I do not raise my head but can feel the cold stare of my father.
We make it through the dessert course of the meal with no issues.
My father looks at me. “Excuse me, I need to make a quick phone call.” He smiles at me briefly and leaves the table. He takes out his cell phone and walks into another room.
Selena fixes her red dress and looks at me. The love in her eyes is even more evident.
“Holy shit! This is actually going well,” she says, unable to control her enthusiasm.
I laugh. “I knew my father would like you.”
“Arthur Cain! I still can’t believe I’m in your house. We’ve been seeing each other for months now, but I never thought I’d actually meet—” I shush her a bit. She kisses me softly on the lips, then brushes her mouth against my ear. “So, you know, I’m not wearing any panties right now.”
The thought makes me smile. Maybe I can fall in love with a girl like Selena Jensen after all.
I glance at my family portrait, then quickly away from what feels like my mother’s judgement.
I kiss Selena again when my father walks back into the room.
Selena almost jumps up when my father stands behind us.
“Sorry, where is the lady’s room?” Selena asks politely.
My father looks at Marta, who walks up to us and asks Selena to follow her. When they leave, I stand up and face my father.
“So,” I say with a blank face, “what do you think?”
My father looks at me with a smirk. “You really care for her, don’t you?”
“Yeah, I guess.”
My father shakes his head. “You wouldn’t bring any floozy to this house, I know that much. She is completely head over heels for you though. She’s easy on the eyes, son.” I thank him for his comment but do not know why. “You know I met your mother when I was in my senior year.” I nod my head. “So, you and Selena, do you see something in the future with her?”
Hard question. It has only been a few months that I have been seeing her. I know the answer my father wants, so I do not disappoint. “Yeah, I guess.”
“You would be pretty dumb, son, if you didn’t.” I nod my head again. “I’m proud of you,” he says to me, placing a hand on my shoulder. Words I do not think I have ever heard him mutter to me. My father smiles at me, and for a change, I smile back.
I had my doubts about how tonight would go. What if my father hated Selena? What if he had some grudge against her family that I did not know about? What if he saw her nasty side like I did sometimes?
All my doubts melted when he said those words.
I turn my head to the sound of Selena’s heels walking down the hall towards the dining area.
My father squeezes my shoulder. “I want you to dump her here, tonight, in front of me.” I look at him strangely, thinking I must have misheard. “This is your entry fee. You know who I am and what I am a part of. Generations of Cain’s have been members of The Beasts. Now it’s your turn, son.”
The so-called secret society, The Beasts, is not very mysterious in my house. I know all about it, and its history. Most of the influential men in town are a member, and all of them groom their sons to be part of it. My father had warned me that someday he would make me take the entry test. It is a request from a ranking member of The Beasts that a potential member would have to follow, no questions asked. You had to show that you could take orders, no matter how much they hurt.
Selena enters the room again. Her red dress leaves nothing to the imagination on how tight her body is underneath. Her beauty is evident as much as the love she has for me in her eyes.
I look at my father again. He smiles at me and nods his head. “You will thank me some day, son. You will see.”
Selena walks up beside me, grabbing my hand in a full embrace. She looks at me with a wide smile. I stare coldly at her in return. Her smile slowly lessens to a look of concern.
I know what my father wants from me, and I will not disappoint him.
Chapter 1
Lance
“Do you know what I had to do to arrange for her to be on our property?” my father says to me with stern eyes. “Do you think that was easy? Do you know the strings I pulled? Do you know what it took to even get you to be one of the Chosen to run for Alpha?” My usually calm and collected father shows strain in his face for a change. I think I am the only one who can get him to act like this. He puts his arms on the coffee table in front of him and relaxes his face. “Don’t disappoint me, son.”
Right now, I want to tell him to just fuck right off. He is trying to manipulate me. It won’t work. Not with this. Instead of caving to his demands or bursting into rage, I take a cigarette out of the pack. I put it to my lips, but before I can light it, my father rips it from my mouth and crunches it in his palm. “You don’t smoke inside my home. We talked about this, didn’t we? We talked about a lot of things.”
“I’m not going to do it,” I say calmly. “I’m going to do what you want me to.”
I think I am the only person who can tell Arthur Cain no without some type of
