CHAPTER 16

CHAPTER 16

Adam

My freedom.

I stare at the file before me, my thoughts jumbled. I’ve been unable to work ever since I heard these words. Freedom. What freedom does she want? Does she want freedom from me?

It’s been a week since the Gala. There has been radio silence from my father and Norman. I heard that Norman is recovering from his injuries. I can’t touch him right now, but the men who were with him, the ones he calls his friends, they’re all fair game. They thought they could put their hands on Cynthia? On my woman? I wonder how they like their crippled hands now.

Since I’m the Alpha heir, I cannot go after them physically. In the current situation, I need to maintain my reputation. But there are other ways to go after these people, and I used those methods.

It took me one week to bankrupt their companies. Maril Foods is the only company I own and run, however I have invested in the majority of the pack-owned businesses. All I had to do was show up at the board meetings and withdraw my investment, leaving them scrambling. It helps that Norman has only ever befriended rich like-minded fools like himself.

But that’s not the problem right now.

Watson is like a dog with a bone.

I know he’s pushing me and Tina together, and while Tina thinks it’s funny and plays along, it’s hurting my relationship with Cynthia. Before Cynthia came along, I had talked to Tina about possibly getting married. She was a good choice for a mate. Since Tina had no one in her life either, she had found the idea appealing, but there has never been more than friendship between us. Cynthia has changed things.

"You’re playing a dangerous game, my friend." Robert walks into the room. "You keep this up and you’ll lose Cynthia."

"What game?"

"Having Tina hanging around you at the office the whole day." Robert shakes his head. "You’ve got a fated mate who thinks you can do better than her, and you’re flaunting another woman around her. I mean, if this is not a recipe for disaster, I don’t know what is."

"I’m not doing anything. Tina is helping me with some things," I protest.

"Does Cynthia know that?" Robert raises a brow. "She’s a sweet girl, you know. But you’re crushing whatever self-esteem she has left under your foot. That’s a cruel thing to do to her."

"I can’t tell her the truth." I feel frustrated. "You know I can’t."

"Well, you need to tell her something," Robert counters, "before she decides she doesn’t have to put up with all this and packs her bags."

"She wouldn’t leave."

"Wouldn’t she?" Robert arches a brow. "She appears weak, but a woman who can give up her fated mate so that he can be with someone ’more worthy’ is a hell of a lot stronger than anyone gives her credit for."

He sits down across from me. "Is that what you’re counting on? That she’s got no one and nothing so she’ll never leave you?"

My jaw hardens, and Robert shakes his head at me, looking disappointed. "Her circumstances make her appear weak, but she’s not. You’re severely underestimating her. She’s a survivor. We both know what she’s been put through at the hands of your family, and she’s still standing strong. Don’t make the mistake of thinking she’ll stick around if she thinks you and Tina are a thing. She was getting job offers right, left, and center at the Gala. And considering she’s a single unmated female who’s made a name for herself in the business world, many families were looking to integrate her into their families. She has options now, my friend."

My lips press into a thin line. "Cynthia was propositioned? By whom?"

Robert leans back in his chair. "I saw at least seven businessmen throw their sons at her feet. Not literally, of course, but they were practically offering them up to her on a platter."

"She never said a word to me," I growl under my breath.

"Was she supposed to?" Robert scoffs. "She kept saying how good of a couple you and Tina make. I tried to dissuade her from that notion, but you’ve done a good job of making her think you just led her on for funsies."

"Funsies?" I scowl at him. "She was the one jumping through hoops to book dates for us and get her those stupid gifts. I never asked her to."

"You never denied it, either." Robert’s words are scathing. "You can’t have your cake and eat it too, Adam. You’re on the verge of losing your own fated mate. What’re you going to do if she packs up her bags and just leaves because she’s had enough of your entire family, including you?"

I open my mouth and then snap it shut.

Cynthia’s behavior has been troubling me too.

I just want my freedom.

Her words have been eating at me. I wish I had had the time to press her further on that request because it’s been haunting me for the past week. The truth is that I am guilty of not clearing up her misunderstanding. I could have created an opportunity to do so, but I thought that perhaps seeing me with another woman would make her jealous and she would give up on maintaining this distance between us. I never thought she would actually think Tina was a better woman for me. It never occurred to me that Cynthia would have so much willpower that she would be able to push away her own desires. Or perhaps my family really had broken her to the point that she doesn’t think she deserves happiness.

