Rejected, Abused, I Fall for the Forbidden Alpha (by Riley Scott) novel Chapter 45

Chapter 45

Raven POV

Damien’s eyes twinkled as he looked at me. “Don’t worry, I won’t spill your secret. I guessed, judging by the way he looks at you and the murderous way he’s looking at me, it’s clear that he’s into you. I’ve been around the block a few times myself,” he exhaled, “and I see things others can’t. I’m assuming Aeress doesn’t know, does she? Otherwise, she never would have bothered to introduce us to each other.”

“No,” I stammered, “nobody else knows.”

He nods. “It’s fine. I like you,” he said calmly, “but not in a romantic way. It feels like you’re familiar to me. You know,” he said thoughtfully, “you kind of remind me of my mother. Maybe it’s the hair and eyes,” he said, “she had the same kind of waves and her eyes were a vivid green too. I think she would have loved to have met you.”

“She sounds like a great mother to have had and a wife,” I smile, relaxing. “Aeress seems to have adored her.”

“She was easy to love. She was the type of person to give you the shirt off her back if you needed it. She thrived on helping people. I guess when she lost her daughter, it was the only thing that kept her going. Her and my father. They’ve had to deal with their loss and still keep the pack running smoothly.”

His voice was tinged with regret and a slight hint of pain.

“I’m so sorry. Are there no leads at all?” I asked in a hushed whisper as we began to walk again, Damien putting his hands in his pockets.

“No,” he said heavily, “Suspects maybe, but no real concrete evidence. She had a sister who held a grudge against her but I don’t know the reason. She and my father never divulged that to me.”

“Who was the sister?”

My voice was filled with curiosity.

“I don’t know. Father seems to think it’s better I don’t. Says that’s a chapter of their life he would rather forget. I think he had something to do with the sister first before he met mother, but fathers never admitted to it.”

“He’s trying to protect you,” I smiled, “that’s what father’s do.”

At least that’s what I imagined. I wouldn’t know. Mine and Marissa’s died when we were little and I had

no real memories of him.

“What are your parents like?” he asked with interest.

“My father died when I was a baby, and my mother,” I swallowed hard, “is not exactly the maternal type,

“You don’t know? I guess he has his reasons for keeping his past a secret,” he said, looking into the distance, “so I won’t break his trust, but maybe one day you might be able to get him to spill everything. He didn’t exactly have the best childhood. Aeress has told me some things from her own past and what she saw and none of it was pleasant. It’s no surprise it affected him. I don’t blame the guy for being so distant or even slightly cold. If I had been in his shoes, I might have gone exactly the same way.”

A terrible childhood. I could easily relate to that and sympathize. Only, I suspected that mine was a walk in the park in comparison to Hades. The way he acted was almost like he was protecting himself and his heart. Something terrible must have happened for him to shut everybody out like that and push them away, including his own sister. I’d heard rumours that he’d killed his own father but had yet to confirm them. Somehow, I couldn’t quite envision Hades being that cold-hearted.

“We’ve been outside long enough to satisfy them all,” Damien’s voice is filled with amusement, “I think we can go safely back inside now.”

He puts his hand on my lower back as he steers me inside, acting like the perfect gentleman. As we walk back into the living room, all eyes turn to us. Aeress looks excited, Jackson is neutral, and Hade’s look is so chilling that I half expect Damien to fall to the floor dead and burst into flames. Alpha Daxton looks unfazed and merely greets both of us.

“I hope you had a good time the two of you. Hades needs to get back to some important business, so we have to cut our visit short. I hope you’ll visit again one day,” he added brightly.

Damien puts his hand on the top of my head and pats it teasingly. “I’m sure we’ll become good friends,” he says, almost enjoying the way Hades continues to look at him, his eyes twinkling with mischievousness.

Bastard was enjoying teasing Hades and deliberately antagonizing him. I wave a cheerful goodbye and then Aeress grabs me, shoving me into the limousine with her before Hades can make his move, shutting the door right on his angry face and telling the driver to hurry up. She was unfazed by her brother’s rage, sitting back on her seat and smiling widely at me.

“Jackson can go back with Hades,” she said airily, “I want to hear everything, and I mean everything,” she cried, fixing expectant eyes on me and practically bouncing up and down on her chair.

Somehow, I had a sense she was expecting far more than what actually happened, and I was about to disappoint her.