“I promise to answer your questions, Beta. But not now. When the time comes, I’ll tell you every…”
“Now’s the time, Alpha,” I say. “I demand to know everything. Hell! I feel like I don’t even know you at all. Who the heck is Camille?”
Leaving my questions unanswered, he pulls over in the lot.
“What exactly are you hiding, Logan Paxton?” I ask.
“Don’t call me that.”
“Why? You were fine with it when Camille called you Logan.”
“But you know that’s not…”
I shake my head. “No. Truth is I don’t even know you anymore.”
I know without a doubt that I’m slowly losing him, and what hurts the most is he’s not even trying to save our relationship. It’s barely even three days and this is happening. I should never have followed my heart.
I climb out of the car and slam the door. As expected, he makes no attempt to come after me. Dejectedly, I storm off into the building.
CHAPTER SEVEN
The Feeling’s Mutual
I’m an empty shell, present in Trig class, but truly absent. Watching Mr. Smith solve pointless problems on the board is like watching a Chinese movie without subtitles.
His lips move as he explains the random figures he conjured, but I can’t hear past the chaos in my head. For all I know, Mr. Smith is a magician. Even in my best mood, I could never understand his teaching.
I look over to Alpha. Watching him brings me pangs of distress. I can’t get past the fact that I’m the devil behind his pain.
Paisley taps my arm. “Are you alright?”
I nod. Although she’s been my friend for years, I’m not one to speak of my problems so easily.
“Nice try,” Liam says. “Really, what’s wrong?”
“Headache.”
Class goes on forever, and not even once does Alpha turn to look at me. Although I try not to dwell on this, I can’t get past the fact my Alpha is sliding back into ‘stranger zone' and all I can do is watch.
After forever, the closing bell rings, and with it comes a lump in my throat. I would have to return home, where a psycho most likely awaits me. I flip out my cell phone, hoping to see a call from either of my parents. Finding nothing, I sigh. Do they have to leave their phones turned off during their stay there? I have never felt so helpless.
It seems I’m not the only one in a dilemma. Just like me, Alpha stays glued to his seat. Had he not heard the bell?
Thirty minutes rush past, and he remains motionless. Concluding he’s asleep, I walk over to him. But he’s wide awake, staring at the blank board. His oblivion to my presence makes me question my visibility.
“Hey,” I say.
The stern look on his face keeps me at arm’s length. A million thoughts weigh down my mind, but they’re too heavy for my lips.
Moments of silence tells me not to expect a response from Alpha. I try again. “How are you?”
He shrugs. There, the confirmation I needed. I am losing him.
“About how I acted earlier,” I say. “I shouldn’t have overreacted like that.”
Saying sorry always finds a way to make me feel worthless. But what can I do?
“You’re sorry?” he asks, still looking away. “What makes you think your apology changes anything?”
I’m taken aback by his thoughtless question. “What?”
“What I simply mean, Miss Howell, is that it’s a little too late to be sorry. It means nothing. Changes nothing.”
Sighing, he meets my gaze. “Look, this can’t work.”
His words resound in my head. I want to believe he’s kidding, but I know better. The Alpha before me is not the same one who smiled at me these past few days. This one is in a hurry to get rid of me, his supposed Beta.
“This supposed relationship is weighing me down,” he says.
I resist an urge to ask why. I know there’s more to this, but demanding an explanation would only paint me as a desperate teen girl, and that’s not the image I want for myself.
“The feeling is mutual, Mr. Jordan,” I say. “Or should I say Paxton?”
With a pathetic smile, I unclasp my necklace and hold it out to him. If he wants nothing to do with me, then I want nothing of his. Cautious to avoid any contact with me, he snatches the necklace by the dangling end. The same boy who spent a lifetime writing me love notes now avoids me like I were a plague. This brings a painful lump to my throat.
Without a word, he walks away, leaving me at the mercy of my shattering heart.
I stare endlessly at his now vacant seat. Feelings of regret weigh me down. I wish I’d asked why he didn’t want me anymore. Knowing why would not make me feel less worthless, but at least it’d bring my curiosity to nothing.
