Mated to the Alpha and His Beta (Lanie Stanton) novel Chapter 76

Chapter 76
Xander
“Mother, what do we do?”
My voice was smaller than usual and choked with pain.
How could Alice be gone just like that?
This woman Zane and I had loved for so long?
This woman we once thought we’d be mated to for life.
Zane’s head dropped into his hands and his shoulders shook. Feeling his sadness was like experiencing
her death all over again.
My mother turned to the nurses and midwife.
My
“Please clean up and dress her for…” She cleared her throat before continuing. “For the mourning ritual.”
One of the nurses steered Zane toward the door.
No one wanted us to have to see this.
“You boys come with me,” my mother said, still holding the baby we’d called Lanie.
What was it about that name?
She motioned for the midwife to bring over the other baby, a boy this time.
The midwife gingerly placed the tiny pup in my
arms
“What should we call him?” Zane asked, finally looking up.
His eyes were red and full of pain, and I was sure mine were, too.
“You don’t need to think about that now,” my mother said sadly.
I nodded.
That was all I could do.
Hours later, Zane, my mother, and I were still waiting for my father to return.
The babies had finally fallen asleep after crying nearly constantly since birth.
But who could blame them?
Their mother was dead, and their real father was missing in action.
“Where the f uck is he?” I asked for the millionth time that night while I paced the great room. “He’s the
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“Don’t raise your voice, Xander,” my mother said Wearly. getting any rest.”
“Orlon,” Zane suddenly said, and my mother and I both spun around.
He stood in the doorway silently, an unbothered expression on his face.
“So nice of you to finally f ucking join us,” I spat as I stared him down.
“What happened here?” He c ocked his eyebrow as he strode into the room. “You all look like you’ve seen a
ghost.”
Anger rose like bile in my throat.
I rushed at him, planting my hands on his chest before he could react.
I shoved hard, and he stumbled back, his wolf flashing in his eyes as he recovered.
“What the f uck do you think you’re doing, Xander?”
My breathing was heavy.
Hunter was pawing inside me viciously, dying to be released, dying to attack the man who caused all this.
“Alice died tonight,” I growled.
My father’s face drained of color, and his whole body seemed to slump.
“No,” he said plainly. “That’s impossible.
Zane walked up next to me.
He could sense that I was about to blow again.
“She was asking for you the whole time she was in labor,” he said, his voice shaking
With anger.
He was losing it, too.
“The boys are telling the truth, Orion.” My mother’s voice was cold, and she wouldn’t even meet my
father’s eyes.
“What are you trying to say?!” His face twisted up with anger. “That it was my fault? Just because she was calling out for me?”
I shook my head.
He was really going to argue with me right now?
That self-righteous as shole.
If he wasn’t going to talk, then I would make him talk.
“Xander, don’t,” Zane warned, stepping in front of me.
As the Alpha, I could compel people to tell me the truth if I wanted them to, but I never used that power, especially not on my father, once an Alpha himself.
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“You can’t stop me.”
I pushed past Zane and looked my father dead in the eyes.
“Alice didn’t want me or Zane there with her, she wanted someone named Mason.”
My father’s eyes went glassy.
The compulsion was working.
“Are you gonna tell me who the f uck that is?”
His voice was distant and robotic.
“Xander…Mason is your brother.”
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