Chapter 031
CADE
"Master Cade." The servant curtsied and held out a glass in which was some cold liquid. "Before you left, you wanted-"
The blood roared in my ears. Damnit! Couldn't she read the room?
"Get the hell out of my way!" I bellowed.
She flinched and scurried away with the glass, half spilling it's contents on the floor in her haste to get away. It was a good thing she was a woman. If she were a man...
I shut my eyes briefly and imagined it was Asher I was in such close proximity with. I would rip him limb from limb. I supposed it was a good thing for him that my father and his had been in at the meeting. I would have given an arm to have wiped the smirk of the son of a bitches' face.I strode angrily in the house, a bundle of rage.
'I choose Asher as my mate,' she had said.
Those words kept reverberating in my head. I stopped, whirled around and slammed my fist into the wall. My arm muscles trembled with the effort it took to clench my fists to keep from pummeling the wall over and over again.
"How the hell could she do that?" I shouted, addressing my brother's who were just coming into the room. "How could she pick Asher after everything, after what we had agreed on? How?"
Chase shook his head. "I don't know. It's all still like a dream to me. I can't believe Hannah actually did that. What got into her?"
Jace relived his feelings letting out a stream of curses and aiming a kick at the heavy oak door.
"This is bullshit!" he cried. "I thought we had a fucking agreement. I thought we were all on the same page."
My father, who had stopped outside to have a few some with the guards, walked into the room.
"All of you! Stop shouting this instant," he barked. We all fell silent at once. He shut the door firmly behind him. Drawing himself up to his full height, he looked at each of us in turn with disapproval etched on every line on his face.. "I could hear your raised voices from outside the house, and all this for what?" Chase started to speak, but my father stopped him with a glare. "Listen to me, all of you. You are the future Alphas of this pack. Yet here you are, creating a scene all because of a girl."
This last was too much for me. I broke in. "Hannah is not just any girl. She is our mate."
He turned the full force of his glare on me. "Your mate..."
"Yes," I said.
"But she rejected you, didn't she? She picked that lousy, no-good son of a bitch over you three, didn't she? Doesn't that tell you something? Well, if it doesn't, it tells me that she is not worth it. It tells me that she has a terrible taste in picking me. She is no-good, just like her now chosen mate, Asher. Both of them deserve each other."
"Hannah is not like that," Chase murmured.
"What did you say?"
"She is- was a good person. I could tell from the time we spent with her. She-
"Silence! I will not stand here and let you defend the girl who just brought our family and our pack to shame. Do you even realize the consequences of what she has done. Do you? Or are you just stuck on your hurt feelings that you fail to see the bigger picture?
"Dad," I said. "We-"
He held up a hand, cutting me off. "I will not hear her discussed anymore in this house. Do you understand? You three don't seem to realize that this issue would have made it's way to several other ears. It will now be said that my own sons were rejected and that Dawson scored one over me. I won't let my legacy get destroyed while I'm alive. When you all are ready to be mated, I will make arrangements for three beautiful princesses you will settle down with, women that will be worthy of you and wouldn't hesitate to claim you as theirs. They will be your mates, even if the goddess doesn't will it so. That will end this unfortunate episode. Now, get out of my sight!"
My brothers and I, mumbling imprecations under our breaths, stomped away with me in front. I headed to my room. My brothers probably thought it was as good a place as any to talk so they followed me inside.
Then followed a bitter discourse over what had just happened, but no matter how many times Chase and I asked ourselves why Hannah had changed her mind, we couldn't make head or tail of it. While Chase and I talked, I noticed Jace sat in a corner quietly and appeared to be deep in thought.
"Jace," I said, finally getting exasperated over his continued silence. "Are you going to say anything at all about what just happened or do you plan on sitting there and sulking all day?"
Jace roused himself with an effort.
"It doesn't make sense," he said half to himself.
Chase and I exchanged a look.
"What doesn't make sense?" I asked him. "What are you talking about?"
"I have been thinking-"
"Obviously," Chase said dryly.
Jace shot him an impatient look. "In my head, I've been going through everything right from when we got the letter inviting us to the meeting."
Where was he going with this? I wondered.
"And?"
"And I'm getting increasingly sure that there is something wrong. I think Asher and his father played us. They set a trap and like fools we walked into it."
"How do you mean?" I said.
"Think about it. We were told not to communicate with Hannah for one week, and then she suddenly changes her mind about Asher who I'm sure she hates? Don't you see it doesn't add up? I think Hannah was forced to choose Asher."
Chase scoffed at the idea.
"How?" I said. "Remember that Asher wasn't communicating with Hannah. How then could he have forced her to choose him?"
"I think you're right, Cade," Chase said. "She made that choice entirely on her own. Let's suppose for the sake of argument that Asher didn't want to keep his end of the bargain. Let's say he wanted to contact Hannah to influence her decision. How would he get past the guards we stationed outside her home? Also don't forget she had a private driver so she was looked after and guarded around the clock. Admit it. What you are suggesting is impossible, Jace."
"It's not!" he snapped. "If Asher wanted to get to her badly, he would have found a way around it. I know what I'm talking about. She didn't want Asher. I could feel it in the way she looked at me... at us. If you had looked into her eyes when she stood up and began talking, you would have seen that rejecting us wasn't something she wanted to do." He looked at each of us in turn. "Didn't you two see her cry?"
"Sure we did," said Chase bitterly. "But then she was probably crying because she knew we would mad at her after we had wasted our time, resources and emotions on her."
I nodded in agreement. "True that."
Jace pounded the wall with his fists. "For fuck's sake! Are you both deliberately being obtuse? Something is very wrong with what played out today. Why aren't any of you making an effort to see it?"
"That's because there is nothing to see," I said. "I know what your problem is, brother. You're living in denial-"
"I'm not."
"Yes, you are. You are broken up about what happened. So are we, but as father said it's time to move on from this. Face it. Hannah rejected us." I paused. Saying it out loud brought a sense of finality to the whole situation.
"To hell with that! I told you it doesn't add up."
"Look, Jace. I know losing Hannah hurts so bad now. It will probably keep hurting for a long time after now but living in denial won't help you or any of us for that matter. What we must do now is stay away from her and let her enjoy the life she has chosen with Asher."
Jace appeared to consider my words for a moment, but with a shake of his head while muttering to himself, he left the room and I was left asking, "What on earth is wrong with him?"
"Isn't it obvious? He was unusually attracted to Hannah. I think he might have fallen deeply in love with her already so this... rejection is going to take a deeper toll on him than on us. It's taking a really great toll on me already."
"Me too. It's hard... Hell! That's an understatement. It's worse than hard, but we must forget about her."
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