I was wrong to see Alpha as different from other guys. I should never have let him come close to me. When you let someone become the reason behind your smile, he breaks you beyond imaginable.
Disappointment overwhelms me, dulling out other emotions. I’ve never been such a fool. Seething, I strap on my backpack and storm out of the class.
Tears sting my eyes, but I hold them back, preserving the thin slice of dignity I have left. Choosing to be discrete about my relationship with Alpha is a decision I’ll always be proud of. At least, no third party knows of my shame.
I dismount the stairs and head for the road, but a prickling sensation on my skin tells me I’m being watched, and worse, followed. Alerted by my echoing footsteps, I whirl around and find an unfamiliar woman staring at me. Though her eyes hide behind dark glasses, I can tell she’s in her mid thirties.
A troubling thought overwhelms me. What if I’m standing right in front of the person who wants me dead? Although I doubt she’d dare attack me in public, I take a step back.
“I swear I’ll scream,” I say.
She smiles sternly. “That won’t be necessary.”
“Who are you and why are you after me?”
“I am Linda Hopkins.” She pauses for a second or two. “Your bodyguard.”
“Bodyguard?” I take a moment to process my new reality. It’s weird to have a female posing as my bodyguard. She doesn’t even look intimidating. “What happened to the macho men?”
“You are more comfortable with a man?” she asks.
To be honest, yes. I don’t feel she has what it takes to protect me. Then again, I could be wrong. But what do I care?
“Mr. Jordan seemed convinced you’d be more comfortable with a female,” she says.
“Wait. My dad didn’t hire you?”
She shakes her head. “Alpha Jordan did.”
“Then I do not need your services,” I say, walking away.
I don’t understand anything anymore. Alpha obviously doesn’t care, else he wouldn’t have broken up with me at a time like this. After avoiding me like a plague, he begrudgingly sends me a nasty female bodyguard and expects me to accept it? What mockery of me.
The bodyguard walks beside me, matching my pace. “If I understand correctly, your life is under threat, and…”
I glare at her. “I’d rather die than accept his help. Tell him to shove his help up his ass.”
“I don’t run such errands.”
“Then what are you good for?”I turn to leave, but she yanks my arm.
“I don’t know what relationship you have or had with Alpha Jordan,” she says. “But you must put away your foolishness and cooperate or I will have to make you. I’m here to do my job, so as long as your life is still under threat, you’re gonna have to put up with me.”
She gestures at a car behind us. “I’m taking you home.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
Died in a fire
It’s late at night and I should be sound asleep, but hours ago, sleep took a cowardly sprint and hasn’t returned ever since.
Thoughts of Alpha litter my mind. It’s impossible not to think of him, especially now that I’m forced to live with an impossible bodyguard. Although I hate to admit it
, Linda’s presence makes me feel safe.
Alpha’s personality is a puzzle I can’t unravel. He’d acted like he cared nothing about me, but then he’d sent a bodyguard to keep me safe. This only means he cares. Why then does he force himself to stay away from me? Is this about the secrets he keep?
I have a hunch the key to solving the mystery lies in his relationship with Camille Paxton. A crazy idea lights up my head. Welcoming it, I log into my Facebook and type ‘Camille Paxton' in the search box.
Several Camille Paxtons show up in the search results, but an eternity of visiting each profile and scrolling through photos in search of the Camille of interest proves fruitless. Giving up, I search for Logan Paxton instead.
Amongst the many Logan Paxtons, a profile picture catches my eye. I click on it and find Camille staring at me from the screen. Her eyes aren’t the haunted ones I saw in Alpha’s house, but are filled with innocence and a happiness that makes me slightly envious.
I scroll for more photos but Logan’s privacy settings restrict me. I’m about to give up when a mutual friend catches my eye. Liam. A spontaneous Plan B comes to mind.
I need you to do something for me, I text Liam.
It takes a moment for him to reply. Break the legs of the guy who broke your heart? Lol.
