The Alpha's Bride

Chapter 3 - The bad news

Alicia’s POV

I went to university six years ago not having a clue about what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. Landing up in a photography glass totally by accident, I realized I had a talent for taking that perfect picture. Somehow, I landed a gig as a freelance photographer for the university paper and that was where I figured out, I had an even bigger talent when it came to spinning words people liked to read. I wasn’t a story teller or anything, but I truly enjoyed writing my weekly article for the journal, so, I studied journalism. It was something that I never would have found if I had stayed in the pack.

It was almost as if it was my little guilty pleasure. As soon as I started typing, I could just live in a different world for a moment and forget where I came from and who I was deep inside … Unfortunately, I couldn’t spend all my time in my little world. Life carried on and I had to eat and sleep at some point.

I checked my lip-gloss in the mirror, grabbed my bag and made my way to my dad’s room. I didn’t have time to spend on my laptop this morning, or to waste on wondering about it!

“Hey dad,” I sighed as I walked in and it took me a moment to realize that he wasn’t in his bed. I rushed to the bathroom worried that he might have tried to get ready on his own and gotten himself injured somehow, but he wasn’t there either! I was just about to rush into the hallway when the young omega appeared with my father at her side, helping him back to his room! “What?” I felt so incredibly confused and all she did was shrug as we helped him back to bed. He looked so tired! How was I going to take him with me to the doctor like this?! “Dad, where have you been?”

“I’m sorry sweetheart. I thought I could go to the kitchen and get us some breakfast, but I’m not …” I sighed. I should have thought about my dad possibly being hungry earlier!

“No, dad, I’m sorry. I should have …” I started talking and was rudely interrupted by the young omega.

“It’s okay, I gave him something.” She smiled brightly and I felt like such a damn i***t! I was really unreasonable towards her the day before and I thanked her for taking care of him. She didn’t hang around much longer and I wondered if I should take my father with me to see the doctor. He needed to go for a check-up, but he was really tired. I decided that since we still had some time, I would give him time to rest while I grabbed something to eat. He really did have to come with me.

It felt so incredibly strange to walk into the dining room as all eyes turned towards me, but only one pair of eyes made me shiver. Caspian! Why didn’t I think? I walked over to the food tables and started to load my plate, then wondered what he was thinking. I must have looked as if I was such a damn pig! I looked at my plate and realized all I had on it was an enormous amount of bacon! I can’t put any of it back now! But all that fat … I looked at the table and grabbed a piece of bread and was on my way out of the dining room thinking I could probably just dump some of it in my bin in my room or in a bag that I could dump at the doctors ... A hand gripped my elbow so tightly as I was on my way out that I cringed in pain and the plate slipped from my hand. The plate landed on the floor, instantly shattering, and the sound echoed louder through the room than my moan. Whipping around, I planned to give whoever had just grabbed me a piece of my mind when Caspian’s eyes met mine and I ended up gulping like a fish for a full minute before lowering my eyes.

“Where do you think you are going?!” He sounded furious and for the life of me I didn’t know why. What the hell had I done to his precious, fragile ego this time?!! I could actually hear him grinding his teeth!

“I was going to eat in my room, Alpha. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you.” Over the years, I learnt that if I just apologized quickly, I could save myself a lot of trouble. It was as if I took the wind out of his sails when I apologized before he could punish me for whatever it was he thought I had done wrong.

“Well, you did!” Something was different about him. It felt as if he was actually really furious. That had never happened before. It used to feel as if he enjoyed tormenting me, but this time he was angry. I flinched slightly as he twisted my elbow on our way back in and he shouted for someone to clean up the mess I had made. I fought the urge to roll my eyes and kept them glued to the ground. He was the one who attacked me! I didn’t drop the damn plate on purpose. However, when he guided me to the main table, I knew I had to say something or my life here was going to be hell.

“Alpha, I don’t mean to sound presumptuous, but I can’t sit at your table.” I giggled nervously and wondered where the hell that silly giggle came from?!!!

“You are going to sit at my table and you are going to eat something other than damn bacon.” Crap … He did notice. My heart started to race and I closed my eyes for a second so I could focus, but I closed them at the wrong time and missed the step up to his table. If he hadn’t been holding onto my damn elbow so tightly, I would have landed flat on my damn face! “Can you at least lift your eyes to look where you’re walking?” He sounded as if he had calmed down slightly, which gave me the chance to just calm my rapid heart rate and take a seat. Unfortunately, as soon as I sat down, another set of eyes were glued to me, and I could just imagine what was going through that bubble she called a mind. Sophia was not going to like this one little bit.

