Page 349 of Alpha Mates

They wear the same horrified looks they had when I told them Oliver was alive, only after seeing what he’d turned into under all their pressure, all I see is the vapid hunger in their eyes for more.

“Not tonight,” Aiden says as he glances back at me. There’s concern in his eyes, and positioned beside theirs, it’s easy to spot which is real.

“No, tonight is fine,” I say, sobering as I close the space between us. “It’s perfect, actually.”

If I did this tonight, then I could speak to them with a clear mind before the grief spilt free.

“Julian,” Aiden warns, but I quiet him with the shake of my head as I step past the doorway.

“Keep an ear out for Levi. I’ll be back soon.”

Aiden glares at me and I smile sadly. I’d make up for that later, but there’s nothing he can do about it now. If it weren’t for the pup sleeping inside, he’dfollow me no matter what I said, but we both know there’s someone else who needs him just a little bit more than I do.

Shifting his glare to my parents, he lets the unspoken warning reach their ears before he reluctantly steps away from the door. I close it behind me, stepping into the empty hallway to face my parents.

“Did you see him?” my mother asks the second the door shuts. “Was he really out there?” Her crystal eyes are frantic, almost twitching as she cradles her twisting knuckles to her chest.

“With the rogues?” Father adds under his breath.

“Yes,” I reply. “He was one of their leaders.”

They suck in a breath, and suddenly, they’re both very pale. More emotion than I’ve witnessed in a decade flashes across their faces—shame, fear, heartbreak, sadness, and forgotten love. They swell, almost cresting, but then she cuts them all off, narrowing her eyes at me.

“Was?” she echoes.

He hears it too, and perks. “Did he get away? Is he in the cells? We already checked, but—”

“He’s dead.”

It’s surprisingly easy to say it, but hearing the truth spoken out loud is a different story.

A part of me had cracked the moment I watched Oliver’s eyes dull. It’s fracture stretched further every time I thought of him while I tried patching it up with everything I had to do—find Reon, get the pack back to safety, look after the pup, feed the pup—but standing here, I’m out of tape, and beneath it all, my heart is breaking.

“Dead?” my father asks, and my stomach clenches. Nausea rattles through me, and I have to seal my lips together to stop it as I fight against the rising tidal wave, but then he sighs.

Sighs? I blink at him, sure I heard that wrong, but then my mother releases a similar breath, her’s slightly slower as she lets her hands drop.

“Are you sure?” he asks and I frown at him.

Was I sure that my brother was dead? Did they need to ask that now, or were they afraid it was another trick? If that was it, I could understand, but then why did they sound so hopeful?

My frown deepens, head hurting as I try to find what I’m missing here. It doesn’t make any sense, not until I look at him—reallylook at him, and realise … he’s relieved. Relieved—and so is she.

“Am I sure?” I echo dryly. “Am I sure that my brother—your son—is dead?” I look between them as the truth punches the air out of my lungs. “Not why it happened, or how? Just that he’s dead, so no one has to know he was alive to begin with.”

“That’s not—” she starts.

“Don’t lie,” I snap before she can try it. “Donotlie to me right now.”

I’m on the edge as it is, and maybe my father senses it, because he sighs as he runs a hand through his hair. More dishevelled than he’s ever let me see him, he almost glares at me as he asks, “How would you want us to react, Julian? You said he was with the rogues—”

“Because of you!” I hiss, cutting him off. “It all started with the two of you! You drove him away!”

My father pauses, his blonde brows drawing in as his lips part. He means to ask how, but doesn’t want the answer. He wants the truth, but only in fragments that allow him to keep his head up high. But I refuse to give them that. He should be hiding his head in the dirt.

“I spoke to him,” I explain, and their eyes widen in twin shock. “I wanted answers, or excuses, I guess, because I couldn’t believe he’d be there of his own volition. But he was, because the truth is … Oliver was just as selfish as the both of you.”

The truth of that hits me as I say it, and it’s unforgiving with its arrival.