“No! He was MY son! Mine alone!” She was lost completely to madness now, years of resentment and fresh grief creating a perfect storm. “You want to know the truth? I helped her die. Your precious birth mother. When she hemorrhaged, I made sure help came too late.”
Horror washed through me, but I couldn’t stop to process it. Rhea made a small sound, the knife pressing hard enough to dimple skin. My wolf surged forward, ready to attack, but human logic held me back. One wrong move and she could slit Rhea’s throat before I reached them.
“That’s why you always hated me.” The pieces fell into place even as I spoke. “Why you favored Laziel. Why you could never quite look at me with love.”
“Love? You want to talk about love?” She laughed, high and broken. “I loved my son. My real son. And you killed him over another omega whore. History repeating itself.”
“Let Rhea go. This is between us.”
“No. She dies, just like your mother should have died before spreading her legs.” The knife lifted slightly, preparing for a killing stroke. “If I can’t have my son back, you won’t have your whore.”
40
— • —
Damon
Time slowed as the knife descended toward Rhea’s throat. My shift happened mid-leap, human form exploding into wolf between one heartbeat and the next. Thirty years of training guided my trajectory, intercepting my mother before steel could meet flesh. We collided with crushing force, her smaller body flying sideways from the impact. The knife spun away, clattering across concrete.
I landed in a crouch over Rhea, massive black wolf form creating a shield between her and any threat. My mother scrambled for the weapon, her elegant composure completely shattered. She was screaming about omega whores, about betrayal, about sons who were never hers. But all I cared about was the shallow breathing of my mate beneath me, the too slow movement of our children in her belly. Carlton and his team poured throughthe door, weapons drawn, but I snarled them back. This was between family now.
“Stay back! Everyone stay back!” Carlton commanded his team, understanding the delicate nature of what was unfolding.
My mother struggled to her feet, designer clothes torn and dirty from our collision. Blood trickled from a cut on her cheek, making her look wild, unhinged. She backed away from us, toward the shadows where more rogues likely waited.
“You choose her over me! Just like your father!” Lucinda’s voice cracked with decades of suppressed rage.
I shifted back partially, enough to speak while maintaining a protective position over Rhea. “My father... tell me about my real mother.”
“She was nothing! A breeding omega who caught his eye!” Spite dripped from every word as she continued backing away, hands searching for another weapon.
“And you killed her?” The question emerged flat, emotionless, though inside my wolf howled for blood.
The warehouse erupted in movement. Two rogues burst from the shadows, charging at Carlton’s team. Gunfire exploded, echoing off concrete walls. I shielded Rhea with my body as bullets flew, feeling her flinch beneath me with each shot. The rogues fell quickly, professional soldiers against hired thugs, but the distraction gave Lucinda time to grab a broken pipe from the debris.
“Tell me!” I roared over the chaos, still crouched protectively over my mate.
Lucinda swung the pipe experimentally, testing its weight. Even cornered, even exposed, she maintained that cold control I’d known all my life. But now I understood it for what it was. Not strength but bitterness calcified into armor.
“You want the truth? After all these years, now you want truth?” She laughed, the sound sharp enough to cut. “Fine. Let me tell you about your precious mother. Let me tell you why you should never have existed.”
Behind us, Carlton’s team swept the warehouse for more threats, boots crunching on broken glass. I could hear their nervous breathing, their discomfort at witnessing such intimate family destruction. But none of them intervened. They understood this moment couldn’t be interrupted.
The truth poured out of Lucinda like poison from a wound, her pacing growing more agitated with each revelation. She told us how Dominic found his true mate in Serena, a young healer who worked in the pack’s medical center. But the timeline was what made my blood run cold. Lucinda was already pregnant with Laziel when Dominic’s mate bond activated, pulling him toward another woman with a force he couldn’t deny.
“We were pregnant at the same time,” she snarled, swinging the pipe for emphasis. “Both of us round with his children. His wife and his whore, walking the same halls, breathing the same air. Do you understand the humiliation?”
“When was I born?” The pieces were clicking together in horrifying ways.
“Six months before Laziel. You came first, the bastard before the heir.” Her laugh was bitter. “We had to falsify Laziel’s birth records, claiming he was premature. I had to hide my own son for months even after he was born.”
Carlton’s team had finished their sweep, forming a loose circle around us. The warehouse felt smaller with so many bodies, the air thick with tension and the metallic scent of blood. Rhea stirred beneath me, trying to speak, but I pressed her down gently. Not yet. I needed all of it.
“The political marriage couldn’t be dissolved without destroying alliances that kept the pack strong, so Dominic kept Serena hidden even before you were in the equation. But secrets in a pack never stay buried long. People whispered about the Alpha’s visits to the healer’s cottage. About how she glowed with pregnancy.”
“So you killed her.” Not a question. I knew my mother, knew her capacity for cold calculation.
One of Carlton’s men shifted nervously, hand tightening on his weapon. The casual confession of murder, even decades old, created a new tension in the air. But Lucinda was beyond caring about witnesses now.
