Page 8 of Rejected by My Stepbrother Alpha (Billionaire Shifter Club #1)

T he Mating Ceremony

Asher

“I’m so sorry, Asher. I know that this is hard to hear,” our pack healer said and clasped my shoulder.

My eyes burned, and I swallowed down the emotion threatening to escape me.

“Thank you, Healer Emery. I know that you’ve done all you can,” I said and shook his hand. “I’m going to sit with him for a little while longer before I have to leave.”

“Of course. Take all the time you need.” Healer Emery bowed his head, then walked to his office at the end of the hallway.

Slowly, I made my way back to my dad’s hospital room. I crossed my arms and leaned against the doorframe. I took a moment to stare at my dad’s sleeping form. He was covered by a white blanket, and there were wires attached to his chest, monitoring his heart.

It had been three weeks since the gala that was thrown in honor of my father. Three weeks since his second heart attack happened the morning after the party.

My stomach rolled as Healer Emery’s words from a moment ago drifted through my mind like a poisonous gas that could destroy my entire life in one moment.

If your father’s condition doesn’t improve on its own, I’m afraid that his heart could give out soon. Right now, the only thing I can really do is make sure that he’s comfortable.

Healer Emery had tried every treatment and medication that he could think of to help my father. His team had been consulted healing witches all around our kingdom. Nothing was working to help heal my father.

My father was dying, and there was nothing anyone could do to save him.

I’d spent the past three weeks at the hospital with him.

When he was sleeping, I’d attend video conferences about pack business and my father’s company.

I’d gotten very little sleep and had been consumed by my father’s condition.

I hadn’t even had time to think about the gala and wonder how I had gotten so drunk that night.

I barely remembered anything. Sometimes, I’d remember little snippets of a woman’s soft moan or a gentle touch that seared my skin.

These images always made me think of Ivy, but I knew that was because of my imagination and my foolish obsession with her.

I had no idea if I’d slept with someone the night of the gala. There hadn’t been any trace of a woman when I woke up to Evelyn screaming the next morning. But there had been the faint sweet scent on my pillow.

I’d wondered if I had met someone that night.

My father was dying.

A horrible feeling of powerlessness sliced through my body, and I put a hand to my own rapidly beating heart.

Every fiber of my being rejected the fact that my father was going to die.

For my whole life, he had been my role model.

How could I live in a world where he wasn’t alive?

I’d give anything to save my father. Over these last few weeks, I prayed to the Moon Goddess every morning and night to please spare him. He was the only parent I’d ever known.

My dad grunted in his sleep, and I rushed toward him. I gripped one of his clammy hands in both of mine. His eyes opened slightly. They were the same hazel color as mine .

“Are you all right, Dad?” I asked, trying to keep the anxiety out of my voice. “Are you in pain? Should I call Healer Emery?”

My father shook his head and winced at the movement. His face was sickly pale, and his graying hair was matted with sweat and stuck to his forehead.

“I’m all right, son,” my dad said, his voice quiet and weak. “Why are you…still here?”

I waited as he coughed. Healer Emery told me that his persistent cough indicated that his heart was failing.

“Evelyn already left to get ready for the mating ceremony,” my dad said, and looked over at the clock hanging across his bed. “Doesn’t it…start soon?”

I nodded but sat down in the chair beside his bed. Our pack’s annual mating ceremony was being held tonight. Every year, a ceremony had to be held in order for a mating bond to be manifested between two shifters.

“I’m already dressed,” I said and nodded to my fitted black tux and white tie.

The mating ceremony was a black tie occasion in our pack. I was going to lead the ceremony tonight as the future Alpha since my father was too sick.

“You have done well these past few weeks running the business and the pack,” my dad said and coughed again, his face growing even more pale.

“You will make a great Alpha of the BloodMoon Pack…and I know that soon you will find your Fated Mate. You will find your Luna, who will help rule our pack beside you.”

My dad gently squeezed my hand, and there was sadness, but also pride, shining in his eyes.

I let out a sharp breath as I realized what he was saying.

“Dad, please, don’t do that. Don’t start saying your goodbyes. Please, there is still hope left.” My voice broke on my last word.

He gave me a small, sad smile.

