Chapter 8

Eight

The gates slowly open, and the ticking of the chains being reeled in reminds me that my heart feels like it’s going to explode from my chest. Not once, when I was a child, did I ever let myself imagine meeting one of my parents. I knew what the world was from an early age, and it was easy for me to accept that in this endless, brutal world, the only thing certain in life was death. Even if I didn’t know for sure, I had to convince myself that my parents were dead because it was the only way I could endure their absence. Until now I have never let myself wonder if they were alive. I also never thought I’d meet someone related to me, not until I had a child.

I touch my stomach for just a second, knowing damn well that a child is likely to be growing in there. I won’t know for sure until next month, and I can ask to be seen by a healer, but it just feels like something is different. It feels like I’m finally becoming whole. Like I have purpose again.

Now, more than ever, I need to make peace, especially with my past. I want a world that my child doesn’t have to worry about living in. One where they will never be used, hunted and almost destroyed like I was.

The wish stays permanently in my mind, in my heart, as I wait for the gates to open. I only saw my mother through Rune’s memories, nothing but a tiny glimpse of a stunning woman running away. It won’t be the same as meeting my father in the flesh, with my mates at my side. It’s finally time for answers and, possibly, closure.

When the gates finally open, I’m surprised by how normal he looks. I don’t know what I expected from my fae father, but he is exactly that: normal. Wrinkles line his handsome face and his pitch-black hair, that’s going grey at the sides and ends, falls onto his forehead and into his sparkling silver eyes. He’s slim, wearing pretty much all dark blue leather with two massive swords strapped onto his back. The silver of them catches the sunlight as he takes a single step towards me. His eyes find mine in the silence and for a while we just stare at each other like time itself has ceased to exist. I know he is absorbing all of my features, just like I am with him.

Am I what he expected? Does he see my mother in me? Can he see himself?

Other than the blood in our veins, every bit of us are as strange to each other like the moon is to the sun. I notice how there is no one else around him, no guards, no other fae. Magic isn’t in the air either. I can’t sense it.

He holds both his weaponless hands in the air. “I’m not asking for entry into the pack. I just want to speak to you, Verena. I mean you no harm.”

“Our mate doesn’t leave her pack,” Lazuri protectively warns, possessively pressed to my side. Elias and Rune are a few steps away, both of them watching everything. “We have a place where you are welcome to speak. Be aware, one move against her, you will be ripped apart by her mates.”

Nothing but cold brutality comes from Lazuri. Elias and rune, I imagine, would have said something a little more diplomatic, but not Laz. I don’t blame him; I feel the same about anyone being a threat to my mates.

It’s difficult as I look at the man who is my father—my family. My wolf echoes that feeling in my chest and she seems to trust him. Maybe she remembers things from when I was a baby that I can’t.

Maybe she remembers him.

Trusting my wolf, I smile at him. “I would like to ask you some questions. You are welcome inside, and I promise it is safe.”

He smiles back at me, that smile dropping when Rune moves up my other side and lowers his hood. Tension ripples across my father and his eyes glow. “You! What are you doing at my daughter’s side?”

“I’m her mate.” Rune’s four simple words seem to echo between the truth there. The two of them glare at each other. “And you don’t get to play the daughter card when you abandoned her.”

I clear my throat, grateful for his protection but also finding it unnecessary. “Rune, you need to give me a chance to explain why he’s here and at my side. If you don’t like my explanation, then you can go and attack each other outside the pack, but there are children here. There are innocents. So, if you decide you’re going to fight, I’ll be far from here, and once I’ve heard what he has to say.” I turn back to my father. “Would you still like to come in?”

“Not with him there,” he snarls. “I don’t know what he has told you, but he is?—”

“My mate,” I snap right back. I won’t let him begin this with them spilling blood. “If you can’t accept that then I can’t let you inside.”

My father looks at me and then cuts back to Rune. Rune bows his head, shocking my father. A fae prince bows to no one. “I vow to the Star Gods I am not going to hurt you,” Rune says earnestly. “I’m here to protect Verena, my mate, and see that she lives a long life of happiness.” He lifts his head and holds it slightly higher than he probably needs to. “I am not unmarked by the past and my soul may never be clean because of it.”

“It will never be clean with the amount of blood on your hands,” my father growls. “But I am not here for you. We will discuss our past further once I have talked with my daughter. Let us go in.”

