MY CRUEL ALPHA BROTHER

THE ANDERSONS

~DORIAN’S POV~

After a few knocks on my bedroom door, I heard my mother calling out my name. I ask her to come into my room.

As she enters, I see a dreadful look on her face. Getting piqued by the sudden change in her countenance from the morning, I ask her, “Why do you look upset, mother?”

She moves toward my study desk and begins weeping like a child. Unable to speak, she just sobs. Afraid of her speechlessness, I hold her into my arms and assure her, “Everything will be alright.”

“Your father will not recover. He only has two years to live,” said the woman in a dismal tone.

While caressing my mother’s head, I told her, “Then you must not weep while spending the remaining time with him.”

“I know, but it’s hard. Even the thought of him dying breaks my heart,” responds my mother, wiping her eyes with her handkerchief.

This is the first time that I saw my mother cry in front of me. She usually bears it all in a bitter smile, but she never lets a tear trickle down her cheek. Losing a mate can be as painful as experiencing a physical injury straight to the heart. So, I know that I will come off as insensitive if I told her that it would eventually be fine.

“Forget about father’s sickness. At the moment, you must only focus on making him happy. I’ll take care of his duties. Do not worry about anything else,” I caress the cheek of my mother.

My words seem to pull her out of the abyss of her anguish. She forces a familiar pain-stricken smile on her face and informs me, “I will be eating dinner with your father in our bedroom today. Please do not bully your younger brother anymore. He isn’t at fault for visiting the ranch earlier today. It was that wicked Cecilia who convinced him for it.”

“I didn’t punish him for taking her there. I punished him for getting involved with her. As the second heir to Wolf armour’s pack, he must've known better than mingling with a harlot,” I hate it when Nikolaj turns a blind eye to my instructions and spends time with that wretched woman.

My mother nods to express her understanding of the situation, but she still pleads with me, “Do not be too harsh with Nikolaj. Otherwise, he’d begin revolting even more by hanging out with that woman. Be gentle in your approach.”

With a sigh, I ask my mother, “How is that possible? It’s like asking a cat to stop hunting. I cannot be gentle.”

“For my sake,” my mother cares too much for that spoiled Nikolaj.

Reluctantly I nod, “I will see what I can do to make him obey me without breaking him. However, I will change my mind if he would continue to ignore my commands.”

“That will do just fine, my son,” my mother smiles and then leaves to be with my father.

Since our conversation has stretched to dinner time, I rush downstairs to meet up with the rest of the pack’s members. As I settled on the seat of the head of the pack, I see Cecilia sitting to my right. Confused to see her on the dining table which is meant only for the pack members, I ask her, “Do you not see that I’m the alpha now?”

Like a powerless lamb, she just looks at me with confused eyes to express that she fails to make sense of my question.

“You are no longer allowed to join us on the dining table since you’ve never been a part of this pack for me. Get out!” I try to be tender in my tone since everyone’s watching me.

Her face turns like a beetroot. I can even see tears building in her eyes. She is truly pathetic!

After sustaining the insult, she gets up to leave the table. Before she exits the place, Nikolaj gets up from his seat and runs to her rescue, “Don’t you think you’re being too unreasonable, older brother?”

“You are too young to understand the intricacies of this world. I will suggest that you should quietly join us for the dinner,” I try subduing my anger for the sake of the promise made to my mother.

Nikolaj isn’t pleased with my response. However, he understands that he doesn’t have either the means or authority to stand against me. So, he tries to accompany Cecilia to her room.

My actions cause aversion in all the members of the pack for me. They look at me as if I’m the incarnation of the devil himself. However, nobody dares to mumble a word. Enjoying the prestige of becoming the alpha, I allow Nikolaj to walk away with Cecilia only to punish her later when I’d be done with the dinner.

‘I had told her to stay away from my brother, yet she does not attempt to do so,’ I am clear in my head that I will give her a punishment so cruel that she’d think twice before disobeying me.

After finishing my dinner, I look for an appropriate opportunity to sneak into Cecilia’s room. I am able to do so around three o’clock in the morning. I enter her room and find her lying unguarded.

Watching her sleep so peacefully after wrecking my family, I can’t help but grit my teeth in my anger. Making sure to avoid making any sound, I walk toward her in gradual steps. As I get next to her bed, I get down on my knees and ask her, “How does it feel to ruin a perfect family?”

My initial plans of wanting to punish her begin melting away like the wax of a lit candle. All the hatred just dissipates. I remove the long strand of hair from her face and speak my heart, “I want to hurt you so bad for what you did to my family, but there’s something that stops me from doing it. Why is it so, little lamb? Why can’t I hurt you?”

My hand slides to her face. I gently rub her lower lip with my thumb and question the contrasting feelings arising in my heart, “With a face as beautiful as a fresh flower, you still sting just like a thorn. Why did you have to enter our lives? You ruined my parents’ marriage, yet I cannot harm you.”

Whenever I gape at her face, it gets hard to carry out my fore determined methods of exacting revenge on her. What’s up with me? Why do I feel this way?

While I look at her enchanting eyes, forgetting my reason for intruding, she regains consciousness. Her eyes meet mine and she slaps my hand away from her face and crawls away from me. To say that she’s just alarmed by my presence in her room will be wrong. It is easy to see that she’s petrified.

“What do you want, master?” asks the wicked fine creature, hiding the fear by biting her lower lip.

I came into her room with the motive of revenge. I wanted to hurt her for going against my wishes. Now that she’s looking right into my eyes, I do not think I can do it.

“I do not want to see you again with Nikolaj. Stay away from him,” I was looking straight into her hazel eyes.

Her gaze plunges as she responds, “He is my only friend in this strange town. If I’d stop talking to him, I do not think I’d be able to survive this place.”

“That isn’t my concern. I do not care if you live or die. I just do not want to see you get anywhere around my brother. Do you understand that?” I am losing my patience with her.

With a hurt expression, she tells me, “Why do you want to strip me of everything that brings a certain amount of joy in my life? I can’t stay away from him. He’s my only friend in this place.”

“Are you saying that you’d disobey my instructions again?” I take hold of her jaw.

She begins shivering like a little chicken. That’s how I know that I have successfully terrorised her. Now I am expecting that she won’t defy me. To further intensify her fear, I tell her, “I will snap your neck like a popsicle stick if I’d see you with him again.”

“I’ll stay away from him. Please do not hurt Nikolaj or me,” she finally speaks what I’ve been yearning to hear. “I’ll deliberately maintain my distance from him.“

Listening to her succumb, I finally smile. There is a part of me that loves it when she’s acting so obedient. While caressing her cheek, I bring my face closer to hers.

She gulps a lump down her throat, fearing what I might do to her. To her surprise, I only whispered into her ear, “The moment my father will die, I will throw you out of this town. That’s why you mustn’t worry about maintaining friends. You are not going to live here for long.”