“Healer Emery has done all he can. I’ve accepted that I won’t get better.

We have to be realistic now.” He coughed again before he could get his next words out.

“I’m sorry…you aren’t going to like what I’m going to tell you.

I had a long talk with Evelyn today. We were going over my will.

Everything is squared away now. I know you won’t agree with this, but I had my will changed so that Evelyn will be in charge of all my assets, including Bloodmoon Enterprises.

That way, she will be able to split the money evenly between her, Ivy, and you.

Over the past year, she’s proved she has a mind for business, and she will help you run the company so you can focus on being the best Alpha for our pack…

” He trailed off and rubbed a hand over his heart.

Warning bells sounded in my head. Evelyn had managed to manipulate him.

Shit.

That gold digger had taken advantage of my dad’s vulnerable condition.

I didn’t even care about the money. I knew I could make my own way in the world without my father’s money.

But I knew that as soon as my father passed away, Evelyn would sell my dad’s technology business that he had worked his whole life building.

“Dad, please, think about this. You’ve only known Evelyn for a year.

Can you really trust her? Why do you think she’s so insistent that you leave everything to her?

Don’t you think that’s suspicious?” I asked.

“I think that if…the unthinkable happens, she will sell the business that you’ve worked so hard on. ”

My dad frowned, and little creases formed at the sides of his eyes. “But…Evelyn loves me. She knows that my legacy is important to me. Why would she do something like that?”

Guilt stabbed at my heart, but I knew I had to be honest with my dad right now. As much as it killed me to admit it, I might not ever get another chance.

“How many times has Evelyn brought up your will this past month?” I asked.

“Has she talked about your will more than she’s asked about how you’re feeling?

I haven’t seen her ask Healer Emery about how you're doing once. It’s like she’s waiting…

” My throat closed, and grief threatened to overwhelm me.

“It’s like she’s waiting for you to be gone so that she can share the money with her daughter.

” I let out a long breath, but I wasn't finished making my case.

“I've noticed Evelyn taking a lot of secret phone calls.

I've followed her a few times. On each phone call, it sounded like she was consulting with someone about your will.

And I knew it wasn't Lyle.” Lyle was our pack's lawyer.

“Sh e had called the person on the other end of the line ‘S’. Isn't that suspicious, Dad?”

I saw a little doubt creep into my father’s expression. I hoped he was beginning to doubt Evelyn, not me.

“Speaking of Ivy,” I continued. “How many times has Ivy visited you in the hospital these past three weeks?”

“None,” my father admitted and sighed sadly.

It broke my heart to make him see that this mother and daughter duo didn't care about anything except for his money. But I had to do it. This whole month, I'd fought for my father's life, and now I had to fight for his legacy.

When I thought about how Ivy hadn't visited my father at all in the last month, my jaw clenched so hard that my teeth began to hurt.

Ever since the gala, she has avoided my father and me.

I'd only seen her a few times when I went home to collect clothes to take with me to the hospital.

Every time I ran into her, Ivy seemed like she was waiting for me to say something, but I just brushed past her, unable to deal with my infuriating attraction for her with my father in the hospital.

To me, Ivy not visiting my father just showed that she didn't care about our family. My father had always been kind to Ivy. Why wouldn't she visit him when he was in such a critical condition?

“And, Evelyn has dropped multiple hints to me that…” I swallowed and sucked in a sharp breath, trying to control my emotions.

“If the worst happens and you…” I couldn’t even bring myself to say the word “die”.

I had to start my sentence over so I wouldn’t completely lose it.

“If the worst happens and you pass away, Evelyn has made it clear that she would love nothing more than if Ivy and I became a couple. I think Evelyn wants Ivy to try to trick me into marrying her to ensure that she and her mother can solidify our families’ money.

I believe they are working together to trick me just like—”

I cut myself off. I’d been about to say that Ivy was going to trick me like Evelyn had tricked him, but I didn’t want to hurt his feelings.

“Evelyn wants you and Ivy to become a couple?” my dad asked, his face crinkling in confusion.

“Yes. Evelyn is always making offhanded comments to me about how cute of a couple we’d make,” I said.

My dad’s face grew even more pale. “She shouldn’t be saying those things. You two are related by marriage.”