Adversity by Claire Farrell Page A

on?”
    He glared at me, unrecognisable
emotions filling his eyes. “He decided he wants no part of this
pack anymore.”
    I stared back, trying to translate.
“Wait. He’s… he’s gone to her. Is that it? He got around the
order?”
    When he didn’t disagree, I laughed.
“That’s great! He’ll be okay now.”
    He lurched to his feet, but I
gazed at him sullenly, determined not to cower before him ever
again. “Disobeying an alpha is not great ,” he said. “Betraying family is not great .”
    “ And yet that’s exactly what
you did.” I couldn’t stop the words. They popped out before I could
even think.
    “ I did what was needed for
our family to survive,” he shouted. I felt his power roll over me,
but somewhere inside me, there was something clamoring to get out.
I shuddered with the sensation, feeling a familiar twitching at my
fingertips. Not possible. I was not like Kali. But the words were
coming again, vomiting out of me without control.
    “ No!” I cried. “Not for us
to survive. You’re taking out your grief on everyone, and that
isn’t right! Just because you lost your heart doesn’t mean you have
a right to take Nathan’s from him. You can’t act like this and
expect everyone to sit down and obey.”
    “ You have no right, Amelia. No right to
speak to me this way.”
    “ And you have no right to
put Nathan’s mate in danger. She was attacked again! For what?
Because you have some warped idea of what should happen next?
You’re being ridiculous, and people are getting hurt. This has to
stop!”
    He flinched at the word “stop,” and a
crack of pain sliced through my temples. I left the room, eyes
streaming, and hid in the bathroom, struggling to breathe. He
knocked on the bathroom door gently, but I ignored it. I could
barely open my eyes from the pain and fear running through my
entire body.
    I was terrified. Terrified of him and
of what was happening to me and to everyone I loved. I couldn’t see
a way out or a way to fix any of the hopeless situations. He was
doing everything in his power to make it worse for all of us. I
couldn’t tell if he had lost his mind or if he had turned into an
exaggerated version of Byron, but whatever it was, I couldn’t cope
with it. I wanted my Opa back. He was the one who loved me and who
loved his family, not this cold man who brought out the worst in
me. I had wanted to strike him and to hit back at the stupidity of
his orders, but I was just a girl in his eyes. Nothing I did
mattered to him.
    I didn’t leave the bathroom until I
heard Nathan and Byron return, but that was only because I wanted
to know what was going on. I swallowed a couple of painkillers as I
entered the room where all of my family members had gathered. I
listened to the conversation.
    “ Perdita reckons the other
wolf protected her. The male,” Nathan said, almost
hesitantly.
    Other wolf? Other wolf? No freaking way.
    “ It wasn’t only her,” he
continued defensively. “Her cousin Joey was there, too. He said one
wolf was about to attack, but another got in the way and chased her
off.”
    I stopped listening. That didn’t make
sense, but Perdita wouldn’t lie. She had no reason to, so a wolf
had protected her, though it certainly wasn’t one from our family.
Opa had made it perfectly clear that we weren’t to help
her.
    All of a sudden, Nathan’s finger was
pointing at me. “What about your own granddaughter? Look at her!
She hasn’t slept properly in weeks because of those dreams. I had
dreams before I turned. What if hers mean something? Why hasn’t
anyone done something about that yet?”
    “ Dreams aren’t our priority
right now, boy,” Opa said. “I’ll think about worrying when it gets
closer to her birthday.”
    I wanted to leave the room. I didn’t
need to hear anymore. He didn’t give a crap about me. Why should I
care what he said or thought? But suddenly Byron and Nathan seemed
to stand together. They pushed Opa against his will, persuading