Beyond the Pack’s Law: My stepsister or nobody else

Aiden’s POV

“So what did she say when you walked over to her?” Alessa asked over the phone.

“Nothing much; I was right, though. That restaurant is like a checkpoint for the rogues.” I was giving her an update on my mission, and she seemed interested.

“Wow, it’s like a secret mission impossible.”

I chuckled,

“Then I’m Tom Cruise.”

“You wish, wait, this means you’ve made progress, right? You’ve found their boss?”

“She’s not the boss; after I talked to her, I realized she was not.”

“Then what is she?”

“One of his higher-ranked footmen.”

For a footman, Fiona, which was the name of the woman in the dark, was incredibly suspicious. One question after the other, and she nitpicked at any discrepancies in my answers. If I had let my guard down even a bit, I would have been toast.

“This is getting complicated; are you sure you shouldn’t just let your dad come in from here?”

Let my dad take over. No way. I worked this far all on my own, and I was going to see it through to the end. Anyway, if I dropped out of the mission at such a crucial point, what would the rest of my pack think-that the Alpha’s son is a weakling?

“I can handle it.”

“If you say so, what’s the next step you’re taking, though? You have to infiltrate his inner circle to find out who he is, or at least what they do in the movies, or would you rather just transform and kill them off one by one till you smoke the big gun out?”

Both of her ideas sounded brilliant, but I wasn’t such a fan of the more gory and grotesque alternative; I had already decided before I called her. I needed to get close to Fiona and then use her as my entry card into the Rogues organization.

“The former is what I’ll do; enough, I talk; how’s everything going with you? Your little obsession with Jada?”

I poured myself a glass of juice and made myself comfortable on the couch.

“It’s not an obsession; I’m just worried about her like we all should. Everyone is acting like the circle will just magically disappear because of one inconvenience. I don’t intend to make that mistake.”

“With your resilience, I almost wish you were here to help me.”

There was a slight pause. Had I said something wrong, or had she taken it the wrong way?

“Alessa?”

“Yeah, I’m here; I just… Aiden if it were just me and you? Would you love me then?”

Shit, we had been doing so well not talking about things like this, and then I had to go and mess it up.

“Alessa…”

She let out a sad, dry laugh.

“I’m just kidding. Good luck with your infiltration.” She was about to end the call, but I wasn’t done talking.

“Alessa wait!” I said it hurriedly.

“Why? “Oh, we haven’t talked about that today.” Her tone was so sad that I felt guilty, but I needed to know how Hayley was doing. It was the only thing keeping me sane.

“Yeah, I’m sorry if it’s an inconvenience.”

“Why don’t you just call her? I think you should.”

“I can’t; I already told you. I don’t want to mess with her feelings.” Why was she still asking me, even though I’d explained things to her before?

“I know what you said, but I still think you should.”Content protected by Nôv/el(D)rama.Org.

“Why did something happen?” Why was she trying to be cryptic?

“I’m not in the position to say; I’m only giving you advice.”

“Alessa, if something is wrong, tell me; don’t give me this cryptic shit.” I was starting to get upset. What was she hiding?

“I’m not the one you should be lashing out at.”

“Okay, I’m sorry.” I took a deep breath. “But I just need to know what happened.”

“Your sister is dating some guy called Kayden.”

At first, I thought it was a joke; I didn’t know any Kayden. At least anyone that Hayley talked to was named Kayden.

“What do you mean? That’s not possible.”

“You see why I said you should call her yourself? Everyone knows because the two of them have been all over town going on dates; the weird part is he’s not even a werewolf, but she seems happy, genuinely happy.”

It took a while for the information to sink in.

“And you’re just telling me this now?”

“You told me you wanted to give her space. Well, you probably gave her so much space that she realized she had feelings for someone else.”

“You should have told me.”

“I thought it was all just rumors until recently; even Holland seemed jealous.”

“Holland’s an ass; his feelings don’t count.”

“That’s all. I’ll text you Hayley’s number. I have to go.” She said that and ended the call.

I stared at the ceiling. Could Alessa have been lying to me? No, she wasn’t like that, and even if she was, she wouldn’t tell me to call Hayley to confirm. I couldn’t believe it until I talked to Hayley myself. How could she just forget me so quickly?

I contemplated what to say for a while before dialing Hayley’s number. The sound of the rings echoed in the void hole in my heart, and I was desperately hoping Alessa was wrong.

“Hello.” Hayley’s voice came through the phone. I felt my heart strain.

“Hey, Hayley.”

“A… Ai… Aiden.” Her voice was shaky all of a sudden.

“Yeah, it’s me.” I wanted more than anything to be able to hold her and tell her that it would all be okay.

“Why?” I could hear the muffled cries and tears that I had caused.

“Hayley I’m really sorry, but I had no choice, and I wanted to protect you too.”

