Page 11 of Chained By the Alpha (Claimed Duet #1)

Lydia chuckles and stands, coming down the steps toward me. “Sure you were.” She pauses beside me. “I guess we will find out if Deacon believes your lies,” she laughs before sauntering back inside.

Sighing, I head inside and to my room. Lydia has always had a thing for Deacon. She makes sure I know it, too, with the way she is always touching and flirting with him whenever he is near.

· · ·

Later that night, Linda calls me down to help make dinner. With a groan, I heave myself off the bed. My stitches tug painfully, and I instantly reach for my painkillers. Snatching them off the bedside table, I head downstairs where I find Linda standing in the kitchen.

“You look like shit,” she says, and I snort. She’s right, I do look like shit. She’s wearing a simple white summer dress with short sleeves and white flowers. Her hair is down with curls hanging lazily about her face, with silver hoops in her ears.

A slight smile tilts her lips as she glances up. She’s standing at the counter, a pot and a spatula in hand, with a bowl on the counter. The aroma of food wafts from the pot.

“Your father told me you ran into Alpha Zayn this morning?” she questions as I grab my drink bottle from the fridge. I nod before popping my painkillers in my mouth and swallowing them.

“Here, come stir this,” she tells me while grabbing a chopping board from beside the microwave. Glancing in the pot, I find it’s chili.

“When will Dad be home?” I ask her while stirring the pot as she cuts up something to add to it.

“He’ll be here shortly,” she says when Lydia comes into the room all dressed up in a skin-tight body-con dress.

“Hmm, chili,” she says, moving past me.

“You look cute,” Linda tells her.

“Always do,” Lydia chirps, and I roll my eyes. “I’m heading over to the new nightclub that opened,” she informs her mother when I remember I am supposed to sneak out and meet Deacon.

“Are you coming? I can give you a lift into the city,” Lydia says, and my brows furrow. Since when does she voluntarily want to spend time with me?

“She’s grounded!” Linda tells her, and I press my lips in a line.

“Seriously?” Lydia chuckles. “Grounded like a child?” I feel like slapping her.

Linda shrugs. “That is what her father told me.”

“Depending on if she tells the truth, I may be able to sway her father,” Linda adds, and I glance at her over my shoulder.

“Excuse me?” I ask, wondering what she is getting at. She leans on the counter, her arms folded across her chest.

“Where did you go this morning, and don’t feed me the same bullshit you told your father,” she states. I look at her and then at Lydia, who is watching keenly.

“To look for my phone,” I lie.

“Really, because Samuel was there this morning and didn’t mention you being there. He was helping with the cleanup,” she tells me.

Pressing my lips into a line, I know I have been caught out when I hear the front door open.

I growl, knowing she has set me up. My father wanders into the kitchen.

He pecks Linda on the lips before taking the spatula from me.

He dips it in the chili, tasting it.“Hm, I love Chilli,” he beams. I have to give Linda one thing, she is a great cook.

My father takes in the room before glancing between us all while Linda and I are locked in a staring competition. “What’s going on?” Dad asks. Linda raises an eyebrow at me, and I try to keep my face neutral, yet my heart beats fast in my chest.

“Well?” Dad asks, looking at me expectantly, before I open my mouth, Linda cuts me off.

“Cleo lied about her whereabouts this morning; she was not looking for her phone. I spoke to Samuel earlier, who had been at the hotel helping to clean up the mess from the rogue attack. Since daybreak, she has never been there,” Linda tells him.

My father turns to look at me. “You lied?” he asks. I say nothing, knowing he’ll take her side over mine any day. He always does since she is his mate, and he can’t seem to see what a manipulative bitch she is.

“I went to visit Zayn,” I admit. My father blinks at me.

“And why would you do that?” he asks, and I growl. He knows exactly why I would do that!

“Cleo?” he demands, and my eyes dart to him.

“Because you are letting your ego get in the way of your judgment. You had him remove his men from our borders when they are the only thing keeping the rogues out!” I tell him, and his face reddens with his growing anger.

“You went behind my back to a rival Alpha. Disobeyed your Alpha!” he growls angrily. How does he not see the risk he is putting the pack in?

