The Mark of Betrayal (Samara and Roman) novel Chapter 2

Benedict

“Sweetheart, we’re having an important political dinner this weekend. I don’t know if you have any plans, but you’ll have to cancel them. This is important,” my mother says when I walk in the door after school.

Oh darn. I won’t be able to go to Christa’s birthday party. What a disappointment. Not!

“Of course I’ll be there, mother,” I say, kissing her cheek as I pass.

“Bene! Wait up,” my sister, Bethany, says as she rushes into the house behind me.

My mother decided that we should all have ‘B’ names, Benedict – my father, Benedict – me, Beatrice is my mother and that left Bethany for my sister. Personally, I’d love to have pups someday with names that begin with ANYTHING other than a B.

“What happened with Slade? I know you know,” Bethany says. She and Slade are in the same year. It’s another reason I don’t like upperclassmen bullying freshmen. What if they were bullying MY sister.

“Slade Hartwell?” my mother sneers. “Is he as much trouble as his sister is? You should stay away from him, Bethany.”

“Oh mother, stop it. You’re the one who is always saying we should be above such things a judgmental behavior, but look at you. You’re ALWAYS so judgmental of the Hartwells,” my sister says, challenging my mother. I’ve notice that since she’s gotten her wolf, my sister has become quite vocal about the things she doesn’t like about our family.

Personally, I silently applaud her. I can’t speak out like she does. I’m too much in the limelight. But my sister has nothing to lose by being herself.

“Not the Hartwells, darling, just those adopted children of theirs, Sloane and Slade. Those two should never have been allowed into the packs. They’re nothing but trouble. I heard that Sloane girl beat up Alpha Carson’s Beta. What self-respecting girl does that?”

“Perhaps the better question, mother, is how did Alpha Carson’s Beta get beaten up by a girl?” I ask, jumping to Sloane’s defense. Honestly, I do it so often at school that it almost comes naturally for me now.

“Oh, not you too, Benedict. That girl is trouble with a capital T. You both need to stay away from them.”

“Let me ask you something mother. Would it change your mind to know that Louis and four other ranked members surrounded Slade, a freshman like Bethany, and were bullying him when Sloane entered the situation and punched Louis in his face, protecting her brother? Would it?” I ask already knowing the answer.

My mother can’t STAND Sloane and Slade. But she would never say anything outwardly in case she offended Alpha Roman and Luna Samara. Goddess knows we can’t afford to get on the wrong side of the most powerful pack in the country. But that doesn’t mean that my mother, who says we should not be judgmental, doesn’t have whispered conversations with her friends about why those two should never have been allowed in the packs to begin with.

My mother presses her lips together, knowing there is nothing she can say that will sound anything other than judgmental, before spinning on her heels and walking out of the kitchen. Her heels clap sharply enough on the tile floor, echoing around the room as she leaves, to tell me she’s not happy without having to say a word.

“Is that what really happened?” Bethany asks.

“Yeah, that’s what really happened.”

“Good for Sloane. Louis is an asshole,” she says.

I grin at my sister. “Don’t let dad hear you using that kind of language.”

She looks at me and smirks. “Where do you think I learned it from?”

I laugh and my sister kisses my cheek. “Don’t become like them. Please Bene. You’re better than they are. I mean, dad’s okay, but mom’s a shit,” she says.

“Good to know that I’m okay, but what did your mother do now?” my father asks walking in.

I glance at my sister who sighs heavily.

“I don’t appreciate her double standard, Dad. It’s not fair.”

“Who is her double standard against?” he asks.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify