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Chapter 7: "You're hurt."
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2024-10-29 19:42:56Related chapters
Four months with my Stepson and the Twin Alphas. Chapter 8: "Where is she?"
Ryan’s pov.My breaths come in sharp, uneven gasps as I struggle to shake off the remnants of the tormenting dream. The faceless figure’s words still echo within me, a bitter reminder of my inadequacy.In the darkness of my subconscious, the silhouette looms, its features concealed by an impenetrable shroud. The air hangs heavy with anticipation, an unspoken certainty that something pivotal is about to unfold. And then, like a razor, the voice pierces the silence. “You’re not good enough for me, Ryan. I reject you,” it whispers, laden with scorn and contempt.I feel my heart plummet, burdened by the weight of those cruel words. I attempt to protest, to refute the unjust condemnation, but my voice fails me, leaving me exposed and defenseless. The figure dissolves into the shadows, leaving behind a desolate void that reverberates in the depths of my being.As I sit upright, the remnants of the dream ensnare my consciousness, a lingering fog that refuses to dissipate. Rejection is unfam
Four months with my Stepson and the Twin Alphas. Chapter 9: "What are you doing here?"
Layla’s pov.“Where do you think she was even headed to?” I stir from sleep, my eyelids heavy with the weight of unconsciousness. A hazy fog envelops my mind, leaving me disoriented and lost. The sterile, white hospital room seems unfamiliar. Two voices converse in low tones, their words muffled by the cottony haze lining my senses. One voice rises slightly, The other man mumbles in response, his tone troubled yet urgent. I strain to comprehend their discussion, but the effort leaves me with a throbbing ache in my head. Although I cannot understand the men, their conversation continues.The taller man leans In, his eyes fixed on my fragile form. “She looks so lost, so different from the last time we saw her. What do you think happened to her, man?”His companion, a wider blurred figure with a furrowed brow, shakes his head in disbelief, his tone more robotic, almost solemn but in that hard way. “I don’t know, but she’s barely alive."The taller man’s voice softens and he asks almo
Four months with my Stepson and the Twin Alphas. Chapter 10: "We're taking you back to the pack."
"I said WHAT the hell are you doing here!" My voice echoes in the room, my eyes filled with hate as I glare at these pieces of my past."Layla.." Damien's deep familiar voice begins. His eyes hold a softness that I have never seen in them before and It irks me.Where was this kindness when I needed it? I try to sit up but I wince as a sharp pain around my ribs momentarily stops me from doing so."Shit, are you alright?” He asks softly, "Please don't strain yourself." He says, his hands wrapping around me but I quickly slap it off."I'll do as I please, and don't touch me." I see the tight clench that appears to his jaw but I couldn't care less about that.Damien withdraws his hands hesitantly but he still watches me closely as I right myself. I wince again, trying to find a more balanced position to sit.Everything hurts."Are you sure you’re…?"He stops the moment he notices my glare and I try to gather the thoughts in my head. My eyes seem to spin as I think about it, because the
Four months with my Stepson and the Twin Alphas. Chapter 11: "I'm tired and i would like to nap."
Layla's pov.Ryan's voice cuts through the air, startling me and setting something in my pulse to run faster. I watch as he enters the room, and for the first time in five years, I feel a wave of relief at seeing him. Damien and Alek both whip their heads simultaneously to inspect the intruder and they must realize who Ryan is because they step aside as he walks up to me.Their reluctance is clear in the way tension radiates off their forms, and Ryan eyes them briefly before glancing at me."Are you alright?" He asks, softly, surprisingly.I nod."Now that you’re here, I am."Surprise runs through me as those words leave my lips. Ryan’s expression falters for a second as he regards me, before swiftly regaining his composure and nodding, appropriately playing along."I'm glad you’re doing well. I was here earlier but I was told to wait outside for you, since you were in the E.R"I nod again and wince lightly."Thanks for looking out for me, but I'm fine now. All I want is to go back
Four months with my Stepson and the Twin Alphas. Chapter 12: "I need to get the names of two people."
