The Alpha's Bride

Chapter 4 - The man is insane!

Alicia’s POV

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I was in shock and didn’t know what to think or how to feel. With just one sentence, the doctor not only gave my dad the worst possible news about his health, he completely destroyed my dreams of returning to what was my home. I would never be able to leave if my father didn’t get better. Suddenly, my entire world was about to change and I was still in shock when we left. I didn’t even register walking outside, climbing into the car or driving back home. As soon as we reached the packhouse, I didn’t wait for the men. I just took control of my father’s wheelchair and stormed ahead. I needed to make sure he got some proper, healthy food in his body. For some reason, that was top of my list of things to do and it felt that if I could just keep busy, he would get better. If I could just be positive enough for both of us, I could help him through this and he would get better. I helped him into bed and stepped back, not realizing I had left the damn chair behind me. Losing my balance, I could feel myself tumbling through the air and all I could think about was “Great! Now I’m going to break my damn …”

“Alicia!” Caspian’s strong arms clenched around me, catching me and my heart nearly stopped! “Why can’t you be more careful?!” He growled and I pushed him away as soon as I found my balance.

“I am! Just get out!” I shouted before I could stop myself. He opened his mouth to say something, then his expression turned angry and before I could apologize, he stormed out of the room.

“You are going to have to cut him some slack, Alicia.” I should have known that no matter what he did to my father, my father would always defend him! I had one of two choices. I could tell my father what Caspian did to me all these years, how he bullied me, or I could just let it go, and I had a split-second to decide or he would know something was wrong. My father knew me better than anybody else. Even though I was closer to my mother before her death, my father just always seemed to have this natural instinct of what was going on in my mind. I decided to just leave it for now. There was really no use in arguing with a sick old man and I really had to try and get some work done. An argument would mean I wouldn’t be able to get something down on paper and my deadline would soon be looming.

I was actually relieved to finally be back in my small room after our morning. I just needed time to process everything I’d heard and I needed some time to myself. In the city, I was mostly on my own in my apartment working on my next story, but here …

“Alicia, we need to talk.” I rolled my eyes as I turned to look at Caspian, and the instant fury on his face hit me right in the heart of my fear centre. All the things that he did to me over the years, all the bullying just came flooding back and I instantly lowered my eyes feeling ashamed of the way I was just falling into the same old traps all over again. “Yeah, that reaction is why we have to talk.” I didn’t have to look at him to picture his crossed arms and angry face. “I know you’ve been living your own life and doing your own thing, but you can not disrespect me here. You have to think before you talk or react.” Was he actually trying to be nice … His voice was a lot calmer … Was he trying to put me in my place? I cringed slightly, purely out of instinct, when he took a step forward and I could hear him sigh. “I heard what the doctor said about your father. I wanted to suggest that we take him for a second opinion.” Oh, great! Now he wanted to help!

“There’s no need. If you listened to a conversation, you really shouldn’t have been listening to, you would have heard that there is no fixing this.” I took a deep breath. My mouth was already on its way to causing problems and I hopefully reigned it in fast enough so that I hadn’t upset our damn Alpha all over again. Besides, I needed to get rid of him so I could get some work done! He was silent for a moment, but I didn’t dare look up.

“Okay,” He sighed. “Suit yourself.” I could actually imagine him shrugging his shoulders, and I wondered why he was still hanging around, when he stepped forward and I cringed again. In an instant, I could feel his anger. I saw his hands fall to his sides as his fists clenched tightly shut and I closed my eyes. It felt so good when he finally left the small space of my room that I just burst out in tears. It felt as if I could breathe again for the first time since I heard about my father’s condition earlier in the day. My eyes caught the time on my watch and I rushed out of the room. I hadn’t realized we had taken this long. I should have looked at the time!

It was way past lunch time and my father needed to eat so he could take the new medication the doctor had given him. If I really wanted my father to get better, I would seriously have to start focussing on the things that were important and not the things I wanted to do. As my foot stepped into the dining room, I could feel him behind me. I never learned!

“Do I need to arrange for someone to bring your food again, or can you manage a proper plate this time?” I felt a cold shiver run down the back of my spine and I wasn’t surprised when his fingers gripped around my wrist, but I was surprised when he pulled me to his table again. I started to explain that I needed to take some food to my dad and his glare was enough to silence me immediately. “I will make sure he gets a proper meal.” He snapped his fingers and a young omega came running. It took all of a moment for him to give instructions to the young male. I watched in disbelief at the power Caspian had over the pack members when the young male disappeared with a plate of food. To my relief, he didn’t rush back, which meant he was either helping my father or using this time to do whatever it was young males did when they thought they had a bit of free time.