“Protect me?! You didn’t even say goodbye.”

“I didn’t have time.”

“And for how many weeks, you still didn’t have the time to call me and explain?”

“That’s what I’m doing now. Hayley calms down.” Her voice was starting to rise.

“No, you don’t get to tell me to calm down. All the times I cried for you to come back, and you didn’t even have the balls to give me an explanation.”

“When I got the chance to, I was told you were doing okay and that it was better if I didn’t talk to you. I didn’t want to, but I had to.”

“Then what changed? What has changed now? You’ve suddenly decided to be selfish and call me even if it would hurt me.”

I hadn’t thought of it like that; I just needed to know the truth. I needed her to tell me it was all lies.

I waited until she seemed a bit calmer.

“I really needed to talk to you about something.”

“What if I don’t want to talk to you?” I could feel the hurt in those words.

“Hayley, I’m sorry.”

I heard someone say something in the background. It was a guy’s voice.

“Who are you with?”

“No one.”

A lie.

“Hayley, who’s the guy with you?”

“He’s my friend.” I could tell that she was lying; her voice was a dead giveaway whenever she lied to me.

“It’s Kayden, isn’t it?”

She was lying for him now. What exactly was going on between them? The thought of another guy having his grumpy hands all over Hayley was infuriating.

“What are you, spying on me?”

“Answer the question, Hayley. Is it Kayden?”

“What it is is none of your business. You don’t get to walk out without saying anything or calling and just waltz back into my life when you please.”

“I’ll take that as a yes. Who the fuck is he?”

Silence; she wasn’t going to answer.

“Hayley, I’m talking to you!.” It came out a bit harsher and louder than I intended; I could hear her breathing tremble from it.

“He’s a friend.”

“Then why do people think you’re dating?”

“That’s their business.”

“If he’s just your friend, give him the phone. I want to talk to him.”

“No.”

“No?”

“No, you don’t have the right to meddle in my life. You’re the one who left; it’s my life, and I’ll make my own decisions.”

“I can’t believe you right now.”

I had gone from being hurt to being incredibly pissed.

“I was gone for how long, and you’re already riding some random human’s cock? You’re a piece of work; I hope you know that.”

I regretted it the moment the words spilled out, but it was too late.

“How dare you?!. Don’t ever call me again.”

“Hayley I’m so…” She ended the call before I could complete the apology.

I screamed and angrily threw the glass in my hand across the room. What in the world had gotten into her? She was sleeping with him; that was all I could think of. While I was over her being tortured with dreams of hers, some dude was fulfilling those dreams.

I wanted to get on the first flight back home and confront her, to show her just how painful it was to miss her and find out she was fooling around with some guy.

I shouldn’t have said what I did, though; I knew she wasn’t a whore. I blamed the guy instead. He had probably seen her in her vulnerable state and taken advantage of her, just like Holland had.

All the more reason to get back home, but what about the mission? I was already getting closer, so it would be difficult to switch places with my father or anyone else without raising suspicion.

An alarm rang from my bedroom. Damn it, it was almost evening. I had a meeting set out with Fiona and some of the other footmen. This was my opportunity to show how much of an asset I was, but then I’d demand to be introduced to the boss.

I had to keep my mind clear of Hayley.

I rushed to get dressed and drove over to the restaurant. It looked exactly the same as it did a couple of days ago when I first came here.

When I stepped in, the three tables that were usually apart had been brought together to form a bigger one. I counted four men and Fiona, but there were still three empty chairs.

I moved closer, and Fiona spotted me.

“There he is.” She said that and offered me an empty chair that was beside her.

“Fiona has told us a lot about you. All good things, so there’s no need to worry. I’m Robert, but you can call me Rob.” The man to my left said that and extended his hand. I smiled and shook him.

I could sense the hierarchy of authority around the table. And it seemed like Fiona and the man who had just welcomed me to my left were at the top of the food chain.

“Two people are absent, so we’ll just go on without them,” another man explained, explaining what was going on with the empty seats.

The meal was served, and they all instantly started talking about politics, which was weird. It was just regular small talk-nothing about werewolves. I had assumed this would have been a meeting for one of their plans, but it turned out to just be a social gathering.

I listened as each person gave their opinion on some past president or leader. I found it incredibly boring.

The topic delved into a gender-based one, on which gender had better leadership qualities. As expected, it was just Fiona against the other men, and she was doing great defending her side. I hadn’t planned on contributing, but then all of a sudden I got drawn into the conversation.

“Well, Aiden, you’ve been quiet. What do you think?” One of the men asked.

Seeing as the power lay between Fiona and Rob, I was wondering who to suck up to.

“Exactly. What do you think?” Fiona asked

I was about to talk when I felt a hand glide up my thigh from under the table. I looked down to see who it was.

Fiona.