Ryan's POVMy hands clench into angry fists as I watch Layla turn away from me, her way of avoiding my questions.One moment she’s all sweet to me and the next she’s being a little prick! Sometimes it feels like I'm talking to a toddler and it irks me.I run a hand through my hair just to loosen that fist up and i take a deep breath.I want to understand she's probably still feeling the aftermath of the accident, but I doubt that's the reason she's being evasive. She doesn’t seem to like the guys who were in here just now, and she even went as far as saying she can’t wait to go home with me.I huff at the thought of that, the sound leaving my lips laden with the disbelief that inspires in me.That probably put a sour taste on her tongue.Layla will say anything to get what she wants.My eyes roam the bit of skin peeking out the shoulder of her hospital garb and a feeling runs through me, like a deep chord being struck in my heart. She drugged me, and almost killed herself, yet she’s
Four months with my Stepson and the Twin Alphas. Chapter 13: "He's only trying to help."
Layla’s pov.Ryan doesn’t come back until the next day, and though I feel briefly worried, I don't feel anything else much.There’s a light itch all over my body that won’t scratch itself. There are thoughts and questions in my head that neither make enough sense for me to want to answer them, or are vague enough that I barely know what they actually are.I’m tense.I’m nervous.I’m freaking out and,“Hey, get up will you, Layla? The doctor already said you’re free to go.”Ryan’s rough voice soothes me and makes me angry at the same time. The tone of his statement tells me enough of his impatience, but would it kill him to be gentlemanly for once?To begin with, can’t he see I'm sick?Can’t he see I'm in a mood here?“What if I don't want to go home?” My voice is cold and the sound of those words on my tongue makes me feel something bitter at the back of my throat. That place is not my home.It may be home to him, but to me, it’ll always have only one meaning. Ryan lets out a soun
Four months with my Stepson and the Twin Alphas. Chapter 14: "What the fuck."
Ryan’s POV. Layla’s pinching me. I swallow all the spite that brings out in me because this might have been a result of my actions. She wasn’t walking fast enough to the car, and I had a meeting I wanted to catch up with, so I swept her off her feet and put her in my arms, ignoring her yelp and making for the car. Except getting to the car is proving a little bit of a problem. “Stop pinching me.” The words drop from my clenched teeth in a cold frigid manner but if Layla hears that she makes no indication of it. She does respond cheekily, however, “Put me down then.” Layla’s voice is meek and almost silent, and that is all the more reason why I do not put her down. She’s feeling shy. Embarrassed. It occurs to me that she’s probably never had anybody carry her like this. Bridal style. My father would have never, not in a million years. He might have once though, when he was younger, and if Layla had been someone else, someone like my mother. The pictures of his and my mum’s
Four months with my Stepson and the Twin Alphas. Chapter 15: "Was it because of Ryan?"
Layla’s pov. I wake up in the room this time. Unlike other people who wake up disoriented after fainting, I wake up quite lucid, and I have passed out several times, so I should know. Sometimes I pass out from sleep deprivation, from general weakness, from a lot of things. Ryan’s question rings in my mind because that’s what caused all this, and now as I hear it again, I can't help but wonder why I felt the way I felt when he asked me that question. ~What happened between you and My father?~ A slew of curses was already on my lips at the sound of that, but I restrained them, and I realized that he doesn’t know. Ryan has no idea what I suffered at the hands of the man he calls his father. Ryan Earl doesn’t know his father is a monster. Not a man. The man was a facade, an illusion he put on to fool the public. Three orphanages here, two shelters for the homeless there, those are the actions people will remember him by, but not me. To Ryan, his father is just a man who didn’t
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Four months with my Stepson and the Twin Alphas. Chapter 38: "Layla."
