The Beta's Son Never Knew Me novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: The Couch

Conall drives her to Hattie's. Braden and his mother arrive with flowers and the thermos, Cassandra pours the tea into the sink, and Conall announces he will be at the diner at six.

Conall did not say anything else for a long time.

The creek ran over the rocks, and I stood there in his jacket with my face wet and my mouth open.

"Your wolf talked to you," I said finally. "About me."

"It said your name, and nothing else."

"Just my name."

"Yes."

"I'm not a wolf," I said. "You know that. Everybody knows that."

"I know what the pack says."

He stopped and rubbed the back of his neck, and I realized he did not know what to do next either.

"I'm not asking you for anything tonight," he said. "My truck is at the top of the path. Where do you want to go?"

I thought of the room over the Haskells' garage, and my stomach turned over.

"Hattie's," I said. "Over the Fir Cone."

He walked me up the path without touching me, and he opened the passenger door and waited.

When I climbed in, I put my hand on the frame, and his hand closed around my wrist for a moment to steady me.

His palm was hot.

The heat went up my arm and settled behind my ribs, and I decided it was because I had been crying in the cold.

The drive took four minutes, and he did not turn the radio on.

Hattie opened the back door of the diner in her pajamas, with a rolling pin in one hand.

She was five foot four and could put the whole kitchen staff in their place with a look.

She saw my face, and then she saw the Alpha behind me, and the rolling pin came down.

"Who died?" she said.

"Nobody. Braden's on a video with Delaney."

"I know. I saw it," Hattie said. "I was putting on my shoes to go find you when the headlights pulled in."

She pulled me against her, and I started crying again into her shoulder.

"Alpha," she said over my head, very polite. "Thank you for the ride. You can go now."

"I'll stay downstairs," Conall said.

"There's nothing downstairs but the fryer."

"Then I'll stay with the fryer."

Hattie looked at him for a long second, and then at me.

"Fine," she said. "Don't touch the fryer."

She got me up the narrow stairs and onto her couch, with a quilt and a mug of cocoa and a plate of the pie she had been saving.

I had eaten three bites when the bell on the front door jingled.

I knew the voice at once.

"Cass? Cassandra, sweetheart, are you up there?"

Lorna.

Braden came with her, and I could hear him on the stairs, taking them two at a time.

Hattie was on her feet at once.

"No," she said. "Absolutely not."

"Let them come up," I said.

I do not know where it came from.

I stood in the middle of the little kitchen with the quilt around my shoulders and watched the two of them come through the door.

Braden had a bunch of grocery store roses.

Lorna carried her blue thermos, and her eyes were wet.

"Oh, honey," she said. "You left this. You've had such a shock, and you know you can't go without it."

"It was a kiss, Cass," Braden said. "One stupid kiss at a party."

"It lasted a minute," I said. "Forty people watched it."

"I was drunk."

"You said, 'Tell Cass I'm working late.'"

His face changed, and then he got it back under control, because he was Braden, and he always could.

"Baby, come home. Mom made your room up."

I took the thermos out of Lorna's hand.

She smiled at me with so much relief that I almost felt sorry for her.

I walked to Hattie's sink, unscrewed the lid, and poured the tea out.

It was dark brown and it steamed against the steel, and I held the thermos upside down until the last drop ran out.

Then I rinsed it and set it on the drainboard.

Nobody said anything.

For half a second, Lorna's smile stayed exactly where it was and her eyes did not move at all.

"Cassandra," she said, gently. "You're upset."

"I'm done drinking it," I said. "I'm done with all of it. Please go."

Braden's jaw went tight.

"Don't be dramatic."

"She asked you to leave," said a voice from the stairs.

Conall stood in the doorway, and he took up all of it.

Braden's chin came up, and for one moment I saw him measure the Alpha.

"This is a family matter, Alpha," he said.

"She's not your family tonight."

"She's wolfless," Braden said. "With respect. She can't be anyone's mate. Nothing in her is ever going to answer you, so you don't need to play the hero."

I had nothing to say to that, because the whole pack believed it.

Conall did not look at him.

He looked at me, and his voice was very level.

"Then he has nothing to worry about. Cassandra, I'll be at the diner at six with coffee."

"Why?" I asked.

"You can tell me to stop," Conall said. "Any morning. I won't argue."

← Chapter 1 · All chapters · Chapter 3 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend