Resisting the Alpha Triplets by Cara Anderson

Ch. 31 A Sick Joke

Mallory’s POV

“My love,” Luna Erika put her hand on the Alpha’s arm, his mouth closing against the words he was about to speak in answer to my question. “We will get to all that. But first, if I’m not mistaken, we have something to celebrate.”

“And what might that be?” He looked at his wife adoringly, completely capitulating to her.

“Boys,” Luna addressed her sons, “Am I right? Is Mallory your fated mate?”

Clay and Cary crowded me from each side, wrapping their arms around me. I could feel their joy buzzing through the bond. A joy reflected in Luna’s beaming smile. Mom sucked in a gasp, nearly sobbing with happiness, and Alpha’s mouth spread into a pleased grin.

The atmosphere in the room went from apprehensive to elated in the span of a heartbeat. But in the same amount of time, Luna noticed the one thing I didn’t want to discuss, that one of her boys was not so enthusiastic about our bond. I would not have wanted to be on the receiving end of the death glare she shot at him but thankfully she otherwise ignored the elephant in the room.

“Can someone please explain to me why we were all summoned here so urgently in the middle of the night? I apologize Alpha, Luna, but I’m seriously losing my shit here!” I blurted out.

Alpha nodded and took his seat. Cary found a chair, pulling me into his lap and I let him. I knew I would have to deal with the repercussions of that decision later but I was too big of a coward to face what was coming without the bond to anchor me.

“It is probably time you took a look at these.” Alpha Carl said, taking some photographs out of his drawer and sliding them across his desk to me.

Mom whimpered and my head snapped toward her but she just shook her head. I took the photos I was offered and flipped through them one by one. In each of the pictures, a little girl played quietly at the feet of an older couple who appeared to be her parents. Then, in the very last photo, was my mother.

“Mom? Who are these people?” I asked, my eyes imploring her to explain why the Alpha had pictures of the people I’d dreamed of every night for years and why she was in one of them.

“I’m so sorry baby! I love you so much! Please believe me.” Her tears flowed in earnest now, her words a staccato punctuated by her sobs.

“Mom, you’re scaring me!” I cried, my anxiety ratcheting up another notch at her response.

Clay knelt in front of me and squeezed my knee while Cary wrenched his arms even tighter around me. It was like they could feel me falling apart and they were trying to hold me together. I risked a glance at Colt who hadn’t moved but his jaw was clenched and his hands balled into white-knuckled fists.

“Sweetheart, the little girl in the picture is you. The man and woman are your parents. Your real parents.” She burst into tears again.

“What? No! This is a really sick joke! I don’t know why you’re doing this to me but it’s not funny! I’m tired and I’m going home!” I tried to stand up but Cary held me down. “Let me go!”

“I’m so sorry, darling.” He breathed out softly. “I can’t imagine how you must feel right now but after what happened to you tonight, I think we need to hear it all.”

“I can’t.” I whimpered, slumping back against him.

“You can. You’re the strongest woman I’ve ever met. And Clay and I are here for you.” He encouraged, notably omitting his oldest brother from my list of moral supporters.

“Your parents were Parker and Melanie Brooks. They were the Alpha and Luna of the Hazelwood Pack and you were their sole heir.” Luna took over the narrative as my mother, or whoever she really was, couldn’t stop crying.

“I guess now we know why her wolf was so huge. Not an omega after all.” Clay remarked, sending Colton a scathing glare before adopting a proud expression.

“No. She is definitely an Alpha.” Erika confirmed. “In fact, if our system wasn’t so antiquated and actually allowed women to attend, I would have sent her to Alpha camp instead of Luna training. I would have loved to see the look on your faces when I made that announcement.”

All three boys had the good manners to look chagrined at that statement.

“What happened to them?” I cut in, needing to hear what my heart already knew to be true.

“There was an attack.” My mother answered, sufficiently recovered to speak apparently. “It happened so fast and we had no warning. Your father knew we wouldn’t win but he was the Alpha and would never leave his pack. He tried to send your mother away with you, called his good friend Alpha Carl and asked them to protect you both. But your mother wouldn’t leave him. So they sent you with me.”

“And who are you? Really?” I asked, the words much harsher than I meant them to be.

“I was your nanny. Your parents knew I loved you like you were my own and knew they could trust you with me. It was never my intention to lie to you, Mallory. I-… “She trailed off, seeming to reflect on that decision before taking up the story again.

“Anyway, there was a hidden tunnel between our two packs that had been used by the previous Alphas who were also friends. Your parents sent us through the tunnel but we hadn’t gotten too far when an explosion shook the ground. You flew out of my arms and hit your head on the rock wall.

“You were unconscious and bleeding and all I could do was get you to Black Moon as quickly as possible. Alpha and Luna took you straight to the hospital but you wouldn’t wake up. The doctor assured us you would be fine but when you woke up, you didn’t remember anything.”

“So you thought you would just make up a story and let me live a total lie for the next eleven years?” I spit out.

“That’s exactly what we did.” Alpha intervened. “Maeve didn’t like the idea but we convinced her it was for the best. Alpha Quade of Blood Claw Pack, the man who killed your parents and took over as Alpha of Hazelwood, he’s not a nice man, Mallory. He is evil and cruel and hungry for power. If he knew you, the rightful heir of Hazelwood, were still alive, he would stop at nothing to eliminate that threat to his rule.”

“So you changed her name, never allowed her to mourn her parents, and what? Hid her away?” Cary raged at them, furious on my behalf. “What about her wolf? Her Alpha aura? Why did she always present like an omega?”

“Even at seven years old, her aura was so strong. We feared even with all of that, people might question the story, guess who she was. We couldn’t take a chance that Alpha Quade would somehow hear about her, suspect her parentage. So we discussed the problem with one of the elders we trusted. She knew a mage who could subdue Mallory’s aura.” Luna explained.

“Today is your real birthday, Mallory.” Maeve admitted. “We didn’t realize your wolf would force her way through. We thought we could wait to have the spell lifted on the birthday we gave you. You would shift then and no one would be the wiser.”

All three of my mates growled at that, the sound reverberating off the walls. Clay was on his feet and in his father’s face in the blink of an eye.

“That’s why her shift was so difficult? Because you fucking tried to stop it?” He roared. “Do you have any idea what she went through? What it was like to watch her struggle that way. She almost fucking died!”

Colt wrenched him back just as he was about to lunge across the desk for his father’s neck. And suddenly, it was all too much. The lies, the loss of parents I couldn’t remember, A mate who didn’t want me and two who thought they did but couldn’t know that for sure. How could they when I didn’t even know who I was?

The walls were closing in on me. I had to get out. I pushed to my feet, breaking through Cary’s grip that had loosened at the shock of his brother’s outburst.

“Mallory please!” My mother, Maeve, whoever she was called out to me. “I swear my love for you was always true. I couldn’t love you more if I had given birth to you. Please forgive me!”

But I couldn’t think about that yet. I couldn’t breathe. I had to go.

“I-, I can’t talk about this anymore. I just can’t.” I shook my head, backing towards the door.

And then I ran.