38: Alek doesn’t ask me weird questions anymore and I feel thankful for that. There would have been a limit to my answers and once I passed that limit, I’m not sure I wouldn’t have snapped at him.Right now though, there’s something else on my mind, something more pressing.How do I…deal with all this?I know that sounds incredibly vague but it’s still what’s on my mind. Today is the first day of 120 days I need to be around Damien and Alek.Alek just said he and Damien came into the city to track down someone who’s been giving the pack trouble, and even though I have no idea who that might be, I want to assume that it will take up most of their time.This trial we’re having is for them to see if they can get me to come over to them, but for me, it’s a way to fulfill a simple formality. I don’t think Damien and Alek can ever change.Sure. I might have thought that yesterday, but today, I feel differently.The images of Damien I caught while in his wolf form as he hunted still flash p
Four months with my Stepson and the Twin Alphas. Chapter 37: "Jennie."
“Is Ryan being rude to you?”I find that I haven't really forgotten how to ride. It just feels like it’s a memory I locked up for a while, and which is now taking some time to come back open. I try to keep my hands to myself, and not in my hair aiming to get out the twigs and leaves that have taken root in it.My horse shot me right into the copse of trees on the Earl mansion grounds.Alek dangles the reins in his hands lightly so I can return my attention to him and I do. He’s helping me lead the horse now, so I have to pay him some attention at least, I respond to his unanswered question,“Why should that be any of your concerns?”I sound like I just got told my favorite cat died.“Because there was tension between you two earlier today?”And in response to that, I look up to meet Alek’s eyes in a gesture that I hope shows I do not appreciate whatever it is he’s doing right now, and he looks away, shrugging and clearing his throat. The air between us grows awkward even before he sp
Four months with my Stepson and the Twin Alphas. Chapter 36: "Trouble in Paradise?"
Alek’s voice is an annoying presence when it enters my head,“Trouble in paradise?”But I ignore him. He sidles up closer to me, and this time he asks verbally, clearly seeing I don’t like how he speaks into my mind,“Trouble in paradise Layla?”Alek’s voice is a husky soft thing and I take it in, letting myself breathe a bit before shaking my head and responding to him calmly,“What paradise?”Alek chuckles and out of instinct, a smile lines my lips. I wipe that smile away immediately because it’s obvious I'm letting their joint effect influence me too much. The task in front of me is what I should focus on right now, and I do, trying to clear my head as I look at the stables.Ryan is gone like I asked.Damien is somewhere behind, and I don't know if he’s behind trying to talk to Ryan, or if he’s behind because he’s trying to figure out where he can get what we’ll need for hunting. Absentmindedly I ask,“Is Damien still…”I catch myself before I can complete the statement but Alek
Four months with my Stepson and the Twin Alphas. Chapter 35: "I can hear whatever you have to say later."
Layla’s pov.Alek and Damien are waiting for me by the time I get back to my room and something in me squirms at the sight of them. I did not think they’d be here so I was not ready for them. I still am not, and for some reason, I feel it’s because of what happened just now with Ryan.I frown because what even happened with Ryan?The confusion that question brings to my heart is brief, and yet it plagues me in an odd way. Damien’s voice interrupts my thoughts and I snap my head to him as he asks in his deep baritone again,“Are you okay, Layla?”Ryan’s voice echoes in my mind as he asks me that same question and I shake my head just to get it out. That felt like deja vu just now, and there’s no need for anything like that.I feel Damien’s and Alek’s gazes fixed on me and I decide I have to take some deep breaths, just to get this choking feeling out of my heart.They watch me close my eyes and take those deep breaths.They watch me as I try to stabilize this strange pounding in my hea
Four months with my Stepson and the Twin Alphas. Chapter 34: "I took care of it."
