She was everything I thought a mate was supposed to be. Adelia was what I had dreamt about for so long. Her beauty didn’t compare to any other woman I had ever seen. She was fair but strong. Her being a witch bothered me very little. Her family was gone and that was something I didn’t need to look into. It seemed like everything between us was fated in the stars. We were destined to be mates. I could feel it when I touched her skin and when I kissed her lips. Everything about her was perfection. She was my other half.
Maybe it was a good thing my mom wasn’t here to read this. She would have halted my reading immediately or maybe she wouldn’t have. Just because I was a jealous person didn’t mean she was. There was a smudge in the ink. No matter how much I squinted at the paper, I couldn’t make out what an entire paragraph said.
We had only been married for a month when I discovered her infidelity with my brother, Jared. For three weeks I visited a neighboring pack. They were having issues with the pups not wanting to be human, it was such a small matter that didn’t take very long but I insisted on staying to make sure it didn’t happen with the rest of the little ones. For the longest time, I berated myself over this. I should have come back sooner, I should have brought her with me. We had only been married for a week when I left.
I had always assumed Jared had feelings for her. She did well masking his scent from her body when I returned home. She wasn’t pregnant when I left. In fact, she had her first bleeding the week I departed. When I returned, she happily rejoiced the pregnancy ofourfirstborn but I knew. I never told her that I had put the pieces together. I always wondered if she had known that the child belonged to Jared. Even on her deathbed, I did not tell her that I knew. As she left this world and went into the next, I kept this secret. Even to this day, I haven’t told anyone. What was there to tell? All it would show to the world was that I was weak. I chose a woman that wasn’t faithful. It would also be a death sentence for my brother. As much as it pained me, I couldn’t do that to him. To our family. Our pack.
I stumbled back a few steps as I read the last line. He had never told anyone of her affair with my uncle. But that still didn’t explain how Damian had survived. How Duncan had found ledgers about her death in the woods. Her throat had been slit. I thumbed through the envelopes. They wouldn’t have been put here if they weren’t important. They wouldn’t have been hidden. They had to hold important information. The last letter caught my eye. The ink looked newer and the paper of the envelope wasn’t yellowed like the others.
I quickly unfolded the letter inside.
Cane,
My dearest brother, I write this letter for many reasons. The first being that I owe you an apology. I shouldn’t have caused problems between us. I should have never left to start my own pack. As I write this on my death bed, I want you to know that I forgave you for loving Adelia first. I shouldn’t have envied your bride. I should have never coveted her in the ways that I did. Not only was she unfaithful to you with me, but I was unfaithful to you as your only brother. I should have told her no. I should have walked away. I don’t know if you knew about this. I always wondered but was too afraid to ask. The only thing that I don’t regret is that I brought her back to my home after the midwives could do nothing more for her. I had my Soul witches revive her. Because of that, I have owed them great debts. These are debts you don’t need to worry yourself with. Only know that I wish you can forgive me. Maybe not today but eventually. Adelia and her child Damian were both revived that night that her body went missing. I don’t know how the witches did it but they lived. Though they didn’t continue to live out their days with me.
Damian never received a wolf. This caused great anger and suffering for me. All I wanted for him was to be like us. Like you. When we realized he would never be like us, I recommended Adelia bring him to a coven to live around a witch family. She didn’t take this kindly. She seduced my Beta and grew pregnant with his child. I banished all of them. I do not know what happened to her unborn child, but I do regret letting Damian suffer for her misdeeds. I do not regret getting rid of Adelia. After I banished my second, I came to find out that she slept with many in my pack. After everything I had done for her, this was an unforgivable offense. Please forgive me for doing the unforgivable to you. Please let our packs be united. Please find it in your soul to know how deeply sorry I am and how much regret I hold onto for doing this to you.
With the warmest regards,
Jared Crimson
The letter was dated a few weeks before my father had started to get sick. Had this letter been sent before Damian had poisoned my father? Had Jared been targeted by Damian as well? As much as this letter gave me answers, it also opened up more questions. All of this information knocked me off of my feet. I slowly slid to the floor and blinked back the moisture in my eyes. Uncle Jared had Adelia revived by witches and in doing this, it had also saved Damian. But Damian wasn’t my brother. He was my cousin. The box slipped from my fingers and clattered to the tile beneath me. I flipped back through my father’s journal. One of his last entries caught my eye.
My nephew, Damian, came to visit me today. I don’t know what to think about it. I still haven’t revealed that he wasn’t my child. I don’t know how to tell anyone, especially my mate. The pain of what Adelia did to me still feels fresh even though it happened so long ago. I didn’t have the heart to tell the poor kid that I wasn’t his old man either. I knew it would be better for him to accept that I didn’t know about his existence than to know that his real father had him banished. To me, I feel like this is a tender mercy for the lad. As much as I would like him to know the truth, he looked at me with such big expectant eyes. How could I shatter his world? Especially now that his biological father has passed. He wanted answers and I could give him very little. I didn’t know his mother very well. She had only been here for a short time and honestly, I was more bewitched with her beauty than anything else. It was lust at first sight. There was no love between us. Everything had been strictly physical. How could I possibly tell my mate that?
Oh how I had wished I had known. He could have grown up with people that had loved him. I could have tried harder to not be so angry with my brother. I could have patched up so many things between us. We had so much time and then it was gone. The regrets are heavy within my heart. I could have changed everything but now Jared is gone and Damian didn’t give me any way to reach him. He told me he would be around but I have a feeling, that won’t be true.
This changed everything? Didn’t it? This could change the tides of war, right? I wasn’t aware of Damian’s intentions but I had a feeling the only reason he was coming for my family and my home was because of revenge against my father. Did he have any idea what happened or had his mother lied to him in order to protect him? I shimmied my phone out of my pocket and quickly took a picture of all of the documents. I looked at the hole above me and wondered if they needed to go back. I shoved everything back into the box and then back into the hole. These things would need to stay hidden. Without telling my men a thing, I immediately went to work on the sheetrock. I would tell them later and we would figure out a plan, but until then, I had to tell my mother that Damian wasn’t my brother.
