Free Web NovelChapter 168: Hellion on Earth
The hours passed by in a blur, and soon I was yawning in the backseat of the car. The drive was thankfully monotonous, and Blaise had quickly related the happy news to Damon, warning him to sit tight and delay his decision-making for as long as possible. I was the only one who felt sleepy since Darach and Blaise were both making quiet conversation in the front of the car.
"You don’t like my brother much, do you?" Blaise asked, drumming his fingers on the dashboard.
"That’s one way of putting it," Darach said with a scoff. "Would you like a man that bullied you as a boy?"
"What happened?" I asked curiously from the back of the car. This topic was interesting since I barely knew anything from Damon’s younger years. Blaise was similarly intrigued, as he had spent years apart from Damon before they reunited as adults.
"He was an utterly arrogant piece of shit, that’s what happened," Darach said bitterly, clutching the steering wheel so tightly his knuckles turned white. "Glowering around the compound as though everyone owed him a living, and beating anyone who dared breathe the same air as him. You guys should already know that I’m not as strong as my sister. Back then, he never let me forget it."
"How did the both of you end up spending time together?" Blaise asked curiously. "You’re from different packs, and the distance isn’t negligible either."
I also thought it strange; they shouldn’t have had so many chances to interact that such enmity would persist till today.
"We met a few times at inter-pack gatherings, but that wasn’t the worst of it," Darach laughed mockingly to himself.
"Back when I was a teenager, my father sent me to be fostered in Fangborne. Said that it would toughen me up, being with another alpha’s son my age. I had a feeling he simply wanted me to snap and shift early since I wasn’t showing much promise as his heir. Either that or he was hoping I would die," Darach said darkly. frёewebnoѵēl.com
"My father accepted this request?" Blaise raised an incredulous eyebrow before understanding entered his eyes. "Ah. He wanted a strong tie to Thunderstrike, didn’t he? Fostering is a quick way to build bonds between two generations at once. Assuming you lived, of course."
"Exactly," Darach scowled. "Not to mention, this arrangement happened after your disappearance, so my father could use the excuse that Damon needed a friend after his twin brother was missing. A new brother, so to speak. That’s why I was chosen over my sister, despite my sister begging for the chance to go. She wanted to live with your brother so badly."
Blaise and I met each other’s eyes through the rearview mirror, and I silently shook my head in dismay. I didn’t even know Damon for that long, but I already knew how he would have taken such a piece of news― Darach was effectively flown in as a replacement for not just anyone, but his own twin brother. He would have been livid with rage and grief, thinking that his own father had forsaken his brother.
The Damon of now might have a better grip on his temper after years of leading a pack, but a teenage Damon would have been a hellion on Earth. I suddenly felt intense pity for Darach. He was a wolf, but he had been treated no better than a sacrificial lamb.
Also, the thought that his father was using Blaise’s disappearance to further his own ambitions would be icing on top of the terrible cake.
Suddenly, I realized that Damon, Blaise, and I could hold a support group for terrible fathers. I would be the leader, but these two definitely had enough stories to tell.
"I had expected to be disliked and ignored, in fact, I would have vastly preferred that over the welcome I got," Darach continued bitterly.
I held my breath, wondering what Damon did that was so terrible.
"Instead, I was humiliated on a daily basis by a boy meant to be Fangborne’s future Alpha. I was treated less like a slave, kicked and beaten on a daily basis using the excuse of training. Oh, I could have even accepted that. But do you know what that boy did?"
I didn’t, but Darach wasn’t going to keep Damon’s misdeeds a secret.
"Damon made me his errand boy, forcing me to do all sorts of ridiculous requests and beat me up when I failed, claiming that his brother would have succeeded. I was beaten more often than a pinata at a children’s party. I was forced to eat from the floor instead of the table the whole time while kicking my plate away because he didn’t want to see my face, as though I wanted to be there in the first place, in this stupid pack of his, to replace his brother who wasn’t there anymore―" freēwēbnovel.com
Darach was so angry, that he smacked his hands against the steering wheel in agitation.
"Darach! The wheel!" I watched in horror as his hands spun the wheel in irritation, nearly swerving the car off the road. I shrieked in surprise, grabbing onto the handlebars on the top of the car to steady myself. From the front, Blaise hastily stifled a curse, trying to hold onto me.
"Darach, the car, the car! Careful! Brake!" I screamed, but it was too late, it had veered too far off course, and at the speed we were going, the car had garnered enough momentum to break through the flimsy barricade that separated us from the lush wilderness of the mountains.
There simply wasn’t enough time to stop ourselves from careening off the smooth path, and driving on the bumpy wilderness instead.
"Fuck, turn back! Turn back now!" Blaise demanded in horror. "We’re gonna go off the cliff at this rate!"
"I’m trying, I’m trying!’ Darach yelled back as he stomped on the brakes. Thankfully, we didn’t go off a cliff because we came to a stop.
The bad news? We came to a stop because our car slammed straight into a tree with a mighty crunch.