Ryan’s pov. Layla is standing outside my door when I open it and I can see it in her eyes. She’s caught me.She caught me red-handed, And while I don't want to let her know if that affects me, I know it does.There’s a stilted kind of hurt in her green eyes, and then it seems she gathers herself rapidly, pulling on a brave face and giving me the kind of look that tells me she understands this game, she’s brought herself to understand it for a while now and she’s done all that for a reason. Her eyes tell me if I want to screw half the population of the help in the mansion, then I can. If I want to have more girlfriends that she can count on the fingers of her hand, then I can too. She’s not going to stop me. It’s not like we had an agreement that I wouldn't take my fun where I could find it.Somehow that makes the reality of all this even more depressing, because as much as I can, I’d like her to know it’s not like that. This was just a one-time thing, but before I can even formulate
Four months with my Stepson and the Twin Alphas. Chapter 33: "You remember."
Damien is the first to show up at my door the next day.I feel surprise run through me when I open the door to meet his face, and he also looks surprised when he sees me, all dressed up, all ready for whatever the day might bring. He swallows awkwardly, and then he drops a statement,“You forgot this outside yesterday.”I frown, lost at first as to what he might mean, then I look at what’s in his hands and I see it’s a bracelet. My bracelet.How…I snatch it back almost selfishly, because this is one of those things I do not joke with. How did it even get outside?Damien huffs, a sound that I think is laced with amusement, and I recollect myself immediately because this isn’t what I'm meant to be doing. I’m not meant to be grabbing things so greedily. I should show them I am as in control of myself as I need to be.“Thank you.” The words, thankfully come out sincere, and also aloof at the same time. I clear my throat and go on, “I didn’t know I'd taken it out yesterday.I must have fo
Four months with my Stepson and the Twin Alphas. Chapter 32.
Layla’s pov.I am left alone and the moment I get to my room, I close the door and crumple right behind it - my heart pounding in my chest and my breath coming in decidedly short bursts.I don’t know why I feel like this. Or why this even affects me, yet I can't get the image of their faces out of my head, and I wonder if I'm not in over my head.Ryan and Damien seem to have made up, and if they have then I'm guessing he’s going to be helping them in… wooing me, or getting me to trust them. I suspect he’s doing that already, and I know Ryan.Ryan does not do anything that does not benefit him first, and this is a game we’re all playing - a sly game, and to succeed, I have to be as smart as they are. If not smarter.I go through all Breanne said to me earlier again and I recount the points in my head.Men do not like an easy woman, or sometimes they do, depending on the type of man, but to be on the safer side, be the difficult type.I tuck that away in my mind and move on to the next
Four months with my Stepson and the Twin Alphas. Chapter 31: The line has been drawn.
Ryan’s pov.Layla leaves and we are plunged into silence again.Damien sits to my far right, by the window and nursing an astrology book, Alek sits to my far left, nursing a book on music and musical chords.I am also with a book, because I couldn't bear to sit here without anything to do when they came in, yet when I look at the book in my hands, I see that it isn’t one I like.I never really liked books.My father never really liked them either. My mother did, and she almost taught me to, but when she died, my father killed it.Alek and Damien seem like people who like to read, genuinely like to read, and I guess with reading comes silence, and so they have been silent.They have been silent ever since we came here, but right now I can feel the tension in the air. Layla is gone now, probably back to her room.She’s announced that she has agreed to stay for four months, the way I had asked her to agree to it, yet something feels bitter in me at the fact that she is actually giving th
Four months with my Stepson and the Twin Alphas. Chapter 30: "Ryan gets the truth."
I go back into the manor to look for them.The strangeness of this action feels like ice on my skin, because two days ago, if anyone had asked me what I would be doing at this moment, I'd have said I'd still be in my room, not doing anything and waiting to die from hunger or lack of sunlight.Yet here I am, looking for the same three people I consider the current punishment the world is dealing to me.Their scent fills the whole place….It’s almost like everywhere I step foot, there’s a slight fragrance that tells me Damien has been here, Alek has been there,Ryan has been… literally everywhere in this house.I find them in one of the relaxation rooms, and the moment I come in, all three of them snap their heads to me. It’s an eerie sight, but it becomes less eerie when I feel the mate bond pulsing. Damien and Alek must have sensed me, and Ryan… must have heard my footsteps.They’re reading books.They each have a book in hand, and the sight of it makes me feel something squirm in me
