Scum (Book 1)

12. Respect

Royce’s POV

I hate what’s happened to Chey, especially considering that she did exactly what any one of us would have done in a comparable situation. She defended herself and her name, the only difference is that she doesn’t have a rank.

Even worse, in her fragile state, she spoke her mind, and calling us the ‘Golden boys’ wasn’t a compliment. It hit me hard, especially when I thought about Dallas, who is still being held in the dungeons for attempting to attack one of the men who was detailing the plan for the girl.

I still don’t know what Liam was really doing when he said that something came up with school, but I’ve been reluctant to ask because he’s been heavily drinking since we left Chey’s recovery room.

“We leave in a few hours, you need to start slowing it down,” I say, hoping the man can hear me.

“Is that how everyone feels about us?” Liam asks, rubbing his face in disbelief. “I mean, I know we haven’t been active in the pack since we left, but what Chey said is…”

“She’s right,” Kelvin adds, making me want to punch the i***t. For a gamma, he’s so detached from our alpha that it's beginning to show in his actions. “We show up when we want, inconvenience everyone by making them scramble to get ready for us, then we leave without even saying thank you.”

Liam stands and leaves the room, and I grill Kelvin who didn’t just have those thoughts out of nowhere.

“Is that what she said when we left?” I ask, making the man flop onto the couch in shame.

“I should have just walked away when she was rambling; she made me feel like sh*t.”

“We told you to leave.”

“I couldn’t!” the man shouts, giving me the opportunity to ask what his deal with Chey is. “There’s nothing between us. I just feel so bad for her family that it hurts.”

I keep forgetting that Kelvin took over Dallas’s role because of the way our pack laws work, and although I don’t think about it much, he must be feeling the pressure now that we are close to transitioning into true pack leadership.

“Bro, she was delirious. Chey is the sweetest girl; scary but sweet.” Kelvin chuckles, leaning forward and looking up at me with a smirk.

“Did you hear what she told Alpha Lucas? It took everything in me not to laugh.”

“Yo! I thought I was the only one.” Kelvin and I have a good laugh about Chey’s defiance, and in that moment, I open up to him about how I feel. “You know that I’ve been distant because it seems like you’ve already chosen Porsha over your pack.”

“I know,” Kelvin says, massaging his temples. “I was trying to be supportive of them because I want Liam to be happy, but I overheard a conversation they were having, and she said something I could never agree with.”

“About?”

“I’m guessing, but I think she told Liam that he should have let something happen to Chey.”

“Does she not realize that she’s also a woman?”

“I don’t know man, but hopefully she changes that mindset before Liam marks her.” Kelvin then opens up about how my actions toward the woman make him feel as a gamma, and I now understand that I should probably tone it down a notch.

“You're right, I should talk to Liam in private, but sometimes, it’s like she tries to make him look bad.”

“I never saw it that way,” Kelvin says. “Remember that she is also an alpha; I just see it as them trying to find a balance.”

“Well, I hope they find it soon,” I reply, nudging the man who stands with me. “Now, let’s go find Liam before we end up missing class tomorrow.”

Liam’s POV

I went to the room Chey was recovering in and saw that only her father was with her. The man had his daughter’s hand in his, asking why she couldn’t just be patient, and because I also wanted to hear the answer, I pretended to just be walking by.

“Daddy, if something happened to me you and mommy would have blamed me for accepting a drink I didn’t see being poured, but that’s wrong. No one should have to worry about being drugged at home.”

“Chey, changing this pack isn’t your fight.”

“No, but protecting myself is. I would do this all over again if I-” Chey coughs, and her father calls for help.

Apparently, the girl has been having trouble keeping anything down and she’s still too weak to walk.

I reveal my presence when the nurses leave, but the woman doesn’t look at me, prompting her father to push her shoulder, forcing her to sit up and be ‘respectful.’

“I would have handled it,” I say, hoping that she knows that I'm not useless and I definitely care.

“Alpha Liam, do you know how lucky I was to have been found by you and not the men who drugged me?” My mind hadn’t actually gone there. It’s probably true that they were watching Cheyenne just as closely as I was, and had I been distracted for even a minute, she would have been… “I was wrong for reacting the way I did, but I’m not sorry.”

