Chapter 104
+25 Points
I stood in the bedroom and the towel I’d grabbed minutes earlier already feeling heavy in my hand. My shirt and trousers were damp from the steam in the small bathroom, but the cold running through my veins had nothing to do with water.
I listened to the strangled hiccups that grew into soft, painful sobs. She was still in the main bathroom, the one I had just left.
My wolf, let out a deep, internal howl of pure agony. It felt like a knife twisting below my ribs. I wanted to smash down the door, pull her into my arm tell her I loved her and that I would fix everything
But I couldn’t.
My wolf and I bled together inside, tethered to the pain we were causing her. But I knew better than to go in there. She didn’t want my comfort. She wanted me gone, or maybe she just wanted everything to go back the way it was before I broke her trust yet again but I couldn’t
return to until I found the truth.
I changed my wet clothes quickly. Every second I listened to her cry cost me a piece of my soul, but I had a mission.
I leaned back against the wall next to the bathroom door and whispered, low enough even a
wolf couldn’t hear.
“I wish I could tell you, Faith. I wish I could tell you everything.”
The truth, the real truth about what I was doing and why I had pushed her away was too dangerous to share right now. I had to focus. I had to make sure I found out what Alice did and how especially why. And then, maybe, we could start picking up the broken pieces.
With one last, desperate look at the closed door, I walked away, feeling like a coward.
Marco was already at the table, a small mountain of mashed potatoes threatening to collapse off his fork. He hadn’t even waited for us. Good. I needed his joy right now.
“Daddy! Where were you? I was starving!” Marco’s voice was muffled around a mouthful of food. He looked utterly satisfied.
I cannot explain the amount of joy I feel when he calls me that.
I managed a real smile, pushing the raw pain from the hallway far into a corner. “Sorry, buddy. You couldn’t wait for your slow parents, huh?”
1/4
<Chapter 104
“Nope!” He grinned, eyes shining.
+25 Points
I walked over to him, leaning down to kiss his messy forehead. My wolf purred faintly, grateful for this one simple, undamaged connection. “Good on you. Eat up.”
I sat down just as Faith entered the room. She was wearing a perfectly normal face now, the tears gone, replaced by a slight redness around her eyes and a perfect mask of control. She sat across from me. We didn’t look at each other. We didn’t speak.
For Marco, we both put up the necessary smiles. We talked about the silly thing his friend did at the pack orphanage, about anything and everything that meant nothing. We were two strangers playing parents, and Marco was too young to notice the sharp, cold distance
between us.
When Marco finally pushed his plate back, proclaiming he was stuffed, I knew it was time.
“Faith,” I started, trying to keep my voice neutral. “I have to go out for a little while. I won’t be long.”
I expected the usual strained silence or perhaps a nod. Instead, she looked up, her expression utterly flat.
“Don’t bother,” she said.
Two words. Two simple, easy words.
“Don’t bother.”
They weren’t angry. They weren’t fighting words. They were dismissive words. They meant: Your presence or absence means nothing to me. Do what you want. I don’t care if you come
back.
My wolf roared with a silent explosion of rejection and pain. My heart physically ached. I nodded once, trying to keep my face still.
“Alright,” I said, standing up.
I simply walked out. The door shut behind me, not loudly, but with the sound of a final period on a painful sentence.
The house was a few houses away. and it may not feel like my home anymore but it’s where my daughter grew up and it’s always going to give me a certain sense of warth.
But tonight, as I approached, the air felt wrong. The ground beneath my feet felt hard and unforgiving, and the usual warmth I associated with visiting my daughter was gone. It felt different. Heavy. Like I was stepping into a place heavy.
214
< Chapter 104
+25 Points
The door opened almost instantly. Isabella She launched herself forward, wrapping her arms tightly around my waist, burying her face into my chest.
My arms automatically went around her small frame, intending to give her a quick, comforting pat.
But the moment her body connected with mine, everything stopped.
The world stopped spinning. The pain of Faith’s rejection vanished. The mission, the anger, the confusion it all disappeared, replaced by the an intense and powerful wash of emotion.
It wasn’t just a hug. It was like I had been walking around incomplete my entire life, and she was the missing piece finally slotting into place. The feeling was different than anything I had for her. It was fuller. Happier. It was the feeling of home. It felt like my very soul snapped into perfect alignment. My wolf stopped his inner screaming and let out a long, quiet sigh of utter contentment.
I held her for a moment longer than necessary. My mind was reeling, trying to process this powerful, instantaneous connection.
When she finally pulled back, looking up at me with tear–filled eyes, I looked down at her face.
And I truly saw her.
The breath left my lungs.
A sense of profound shock and dizziness spun me around. Everything about her face, her
eyes,
the shape of her mouth, hit me with a terrifying sense of déjà vu.
It was like seeing her for the very first time, even though I had known her since she was a
born.
How did I not see this before?
Shock, confusion, and fear slammed into me. I couldn’t handle it. I couldn’t stand there for another second, feeling this terrifying, overwhelming completeness with a girl who was supposed to be not biologically mine.
“I–I have to go,” I mumbled, the words thick and clumsy.
I stepped back, nearly tripping over the threshold, not waiting for her to question me. I needed air. I needed distance from that feeling before it consumed me whole.
I pushed past the front door, closing it quickly behind me, and stumbled onto the lawn.
The night air was cold, but my skin felt hot. I walked fast, away from the warm glow of the
3/4
< Chapter 104
house, trying to outrun the dizzying sense of recognition.
What was that?
+25 Points
I leaned against a large oak tree, pressing my hands hard against the rough bark until the pain grounded me.
The Seer. I thought she was lying but it turns out I’m wrong.
She told me this.
“A shadow has been cast over your pack, Alpha. Someone is using the old ways–black magic–to hide a great truth right under your nose.
Your blood runs closer than you imagine. Your daughter with is nearer than you believe. But the witch’s work is strong. You will not recognise her until the magic begins to fail.”
I stared back at the house.
A rush of cold understanding hit me, paralyzing me utterly.
Black magic. Hiding the truth. My blood. My daughter. Closer than I thought.
A cold, undeniable realization settled heavy in my gut: The Seer wasn’t been talking about the hidden secret child outside the pack. She had been talking about someone I saw, someone I
knew.
Someone I was raised.
