My Alpha Brother’s Regret Was Too Late Chapter 01

My Alpha Brother’s Regret Was Too Late Chapter 01

The day I got out of prison, my Alpha brother’s adopted sister hosted a “welcome home” livestream for me.

The camera was practically shoved into my face. “This is my sister,” she announced. “Even after being raped by thirteen rogues, she’s still strong enough to keep living.”

The comments section exploded.

My brother’s brows knitted slightly, but Mira only giggled and stuck out her tongue.

This time, I didn’t fall apart the way I did three years ago. I smiled at the camera and said, “A woman’s body is never the weakness. They’re the ones who deserve to die, not me.”

After we got home, I didn’t stop my brother from having Mira visit our parents’ graves on the anniversary of their deaths in my place.

I didn’t care when he gave Mira my bedroom and shoved me into the storage room, either.

Even when Mira shoved me into the water again and my brother only pulled her out even though she could swim, I still walked home alone after a stranger dragged me to safety.

My brother looked at me with a complicated expression. “Tessa, you did three years. You finally learned to behave.”

I laughed softly. I’d only accepted reality, and I didn’t expect anything from him anymore.

I trailed a step behind the two of them.

“Oh, sis,” Mira said, still clinging to my brother’s arm as she twisted around to look at me, eyes bright with fake curiosity. “What did it feel like to be gang-raped by thirteen rogues?”

I froze.

Before I could even react, my brother tapped her forehead indulgently. “That kind of filthy thing isn’t for you to hear.”

Then he looked at me, his tone flat. “Mira’s spoiled because I dote on her. She doesn’t mean harm, so don’t take it personally.”

Mira’s lips curved as she watched me. She was waiting, waiting for me to explode the way I used to.

But I only stood there, my voice calm. “An orphan nobody bothered to raise right is bound to talk like that. Why would I care?”

For years, no one had dared to bring that up in front of Mira.

The corner of her mouth stiffened for half a second before she forced her smile back into place. “Yeah,” she said lightly, “he feels sorry for me just like you do, so he even gave me the Shadowrune Pack’s heirloom ring.”

It had been my mother’s, a keepsake she left behind. Back then, I’d fought Mira again and again over that ring.

Now I only glanced at it. “If you like it, keep it.”

I paused, then added, “Besides, I’ve never liked things other people have already touched.”

After our parents died, I couldn’t stand the thought of leaving my brother alone, so I chose to keep living and stay by his side.

Now that I was going to be gone soon, I couldn’t take any of it with me anyway, so he could give it to whoever he wanted.

Mira didn’t get the reaction she wanted, and the smile vanished from her face.

My brother looked stunned too, irritation flashing across his expression. “Tessa, you nearly pulled a knife on me over this stuff back then. How can you say you don’t want it now? If you’re upset, say it. Why are you being sarcastic?”

I lifted my hands in a small shrug, my tone so even it was almost dismissive. “I really don’t care. What do you want me to say?”

“Fine,” he said, meeting my eyes. “Then give it back to me. Can you?”

My brother choked on his own words, his face darkening.

“This isn’t how you’re supposed to react,” he muttered.

I tugged at the corner of my mouth. It seemed his memory of me was still stuck three years ago.

Back then, to get our parents’ keepsakes back, I slapped Mira across the face for the first time.

What I got in return was the Shadowrune Pack princess being held in the busiest stretch of downtown by her own Alpha brother and forced to take a hundred slaps across the face in front of everyone.

My lips split open that day, and the pain and humiliation nearly drowned me.

“As if she doesn’t care,” a voice said. “She just got out after three years, and she’s putting on an act to win sympathy for now.”

I hadn’t heard that voice in three years.

Hearing it again felt unreal, like a life I’d already lived.

When I turned, my former betrothed, Elias Hawke, was standing in the doorway with both hands in his pockets.

“Don’t flatter yourself,” he said with a lazy smile. “We grew up together. You’re not fit to seal a mate bond with me anymore, but I still had to come take a look at you.”

He chuckled, looking down at me like I was something beneath his feet. “Still, if you behave yourself and treat Mira right, I could even lower myself.”

“After all, it’d just be keeping a side piece, that’s all,” he went on. “From now on, you’ll call Mira ‘Luna.’”

Mira watched like she was enjoying a show.

Everyone knew I’d loved Elias, that I’d decided he was my fated mate the moment I saw him, and that my entire back was covered in a tattoo I got for him.

Now I looked at the glaring red mark on his neck and said, word by word, “But you’re filthy.”