Chapter Three

Kyle

I was dumbfounded. Why was my mom like this, marrying again as if it were nothing? It had only been a year since her last husband died, Hayden’s father. I could swear Hayden wasn’t even close to being over it. For all his attitude and sharp tongue, I had caught him crying more than once when I passed by his room. The first time I peeked through the door, he was sitting on the floor, clutching his dad’s picture like it was the only thing holding him together.

I felt bad for him, and I knew deep down that what my mom was doing was wrong. She should have at least waited for both of us, especially Hayden, to mourn properly, to let the memory of his father settle before she dragged another man into our lives.

And this wasn’t even her second marriage. This was her third. Her first husband which was, of course, my father, and they ended up divorced. The second was a man named Colton, someone her parents arranged for her to marry because they were drowning in debt. I remembered that name more than I wanted to because whenever I slipped and called him “Dad,” he’d correct me in that stiff, cold voice, telling me to call him by his real name instead.

Even though those two never really loved each other, the marriage somehow lasted. Five whole years. That was how long Colton stayed before death took him too. And then came the last one—Hayden’s father.

“Mom…” I said quietly, my eyes shifting to Hayden. His gaze was fixed on the floor, expression unreadable. He hadn’t said a single word since she dropped the news. “Didn’t you just meet this man?”

She laughed, like it wasn’t something serious. “We’ve been dating for some months and a few weeks. It’s not that sudden,” she said. “Yesterday, he invited me over to his Alpha estate. That’s when he proposed. Right there, in front of everyone.”

The Alpha Estate?

My brain froze for a second. Was she saying she's going to marry someone who lives in the pack mansion? Who could that be?

And then Hayden’s voice came, low and sharp, cutting through my thoughts.

“You’re marrying the Alpha?”

Did that even make sense? There was no way my mother was marrying the Alpha of the pack—Alpha Maddox. He was the kind of man everyone talked about: tall, broad-shouldered, the sort of striking face you’d expect to see on the cover of some fantasy romance. His eyes were an intense gray that looked almost silver when the light caught them, and his presence alone could make a room go silent. He had this air of quiet authority, the kind that didn’t need to yell to be obeyed.

But the more I thought about it, the more a tiny part of it almost seemed possible. Alpha Maddox did live in the Alpha estate, after all. I’d heard enough stories about him, and I’d even seen him once when he came to visit the school, which happened to be his old alma mater.

As for Hayden, he probably knew him better than I did. Hayden was a jack of all trades, always picking up jobs wherever he could. Sometimes he got calls to do maintenance or deliveries for the Alpha estate, just to make a little extra money.

Still, it was strange. Why would Maddox choose my mother out of all the women he could have? She was eight years older than him. You’d think someone like him would want a younger woman, someone without a trail of divorces behind her. That alone would be enough to set off gossip and make the elders of the pack start whispering.

Besides, Maddox had never had a mate before. He’d been waiting for his mate for years. And now he was about to marry my mother?

Hayden suddenly stood up, and I looked over at him. At this point, he didn’t just look angry, he looked like he was going to be sick. He kicked the center table so hard it scraped across the floor and then stormed out without saying a single word.

When the door slammed shut behind him, I let out a long sigh and turned to my mother.

“Look at what you did,” I said quietly.

“I did nothing,” she replied, her tone clipped. “How is any of this my fault? All I did was follow my heart. All I did was love the man who fell for me first.”

“Yes, and that hurt Hayden so much. You know exactly why he feels that way. Don’t act like you’re the victim or something.”

She sighed too, softer this time, and came to sit next to me, holding my hand in hers. “I wish you boys could understand me, too. I swear, I never planned to fall for anyone again.”

“Then you shouldn’t have said yes,” I said, pulling my hand out of hers. I stood up and headed for the door, ignoring her voice behind me asking where I was going.

Outside, the air felt colder than it should have. Maybe because I still felt chills from Hayden’s glare back there. I pulled my phone out and tried calling Hayden, but his number went straight to voicemail. I sent him a few messages, telling him I wanted to talk and that I was sorry for what my mother had done. After a moment, I added one more: Please, just tell me where you are. I’ll come right away.