“Yes, because you are putting the pack at risk. How can you not see that!” I snap back at him.

“This isn’t your call to make. You have no idea how to run a pack, and you certainly are not entitled to try to make treaty alliances without my say so!”

“Is that what you will tell the pack when their loved ones are killed because of your stupidity?” I ask.

“Excuse me?” he demands. I don’t stop.

“Or are you hoping this arranged marriage you’ve decided you can force me into with Alpha Dane’s son will be the end to your problems?”

“Arranged marriages are part of pack alliances, Cleo. You know this! Is this what all this is about, you having to marry to help your pack?” he demands.

I scoff at him. “Have to? I am not marrying Boyd. I am not allowing him to take over my mother’s pack because you are too blinded by your ego to allow Zayn to help!”

“You won’t have a choice; you want the pack. You have to make sacrifices, and this is one of them!”

“Exactly, Father. Call Zayn and fix our borders; don’t dump that on me, too.

Somehow, I don’t think our pack will agree with you risking them for your own selfish reasons.

Or do you plan to tell them your ego was worth more than your pack members?

” I ask. “Let’s just hope they believe your ego is more important than their lives! ”

We stand in the heavy silence of the argument weighing on me. My chest tightens as I stare at my father, the Alpha, with defiance burning in my eyes.

“You dare speak to me like that! You have no idea who that man is! What he has done! He killed my best friend!”

“I know exactly what he’s done, Father, which is trying to help us, and until you show proof of this friend or give up a name as far as I’m concerned, it’s moot.

And quite frankly, I believe his actions were justified, and so does everyone else, or he wouldn’t hold the status he does!

You can’t make assumptions based on conspiracy theories; there are two sides to a story, and then there is the truth!

Everyone is quick to assume and point the finger.

No one has bothered to look at the reasoning behind his actions.

Shit, no one even can answer if he truly did it! ” I yell back at him.

The moment my rant is over, my father’s hand connects with the side of my face.

My cheek burns violently, and my ears ring at the impact.

In shock at what he did, I touch my cheek, feeling how every finger had welted into my skin.

I stand there, staring at my father in disbelief. His handprint stings, and I know it will leave a mark. Linda gasps, and Lydia tries to hide her smirk as she leans against the counter and checks her phone.

At first, all I did was stare in shock. My father has never hit me. Never. What would my mother say?

However, if I am expecting an apology, I know I won’t get one with the way my father glares at me.

“You are grounded until further notice,” he says through gritted teeth. “And you are forbidden from leaving this house without my permission. If I catch you going behind my back again, especially to that mongrel, you’ll find yourself rogue.”

This is not fair. I had gone to do what was right for the pack, to keep them safe from the rogues who lurk just beyond our borders. My father, blinded by his own pride and arrogance, refuses to see the truth of the situation.

As he turns to leave the room, I speak up one last time. “You will regret this decision,” I tell him in a low voice.

He whirls around, his expression fierce. “You will not threaten me!” he growls.

I simply shrug. “I am not threatening you,” I say calmly. “Actions have consequences. And when our borders get breached again by rogues, you can have fun explaining to our pack why their loved ones are dead.”

“I don’t know what has gotten into you lately. It ends now. Disrespect won’t be tolerated. I don’t like punishing you; I’ve been a good father and a…” His words hang in the air.

I scoff at his words.

“Yeah, you have, Dad. You’ve always been a good father, but since Mom died, you’ve been a shitty Alpha!”

He seems taken aback by my words. Will he hit me again?

“Maybe if Mom were still here, things would be different, but she is just collateral damage right? Collateral to another shitty decision you made,” I spit venomously.

I see the pain in his eyes. Even though my parents weren’t mates, I still mean what I said.

The pack never had issues like this until Linda came along and got in his ear.

Now, the pack is barely staying afloat with her outrageous spending habits and the stupid alliances she has with Samuel.

The same alliance that got my mother killed when he canceled pack protection with Alpha Greyson, who is the Alpha of Lakeview Pack.

For a little while, Alpha Greyson and my mother dated until my father put an end to it after Linda got in his ear.