CHAPTER 4

MALCOLM

Tick Tock. Tick Tock. Tick Tock.

The noise from the clock at the left part of the room sounded in my ear as we spent every second still standing in the exact same spot. Well their standing, I'm still on my knees with silver burning into my exposed flesh.

“Why do we have to wait?” I questioned for the millionth time, hoping that each time I ask that they might grace me with an answer but for the millionth time, they disappointed me.

This is a waste of time. We're wasting time.

“Look. I know you don't want to hear anything from me right now but here me out. He's already said that he doesn't want me here so if we go back to my father now then he and the council would find another alternative for…”

The clanking of heels broke through the air and a veil of silence covered our heads as Riot made his way back to the center of the room with his spine as straight as a pin and his lips drawn into a thin line. Gone was the man who threw jokes at me and mocked my very existence.

This was a clear sign that I wouldn't like anything he said.

“After much persuasion from…external factors, I've decided to let Mr Blackstone serve his sentence in the pack,” he said as his gaze momentarily shifted to the geezer who must have convinced him.

Stupid fucker.

If the silence before had been deafening then this one was loud enough to shake the earth out of orbit or at least I think it would be seeing I was too pissed off to care if our universe collapsed this very second.

“What's the matter, Blackstone? You look like you're about to have a heart attack,” his words were nothing short of taunting and the anger that never seems to die down around him blazed in my chest.

“What makes you think I would agree to stay in this pack? In case you haven't noticed, we don't have the best chemistry,” Which translates to “I hate your guts and you hate my guts, so this arrangement can't work.”

“Last time, I checked that it wasn't your choice to make. I'm the Alpha of this pack, you're in my pack and whatever I say goes, so deal with it.”

“Like hell I will! You really think that I'm going to agree to stay here with you devils for 2 years or whenever time the council comes to their fucking sense?! You faggots are dumber than I thought.”

Audible gasps were heard from every angle and a sly smirk tug my lips upward. But what happened next shocked me.

The thin line on his lips morphed into a smirk as he took slow, confident steps towards me.

“Sawyer,” the old man called out to him in a fatherly voice but he was too far gone to acknowledge him.

“If you don't want to stay here then you're free to leave. Don't think that I don't know you have no trouble breaking those chains and shackles. Don't think that I don't know you can easily beat up every single warrior and guard assigned to watch you. Don't think that I don't know you can easily escape, but why haven't you?” He stopped in front of me and crouched to my level with a sick, judgemental look in his eyes. The air thickened around us and time stilled as the staring contest between us got more intense and barely a second later, he shot out his hand and cups my face.

I struggled in his hold and my blood turned molten as sparks of anger sent my soul ablaze, ready to break free and consume everyone around me.

“I'll tell you why you're still here chained up like a weak, common criminal, it's because you are afraid. The stone-age Alpha is afraid of what his father would think of him if he runs away so he's forced to stay on his knees, awaiting orders from his subordinates.”

I hated myself for admitting that he's right. Because I'm not afraid. I just…hate disappointing him.

I averted my eyes from his and I could almost hear the smirk on his face as he released my jaw and stood to his full form before addressing his guards.

“Order a meeting with everyone in the pack then take him outside. I want our people to meet our new guest.”

~~~

Hundreds of eyes dripped holes into my being as I stood on a pedestal before them with these accursed chains still around me.

What I would give to break free.

“Beloved Pack members. I'm happy you graced me with your presence on such short notice. I'm sure you all know this man standing behind me,” he pointed to me with a shit-eating grin on his face and a few people nodded their heads while others remained frozen in fear.

“For those of you who don't know, this is Malcolm Blackstone. Alpha of—sorry, former Alpha of the Blackstone pack. He will be staying with us for 2 years.”

Gasps and whispers cut through the air at his announcement on my non-negotiable stay in the pack while I'm still hung up on the way he addressed me.

Former Alpha. Goddess, I want to kill him.

“I know you're all concerned by this news but I can assure that he wouldn't be staying here as though he were on a vacation. His stay here is a sentence. The price he has to pay for a sin he committed. So please don't put your lives on hold to accommodate him because I assure you, He's not important.”

If I wanted to kill him before then now I wanted to obliterate him and everything he stands for. The murmurs and whispers grew louder and it soon got so loud that I couldn't hear my own thoughts.

Then a stone was thrown at me.

The ear–splitting noise quickly turned into a deafening silence. The rock hit me in the air and a sharp pain ran through my right eye.

But it only lasted for a second. Because another crashed into left thigh, then my chest, then my left arm, then my fucking forehead and before I knew it every part of my body wasn't spared from the brutal assault of stones and insults.

“You're a terrible man!”

“You should rot in hell!”

“What's wrong, Stone-age Alpha? Can't handle a little stone?”

In Spite of all the death threats and literal stones thrown my way, one thing succeeded in sending me over the edge.

The sound of his mocking laughter.

The little thread of control I've struggled to protect snapped before my eyes.

And so did the chains.