Her Promise

Her Secret | Chapter Two

LIAM JR.

Lilah tackled me as soon as I hit the top floor. “Finally,” she growled, trying to get control of my back. I easily used my weight against her, trapping her instead. A few summers ago, I had hit a growth spurt. Lilah was tall for a girl, but she couldn’t compare to Alpha genes. It frustrated her a lot, so I didn’t do it often.

“Were you waiting in my room, creeper?” I laughed.

“Get off, you gorilla!” she struggled.

“I thought you had no one to train with when I was gone?” I teased her. Everything was easy with Lilah. We were a perfect pair. And if she didn’t turn out to be my Luna, she would be the best Beta ever.

“Come on, your giant butt is crushing me,” she groaned. With her hands now more focused on pushing me off than holding me down, I rolled away and helped her up. “Maybe we should stop letting you go to Stary and learn all those fancy wrestling moves,” she huffed.

“That was not something I learned from Michael. And if you would come with me, you might also learn a thing or two,” I said, flicking her nose. She rolled her eyes.

“Pass. Can we get out of here?” she asked.

I stepped passed her and headed to my room, tossing my bag into the corner. I peeled my shirt over my head and tossed it to the laundry basket while Lilah flopped onto my bed. “Missy and Maddox are bringing Mav to see Mom and Dad. I wanted to see him too. It’s been like months,” I told her.

“Yea, Aunt Lea said the pipsqueak is getting a lot bigger. She bets he will be taller than Maddox when he comes of age,” she said. “Fine, we can play with Mav as long as he doesn’t climb my snout again.”

I laughed, and she scowled at me. “Missed you, Lilah,” I smiled at her.

“I missed you too. Seriously, I was so bored,” she said. “Not even Mel would hang out with me. You would tell me if I smell, right?” She sniffed her armpits and looked at me with a pout.

“Yes, I would tell you if you smelled,” I agreed, going to my dresser for something clean.

Lilah and I were like PB&J. We just went together. She knew what I was thinking, and I knew what she was thinking. We could react to each other without thinking.

And for as long as I could remember, I’d been in love with her.

She wasn’t like any other girl in our grade. She came off as fearless, but I knew better. She did get scared, but she always faced her problems as if she wasn’t. When we were little, she leaned on me when she was frightened, and that made me feel 100ft tall. Now, it rarely happened, but I was hoping for another chance.

She always stood up for what was right too. If someone was getting bullied, she had no problem stepping in to stop it. If someone cheated in class, she’d call them out in a heartbeat. If someone fought dirty at training, she made sure they were taught a lesson.

But the worst part about it? She loved me too.

Like. A. Brother.

We grew up together being only six weeks apart in age. Our parents treated us like a package deal most of the time. When I propositioned my dad to start my Alpha training, I bargained for Lilah to be included. We were probably closer than I was with my own brother and sisters.

We had separate rooms at the packhouse. My room was on the top floor, the Alpha floor, while hers was on the second, where the Beta and Gamma families resided. Our parents used to joke that they should move us in together because sleepovers became nightly not long after our pack fought the vamps. We usually crashed in my room since I had the bigger bed, but we stayed in hers plenty too. She even had clothes in my closet.

Having a crush on the girl who looked at me like a brother wasn’t easy. Especially when she was a cuddler. Over the past year, I had developed a survival tactic that included me sneaking out of bed and shifting for a run or trying to find some relief in the shower to burn off the energy I seemed to amass in her presence.

“Did you say Mel wouldn’t hang out with you?” I asked her.

“No. I tried, but she wouldn’t come swim or go for a run. She just kept holding up her book and not talking. I don’t get why she doesn’t like me,” Delilah pouted. She pouted a lot, but it was really freaking cute.

“Not everyone wants to be your BFF, princess,” I teased her. She sat up and chucked a pillow at me.

