Chapter 10 Respect Or Fear?
Chapter 10 Respect Or Fear?
AIDAN
I knew without a doubt that Tara didn’t want me around her diner, but I couldn’t bring myself to leave.
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There were a million unanswered questions and an even greater number of impossible things that surrounded the events between us. There were explanations that I just couldn’t wrap my head around, but I still couldn’t dare leave her side. Not when I was hung up on her scent like an addict.
I lingered around the premises of diner for goddess knows how long, making sure she didn’t see me of course, watching her attend to her customers with a glint in her mesmerizing eyes. I watched her laugh freely with the people around her, and all I could feel was the hurt from eight years ago.
The hurt I felt when we parted ways. The betrayal I felt from seeing pictures of Tara hugging and kissing another man who
wasn’t me.
She denied it all, and she said she was having our child, and I didn’t believe her. Now, eight years later, all it took was one look at Nadia to know that she was my flesh and blood. One look at Tara to know that she was what was missing from my life, and the reason I felt incomplete and like a total loser for years.
A pounding ache struck my left eye, and I gritted my teeth, taking the incoming migraine as my cue to quit being a stalker and walk away.
I chose to go through the back of Tara’s diner building, and I took a moment to study the layout of the small backyard that was carved out there.
“This should be for Nadia,” I said to myself, noting the many toys and the small–sized bicycle that lay around.
I wondered how safe it was for her, and thoughts rapidly filled my head on how to make the backyard slash mini playground better for my daughter.
Goddess, it still sounded unreal to me. I had a kid. And she had already grown so much. Without me.
“Hello,” a voice sounded from my side, pulling me from my trance. I had only heard the voice once, but I was sure that I would be able to single it out in a crowd full of voices.
Nadia, my daughter, stared at me with wide hazel eyes so similar to mine, and for the umpteenth time since I’d set foot in Vermont pack, I was unable to string simple words together.
She looked so beautiful, unarguably the most beautiful child to have been born on the whole planet. She looked so much like me, still having many of her mom’s features, and her aura oozed that of a strong alpha.
Just like her daddy, I beamed internally, but I couldn’t ignore the pang of guilt that hit me at the same time.
Clearing my suddenly dry throat, I smiled. “Hi, Nadia, good to see you again.”
Goddess! Why did it sound like a goddamn interview?
Recognition flashed in her eyes, and a blush crept up her cheeks as she stared at me. “You’re mommy’s friend,” she said, smiling sheepishly. “The one I found for her.”
My heart pumped with excitement that she remembered me, and I swear, I could have gotten on the floor with my suit if she wanted me to play in the dirt with her.
Realization dawned on me that I would do absolutely anything for this tiny angel who I knew nothing about, and I was totally on board with that.
“I am,” I replied, looking around. “It’s okay for you to be out here alone?”
She nodded and pointed to a door that looked like it led inside Tara’s diner. “Mommy says it’s okay, and I can go back in through there. I also don’t play too far.”
She was eight, but also so smart. Just like her mother.
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Chapter 10 Respect Or Fear?
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I nodded and was about to say something else when Nadia suddenly tensed up as her eyes settled on something behind me. She looked like she had seen a ghost, and whatever it was, it scared the hell out of her.
With a disapproving growl, I tracked her eyes to where they settled, and my growl deepened at his faux smile. A smile I was going to wipe the floor with.
He had on a branded two–piece that wanted to scream about his wealth but only spoke of his extravagance. Pairing them with matching branded shoes and sunglasses, Collin looked more like a clown than an alpha.
“Alpha Aidan,” he said, but it sounded like an insult. Ignoring me, he crouched to where Nadia was, and the little girl grabbed onto my pants like a life support.
“Nadia,” he drawled. “Aren’t you going to say hi to your favorite alpha?”
Nadia’s grip on my pants tightened, and I immediately stepped protectively in between them, blocking his view of her.
What the hell had he done in this pack to make an eight–year–old fear him like that?
There was respect, and there was raw terror. And this? This was the latter.
The need to protect what was mine from any threats was so strong, it was almost blinding, and at the moment, Collin was a threat.
I ran a hand down Nadia’s arm, giving her a silent assurance that I was there, and nothing was going to happen to her on my
watch.
Collin stood to full height, toe–to–toe with me, but I still had a good four inches over him.
“Need something?” I asked him, keeping my voice deceptively calm because one wrong move from him, and I would shred him into bits, rules be damned.
“I should be asking you, alpha,” Collin sneered. “You’re in my pack. Get out.”
For as long as I could remember, Collin’s pack and mine had been enemies. They had been the ones to land the first blow, to which I responded in equal measure, but I still couldn’t say till today what this fight was about.
All attempts at a truce failed, and I soon stopped caring. Along the lines, it turned into something so feral, that one packmate wouldn’t step into the territory of the other.
All of that changed because of the anonymous notes that were threatening to expose my heavily guarded secrets if I didn’t show up here, and the multipack moon meet was the perfect cover.
I responded with a smile that said, game on, bitch. Bring what you’ve got, and I’ll crush you. “The multipack moon meet is for all northern packs to attend. I am the alpha of the largest northern pack, so I’d wager that I have more than plenty of rights to be here,” I replied.
Collin knew I was right, so he didn’t argue further.
“Fine, but watch out.” Stepping to the side so he could see Nadia, he spoke. “Bye, princess, and say hello to your mother for me now, would you?”
Something about the way he chuckled like a maniac after he said that didn’t sit right with me, and that caused me to ask, just how much had happened between Collin, Tara, and Nadia?