“I need to go.” I was just about to explain that I needed to take my father to the doctor when one of the omegas appeared with a plate of breakfast and I could feel Caspian glaring at me.

“I know. Your father’s doctor's appointment. It isn’t for another hour, and since I will be driving you, you will have plenty of time to spare.” Double Fu.cking What?!!!!!! So, he probably heard about the appointment from my brother, but why on earth would he want to go with me? I really didn’t want to sound rude or anything, but my head was spinning all over the place and I just blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

“I doubt a wheelchair will fit into the boot of your car and I really don’t think you would like driving mine.” The laugh that escaped my mouth sounded as if some alien had taken over control over my damn body.

“We won’t be using your car … And you clearly haven’t seen mine.” He frowned as if he was upset that I judged him based on what I remembered from all those years ago. He was right, however. I was being incredibly judgemental, but I thought I had the right to be. Six years … For six years I’ve been doing my own thing, without having to report to anybody. It was tough to just be pushed back into that box I used to live in, and at the moment, I wasn’t even sure which damn box it was. I silently stuffed the food into my mouth to keep myself from saying something I would regret, and almost breathed an audible sigh of relief when he stood up and pulled my chair out for me. His hand softly touched my elbow this time as he guided me out of the dining room and back to my father’s room.

My dad was rested, and seemed better, so we helped him into one of the wheelchairs before walking out to the front door. That was where I got the biggest surprise of the day. One of the black SUVs was parked near the front door and my brother jumped out of the driver's seat to help Caspian as they helped my father into the front passenger seat.

“Guys, this really isn’t necessary. I could have just taken dad in my car.” I was feeling incredibly awkward having to do this with my two bullies, but they were giving me no choice. I was planning on asking my dad some seriously private questions on the way to the doctor’s but with these two around, I didn’t dare. I wanted to know why he had been so neglected. Why didn't he speak to Caspian’s parents about it? Why didn't he speak up about his condition sooner? I would have come to help him if he had just asked or even just mentioned he wasn’t doing well. The drive to the doctor’s rooms was most probably the most awkward silence I had ever experienced in my life and watching the two of them help dad out of the car when we arrived, I couldn't stop my damn face from showing what I was feeling. My eyes made contact with Caspian, who was carefully watching me, and I instantly thought of a movie I had recently watched. My cheeks turned bright red as I inwardly reprimanded myself.

Only in movies did people who were totally wrong for each other fall in love and live happily ever after! It was ridiculous that the thought of one romantic gesture from a movie would pop into my head the moment Caspian looked at me. Yup, there was something seriously wrong with me, and to avoid his eyes, I quickly took the chair from my brother and pushed my father into the clinic. I was expecting a long wait, and I was right. My father hadn’t come for his check-ups in months and the doctor needed scans and tests for every possible thing before he could see us. I kept telling the boys that they didn’t have to stay, that I would call a driver to come pick us up when we were done, but for some odd reason, they wouldn’t hear about leaving us. By the time we eventually got in to see the doctor, I was both physically and emotionally drained. Thankfully, when we stepped into the doctor’s room, my father insisted that the boys wait outside. I found it slightly strange, but shrugged it off.

As I sat down, I could see that it wasn’t good news and my heart sank down all the way to the deepest pit of my belly.

“I’m sorry, Eli, but we both knew that if you didn’t take care of yourself …” The doctor looked straight at my dad.

“Yeah, it’s been difficult, but Alicia is here and she’s going to help me.” My dad held up his hand as if he was trying to stop the doctor from telling me something. I’d known our doctor from when I was a young child and the thin line his lips were making told me he really wanted to tell me, but he couldn’t. It was serious, whatever it was.

“Will you two stop beating around the bush and tell me what the hell is going on?!” I demanded before they could drag it out any further.

“Alicia, your father was injured about a year ago. That injury never healed properly and I told your father that he needed an operation to correct it …” The doctor turned his attention to me, clearly deciding he wasn't going to listen to my father.

“And I told you, I didn’t need it.” Dad interrupted and I put my hand over his to silence him.

“Well, Eli, now it’s too late.” There was that thin line again. “We can no longer operate and the bone is now deteriorated to the point where … We have passed that point of no return I warned you about. Your wolf will not be able to heal you anymore, Eli.” What the hell were they talking about? Was my dad that sick?!