LANA~
Jake looks like he’s hesitant to tell me the truth, not sure how I would take the news. Now was not the time for him to be nervous about telling me. He was the one that decided to pull me away from the crowd and spill the secret of my mate’s strange behavior from yesterday. He couldn’t back out now. needed to know the truth.
Whatever it is that my mate had done, definitely had a scarring effect on his Beta. I had to know what it was before it was too late.
“Tell me.” I urge. “Something awful happened last night, didn’t it? What did he do? Tell me please Jake. I want to know.”
He sighs and runs a hand down his face. He looks like he is having a hard time recalling what took place. “Apollo came over to the pack house without a heads up. None of us knew his reason for showing up the day before he was meant to get engaged. But the part that shocked us all was when he demanded that I beat him up. At first, I thought it was meant to be a sick, twisted joke.”
A wave of horror hits me hard. Why would my mate ask for something so ridiculous? Why would he demand that his Beta beat him?
“I don’t understand,” I whisper. “Why would he make such an absurd request?”
When Apollo left me last night, he seemed unbothered by my words. He acted like he couldn’t wait to get away from me and move on with Jada.
But the fact that he went to the pack house and requested someone hurt him makes me wonder if it was all an act.
Jake takes another look around before he runs a hand through his hair, looking troubled. “I found myself asking the same question over and over last night. But it got worse. Our Alpha decided to challenge other pack members when I refused to listen to him. He seemed to be seeking pain, almost as if he wanted someone to take it out on him.”
I frowned, uneasy at the thought. Why would my mate act like this?
“Has he ever acted this oddly in the past?” I inquire, my voice laced with concern.
It was hard to gauge whether this was some routine display of his title–an unusual way for him to test his strength. I understood that Apollo was no ordinary Alpha. He possessed a challenging presence, radiating an authority that struck fear into the hearts of many throughout the region.
His pack, renowned for their battle skills, was celebrated far and wide across the supernatural realm, their reputation fierce.
Jake looks stressed as shakes his head. “He even offered his position as Alpha to anyone who could take him down. This is something that he has never once even joked about. Of course, no one wanted to entertain his madness. But then, he got angry when no one stepped up.”
“This doesn’t make any sense,” I admit. “If he really wanted to marry Jada, he would have been happier last night. He told me that he had no feelings for me and that he was following his mother’s wishes. Then he stormed off and no one saw him again until today.”
I can see the realization in his eyes. “He must have felt guilty for hurting you last night and wanted to do something to punish himself in return. This explanation makes a lot of sense and explains his strange behavior.” He notes. “I realized he wasn’t happy about the engagement at all yesterday when he didn’t even want to hear a word of it. Before I could confront him, his wolf darted into the woods. We all chased after him. 1 knew if I didn’t comply with his strange request, he might have gotten himself into real trouble with another pack. To prevent that, we decided to go along with it. It was the only option.”
I gasp, “You attacked him?”
He looked guilty as he confessed, “We had no other choice. Like I mentioned, he was out looking for trouble. If we didn’t do what he wanted, he would have done something to get himself killed last night. I’m not even exaggerating, that is how bad it was.”
“We?” I ask. “You mean it wasn’t just you? The entire pack went after him?”
He nods, his expression filled with shame as he admits, “We all did. He didn’t just want a battle with his Beta, he wanted the entire pack to join in. Our Alpha didn’t stop fighting until he had no strength left to stand. I watched him with my own eyes drop to the ground completely motionless. I had to carry him back to the pack house with the help of some of the others, and that’s when I heard something that put everything into perspective.
1/2
22:47 Sat, 26 Jul
Chapter 107
I frown, “What did he say?”
He looked me directly in the eyes, his voice barely above a whisper. “Your name. He said ‘Lana.’ He said it like he was longing for you. I’ve never seen him act that way toward any other woman before. That’s when it hit me–you were more than just his stepsister.”
Jake’s words turned my world upside down. It contradicted everything Apollo had led When he told me he had no feelings for me, that was all a complete lie.
to believe yesterday in the bathroom. He had been lying to me
I couldn’t wrap my head around it. But if pushing me away was causing him so much pain, why was he doing it?
It was clear he was hurting just as much as I was over agreeing to marry Jada.
A sharp pain cuts straight through my chest.
No.
I couldn’t let him follow through with this. I had to act quickly before it was too late. I wasn’t even sure how far they’d gotten with the ceremony. However, I didn’t care. The conséquences didn’t matter anymore; I needed to fight for my mate. I couldn’t let him do this to us.
