I look at my peripheral, making sure Cara could feel my burning gaze. When she turned to look at me with an obvious sneer on her face, I gave her a smug smirk.

Ha! Get that!

She diverts her attention from me to Theo, who she turns to with the fakest smile on her face. I almost snorted at her act.

"Theo," she starts. "You know I'm not comfortable with other peo—"

With an emotionless face, Theo sighs and disrupts her, "Cut it. You need to stop relying on me, dear sister. It's been 4 years, Cara. Move on. Please. Let's start with spending time with others and not just me."

I grit my teeth together and purse my lips.

Cara's knockoff smile immediately drops and transforms into a frown. Then, her eyes travel to me once again with the most maddened gaze. I frown at her irritation.

"Fine," she says before following the oblivious, lovey dovey couple to their own ride. Before she does, though, she passes by me and nudges me. Hard. I didn't think twice before shoving her harder than she did.

She stumbles but doesn't fall to the ground like I desired.

What a fucking bitch.

We glare at each other for god knows how long before Theo lets out a resolute, "Behave."

Cara's head snaps to him. "But sh—."

I narrow my eyes at her but chose not to speak. Keep talking, you motherfucker.

"Stop making trouble," Theo says, tight-lipped. His eyes were filled with rage, but not too much that it scared me. "Go."

The brows on Cara's upset face furrow together as she makes her way to Scarlett and Emilio, who both sported a grim countenance. Finally, they were paying attention.

Theo releases a deep sigh one last time as he kept his eye on his sister. When she hesitantly entered the car, Theo finally turns to me, a reassuring smile entering his face.

"It's our turn to leave," he crouches to my eye level and nods his head to an executive black car (which I don't know what brand it is since I'm a rogue who never had the chance to own or even look at such things). I just knew it was shiny. And expensive. I unconsciously grin at the thought."Let's get moving."

I clear my head of Cara and squeak out an, "Okay!"

I follow Theo to the vehicle, ready to look at the scenery as he drove and fall asleep to the beautiful view of nature.

Why can't it be nighttime already?

I wanted to experience the nighttime rides witchcraft that teenagers speak of.

Theo pulls to a stop in front of me and opens the door to the passenger seat. What a gentleman.

"Thank you," I mutter.

"You're welcome," he says and enters the car, starting the drive.

He turns on the radio to play some music and turns the volume higher but not loud enough to burst my eardrums.

"I don't think your sister likes me," I blurt out then release a heavy sigh.

"Since when did anyone not hate you?"

I scoff and say, "Oh. Right."

He chuckles but soon, his expression morphs into one full of earnestness. His brows furrow as he processes his thoughts.

"Forgive her. She's—," he hesitates. With one hand on the wheel, he runs his other hand through his tousled hair. "She has suffered a lot. I know it isn't a justifiable reason, but she's broken and I don't wish to make her condition any worse than it already is. I guess it's a brother thing."

"Okay," I tell him, understanding. Not tolerating the silence that followed, I spoke, "You know, I actually have a brother."

Theo lifts a brow. "Really?"

I nod.

"What's his name?"

"Ian," I couldn't resist the smile that threatened to appear on my face as I thought of a memory. "He was a great brother, you know. Even though he made fun of me all the fricking time."

"Oh yeah?" Theo glances to me for a hot second and looks back to the road with a soft smile. "Did he make fun of your short height, too? Oh sorry. I meant 'fun sized.'"

"Actually," I scoff. "At the time, I was way way taller than him."

Theo hums before continuing. "At the time? Where is he now?"

I pause, contemplating. Where is he now? I couldn't help but feel the shame enter me. I didn't even know where my own brother is.

"I-I don't know, actually," I admit. I lean on the window and stare at the trees and the forest that lay in them. "Probably delighted? Content? Maybe he might even be leading a rogue pack since he couldn't help lead our old pack as Gamma."

A wave of melancholia immediately washes over me and I purse my lips together.

Theo nods and waits a long second before speaking again very slowly, as if I was fragile. "Alex?"

"Hm?"

"How did the two of you separate?"

My smile falters and drops into a grim one. Now this is a memory I wasn't fond of.

"When my old Alpha exiled my family, we were taken in by a rogue pack on one condition," I pause, glancing at Theo's pressed lips and tight grip on the steering wheel. He clearly knew what the condition was. "The condition was that one of us be used as a guinea pig of some sort—such as experiments every now and then. As you can see, since I'm sooo unique and perfect, they chose me. And then I guess one day I couldn't tolerate it anymore and I kind of abandoned them."

I place my arm on the window sill and lean on it, admiring the empty fields of grass and high mountains as they passed by.

"How—," Theo hesitates. "How did they treat you?"

I purse my lips together, thinking. "We led a pretty much normal life, actually. We had meals together frequently. We were all given responsibilities by the leader. My parents worked with the rest of the group while Ian and I were given training. I remember hating it so much I'd beg and cry not to go.

"The experiments weren't that bad either. The poison they gave us tasted like shit, but it didn't physically cause me pain. My childhood life was such a regular day-to-day routine, now that I think about it. It was pretty normal."

Or so I thought.

I close my eyes peacefully, feeling a hand reach for my thigh, the tingles appearing on my skin.

I furrow my brows and whisper as quietly as I could, hoping Theo doesn't hear me, "It was too normal."

Either he didn't hear me (which I favor more than the other) or he simply chose not to reply.

Still, Theo's hand on my thigh noticeably stiffens as I feel my consciousness slip. I ignore it—another thing I'm an expert in.

I snuggle into my arm, despising the absence of a pillow.

"I'm going to sleep," I murmur before darkness takes its toll.

___

I wake up to Theo nudging my shoulder and whispering, "Wake up."

I groan, the laziness hitting me harder than ever. I gather up all my energy simply to open the car door and lift myself off the leather seat.

Theo replicates me and leaves the car. I walk behind Theo and follow his steps to the pack house. He stops when he reaches a door and I do the same.

"I have work to do so I won't be able to send you to your room," Theo's lip curls into his lopsided smile that made me swoon. "Goodnight, Alexandria."

A yawn escapes my mouth as I nod and turn on my heels so I could take my rest on the best thing ever made: my bed.

"Goodnight, Theo," I reply with a groggy voice.

The only response was the sound of a door closing. Half awake, I bring myself to find my way to my room.

Before I could finally reach the love of my life, the same soft voice that's been bothering me for the longest time puts me to a stop.

"Alexandria," Cara's voice calls out to me. I turn to her, only to see indifference on her face.

"Yes, Cara?" I click my tongue mockingly and tilt my head. Suddenly, I wasn't so sleepy anymore.

She rolls her eyes and takes a step closer to me. I resist the urge to take a step back, not wanting skin-to-skin contact. Especially with her.

To my fortune, she stops only a step in front of me and leans into the side of my head so her mouth aligned to where my ears were.

"I know more about you than you know, Alexandria," she pulls away with the familiar fake ass smile on her face. "You're so unlucky even I feel bad. You're life is gonna turn into shittier than it already is."

I ignore the spiking of my heart and how my breath hitched when she first opened her mouth to speak. Get your shit together, Alexandria. I mentally scold myself.

"Oh yeah?" A smirk reaches my face. "'My life was the shittiest it's been the moment I met you. Therefore, your statement is completely false. Nothing else can turn my life into garbage except the moment I saw through your facade."

I return to finding my way to my room, feeling satisfied and refreshed after seeing the scowl on Cara's face.

"Go get some beauty sleep, Carmela!" I shout as I continue to make my out. "You really need it."