The Four Beta Brothers
Chapter 61

JUNIPER

Luna Miller clicked her tongue and looked away. "Moira, I am not going to argue with the validity of your choices right now. Just go get changed before we go get lunch." "I like what I'm wearing," Moira said, straightening her shoulders just a little.

"Do what your mother says," Alpha Miller said. "Do you have to argue against everything?"

"Yes, sir," Moira said, shrinking again. She started heading to her room again, but she paused when her mother spoke again.

"Now, Juniper, darling. Won't you join us for lunch?" Luna Miller said, turning to me with a bright smile.

Moira made eye contact with me, and I felt her pushing against the link I had blocked with her. I let her in, even though I didn't owe her anything.

Please don't agree to go to lunch. Please.

Moira had never begged for anything from me before, and it felt like I had walked into a parallel universe.

I looked back at Luna Miller, ignoring Moira's link. "I'm sorry. I actually have lunch plans already. I'll have to give a rain check."

"You don't have plans with a boy now, do you?" Luna Miller chirped.

I couldn't hide the blush from creeping into my cheeks. "It's nothing." The last thing I wanted to do was talk about my relationship with the Burrell's to Moira's parents. "Oh, it is a boy!" Luna Miller clapped her hands together. "Tell me, who is it?"

"Honey, we shouldn't pry into Juniper's love life," Alpha Miller said, placing his hand on his wife's shoulder.

She jutted out her lower lip. "But I never thought I'd see the day someone would fall for little Juniper. It's exciting."

My chest tightened, feeling the insult behind her words, even though she sounded happy and excited. I stared at the woman in front of me, wondering if she had always talked like this, underhandedly insulting me while acting excited. I had been desperate for their approval over the years, thinking if they could see me as more than my bloodline, then I could be more in this life. Was I so desperate that I completely missed the underhanded way they talked to me? The way they belittled Moira?

"Come on, darling. Don't leave me hanging. Tell me who you're having lunch with," Luna Miller pushed. She was still smiling, but there was something sinister in the way she looked at me, as if she knew she had power over me. "Axel Burrell," I said, unsure of why I had listened to her. Who I spent my time with was none of her business.

"Burrell?" Alpha Miller repeated. His eyes were as wide as his wife's, hungry with the first sniff of power.

Luna Miller turned to Moira, who was still standing in the hallway, watching us closely. "Did you know about this?" Her voice had an edge to it, as if implying Moira had done something wrong by holding this information hostage.

"Well, I knew she was spending time with Asher Burrell. I didn't realize she had moved onto Axel." Moira's jaw was hardset as she glared at me. She was trying to redirect the attention to me by implying I slept around, but it didn't work in her favor. "Are you also friends with the Burrell's?" Luna Miller asked, staring down her daughter. "I'm surprised you didn't tell us about this."

"I'm not," Moira said.

"Perhaps Juniper would be kind enough to introduce you to them. Having the Burrell family as friends would be good for your future," Luna Miller continued on.

I could feel her hunger for power and manipulation tactics blooming in the air. My stomach twisted, hating each word that came out of her mouth. She didn't even care about what kind of people the Burrell's were. She just wanted to get her claws into their power. "I don't need Juniper's help to secure my power," Moira spat. Her nose scrunched, and her anger started to burn.

"Clearly you do with the choices you keep making," Alpha Miller said.

"We can discuss this more over lunch. Moira, go change now. Juniper, why do you invite Axel to join us?" Luna Miller said, her voice turning to sweet poison.

Moira huffed and stormed into her room, slamming her door behind her. I stared after her, and I felt sorry for her. I never thought I'd feel sorry for her after everything she had done, but after seeing the truth behind her parents, I couldn't help it.

At least my parents loved me, even if our time was short. At least no one expected anything out of me, so there was no one to disappoint.

Luna Miller let out a long, dramatic sigh. "Why can't she be better behaved like you?" She shook her head and then added, "So will you ask Axel to join us for lunch? I would love to learn more about the boy who caught your heart."

You would love to learn more about the second most powerful werewolf family, I thought. She had no interest in my love life other than what it would gain her.

"I'm going to check on Moira," I said, ignoring her question. I would never ask Axel to join the Millers for lunch, even if he wasn't recovering from a gunshot.