Liam is a jerk sometimes, but his accurate guesses always baffle me. A chat session ensues between us:
Me: You are mutual friends with Logan Paxton. Who is he?
Liam: Smh at your question.
Liam: Did you wash your pills before taking them?
Liam: I don’t know no Logan Paxton. I have 5k friends on here, you know. So I don’t know everyone. :-P
Liam: I don’t think you’d understand. You only have 112 friends. :-D :-D
Me: Can you stop being a jerk and help a friend out?
Liam: Hehehe
Liam: God, Beth, I swear you sound like a pregnant cow.
Me: I need you to dig up some information about Logan Paxton. And if you can, fetch me news about Camille Paxton too. Good night.
Once I hit the send button, sleep finds me.
***
It doesn’t take long for my ringing phone to awaken me. I grab my phone, hoping Alpha is calling to tell me that life without me is a nightmare.
I grimace at Liam’s name. But my grimace melts into a hopeful smile. Obviously, he has news.
I answer the call. “Liam.”
“I have some news that’ll blow your mind,” he says.
“Shoot.”
“Not so fast. First, tell me what this is about. I want to know why you had me snoop around people’s lives, Beth. When a girl turns into a detective, it’s mostly because she wants to know if there’s another woman in her love interest’s life.”
It’s no secret Liam has a crush on me. But he’s too scared to tell me. Had I not set my eyes on Alpha, I would definitely have given him a chance sometime. But with Alpha on my mind, not happening.
“Beth?” he asks.
“Alpha and I were an item,” I say.
“Were? Beth, you were in a relationship with him and you didn’t even tell me. Aren’t you a bag of secrets? Does Paisley know about this?”
“I don’t go around broadcasting a relationship till it’s stable,” I say. “If there’s nothing else you need to know, can you tell me what you found out about them?”
“Logan died two years ago,” he says.
I’m too stunned to react. I definitely never saw this coming. “Dead?”
“Yep,” he says. “Hey, if you’re into dead men, you should tell me so I can kill myself, you know.”
I fake a yawn. “What else did you find out?”
“He was twenty four years old, worked as a mechanic, died in a fire.”
I can’t help how frustrated I am right now. I thought knowing about Logan would unravel the mystery, but it only complicated matters. Why does Alpha let Camille call him the name of a dead man?
“Did you find out anything else?” I ask. “About his family?”
“He had a wife. Camille Paxton.”
CHAPTER NINE
I Love You
With Liam’s help, it’s easy connecting the dots. Devastated by her husband’s death, Camille Paxton had broken down mentally. She’d probably spent the past few months in a psychiatric home.
I don’t know how, but she sees her husband in Alpha. And in me she sees an enemy who seeks to take away her ‘husband’ a second time.
This explains why Alpha broke up with me. Camille had probably threatened him with my life.
These thoughts run through my mind as I alight Linda’s bike and advance to Alpha’s house. Linda catches up with me, but like a shadow she stays quiet.
I rap my fingers on the door. Barely a second later I’m about to knock again, but my ringing phone cuts me off. Tentatively I answer dad’s call.
“Bethany?” mum asks. “Oh my God. Are you alright? We just got your voicemail. We are already on our way to the airport. We informed the police. They’ll send a bodyguard over at once. Where are you? Are you alright, honey?”
“I died,” I say. “This is me speaking to you from the grave.”
They’ve been away for three days and not once did they try to contact me. I’m sure there’s one flimsy excuse or the other, but I don’t want to hear it. I’m certain mum’s phone fell in water. Maybe dad’s phone dived in to play hero.
“Bethany I know you’re mad at us,” dad says. “And you have every right to be…”
I tune out his voice as the door gives way, letting out a middle aged woman. I don’t need an introduction to know she’s Alpha’s mum. She looks between Linda and I. Her moist, puffy eyes tell me she’s been crying.
“Talk later, dad.” Ending the call, I smile at Mrs. Jordan. “Good morning.”
She doesn’t smile back. “Good morning. Who are you?”
“I’m Bethany, Alpha’s classmate.”
