very promiscuous, and for a long time he only slept with vampire women. Never with the full-blooded ones, as he deemed them too worthy to tarnish, but he did get a whole bunch of lower vampires into his bed. When he got bored, he started to bed other species. A human girl he slept with got pregnant. He killed her right after she gave birth, before killing the baby.” He pauses. “That’s when I knew that he was insane.” His lips tremble a bit, but soon he is back to being all collected and stoic. “He killed his own child without blinking even once. There was no way I wanted to associate myself with this amount of insanity. In a way it made me wake up.”

His eyes cloud over, and he looks sad for a moment. The rest of us remain quiet, digesting what he just told us. His brother must be a monster to be capable of killing his own child, an innocent baby on top of that.

“But why?” Raffy finally asks, completely shaken by what we just heard.