When she told me about my father’s plans to derail my path as the Alpha heir, I thought she had finally chosen me. But that’s not the case here. After the incident at the Gala, she showed up for work for a few days, but she’s been on sick leave for the past three days now. I did try to visit her apartment this past Monday, but she wasn’t there. Tina has been showing up the entire week following the Gala, and Cynthia had catered to her every demand. Perhaps she had enough.

That’s the sick fear eating at me, that Robert is right and I finally drove Cynthia away. For two days, I’ve not been able to contact her. This morning when I stopped by, I could hear something inside, but she ignored me when I knocked.

Does she want freedom from me once I become Alpha? Does she want to leave me?

She’s not bound to work for me. But more than her switching jobs is the fear that she might decide to get on a bus and just disappear. I have to make sure she doesn’t do that.

I get to my feet.

"Now where are you going?" Robert glances at me.

"To go see Cynthia."

"Sit down," my friend grouses. "What’re you going to do? Barge into her home and get her to talk to you? Be smart, Adam. Matters of the female heart are more delicate than you realize, you buffoon. You’ve already done enough damage. Now because of you, she doesn’t like me either."

"Why do you care if she likes you?" I shoot him a look.

"She’s funny and sweet." Robert raises his brows. "If you’re going to torpedo this relationship, I would like to be able to pick up the pieces."

"She’s not yours, Robert." My voice turns icy. "You can’t have her."

"Well, you sure as hell don’t want her." My friend shrugs. "Or you wouldn’t be torturing your fated mate. Now is the time you should be looking after her, getting her wolf’s approval. But you seem more intent on making her jealous. How’s that working out for you? Do you see her anywhere?"

"I don’t appreciate the taunts." I narrow my eyes at him. "And I will fix this."

"I hope you do," Robert shrugs, "because if you don’t, I’ll be declaring my own intent. And unlike you, I’ll rebuild whatever self-esteem and self-confidence your family has stripped her of. Because let’s be honest, Adam. You’re doing a piss poor job of that."

Robert is one of my closest friends, so I don’t take offense to his words. We’ve often had to pull each other’s heads out of their asses a time or two.

"I’ll fix this."

"I’d recommend a conversation followed by a romantic date." Robert gets to his feet, heading to the refrigerator. "I know Cynthia has derailed your plans, but I’m sure Tina can convince her father to keep supporting you, regardless. Turning your back on your fated mate would be a foolish idea."

I go still at his words.

The truth is that this has been a point of contention for me. When I left my home and went to live with my relatives, it was Watson who had reached out to me and offered to help me get the Alpha training that my father had refused me. Watson had been friends with my grandfather. In fact, he had worked as my grandfather’s secretary right up to the point my grandfather passed. Despite the fact that he, himself, was so well off, he chose to work with my grandfather. He helped me with the training and with selecting my degree in college. I owe him a lot.

It was because of him that Tina and I became friends when we were just teenagers. In a way, we grew up together, and Watson always encouraged our friendship and hoped for a relationship to bloom between us. It’s not like we didn’t try to date. We did, but we realized we were better off as friends. But as the years passed, Tina knew that for me to become Alpha, I would need someone to stand by my side, someone I could rely on, and she had agreed that we should get married. This is not something we communicated to her father, but he picked up on the fact that there was something going on between us.

But for the past few years, his gentle suggestions have become more vocal as he’s now fully invested in me and Tina getting married. Right now, Watson is my biggest ally. If he realizes I don’t want to marry Tina, there’s a good chance he’ll back out of supporting me. I sink back into my seat, worried. While I don’t need Watson’s support, the fact is that my father is playing dirty to put Norman in the seat. He seems to be under the delusion that with Norman as the alpha, my father will still retain his control. What he doesn’t realize is that my younger brother is a wild card.

But this is a conundrum.

I can’t lose Cynthia. There is nothing I won’t do to keep her by my side.

But am I prepared for possibly having to walk away from my position as the next alpha for her?