I went to Moira's room, and I entered without bothering to knock. She was throwing clothes out of her closet, screeching under her breath. When I shut the door behind me, Moira finally noticed me.

She threw a dress on the floor and glared at me. "What are you doing in here?"

"I came to check on you." There was no reason for me to check on her. I should've just walked out the front door, telling her parents everything she had done to me, and never spoken to her family again. "Don't you mean augh at me?"

"No. I have no reason to laugh at you for what I just witnessed."

Moira sank onto her bed, her anger fading. "You should. Especially after everything I've done to you. Why did you cover for me? Are you planning on using it to get revenge later?"

"Did you ever care about me as a friend?" I asked, looking at the girl I grew up next to, playing with dolls and staying up late watching movies. I didn't see the ruthless cheerleader, determined to destroy me. I didn't see the girl who did whatever she could to elevate her status in this school so everyone would look up to her.

The girl in front of me was none of that. She was just a girl who could never live up to her parents' expectations, no matter how hard she tried. She grew up being compared to the little beta orphan who had no destiny yet managed to outshine her in her parents' eyes every step of the way.

"I only felt sorry for you," Moira said, venom seeping past her lips. "How could I care about someone so pathetically alone?"

I thought her words would ache, but I had already accepted that there was a chance she was never my friend. I already mourned our friendship.

"I cared about you," I said simply. "You were the closest thing to family I had, and for the longest time I wished I could be more like you. I wanted your life, but knowing I could never have it, I settled for being your friend. I even loved you like a sister. Maybe that's why I have no intention of telling your parents everything you've done to me." Moira knitted her eyebrows, as if she couldn't believe someone wouldn't take revenge on her.

"Maybe I should want to get back at you. You tried destroying my life, but it's hard to be angry about that when I found people who actually care about me. Or maybe it's because I still remember the love I once felt towards you. Maybe it's because I feel sorry for you, but I don't plan on making your life more miserable than it already is."

"That's stupid," Moira muttered, clinging onto strands of anger. "I would've used this situation against you."

"Guess that's the difference between you and me."

We were no longer the two girls who stayed up late, talking to each other while pretending we were having a slumber party. Those girls hadn't existed in a long time.

"Clearly, one of us is the smarter one," Moira commented. It was as if she was trying to get a rise out of me.

I couldn't help but roll my eyes at her. "Just remember, I can walk out of this room and tell your parents every little thing you've been doing to me. I don't plan on it, but if you don't stop trying to ruin my life, I will sink to your level." Moira laughed, and her eyes brightened. "I'm impressed. I didn't think you had it in you to blackmail someone."

"I learned from the best," I said, with a blank face. This wasn't fun for me. I didn't want to threaten to tell Moira's parents, but I saw this as an opportunity to actually get her to stop going after me. I just wanted to go our separate ways moving forward. "For the record, I'm sorry your parents compare you to me all of the time. I don't know why I never realized they did that or how much it affected you. You were my friend. I should've realized it."

"You had enough problems of your own," she said. There was no blame or anger left in her voice.

"I still wish you would've talked to me about it."

"It wouldn't have stopped my parents. There was no point." She sounded defeated and empty, as if she knew she could never live up to the standards her parents had laid out for her.

"Maybe it would've saved our friendship, though." Even though Moira had said she never cared about me as a friend, it was still hard to believe. Even if she hadn't seen me that way in a long time, there were memories she couldn't take away. "Maybe," she said, not denying the friendship part this time. "Doesn't matter now, though."

"No, it doesn't." After everything that had happened between us, the chance to rekindle the friendship was long gone.

Moira stood up, going back to her closet. She no longer seemed as angry as she was when I first came in. "You're not actually planning on accepting the lunch invitation, are you?"

I huffed. "Definitely not. I don't have any interest in spending more time with your parents than I have to."

"Lucky you."

I opened her door, but I paused, looking at Moira for a moment. "Hey, Moira." She looked at me, waiting for me to continue. "Your parents don't define who you are. Just because you're not who they wanted, it doesn't make you less important, so don't sink to their levels."

She stared at me in stunned silence, and I left before she had a chance to say something in return.