Worthless to Priceless The Alpha’s Rejected Mate

CHAPTER 36

KADEN’S P.O.V

It took every ounce of self control that I had mastered over the years to stop me from responding to Gregory. I sat there immobile trying to figure out if I had heard properly when he branded his own daughter a traitor. I could tell that Caleb was holding his breath and waiting for my reaction but I stayed perfectly silent not saying a word.

I tried to reconcile the narrative he had just painted of Amelia to the scared girl who stumbled across my border and I just couldn’t see it. I could not see a reality where Amelia was a traitor or anything even related to being a traitor. I may not have known her for long but I knew and so did my wolf that she was not what Gregory said she was.

I could tell that Gregory was gauging my expression for a crack in the mask. Something that would tell him that I knew what he was talking about. I had already given him too much intel when I turned to him after he spoke but I was determined not to make it easy for him at all and I kept my expression carefully blank.

“Any intruders who cross our borders will and have been dealt with accordingly,” Caleb said breaking the silence and Gregory turned to him. He didn’t miss the implied message there and I saw that he was suddenly intrigued by the conversation.

“You have to permit me for wanting to confirm,” he began slowly and before I could stop myself, I found myself speaking.

“What could possibly be so bad that your own daughter was branded a traitor by you?”

As soon as the words left my tongue, Gregory turned back to me and the corner of his lips tilted up slightly as if that was what he was waiting for. He wanted to know if we had found Amelia and now I

had practically confirmed it for him. I could feel Caleb’s eyes on me and before I knew it, I heard his voice in my head. Ccontent © exclusive by Nô/vel(D)ra/ma.Org.

“Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” he asked and I didn’t respond mainly because I didn’t want anything to distract me from what I was doing.

I kept my eyes trained on Gregory who looked like he was choosing his next words wisely. I knew he was going to cook up an entire story about how Amelia was probably a terror in his pack. If I was being honest, I couldn’t wait to hear what he actually had to say. I wanted to see how far he was willing to go to play the cards that he had brought and how far he was willing to go to actually convince me that his own daughter was a terrible person.

He cleared his throat and I raised a brow in his direction. Suddenly, it was like a switch was flipped in him and he took on a somber expression. He cast his eyes to the ground as if he couldn’t bear to think of whatever was plaguing him and when he spoke, his voice was somber.

“Amelia was born a monster,” he began slowly and I had to remind my wolf that we couldn’t just attack him no matter what he said. “She killed her own mother at birth and that wasn’t even the worst thing she did. She has killed every single wolf who tried to protect her.”

I didn’t believe a word he said but there was something about what he had said. He didn’t refer to Amelia’s mother as his mate. If he was truly as hurt by her death as he feels, then he should want to personalize her and detach her from Amelia as much as possible. The fact that he didn’t could mean that Amelia’s mother was not his mate or he was not as hurt by it as he is pretending to be. For some reason, I was leaning more towards the former and I made a mental note to do some more research about it.

“How did she kill them?” I couldn’t help but ask and I knew that my question caught him off guard because his words faltered and I briefly saw his expression change before he managed to school his features and retain his somber look.

“That is a point in my life that I do not enjoy thinking about,” he said softly and I resisted the urge to roll my eyes at him. “Amelia has always been a terror and I know that she is dangerous to everyone around her. Anyone who tries to help her will die and it will be much worse with her mate. Amelia is fatal to whoever she is mated with.”

At those last words, I fought hard to keep my expression neutral because I knew what he was playing at by saying those words. He wanted to see if I would react and I didn’t but Caleb did. He snapped his head to me so fast that it was a wonder Gregory didn’t notice. If he had, he would have probably deduced that Amelia and I were mates. I wanted to reach out and slap Caleb at the back of his head but I made a mental note to remind him to keep a better check on his emotions when in public.

“So you branded your daughter a traitor because you assumed that she would be fatal to her mate in future,” I made my voice as detached and emotionless as possible.

I leaned forward on my elbows and stared Gregory straight in the eyes and I saw him squirm. That action brought the first piece of emotion on my face and I smirked slightly. He noticed my actions and his eyes narrowed but instead of causing a fight over it, he looked away.

“There was an incident,” he began slowly as if he was unsure whether he should speak about it. “I had always tried to treat Amelia like everyone else despite what she was. One day, she tried to poison me.”

My brows rose because I knew that Amelia was not capable of something like that. I was sure that Amelia could not even hurt a fly and for him to say that she tried to poison him, I knew it was a lie.

“She had previously tried to steal Brittany’s boyfriend,” on hearing her name, the girl next to Gregory snapped her head up and she stared at him. He ignored her and continued the story. “I was against such behavior and I explicitly told her that. Amelia got so angry that she purchased a large amount of wolfs bane and put it into my food.”

He droned on about what I knew was a falsified version of true events. I already knew about Brittany being the one to steal Amelia’s boyfriend and I was amused and also amazed at the lengths that Gregory was going to paint his daughter as a villain. The more he spoke, the more intricately he weaved his web of lies and all I could do was watch.

While he was talking, I felt eyes on me. I tried to ignore them at first thinking that the person would look away but they stayed and it annoyed me. I turned to the person looking at me- Brittany- and saw that she was fully analyzing me. Once she realized that she had been caught, I saw a flush creep up her cheeks and she quickly looked away.

Gregory didn’t notice that interaction because he was still speaking and I was thinking of how to tell him that I didn’t care about his story when lightning flashed across the sky. Thunder rumbled and out of nowhere, rain began to pour and beat down on the house. The rain somehow irritated me further because I knew it meant that Gregory and Brittany would have to wait out the rain.

I wanted to punch something or better yet someone but the rain served a good purpose because it made Gregory shut up. He forgot what he was saying and turned to the windows to inspect the rain. It was heavy and falling like a storm and I felt like it mirrored my mood perfectly.

I couldn’t imagine being stuck with Gregory for another hour in the cottage. In that moment, I would have walked under the storm if it meant getting away from him because I wasn’t sure that I would have been able to control myself if he said one more bad thing about Amelia or if he made up one more bad story.

As it was, I was just about ready to call him a liar and tell him that Amelia was safe with me but I knew it would have adverse effects. She was still his daughter and legally he still had a hold on her. He could demand that she returned to him and the werewolf council would back him. Not that I would have cared or obeyed them but to avoid unnecessary drama, I decided to keep my mouth shut.

I could feel Caleb’s curiosity eating away at him and I knew he had a lot to say. I just wished the rain would have stopped so that we could leave and discuss everything we needed to.

While I was thinking about the rain, I felt a pressure at the back of my head letting me know that someone wanted to mind link me. I had kept my wall up during the meeting so I wouldn’t be disturbed and kept a slot open for just Caleb in case he noticed something suspicious.

I let my wall down wondering who it was and was shocked to realize that it was Kevin, one of the top guards in the pack. He was one of the few people in the pack that had access to my personal link because of his status. He was practically the general so it was important that he had access to me in case of emergencies.

I wanted to ignore him because it was common knowledge that I was in a meeting and everyone knew better than to interrupt me during a meeting but then I figured that if he was willing to interrupt me then it had to be important.

“What is it?” I said, my Alpha tone snapping back into place.

He could practically feel the irritation rolling off me in waves and I hoped for his sake that whatever he wanted to tell me was important because if it wasn’t, I wasn’t sure I would have been able to hold myself from lashing out at him.

“Clara asked me to reach out to you,” he said and I could hear his voice shake as he spoke. “She said to tell you that Amelia was shifting.”

No sooner than the words left his lips, I was on my feet in an instant and all eyes fell on me.