"I was surprised, though," Robert suddenly says as he carries over a dish of beef casserole to the island counter, a spoon in his hand.

"About what?"

"She doesn’t seem to know a lot about the pack and basic things that we all knew growing up."

"My father seems to have a hand in that." My hand tightens around the pen I’m holding. "What was she asking you about?"

"How blood debts work," Robert tells me, taking a bite of the casserole. As he chews, he looks thoughtful. “We had a long discussion about it.”

His words have me jerking, a niggling sensation in the back of my head. “What did you say?”

“She was asking about how to break a blood debt." Robert freezes, his words tapering off. His eyes meet mine, a slow realization forming in them.

“That’s not a normal topic to bring up,” I say slowly. “Unless she had a vested interest in it. Who started––"

“She did.” Robert looks horrified. “She began by asking the difference between a blood debt and a blood oath."

“She probably needed a way to bring it up without causing suspicion." I feel sick to the stomach. "A blood debt. That would explain a lot of things, especially the way she was loyal to my father despite whatever he put her through. It wasn’t loyalty. She just didn’t have a choice."

Robert looks grim. "But if Cynthia had a blood debt tying her to your family, it should have been registered."

I shake my head. "This was around the time Father was close to losing his Alpha status. The pack wanted my grandfather to resume his position as Alpha. Father was doing a shit job. He wasn’t going to mess that up by declaring that he had taken a child in a blood debt. He used her to elevate his social standing in the pack. Since he was the alpha, there was no check and balance on him. That’s how he got away with it."

"But a four-year-old child?" Robert looks nauseated. "You know what happens to people tied with blood debts. Why take her? She had a brother, parents… Why a child?"

"I don’t know." I take out my phone and search for a phone number. "But I know somebody who might be able to give us answers."

Finnegan Henson had worked as my father’s valet for forty years before being fired a year after I left. I never liked the man, personally, but he would be the only one who knows the truth. He and Tony, my father’s current right-hand man.

Finnegan answers the phone on the fourth ring.

"Finnegan, it’s me, Adam. Do you remember me?"

The man on the other end of the line sounds old. Finnegan must be reaching his eighties now.

"Master Adam, how are you?"

"How’s your new retirement home in Florida?"

I hear him chuckle. "Wonderful. The heat is good for my bones."

When my father kicked Finnegan out, he withheld his severance pay and retirement fund. I never knew what happened between them, and it was only when Finnegan approached me, begging me to talk to my father and at least give him the money he was owed that I decided to pay the man myself. He had always been kind to me. I paid for an apartment for him in Florida and gave him both his severance pay and retirement fund. I doubt he’s going to lie to me now.

"I need to ask you something, Finnegan," I begin.

"Anything."

"What do you know about Cynthia coming to our house?"

There’s silence on the other end. I finally have to press, "Finnegan?"

He sighs heavily. "You’re asking because you know already, don’t you?"

"Did my father tie her to him with a blood debt?" I decide to get to the point.

"Yes."

"Why?"

Finnegan sounds wary now. "Whatever I tell you, Master Adam, please make sure it doesn’t get back to your father that it was me. He can still make good on his threat."

"What threat?"

"I…" He sighs again. "It’s a request. Please."

"Fine," I agree. "I won’t tell him you said anything. Now, please."

He begins after a moment, "Your father promised your sister, Eleanor, to an older pack official. This was before your father became the alpha. He needed this particular official’s support in becoming Alpha because your grandfather was against it. Miss Eleanor was a few months old at that time. The pack official supported your father, and he became the alpha.”

He hesitates. “The thing was that he wanted your sister the moment she reached puberty, which would have been when Miss Eleanor was eleven. When the time came, your grandfather discovered this and there was a huge issue. He tried to break the betrothal, and he succeeded for a while. However, your father had basically sold her off at that point, and he didn’t want the money to stop coming in, so he waited. When Miss Eleanor turned seventeen, he brought up the issue again. You were still young so you wouldn’t remember, but your grandfather told your sister that he would send her abroad to study. The purpose was for her to get away from the family and return later, once your father could no longer influence her. She agreed, but there was one thing your grandfather didn’t count on. She was seeing someone from the slums. It was an older boy."