Elias glances down at me. He twists his fingers through mine while Lazuri allows my father into the pack, not before giving him the mother of all death glares. Rune trails behind us and I’m thankful he’s giving my father some space. Whatever went on between them is obviously huge, and bloody.

“He looks like you,” Elias murmurs.

“I know.” I whisper back, knowing I’ve been spotting those similarities a dozen times since I first saw him. My eyes trace back as the gates close, and on the borderline of the trees there are quite a few eyes watching and waiting. He was never alone. I admire that he came here, especially with Rune and their history. Or is he that desperate to talk to me? “Except for my face, I think my features must be from my mum.”

Rune’s sigh makes me think that he agrees. He was the last one who saw her before she died.

We head inside to a small circular building right on the edge of the wall. It has no windows to be seen, just one big door. One exit. I can see why Lazuri wanted to meet in this place. It’s likely designed for guests to come in and make sure they don’t escape or leave unless the alpha wants them too. It’s a vast room, with several new couches, and long leaves standing in tall pots. It’s designed for hosting, I think. There’s a small table with food laid out in the middle. Elias heads to the table, plopping a cake into his mouth in one bite. Meanwhile, Lazuri locks the door behind him so we cannot be disturbed. Or, more likely, so my father knows he’s stuck in here. Rune hovers near me as I sit down on the sofa. He doesn’t come too close to my father, who sits on the sofa opposite, staring at me like he has seen a ghost. Elias eventually leaves the food to sit on my one side. Lazuri sits on the edge next to Elias, crossing his enormous arms. We wait for my father to speak first.

My father opens his mouth once, twice, and then clears his throat. “I think... I should properly introduce myself.” His quiet voice echoes around the room. “My name is Redbrook, and I am a good deal older than most fae you’ve met. There is no doubt much you would like to ask me.”

“I’ve waited my whole life for this,” I say, shocked by the tremor in my voice. I had my father’s name as my last name. Laz squeezes my shoulder gently as if to comfort me. “Do I have siblings?”

“No.” He shakes his head. “You are my only child, and I had you with the love of my life. The only woman I ever loved and ever will.” The tension in his face and shoulders seems to settle a little at the mention of my mother. “You look like her. When I met her, it was like the realm itself shook as electricity bounced between us. We both knew our love was forbidden. She was a wolf, and I was fae. Not only that, but I was the king’s general, and I was prohibited from courting until I had fulfilled my duty.

At the mention of his father, Rune scoffs as he toys with his necklace, repeatedly twisting it. My father continues unfazed.

“The fae king kept, and still keeps a strict control over those close to him. The gods themselves could have forbidden me, and I still could not keep away from her.” There’s such vulnerability in these eyes that I can’t help believing every word. “The day you were conceived was the happiest day of our lives, but we knew your mother’s life would be in danger. I tried desperately to find a way to save her. I found other people that are like you, other half-breeds, and they came willingly to me, wanting to be accepted, to find a way in this world that they could live without being hunted and slaughtered. I hoped the king would accept this race of people, and that it would be a safer world for you. I was wrong.”

Rune looks down. I know the story, but it feels rawer coming from him. From my father, who lived and lost everything in it.

“What…happened?” My words barely come out.

My father keeps his eyes narrowed on Rune’s face. “I am sure your mate can tell you what happened. I will spare you the details, for I lost... too much that day.”

I keep my gaze locked on my father. I know Rune was forced to do horrific things in his father’s name, under his father’s control. I try not to dwell on that. It’s not like I can change it. But I do know that Rune wants to be better. It’s why he showed me mercy when he did. He doesn’t want to be like the king.

“Why did you abandon me?” I demand of my father. “I know you lost a lot that day, and I know what it feels like to lose someone you love, but… you just left me. I never had a good childhood, I can tell you that now, and if it hadn’t been for Mera, the wolf who took me in…” My lips tremble, and I bite them to keep the tremors back. Lazuri and Elias move closer to me, their scents instantly soothing. “Why did you never come looking for me?”

He takes a deep, shuddering breath, his eyes, so like my own, never leaving me. “It was not fate that brought you and Mera together. She would have known who your real mother was and kept you safe. I did not give up on you.” He leans forward. “Verena, I have prayed for you every day?—”

“Prayers,” I growl at him. “Prayers don’t help!” My eyes well up with angry, barely restrained tears. “Prayers didn’t save all the children who died from starvation around me. Prayers didn’t stop me from being taken away and put through hell. Prayers didn’t help because what they needed most—what I needed—was someone to take care of us. I needed you, but you just left me to scrape around in the gutter.”

