Alpha Maddox

2. Maddox

Chapter 2

Maddox

“It’s still very early,” the doctor said, handing Kylie to me and frowning. After writing a couple notes in his journal, he set it down and stared at me. “Usually we don’t officially diagnose children until they’re at least eighteen months old, but some pups grow faster than humans.”

“And?” I asked, knee bouncing.

I held Kylie tight and wished that Clea would have shown up to Kylie’s doctor appointment with me. I couldn’t do this alone. What could’ve been more important than her own baby that was barely a f*****g year old yet?

The doctor grimaced, as if he didn’t want to tell me.

“What is it?” I demanded. “Tell me now.”

“Kylie is showing early signs of autism.”

My chest tightened, tears welling up in my eyes. I held Kylie to my chest and shook my head, not wanting to believe what he had said to me. My chest heaved up and down, and I cursed Clea for not coming with me. How could I break something like this to her?

After sliding a pamphlet in my direction, the doctor gave me half a smile. “In a couple months, we can run some more tests to properly diagnose her, but until then, this pamphlet will give you some more information on autism and raising a child with this disorder.”

Kylie rested her head on my shoulder and stared at me with wide eyes, grasping some of my hair in her tiny fist. I grabbed the paper and walked out of the room and back home, nerves running up and down my limbs.

Clea would be so upset.

I unlocked the door and stepped into the house, inhaling her scent deeply in hopes to calm myself down, but she wasn’t the only person in the packhouse. Still, I could think of nothing other than pulling Clea into my arms and crying into her neck.

Rushing up the stairs to my bedroom with Kylie, I opened my bedroom door and stopped dead in my tracks. My chest tightened. Rage boiled in the pit of my stomach. Clea laid in bed with my strongest warrior, Martin King.

He scrambled off her, his piercing brown eyes wide in fear. “Maddox, it isn’t—”

“What the f**k are you doing with my mate?!” I growled at him, about to barrel in his direction, but Kylie wrapped her small arms around my neck, rested her head against my forehead, and giggled, grounding me to the spot.

My throat dried up as I held Kylie close. “What the f**k are you doing, Clea?” I asked, my voice breaking. Pain shot through my entire body, the thought of betrayal making me hurt in places I didn’t even think were possible.

“Maddox,” Clea said, not an ounce of remorse on her face. “You knew that this was coming. Kylie has been nothing but tir—”

“Stop it,” I growled, placing a hand over Kylie’s back.

How dare she blame this on Kylie? I was damn tired too, but I didn’t f*****g cheat on her with her best friend. I didn’t ask Hannah to come over so I could sleep with her in our f*****g bed.

“How could you do this to me?” I whispered, my arms trembling. “How could you do this to us? We have a daughter, Clea. We’re mates.”

Martin scrambled to pull on his pants and shirt, trying to inch by me and out of the room. “Maddox, it was a one time—”

But he wasn’t going anywhere.

I grabbed him by the throat with my free hand and thrust him against the wall so hard that the drywall crumbled to pieces behind him. He stared up at me with those haunting brown eyes, and I had the urge to crush him right then and there.

Though he deserved more than an easy death. And I would make sure to give it to him.

After I lifted my head off my desk, I peeled a sheet of paper off my cheek and glanced out the window at the setting sun. Saif, my beta, and I had been drawing up security and battle plans for our pack all afternoon, in case the Chaos came, and I had fallen the f**k to sleep.

I didn’t think it would actually happen though. But people in the Valley had been whispering about it since the early morning. It had been nine long years, and everyone I met was getting so antsy for the Chaos to finally come back.

Even me.

What I feared was that wolves hadn’t had a chance to find their mates for almost a decade now, so much so that when it did hit, they wouldn’t be able to control themselves and would lash out on any and everyone.

Once I shook away my nap, I looked back down at our battle plans and sighed. If, for some reason, the Chaos did come, I might be able to find my mate though. The Moon Goddess might grant me another chance at happiness.

And Jade King wouldn’t haunt me every day anymore.

With those piercing brown eyes sprinkled with hazel flecks, she reminded me so much of her father that I wanted her to hurt and to pay for what her family had done to me and to this pack. Martin had torn this pack to pieces when he slept with my wife. We had been broken ever since.

But what I hated the most about Jade was her strength.

It infuriated me to no end.

For years, I jabbed at her whenever Kylie wanted chocolate ice cream at Jain’s Bakery, ignored her at pack meetings, and even shoved her a bit too hard during some of the pack training sessions, hoping to break her.

Yet she would continue to glare at me with those tormenting brown eyes.

I vowed to break her, to hurt her, to force her to bow her head, so those pretty brown eyes wouldn’t haunt me anymore. And somehow along the way, Jade King became my obsession.