REED
The message came through while I was sitting in my room staring at nothing.
Callum: Annual gathering next week. Your father expects you there. No exceptions.
I stared at my phone, my stomach dropping.
The Shadow Born Annual Gathering. The one event I'd successfully avoided for the past two years by claiming Academy commitments. The one place I never wanted to go because it meant facing him.
Alpha Thorne. My father.
The man who'd spent my entire life telling me I was weak, that feelings made you vulnerable and that to be Alpha, you had to be stronger than everyone else.
You had to be harder, colder and derived of all emotion.
A beast, not a man.
I hated it,I hated that version of leadership and I hated the idea of ruling through fear and dominance alone but more than that, I hated that some part of me believed him, that maybe he was right, that maybe feelings were weakness and that maybe caring about someone—caring about Asher—made me unfit to lead.
