Bullied By My Alpha Stepbrother novel Chapter 53

Chapter 54

Hardin's POV

"You look like you could use some sleep." Alex said when I entered the boy's locker room to change for our evening practice and I merely grunted, too exhausted to answer.

My father had traveled out of the pack for a meeting that was going to last for one week and had automatically made me interim head, whether or not I was willing to accept the role.

I had almost been moved to ask him to make his Beta interim head instead but when he had spoken, I had known that this was a test. He wanted me to prove to him that I was capable of being a leader and a part of me wondered what would happen if I failed to keep things in order by the time he returned.

"Being Alpha looks like it sucks, bro." Sandro quipped and even though I agreed, I didn't answer. I was born to lead. There was never any doubt that I would one day come into power. And with the way the elders and my father were insistent on me finding a mate, I knew that I had to step up my game. It was now or never.

Heading to the field, I realized that I hadn't seen Jasmine in school. Did she not come to school today?

I had been so busy these past few days that I had hardly seen her. I was sure she would like that my bothersome ass had been too busy to look for her.

There was still the issue of finding who had tried to kidnap her and even though we had not heard any news yet, I knew that we were not in the clear. In fact, it felt like this was the calm before the storm. Because we still did not know the perpetrators. And we had to continue to live knowing that they were still out there, probably waiting for another opportunity to strike.

Sending a text to one of the pack guards to help me make sure that she was in the house, I pocketed my phone and reminded myself that I was not doing this because I cared for her, but because she was my father's stepdaughter and like everything else and everyone else that he had left under my care, she was mine to protect.

I ignored the voice that whispered that I was lying to myself about my motives and by the end of practice, I felt like I was hit by a truck.

Dragging myself to the house, I groaned when my phone pinged, a reminder that I was supposed to make a call to the neighbouring pack and wrap up the conversation that the Alpha was having with my father. Heading to the bathroom first, I walked into my father's study and sat in his chair, reaching for his business phone that I had dropped here before leaving for school this morning.

It was not lost on me that in a couple of years, I would no longer be running these errands for my father but it would be my full responsibility.

The call was brief and straight to the point and I sighed in relief as I closed the door to my father's office, about to head down the stairs to find something to eat when I heard cries down the hall.

That voice was unmistakably Jasmine's and before I could think about it, I was moving towards the sound and it led me into Camila's bedroom, the one that also doubled as an office for her books that she had separately from my father because she didn't like staying alone in their shared room.

When I entered the room, I paused at the door, the scene before me pulling at the heartstrings that I thought had died a long time ago.

Because Jasmine was weeping as she held her mother's hand.

Camilla was laying on the bed, her eyes closed and trembling. And as I walked into the room, Jasmine finally turned her attention towards me, her eyes red and swollen from probably crying her eyes out.

The pack doctor was attending to Camila and when he finally noticed me, he stopped briefly to bow in greeting before he continued.

"What is going on? Why didn't you call me?" I asked Jasmine and even though my voice didn't mean to be harsh, it came out like that but Jasmine was probably too tired to react to that.

"I sent you a message." She whispered and when I brought out my phone, I realized that she had indeed sent me a message.

Moving closer to the bed, I looked at the doctor.

"What is wrong with her?"

"Right now, we cannot say but I am trying to break her fever and then we will take her to the clinic to run some tests." He answered and I was about to ask how long it was going to take for that to happen when my eyes landed on something that made me freeze.