“Alpha is unable to see anyone right now.”
Something is wrong, but I can’t place a finger on it. “Why?”
Mrs. Jordan is just about to close the door when a painfully familiar voice cries out.
I gasp. “That’s Alpha! I need to see him. Please.”
Mrs. Jordan considers my request for a moment. She turns away, letting me into the house.
Although I’m relieved I don’t find Camille by the corner, glaring at me, the sickening feeling that something is wrong doesn’t go away.
My eyes roam the house as I follow Mrs. Jordan to the stairs. That’s when I see three bullet holes marring the wall.
“What happened?” I ask.
Playing deaf to my question, Mrs. Jordan mounts the stairs and disappears into a room I’m certain is Alpha’s. Curious as a cat, I step in after her.
A shirtless Alpha sits on his king-sized bed with his back to the door. A man sits opposite him, attending to something on Alpha’s torso. And beside the bed, Mrs. Jordan melts into the arms of someone I recognize to be Miller Jordan.
Grunting, Alpha grabs a fistful of his mattress. Although an urge to go around him and see the source of his pain steals me over, the fear of seeing him in pain roots me to the spot.
Another grunt from him forces me to face my fears. I go around him and find the man (obviously a doctor) tending to a gaping wound on his arm. Alpha squeezes his eyes and clenches his teeth in pain.
My eyes adjust to the bloody cotton sandwiched between his shoulder and the palm he rests on it. Unable to restrain myself, I burst into tears.
“Mum I’ve told you already, stop crying,” Alpha says. “These wounds are nothing I can’t recover from.”
He opens his eyes and freezes at the sight of me. “Beta?”
“What happened?” I ask. “When did this happen? Why didn’t you tell me you were hurt? Who did this?”
He holds out his hand toward me. Sniffling, I grasp it and let him pull me close.
“It doesn’t matter who did this,” he says. “Wha
t matters is no one will ever try to harm you again.”
More tears escape my eyes as I watch blood streak along his shoulder blade. “We need to take you to the hospital.”
“That won’t be necessary,” he says. “I’m already receiving treatment.”
I wince as I watch the doctor stitch Alpha’s skin like it were a piece of cloth. Alpha bites his lower lip in an obvious attempt to stifle a scream.
“I know Camille did this to you,” I say. “I know everything. Why didn’t you tell me about her?”
“She was going to hurt you if I told you about her mental illness,” he says. “I’d never forgive myself if anything happened to you. I don’t know how, but her eyes were everywhere. That’s why I had to stay away. I was going to explain everything once I returned her to the mental home. She’s receiving treatment now. Hopefully, she’ll be able to get over her husband’s death."
“I don’t care if she’s unwell,” Mrs. Jordan says. “She will have to pay for what she did to my son.”
Alpha sighs. “Mum, there is no need for that.”
“If you enjoy getting stabbed multiple times, that’s you. But I don’t enjoy seeing my son in pain.”
“Mum…” Alpha says, but Mrs. Jordan doesn’t give him a chance to speak. She storms out of sight, with her husband trailing after her.
“And I don’t enjoy seeing my Alpha in pain,” I say.
Done dressing Alpha’s wounds, the doctor turns away to arrange his tools in his first aid box. Alpha pulls me to his lap and wraps an arm around me.
“Pain is when an Alpha is forced to stay away from his Beta.” He plants a kiss on my lips.
“I love you,” I hear myself say.
He smiles wryly. “If it wasn’t too soon to use the L-word, I’d say I love you too, Beta.”
Alpha seriously knows how to make me smile like a fool. But hey, it’s not like I’m complaining. If being with him would turn me into a fool, then I’d happily be the queen of fools.
###
Thank you so much for checking out ‘Unknowing Alpha', the second and last book in the Alpha And Beta duology. A very huge thank you goes to fans of the first book who didn’t stop asking for the second book. This book wouldn’t have been possible without your helpful mails. The love shown to the first book was amazing. Thank you so much for blowing up my mailbox with quality feedback. You’re the best.
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