“All I ask is that you respect me enough in the future to know that I wouldn’t just allow things like this to go unpunished in this pack. I don’t want to be a ‘Golden Boy.’” Chey’s eyes go wide, and she sinks into the bed, covering herself with her blanket, and based on the way her father is glaring at her, she’s used that term to describe us to him before.

“Alpha Liam, Chey is young, she only just turned seventeen and she has yet to fully grasp how serious words can be. I promise you that will change.” I wasn’t trying to get the woman in trouble, but it appears I did.

“Mr. Jacob, Chey’s always been a funny girl, so I didn’t take it personally.” That’s a lie, her words hurt so much that I needed a drink.

“Thank you for understanding,” the man says, and I leave, hoping that I can sleep some of my drunkenness off in the car.

When I return to this pack, I will make sure that everyone knows that I care about them and their sacrifices, but for now, I need to get back to school before we end up missing our morning classes.

Chey’s POV

Alpha Liam has graduated, but unlike in the past, we aren’t throwing a huge party for his return. Instead, he has called for a pack address, which is kind of worrying, unless he found his mate, then, I’m excited to meet the woman. I’ll even be excited if he chose his girlfriend, mostly because I need money.

On a side note, I also finished school, making me the youngest high school graduate in our pack, but it also means that I have to wait before I can apply for the were-nursing program, which requires an emergence for entry; I haven’t had mine yet.

I know that I’m being paranoid, but I think it has something to do with being drugged. Sadly, the pack’s doctor can’t prove that theory; all we know is that it took me weeks to get better, and it turned out that I was going through some kind of withdrawal from the drug I was given, it was that strong.

The nurses who looked after me also said that it could have contributed to my violent behavior the next day, and while that helped get my parents off my back, I wouldn’t go that far.

I know what I wanted to do, I did it, and to date, I regret nothing. Still, I’m willing to bet anything that the concoction I was given pushed back the emergence of my wolf, and I hope that’s all it did.

While recovering, my stomach was so messed up that I could barely eat, causing me to grow weak, but now, I’m better, and Dallas says that I’m almost as strong as I was prior to the incident, so in theory, if she were ever going to come, my wolf should arrive any day now.

More positively, some good has come from the situation. Several women came forward to testify to the council about their experiences, and it revealed a deep seeded culture within our pack; one that many people always believed existed but couldn’t prove.

From then on, a lot more people have been friendly toward me, saying that I helped lift a weight off the pack’s shoulders with my ‘bravery,’ something my parents don’t like hearing, so we turn the glory back onto the leadership any chance we get.

I don’t blame my parents for being afraid that people may start to think that Dallas and I are really trying to shake up the pack’s hierarchy. I once believed that they were being paranoid, but I’ve heard rumors that could hurt the pack as a whole.

People have wild imaginations, and even though our Alpha and Luna know that Dallas and I aren’t a threat, I can feel that they’ve pulled away from us, and everyone in the pack can see it.

That said, I hope I’m still in consideration for Luna’s escort, but I’m afraid that Alpha Liam may turn me down when his girlfriend hears about what I did, and how I went about it. I never meant to disrespect the leadership when I went to find Candice, but I didn’t actually consider their position either.

That isn’t good because if I want this pack’s Luna to trust me, I have to show that I’m trustworthy, and I feel like that experience has scarred my otherwise unblemished record.

I’m still the top female fighter in the pack, not that anyone has tried to challenge me, but there was one situation, that fortunately, I put to rest before it grew out of control.

Regardless of that small mistake, I’ve dedicated myself to the wellbeing of this pack, and I hope that text conversations I’ve been having with Alpha Liam are a good sign.

At first, it just started with him wanting to apologize for not saying something to his father sooner, but then they became casual and eventually landed on Porsha, something I believe is his way of trying to teach me how to deal with his girlfriend’s attitude.

I can’t say that I like her, but my opinion isn’t important. She makes Alpha Liam feel like a complete person, and if I didn’t know any better, I would think she was his fated mate; he’s that fond of her.