“Look, it’s just that girl. She isn’t mean or anything. She doesn’t give off any kind of stay away from me vibe. She’s just… quiet. I don’t get it,” she frowned. “I know it was kinda a last resort for me, but I didn’t mean the invitation in a bad way. No one was around, and she was just kinda there.”

“I wouldn’t take it personally,” I told her, coming over to the bed. I sat beside her, and she threw her arms around my shoulders. “Mel doesn’t talk to anyone. I barely even see her talk to her dad. Mom says she’s just shy.”

“That’s a serious commitment to shy,” Delilah sighed.

She was right in a way. Mel was painfully shy. The girl was a puzzle I couldn’t figure out all the way. She came to our pack sometime around all the vampire stuff when we were little, but I couldn’t remember exactly. She didn’t get adopted until middle school, but Azeron and his mate Dario were super cool, so she lucked out. When Azeron brought her around the packhouse at first, I really tried to be her friend. Sometimes, it seemed like she might want to be friends, then sometimes, it didn’t.

As the future Alpha, I wanted to know as many of our pack members as I could. I wanted them to know me too. They would follow me one day, and I knew I would get further by friendship and loyalty than fear and compliance.

But Melody remained a mystery. I was nice to her whenever she was around, but she didn’t ever seem like she wanted to be around me.

“So, is Mav still into racecars?” Delilah asked, breaking me from my thoughts about Mel.

“Nope. Missy said it’s all about trains now. Doesn’t want to be an Alpha; wants to be a train conductor,” I informed her.

Lilah laughed and fell back on the bed. “Oh, that’s got to be driving Maddox and your dad nuts.”

-

Mav sat happily in the middle of the floor, watching his trains go around and round in a circle. Leo and Lucas sat on either side of him, talking animatedly about whatever pretend scenario was going on.

“This is definitely going to be the last one,” my sister complained to my dad. She sat on the couch with Azly on her lap, trying to braid my younger sister’s wild curls. Az looked like a walking replica of Mom, but she was a little odd. She was holding a book upside down, appearing to read it that way.

“Don’t be so sure,” Dad said. “Alphas are strong breeders.”

“I am not a animal, Dad,” Missy deadpanned. Maddox laughed and kissed her cheek.

“She’s just tired,” he smiled at her. “Wait until she starts nesting again.” Maddox loved my sister more than anything in the world, and it had always been apparent. Even when they were teenagers and didn’t know they were mates. He had won me over by going around my dad’s rules and teaching me how to fight. As I got older, he treated me like an equal and never a small, bratty kid.

Delilah joined us, plopping down next to me with a bowl of popcorn. “I’m never having pups,” she announced through a mouth full of food.

“You think that now,” Missy snorted.

“No, I know that now,” Delilah snorted.

Dad gave me a look. He had been doing that more and more over the past year, and I was sure Mom had told him about my crush on Delilah. Before the end of the last school year, he had taken me for Alpha training alone and given me a s*x talk. He was a whole year too late, but it still made me shudder.

“Can we talk about literally anything but having pups?” I groaned.

“How was Stary Pack?” Maddox offered.

“Awesome!” I said, happy for the change in subject. “Michael taught me this new armbar that I am itching to try.” I looked at Delilah, hopefully.

“Oh, heck no! The last time you had something ‘new’ to try, I was spinning around in the air with no warning,” Delilah groaned. Dad laughed.

“What on earth did you do to her?” Missy gasped.

“He called it a helicopter armbar, and it was not fun,” Delilah scoffed.

“Is Junior being mean, princess?” Uncle Damien asked, joining the party.

“No, Dad,” Delilah rolled her eyes at him. She and Aunt Lily were the only two people on the planet that got away with rolling their eyes at him. Uncle Damien was built like a bear or maybe a wall. And he was terrifying with an axe in his hand. I was only an inch or two shorter than him, and he still scared the claws out of me.

“She’s fine, Damien,” Dad said. “She just doesn’t like to lose.”

“Never made it a habit,” Delilah agreed.

“No spinning for this one, promise,” I smiled at her. She threw a handful of popcorn at me.