I really couldn’t imagine the young man helping my father and I tried to stuff the food into my mouth as fast as possible, so I could get out of here and help my dad. Each time Caspian looked at me, I felt as if my heart was going to stop and I wondered what he was planning next, but thankfully, he didn’t do anything. It almost felt as if he had something to say, but just didn’t want to say it. When I couldn’t stand the tension anymore, I again tried to leave.

“Sit. Down!” Caspian growled and I sat down feeling ice water running through my veins. What the hell was he up to? Surely, he would have wanted me to stay as far away from him as possible. My eyes caught a glimpse of Sophia’s hateful glare and it all suddenly made sense. I was just his cover! I knew for a fact that he was never interested in her, no matter what she did, yet she still lived in her little dream world where he would eventually fall in love with her. The way I understood things, you would sense your mate the moment you turned eighteen … That was if they were near you, and he had made it clear he sensed nothing in her, but from what I could see, she still hadn’t gotten the message. For a moment, I imagined how good it would feel to put my hand on his while looking straight into her eyes, but I also knew that if I did that, she would probably send one of her many minions to do something, and I couldn’t afford anything to go wrong right now. I needed to look after my dad.

The second my plate was empty, I jumped out of my chair and I didn’t give Caspian the chance to grab me again as I rushed out of the dining room. I was surprised to walk into my dad’s room and find the young male laughing and talking to my dad. If he was acting, he was a damn good actor, but he honestly seemed interested in my dad’s old “war” stories. I gave him the opportunity to get out twice, but he insisted that he didn’t mind staying with my dad until he fell asleep. I was a little nervous about leaving dad in his care, but I seriously needed the time to work on my next article, so in the end, I took the chance and left my dad alone with the young wolf. I sat down in front of my computer and glared at the screen. I didn’t have time to work on what my article was going to be about, and for the first time in a while, I actually hit a blank.

It was probably because I was feeling so damn stressed and I decided on the spur of the moment to go for a run. I put on my yoga pants and one of the tight tops I usually wore when I went to the gym in the city, and tied my trainers before grabbing my bottle for water. I planned on running to the waterfall and grabbing some of the sweet water there before turning back. I really didn’t have much time for more. This time, I made sure I sneaked out of the damn packhouse and that nobody would even know that I was gone. As I started finding my right pace, I heard something in the brush and I stopped to look around. I didn’t have to continuously check my surroundings in the gyms, but here it felt as if all my senses were constantly in overdrive.

When I didn’t see anything, I turned and started my run again. Reaching the waterfall, I breathed in the fresh air and filled my bottle with water before chugging it. I remember coming here as a little girl when my brother and Caspian were just too much to deal with. It was my special little hideaway. As soon as I caught my breath, I made my way back home. Grabbing my stuff from my room, I was on my way to my father’s room for a quick shower and to change before I sat down in front of my laptop again when that damn iron grip grabbed hold of my elbow. Always in the same spot! How the hell did he always find that exact same spot to press down on!

“Where the hell have you been?!” Caspian growled and when I didn’t answer him immediately, his fist hit the wall beside my head and he pushed me up against the wall with his body. I flinched, although I knew he would never hit me. Caspian was a bully, but he never actually lifted his hands to hurt me before. Wait a minute, why the hell was he angry this time? My eyes flashed up for just a split second and the fury in his was so overwhelming I had to look away again immediately.

“I was out for a run,” I mumbled. Why the hell did my whereabouts bug him so much?

“I have been looking for you! Don’t leave the packhouse again without telling me first!” He growled, slammed his fist against the wall again as if to slam the point right into my head and stormed off.

“Why were you looking for me?” My voice was almost inaudible to my own ears, but he must have heard me.

“Excuse me?” He whipped around and that glare was still in his eyes.

“You said you were looking for me?” I shrugged. I mean, if I had to go through it all, I would prefer to damn well do it only once.

“Oh, yeah. I found a specialist. We have an appointment at eight tomorrow. Make sure you and your father are ready to leave at seven.” Without another word, he whipped around and disappeared down the passage. I was speechless. Didn’t I tell him to leave it alone? For how long nobody cared one bit about my father, and now that it’s too late, he suddenly took interest! I shook my head to try and clear my thoughts and decided I had better tell my dad about these new developments.