Ditched Cheating Alpha, I Led My Daughter to Life's Peak novel Chapter 339

I excuse myself, both from the room Axel's wide awake in and the office Aiden's pacing in. I just need to be alone right now, and I don't see a reason not to be. My presence isn't improving anyone's life.

I head downstairs and sit on the couch. I have my phone this time. I could message Michael. I could go to the room I'm supposed to be sharing with Suzie. I could reach out to Bri and Krys.

I rest my head in my hands. My palms are shaking.

"Not as easy as you thought, huh?" Coach Kenet asks from the shadows in the kitchen.

I don't even jump. I don't even look towards her. "When did I ever think any of this would be easy?" I ask through clenched teeth.

"The way I see it is," she starts. "If you knew how hard being in this pack would be, you wouldn't've stopped in this town at all. You would've found some way to convince your parents to just keep driving."

"You don't know how human parents work, then," I mutter. I could barely get my dad to use GPS instead of the crappy physical map we got at the corner store. Getting him to turn around? To keep driving?

"Probably a lot like werewolves," she says. "They probably want the best for their kids. They probably get it wrong a lot of the times." She finally walks into my line of vision, sitting on the far end of the couch from me.

"Are you thinking of yourself?" I ask.

She shakes her head. I see bags under her eyes that weren't there before. "I was thinking of the alpha-" She waves herself off. "The former alpha."

I know who she means, the brothers' dad.

"He was so much like Carson, you know? Spitting image." She puts her arm over the back of the couch, staring off into space. "He's why Aiden is like this at night. He was such a great dad, but when he lost the luna-former luna." She glances at me. "You must've wondered at some point, right? Or does Aiden magically sleep well with you?"

I meet her eyes. I don't say yes or no.

She rolls her shoulders. "After their father started... losing himself, it was Aiden who stayed with him in the end. The other two couldn't take it. I couldn't either. It was a relief when he passed. A relief," she scoffs as if she can't believe what she's saying but is saying it all the same. "When Aiden came back after, he wasn't the same for a while. No one can mess someone up like a parent."

"It's ironic hearing this from you," I say. I can't help it.

"Oh?" She pauses. "Why's that?"

I honestly have no more patience for anyone lying to themselves. "The way you treat Ethel."

"How exactly do I-"

"You're so hard on him all the time. Okay, he's not in the labor and defense division. But that doesn't mean you have to see Carson as more of a son than him, or let him think that."