I listen intently and suddenly stop him, some of the pieces falling together. "Someone in Cynthia’s family?"

’Yes. She knew the consequences. I told her. I was the one who caught her with the boy, Mathew. I told her she should take up her grandfather’s offer and leave. I told her to leave the boy because your father could not do anything to your grandfather, but he could hurt the boy’s family. I explained it to the young couple, but they were madly in love. Miss Eleanor lied to your grandfather and used some of the money he had given her to buy Mathew a ticket as well. They fled together. Your father found out, and he went to the parents. Since they were poor and he was the alpha, he demanded they bring their son back to be executed or tied in a blood debt for the dishonor his actions brought upon the alpha’s family. They didn’t want their son to suffer, so they convinced him to take Cynthia instead. They tied her to him with a blood debt. Your father was furious. The thing was, Master Adam, that even though he promised your sister to a much older packmate, Miss Eleanor was still the apple of his eye. He adored her. And he hated the fact that he would never see her again. He did lose support from that official as well, and he blamed Mathew for it all. As a result, he wanted the boy’s sister to suffer. Miss Cynthia was put through the kind of hell no child should go through. She was too young, too innocent. It broke my heart, but I was helpless. He was the alpha, the highest power in the pack."

My mouth is dry as I listen to the secret Finnegan has been keeping all these years. "You never told my sister?"

"I did." The old man sounds tired. "Your father sent her one of the videos in which he was punishing Cynthia, but Miss Eleanor refused to come back. And Mathew also refused. Your father was willing to let him take Miss Cynthia’s place, but if he thought her brother’s heart would soften, it didn’t. After you left, there was one particularly bad night when I found Miss Cynthia on the verge of death. She was in the basement, badly injured. I let her down from her restraints and your father found me. We exchanged hot words, and then he threw me out and told me that if I ever told anyone, he would kill my youngest child. I kept my mouth shut, but I have lived with the guilt of knowing that a child has been suffering for all these years."

He’s sobbing now.

"That girl, she was the sweetest little thing, and I saw her soul break every day. Sometimes I would go to her after your father went to bed and hold her in my arms and comfort her like I would my own little boy. She stopped crying after a few years. It’s as if she realized nobody would ever hear her. She was isolated from touch, from love, from everything. She never deserved any of that, but I’ll tell you something, Master Adam. Where many would have broken, she still held on. There was some part of her that was still determined to fight back."

My wolf is clawing inside me, enraged, demanding blood.

I had imagined things to be bad, but not to this extent. When Eleanor left and Cynthia arrived, I never put two and two together. When Father soundproofed the basement, I didn’t pay attention, gloomy over the departure of my older perfect sister. I knew my father was a greedy man, but it’s only over these past two months that I’ve begun to view him as a sadistic monster. And he’s raised Norman in his shadow. I have a hard time wrapping my head around all this.

"So, whoever becomes the next alpha," I say tightly, "the control of the blood debt is passed on to them?"

"Yes," Finnegan replies, his voice still unsteady.

I want my freedom.

That’s what Cynthia meant. She wanted me to free her from the blood debt. And if Norman became the alpha, then…

I know enough about Cynthia to know she would rather kill herself than face whatever Norman has in store for her. He will never give her her freedom. Which means I can never let Norman become the alpha.

When the call ends, both Robert and I are silent.

"What now?" Robert asks.

I steeple my fingers together. "We need to figure out a way to get Norman discredited from this nomination as the alpha heir position before he gets the chance to show the idea for the slums rehabilitation project. We need to get that phone, but Norman has completely disappeared from the public eye since he was discharged from the infirmary."

"He must be at home," Robert muses. "We could launch an attack, but it’s going to have dire consequences. Cynthia’s idea was the simplest and easiest. She goes in there and comes out with the phone."

"I’m not sending her in there, Robert!" My upper lip curls in anger.

"I don’t like the idea any more than you do," Robert argues, "but if you or I go in there, my being there can start a war between our packs and you risk losing your status as the alpha heir. She is our only way in."

Just then, my phone rings, and I look down. On seeing the name of the person who’s been avoiding me for days, I don’t waste any time in answering the phone.

"Cynthia. Where have you––"

Her voice is hoarse. "I have the phone. There’s something you need to see."