Page 250 of Alpha Mates

The scene before me isn’t a surprising one. I expected it, but that doesn’t make witnessing it any easier.

Aiden’s voice fills the room as he ushers the healers and elders into our largest meeting room. He directs them to find a seat inside as quickly as they can, all while pretending not to hear his parents badgering him.

He’s doing a great job of ignoring them, but I can see his patience fraying with every added minute in their presence.

All things considered, our homecoming had been nice, even if short-lived.

We’d barely crossed back into our territory before our wolves came running to greet us, their relief echoing through the link—that we were together, and in one piece.

Emitt and Beckett had met us at the healer’s complex, their relief just as palpable as they tried to gauge what had happened without getting in Aiden’s way. They’d just narrowly managed to report that all was well within the pack before Aiden’s parents showed up, a split mirror of his worry, except it was clear where their concerns lay.

“How could you leave the pack like that? With no warning.”

“You’re the alpha, Aiden. You can’t just disappear because you have a fight with your mate.”

Not once had they asked if he was okay.

Aiden refused to engage, and their frustration built by the second. At first, they focused their glares at me, but at my raised brow, they seemed to remember our last conversation and thought better of it.

Sadly, that trick doesn’t work as well with my own parents.

“What happened, Julian?” my mother asks in a hushed whisper. “What is this meeting about?”

I hadn’t spoken to them properly since they pulled me out of school without my permission, and now here they were. Trying to pry information out of me and convince me to let them into the meeting, all while reminding me what a disappointment I was.

I guess all my avoidance, and my time away, stripped them of that temporary bout of repentance. If they wanted to rebuild our relationship, they’d seemed to forget that berating me wasn’t the best way to go about it. But old habits and all of that.

“Do you know what state you left the pack in? How you failed them?” my father hisses. “Uncoordinated, and without explanation, you just left when the pack needed you most.”

“Michael,” my mother shushes, though her blue eyes still search mine with a hint of frustration.

I stare past her, mentally willing them to go away. I’m too tired for this right now.

“After everything we’ve done,” my father continues, grinding his teeth with useless anger. “You should’ve been solidifying your position as alpha—but instead, you disappeared afterhim.”

“Hey!” Aiden’s snarl cuts through the air as he marches over, as if in answer to his summons. His burning red eyes are locked on my parents. “Get the fuck away from him.”

“He’sourson,” my father retorts, but there’s no hiding the unease in his gaze as Aiden pulls me gently from between them.

“And he’smymate,” he growls back before he curls a hand over my arm. His tone softens only when he turns to me. “Come on, they’re ready.”

“Aiden!”

All four parents say his name at once—demanding, trying to seize some part of him—and maybe he’s just raw from everything, or finally done letting people take from him. But his canines drop as he turns on them with a snarl.

“Shut up and fuck off,” he growls, voice low and gravelly with fury.All of you. This doesn’t involve you,” he snarls, all teeth and rage. “If you cared about us—if you took even a second to look at him and managed to care about him more than yourselves, then it would. But you can’t.”

He laughs then, sounding as manic as he looks. “You can’t foronefucking second give a damn about your own kids. So fuck off.” He pants, waving a dismissive hand at them. “We don’t need you.”

Aiden turns without waiting for a reply and takes me with him. I glance back, seeing the identical horrified expressions on all their faces.

Aiden’s right. We don’t need them. If we ever had, we’d cut those tethers when we’d found each other.

Aiden and I are each other’s people now, and we don’t need them.

Beckett pulls the door closed when we cross the threshold, locking them out. He takes up station in front of it with a firm nod, his concerned eyes tracking me while Aiden guides me to a chair.

I wave him away, but he handles me like a fragile porcelain doll, only stepping back once he’s sure I’m comfortable.