The Alpha Who Never Loved Me (Serena and Kieran) novel Chapter 162

Chapter 162

Kieran

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I woke up on the couch.

The light through the windows was too flat and too white for morning, and it took me a moment to place where I was. The coffee table sat in front of me with a glass on its side near the edge.

I slowly sat up and felt the instant pang of a headache.

The apartment was empty and still. I rubbed both hands over my face and held them there. The smell of alcohol came off my own shirt drifting into my nostrils.

I went to the bathroom, stood under the shower until the water went cold, got dressed, and found what was left of yesterday’s coffee.

My phone rang. It was Mark.

“The Alpha Summit is this weekend, sir,” he said. “I wanted to confirm it was still on your calendar.”

I groaned. The alpha summit was held every five years by different packs, it just so happened that it was time for Crimson Pack to hold the summit. There were so many things to worly

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about and this was not one of them.

“It’s confirmed,” I said. “Thank you.”

“Also,” he said, and paused. “Your grandfather has been asking after you since last night. The family would like you at the house today. He said this morning, if possible.”

I looked at the window, at the street below and the grey sky

above it.

“Tell him I’ll come later,” I said.

“Yes, sir.” Another pause. “Is there anything you need me to arrange before the summit?”

“I’ll handle the details at the house,” I said. “That’s all for now.”

I set the phone down and finished the coffee.

The drive to the hospital took twenty minutes. I kept the radio off and the windows down and let the morning come in.

Sophie was sitting up when I came through the hospital door, her mother in the chair at her side. The bruising along her jaw had deepened overnight, purple spreading from her cheekbone toward the corner of her eye. Her lower lip was still swollen at the split.

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Cora stilled in my chest.

“How are you feeling?” I asked.

“Better than yesterday,” she said. “The swelling is starting to come down.”

I sat in the chair across the room. Sophie’s mother looked at me once, then quietly gathered her things and left us the room.

“If your mother is here, where’s Ethan?” I asked.

Sophie’s brows pulled together and her mouth set. “He’s in school,” she said. “But there’s a problem, Kieran.”

“Tell me.”

She looked at her hands in her lap. “He got into a fight yesterday afternoon. With another boy.” She pressed her mouth together. “He hurt him. Badly enough that the school called and asked that a parent come in today.”

“And you can’t go.”

“I can’t go looking like this,” she said. “And my mother doesn’t have standing with the school. They don’t know her. They’d hear her differently.” She stopped. Then looked at me. “You enrolled him. Your name is in his file, your family name is on everything. Hou went in my place, they would listen.”

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I thought about Sophie in that bed. About Serena’s hand. About the thing I’d said to myself all the way over here: that this was the shape of the debt I owed them both, and I’d be paying it for a long time.

“I’ll go,” I said.

Her shoulders dropped. “Thank you,” she said. “Kieran. Genuinely.”

I nodded and stood up.

The school was thirty minutes east of the hospital. I sat in traffic for most of it, the mid-morning city grinding slow around me, and when I finally pulled into the car park it was past ten.

The receptionist walked me down to the principal’s office. I straightened my jacket outside the door and went in.

Two chairs faced the principal’s desk. One was empty. A man occupied the other. He sat with his arms across his chest and his eyes on the middle distance and he didn’t look up or shift when I walked in.

The principal rose from behind the desk.

“Thank you both for making time this morning,” she said, gesturing to the empty chair. “Please, sit down.” She waited 4/8

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until I’d settled, then took her own seat and folded her hands on

the desk.

“I’ve asked you both here because we need to address what happened between your boys yesterday. It wasn’t a small incident and I want to make sure we handle it in a way that’s right for both of them.” She looked between us. “Before we go further, I want to introduce the two of you formally.” She gestured toward the man beside me. “This is the father of the boy involved. Callum Halcyom.”

At that, Callum turned.

Callum Halcyom was Alpha of Healmsworth, one of the eight most powerful packs in the territory. He had lost his wife to childbirth years ago and after that, he never really found another mate. Instead, he raised his son alone.

“I was told Ethan’s parents would come in,” he said. His voice. was level. “I didn’t know his father was Kieran Thawthorne.”

I came here for Sophie, and if I corrected Callum now, he’d have no reason to stay in the room.

“I came to hear what needs to be addressed,” I said, “and to take responsibility for it.”

Callum held my gaze. Then he exhaled and his shoulders dropped by a fraction.

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“My son is on the spectrum,” he said. Each word came out placed. “He doesn’t read situations the same way.” He paused. “I didn’t send him to this school to be hurt or to hurt anyone. I sent him because I wanted him to learn how to be in the world.”

“I understand,” I said.

“Do you?” He looked at me.

do,” I said. “And it won’t happen again. I give you my word.”

He held that for a moment. “I’m willing to call this a fight between children,” he said. “But I won’t have it happen again.”

“It won’t,” I said. “You have my word.”

He looked at me one more second. Then he stood without ceremony and walked out.

I thanked the principal and left.

My grandfather sat in his chair when I arrived, walking stick across his knees. My father stood at the window. My mother and Jenna were at the far end of the room, standing close, their shoulders set.

My father spoke first. “With Serena away, who carries the social obligations at the summit? The lunches, the evening events, the

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wives’ engagements?”

I looked at my mother. Then at Jenna.

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