A few tears escape me as the memories come flooding back. All those years I spent quite literally scraping in the gutters, begging for food. Even all the years I spent bullied by my pack. It all could have been prevented had he just come for me.

My father’s throat jerks nervously, and it’s then I notice the beads of sweat sliding from his brow. “I do not blame you for hating me. I’m deserving of it. But please... I could not come for you. The king knows I am alive and angry. He knows I’m a threat, so I could not risk coming for you while I was being hunted. I never stopped in all these years, travelling every inch of this world. It was no life for a child let alone an omega.”

“It couldn’t have been worse than what I went through,” I say, gritting my teeth.

He only shakes his head again. “You would have been on the run every single day of your life, Verena, and it would have gotten you killed once they sensed what you were.” His throat jerks again. “You would have been passed around, being an omega, and I would not have that for you. So, hate me all you wish, but your destiny... I believed in your mother’s words.”

“My mother?” My voice cracks.

“She told me that you were meant to be in this world to fix it. She was right. You’ve landed on your feet. You have powerful alpha mates and a fae prince.” He looks over at Rune. “Who does not deserve to breathe the same air as you after what he did.”

Rune stands up straight, his expression grim. “I know you’ll never forgive me for what I did back then, for slaughtering your people, for attacking her mother. I will never forgive myself. It was a turning point in my life that night. Up until that point, I had listened to everything my father ever told me. He convinced me all of you were evil, and that if you kept breeding then the magic of our people would be lost, and we”d be left vulnerable. He convinced me that half-breeding was a ploy by the wolves to rule our kind forever, and I fell for it.” Guilt lines his voice. “I fell for many of my father’s lies. Yes, I even walked in with his army and let them slaughter people, but that night, that battle... I knew he was wrong. I stopped everything a quarter in when I heard a baby cry. I was told there were no children. I couldn’t—“He clears his throat. “I protected her instead, your wife and the baby. I made sure no one followed them. I did not know your wife was injured. Not until it was too late, and I saw Verena for the first time. I never hurt anyone after that, unless they deserved it. Unless they were a threat to Verena.”

“She was no threat to Verena,” my father challenges, “yet you killed her.”

Rune shakes his head. “She was a threat. She wanted Verena to go to you unprotected, and she would have done anything. I know how dangerous that is for Verena at your side, so I dealt with her. I’m not claiming to be a saint, and I have made many mistakes... but I’m no monster. Not anymore. I no longer follow my father or believe his lies. I want him off the throne. He is too deranged, and his prejudice runs too deep for him to be trusted.”

Lazuri looks at Rune. “We have all done things in the name of those we love. I would have done the same if my father was leading me. What matters now is that times have changed.” He turns his focus back to my father. “Rune has proved himself and the gods have bonded us all together.”

I soften my eyes when Rune looks at me, so much guilt lingering there. I know he will never forgive himself for that day, for all those deaths. I also know what it feels like to be trapped under the heel of a vicious person. I turn to my father. “I lost everything that day too,” I say, “and it changed my entire life. Yet I’ve chosen to forgive Rune for it. He made up for his past and he keeps trying every day. Rune has tried to keep me safe, basically declaring war on his father by doing so. Everything Rune has done since that day he’s done all that for me. Give him a chance, if not for yourself, then for me. Can’t you at least do that for me?”

My father stands and walks right up to Rune. He stares at him as if assessing the fae for a moment before offering his hand. “Then he comes to war with me and kills his father. I have an army sitting outside this door of half-breeds. I didn’t stop in all the years I ran and have made many connections. There are a hundred-thousand half wolfs waiting outside this pack.”

Laz eyes my father coolly. “I have an army of three hundred thousand wolves. Together...”

“I can bring two hundred thousand here within a week,” Elias adds. “Give or take a few extra days.”

“Is it enough?” I ask Rune. “Enough to remake this world?”

Rune looks pale, yet his eyes are alive, flickering with hope. “I have an army of a hundred thousand fae, willingly and waiting for my call. It will be a rough war against my father’s armies, but we will be nearly even.”

“Then fight for us,” my father declares. “You would become the king of the fae. Mated to a half wolf, you could change everything. Unite our lands.”

Rune slides his hand into my fathers. “To war, then.”

The alpha”s howl a song of war, which is echoed far and wide.