Chapter 186: Manipulator
Astrid's POV
Alpha Theron slammed his fist on the table in anger after Asha raised her heavy accusation against her father.
My muscles turned tense, and I lowered my head as the tension hung thick in the air.
The anger radiating off from Alpha Theron felt heavy and suffocating as it filled the entire room.
"Asha, know your place," Alpha Theron muttered coldly, his voice laced with threat.
Still, Asha did not back down. Her sharp gaze didn't leave her father as she pinned him down.
"Asha, let's calm down," Andros discreetly whispered to his sister before things could escalate even further.
He reached for his sister's hand to pull her down. However, Asha shook his hand away and glared at him. "Brother, are you just going to sit here in silence as that woman takes everything away from us?!" Asha spoke to her brother, hoping that he would take her side. "Asha, Astrid is our sister. We might not come from the same mother, but she is still a part of this family and she shares the same rights as us in the Pack," Andros tried to reason with his sister, but Asha was too overwhelmed by her anger to even think properly. I shifted uncomfortably on my seat with my head lowered as I felt Asha's burning gaze bore through me.
"The world needs to know the truth and Asha deserves to be recognized as a part of our family, whether you could accept that or not," Alpha Theron interjected, stealing everyone's attention.
The whole room was met with silence after he dropped the words. As the Alpha and the head of the family, his words are the rules.
"Astrid." I looked up when Alpha Theron suddenly called my name.
"Yes?" I muttered in almost a whisper when Alpha Theron stared straight into my gaze without saying a word.
"Do you agree with my words? Is this all right with you?" Alpha Theron respectfully asked with hopefulness in his face as he stared straight through me.
My eyes widened slightly, and my mouth went dry after his words registered in my mind.
He is asking me for permission if he could finally publicize the fact that I am his daughter.
I swallowed hard without turning my gaze away from him. I've made him promise before that no one should know that he's my father. Throughout the years that I've been staying here in the Pack, I've always shown him how much I don't want to have any connections to him or to his Pack.
I had told Drystan many times that I would go back to Nightsong Pack no matter what. Drystan had waited for me for three years, and I finally have the choice to live in his Packnow
that Beta Alek is back, but
"Yes," I answered without even thinking much of it.
Alpha Theron's eyes widened when he heard my words, but he didn't say anything. He must not have been expecting that I would say yes so easily.
Asha's head snapped towards me when she heard my small, steady answer. "You bitch," she cursed in a low voice as she looked at me in disbelief.
"I knew it... I knew it!" Asha raised her voice as she pointed at me angrily. "All of it was just an act, you've been planning to stay here all along!"
I couldn't look at Asha as she said those words. Of course, it wasn't an act. Until now, I still don't want to have any relations with Alpha Theron or with his Pack.
I did not want to be recognized as his daughter when I couldn't even accept him as my father.
Asha slowly clapped her hands as
she looked at me with ridicule in ber eyes. "What a great act! You made everyone believe that you are just a simple person who doesn't want anything more in her life."Published by Nôv'elD/rama.Org.
I clenched my jaw as I remained silent in my seat, unable to explain myself. Would she even believe if I told her that I wasn't putting up an act, that I had never changed my mind? "Asha one more insult out of your mouth and you'd be punished according to our Pack's rules," Alpha Theron reprimanded his daughter as he pinned her down with a sharp gaze.
Asha scoffed as she turned her gaze to Alpha Theron with a betrayed look on her face. "Can't you see?!" Asha yelled at her father. "She's trying to manipulate all of us!" "Asha, please sit down," Andros whispered to his sister once again, hoping that she would listen to him this time.
"Even you brother?!" Asha questioned him with her eyes wide open. "You also believe her more than me?" "Asha, she's our sister," Andros reminded her again with his brows furrowed together.
Asha couldn't take it anymore; she took a few steps back and looked at her father and her brother with a bewildered look on her face. She couldn't believe that all of them would take my side.
"Someday, you will realize that I was right all along. When that time comes, you will eat back everything that you said!" Asha spoke one last time before storming out of the room. "Asha! Asha!" Alpha Theron called out his daughter's name to stop her from leaving, but Asha never even looked back.
Andros stood up to defend his sister before Alpha Theron could call out punishment on his daughter for being so disrespectful.