Hybrid Aria by Jessica Hall novel Chapter 24

Aria’s POV

Driving back to the Pack house, Reid didn’t say much. He seemed to be thinking about what I said. After about ten minutes, he finally spoke. “Do you know why I hate Hybrids?”

Shaking my head, I looked over at him. Reid was staring out the window. “No, I don’t know,” I said. Reid thought for a few moments before speaking again.

“I wasn’t an only child. I had an older brother: his name was Alexander. He was 4 years older than me, and he was meant to take over the Pack when my father died. He never got the chance, though. When I was fourteen, my father took me away on Pack business with him. My mother and older brother stayed behind. Alexander was meant to go, but I begged my father to take me instead. We were gone for three days when my father got called through the Pack link saying the Pack house was under attack. We shifted and ran all the way home. My father screamed in agony every time he felt a Pack members link break, but he didn’t stop running because he knew his Pack needed him. When we arrived at the Pack house…” Reid went quiet, trying to find the words to express what haunts him.

“When we reached the Pack house, Pack members bodies were strewn across the place. Men, women, even the children that didn’t have a chance to get to the bunkers. All ripped to pieces, their blood staining the soil where they lay. My brother was fighting for his life and the Packs, but we were outnumbered. My father screamed, clutching his chest. It was the most agonised scream I had ever heard. I felt like my chest was being crushed. I will never forget the feeling of my mother’s link breaking. My brother dropped to the ground feeling it too, feeling my father’s heartbreak through the Pack link. I ran towards my brother to help when a man put his hand through his chest, ripping his heart out right in front of me. I killed the man, ripping him limb from limb. The last image of my brother has haunted my dreams ever since...” Reid’s hand clenched into tight fists white-knuckled he continued.

“When my father managed to get to his feet, he became crazed at the loss of his mate, my mother. The loss of my brother was the last straw. He slaughtered every single one of them. We lost half the pack that day. My father wiped out the entire other Pack, every single person. He didn’t care if they were involved or not, he went after them anyway. They were a rival Pack, my father had a dispute with them a few weeks before. They waited for my father to leave so they could attack, and they enlisted the help of the Hybrids. I hate them for what they did, not just the fact that they killed my family but for what they did to my mother. The Hybrids ripped her to pieces. It took us hours to find her entire body.

“My father went on a rampage and killed every Hybrid in the city with my help. I promised him I would kill every Hybrid I came across, promised to keep the Pack safe. A few years after, when I was sixteen, my father took his own life. My father couldn’t handle the pain of losing his mate. I found him hanging from the ceiling in my office. Losing a mate will send a wolf crazy or make them bitter and angry. My father went crazy and killed himself, leaving the Pack to me. That’s why I hate Hybrids. It doesn’t matter if they weren’t involved. I have seen what they can do, I know the destruction they are capable of.”

I sat silently listening to everything he said, letting it sink in. He didn’t look at me or add anything else. Reid just sat there gazing out the window trapped in his memories. Reaching over, I grabbed his hand. Reid ripped his hand out of my grip, and a growl escaped his lips, making me flinch and pull my hand back. We had pulled up outside the Pack house. Opening the door, Reid walked inside, slamming the car door behind him, leaving me sitting in the car. I felt terrible not because he rejected me but because he had his own secrets, his own pain. A pain I couldn’t take from him. Feeling through the bond, I could feel how hard he struggles with himself being around me, but at the same time, I could feel how much he rejects those feelings, pushing them aside for me. I felt guilty. I know I didn’t kill his family, but that didn’t make me feel any less guilty knowing that my kind were the ones to cause his heartbreak and knowing I was also making him break the promise he made to his father.

After a few minutes lost in my own thoughts, Zane came over, opening the door. He waited for me to get out. “Let him calm down. He doesn’t mean to push you away.”

“I know,” I said, hopping out of the car. Zane looked at me, worriedly. “I’m fine, Zane. Reid is the one that needs you, not me.” Zane nodded his head, following his Alpha.

Walking into the Pack house, I find Lily, who is in the kitchen talking to Wendy excitedly about the upcoming celebrations. Looking at Lily, it made me think of what Reid said about losing a mate. How it sends a wolf crazy. Alpha David lost his mate, my mother. I could, for the first time, understand what he went through. I know if something were to happen to Reid, it would kill me. The mate bond was that strong, it would be like losing a piece of your soul. How was David able to live with it? I couldn’t forgive all the horrid things he had done, how he rejected Lily, but for the first time, I did understand it. He blamed her even though she didn’t deserve that blame.