Forbidden Temptation My Mafia Fiance's Alpha Father (Brooklyn and Aden) novel Chapter 21

Chapter 21
Brooklyn

“I have to marry someone, Brooklyn,” he says with a shrug, his voice laced with defeat. “This is not a world where what I want matters. And with you? Well, at least I know we get along, like the same things.”

I huff out a laugh at this.

“I mean, you were really upset when we broke up!” Hudson continues, trying to be upbeat. “And I really am sorry about what happened in the coffee shop. But isn’t it kind of weird that we found each other out there on our own anyway, and we were engaged the whole time? It’s kind of like…fate.”

“It’s not fate, Hudson. It’s fake,” I say, looking at him with all of my pain on display. I can’t help it—he was my first love, and he totally betrayed me, and now here he is asking me to jump right back in?

“I don’t want a mate who is unfaithful to me,” I say, spreading my hands out in emphasis. I lower my voice to a hiss. “And I don’t want a husband who is into men, considering I’m a girl. Do you really want us to be in a fake mating for the rest of our lives? Just because it’s what your dad wants?”

“Please, Brooklyn,” Hudson says, his eyes skittering for the door. “I get that you’re upset—”

I nod fervently at this.

“But seriously, that’s not something we can talk about there. Please.” He turns worried eyes to me, and I’m surprised to see true fear in his face. “You’ve got to promise to keep it a secret.”

“Hudson…” My heart goes out to him. “Why is it such a big deal? It’s the twenty-first century—it’s so backwards to think that way about sexual orientation —”

“You don’t understand,” he says, shaking his head and looking down at the floor. “It’s a different world here. That’s why I spend so much time outside of it, at school, in bookstores and coffee shops.

“This world, this family…all their values are 100 years old, maybe more. And tradition is everything; family is everything. If I don’t get married, don’t have kids to carry on the family line…not only will they consider me a failure, but it will cause massive chaos in the city as the other bosses try to grab what my dad has built. What I will inherit, whether I want to or not.”

I study Hudson’s perfect face, feeling for him. He’s trapped, and he knows it.

God, am I trapped now, too?

“Do you know what they do to people like me?” Hudson turns to look at me, agonized.

I shake my head “no,” not even wanting to imagine it.

“My mom did it,” I say quietly, realizing it myself for perhaps the first time. “She ran from my father, stayed away. And look at what a powerful Alpha he is. If she could escape his pack…”

“Yeah,” Hudson says, looking me in the eye. “And even after she died, the world came and found you, her daughter, and pulled you back in even when it couldn’t take her. Don’t you get it? Even if you got away, got married, had kids, had the life you wanted—my dad? Your dad? They would find your kids and pull them in. There’s no getting out.”

My stomach drops like a stone when I realize that he’s right. Even if my mother did get out—here I was, right back in it.

But still. I couldn’t just give in. Maybe Hudson has been more beat down than me—or maybe just more realistic—but this isn’t the life I want. I have to try. And in order to try, maybe this means I have to go deeper into this world. Study it. Figure out what makes it tick.

And then, when I find a loophole. I’ll run.

Lena gives an approving growl.

“Well,” I say, taking Hudson’s hands again and giving them a squeeze. “You may have given in, but I’m not sure I have yet. All I ask is that when the time comes, you don’t stop me from leaving.”

He looks at me, sadness etched on his face, and says nothing.