âThereâs nothing to say. My father tried to kill me. You were the catalyst. I guess it was you leaving me and realizing I was an idiot and lost the only thing that should have mattered.
âI failed you, and then a shit storm blew up around me with another vamp attack, and life imploded. My fatherâs men are at war with his people and still under threat of new vamp attacks.
âWeâre scattered across the north, and I have a sizable chunk at my momâs estate, hiding out and scared shitless.â
Thereâs a calm sort of acceptance in his tone, as though heâs not okay, but this is his reality, and heâs dealing with it the only way he knows how.
âOh, my god.â I feel sick as bile rises in my throat, the levity of the situation finally coming through to me.
Everything is in an uproar, and heâs been in the middle of an actual war. I was an idiot to think that heâd been sitting twiddling his thumbs at the pack house while Iâd been gone.
âItâs not the same size as the pack house by a long shot. Itâs a homestead, but it has some land. Itâs isolated from humans, surrounded by forests, and for now, weâre managing to defend it pretty well.
âIâm more focused on keeping my people safe and giving them a place to rebuild before I go chasing vampires and starting fights like my father seems to be doing.
âItâs all he cares about, and now knowing what you showed me⦠it makes perfect fucking sense. The war was his glory days.
âHe was a commander with an army who jumped to his orders, lording over a united race. I wouldnât put it past him to somehow deliver a means to the vampires to rile it up again.â
The anger simmers in his tone, and itâs evident that Colton has been going through it as I have.
âDo you think we were meant to die in the orphanage attack? Was it him?â
I touch on the memory Colton would have seen of Doc and me theorizing this exact question, but Colton shakes his head and glances my way with complete cynicism.
âNo, he didnât seem to know that was coming, and from what youâve shown me, your death is hers.â He nods at the rearview, so I glance back at his mother.
âHer death is his. He wouldnât have wanted it. And until I challenged him, he was still reeling me along like he thought I would somehow support him in his madness.
âHe didnât want me dead; he wanted me bound to his âloyalâ so I would follow him into war.â That edge of something else clawed in, like maybe anger at not seeing it before.
So, Juan wasnât behind the orphanage, but he created the tech to disable us. He sold it out there, not caring who got hold of it because he wanted the vampires to think they had a weapon to restart a war.
He had to know that once they got it, they would have the confidence to come at the wolves again, so he waited.
The vampires thought they had a foolproof plan. They arenât as strong as us, but with something like the isolation box, they would be stronger and have a shot at taking us down this time.
This means Juan has to know how to combat it and disable the effects of the box. He would never let them have something that would give them their victory; of course not.
Heâll have a master plan that heâs going to sit on until this thing is in full throes.
He has to keep his weapon hidden and let this brew long enough to give the packs a need to unite before he brings out whatever that is and proves victorious once again.
Juan craved the union of all the packs, not just the north, and he knew the only way to force that kind of need was to push us back into war.
He supplied the possibility and then sat back and waited, his arrogance telling him he would be the one chosen to lead them all. And now he has the answer to their weapon, forcing the packs to select him.
Itâs his leverage. The wolves from every land will want the weapon to counteract theirs.
It shows how insane he is to believe he would reign and lead when, the first time, my mother pushed him off that pedestal. So easy to knock down and replace. Did that teach him nothing?
And then, when he had the steps in place to ignite a second chance at gaining a crown, the Fates intervened instead, and nothing has been a coincidence since.
Turning and imprinting me only weeks before the vampireâs first attackâsolidifying a white wolf in the midst, hoping to restore the balance because they knew what was coming, tying me to a Santo.
It all makes sense. Every single piece of the puzzle fits. They always meant for me to end up in Coltonâs arms in the middle of it all.
Iâm the Fates trying to reclaim a prophecy that Juan keeps trying to destroy.
I turn my attention back to what he said, dragging my brain from that to this, head a tangled mess of emotions, but the logic of the bigger picture is sliding neatly into place.
I pick up on something he said. âWhat do you mean bound to his âloyalâ?â I donât even know how he could do that.
âCarmen. Sheâs the daughter of his beta. Heâs always tried to push me to stick with only the wolves he approved of. He hated that my sub-pack was never the children of his subs.
âHe just had to accept it, but Carmen, I realize he kept pushing femmes at me from certain houses, and he only wanted me to mark and settle down once you posed a threat.â
And we come straight to the one thing that chokes me up and makes me hate him again. He says it so matter of fact like he didnât just stab me in the chest with a dull object and twist it for good measure.
He just admitted it. That heâs bound to Carmen, and his father wanted it that way. He maybe didnât say it outright, but he said enough for me to interpret it that way.
I fall silent and turn away as tears prick my eyes and make me feel stupid, crushing that pathetic, ever hopeful, annoying shining light that pops up no matter what I tell it.
It might be the Fates trying to set the scales right, but Colton is not part of that plan because no way in hell would they allow him to be such a dumbass and do such a hurtful and stupid thing if he was my forever.
How could he be if they let him mark her and break me all over again? You donât come back from a betrayal of the mate bond, not like this.
âSo, your fatherâs raging a war with not only vamps, whom he set in motion, but his pack, even though his intention was to lord over you all?
âAnd half of you now live in the manor that belonged to your mom, a half witch? A manor you knew you had but didnât need.
âAll while I was off finding your mom, who holds the key to us having some sort of powerful gifts to put things right?â
I digress, trying to put everything in order and avoid mentioning what a douchebag, selfish, hurtful, cheating dickhead he is.
âYeah, sounds about right. My momâs family is mostly gone. Not that I ever knew them, and I only knew I inherited this manor because she left it to me as a gift on my sixteenth birthday with a femme she trusted.
âIt sat empty. She never lived there, so we had some cleaning up to do.
âGenerally, though, Iâm guessing she really is a witch, as it was completely untouched, and no one seemed to be able to get in until I tried the door. It was weird but⦠a goddamn witch!
âThe strangest part is that I donât feel shocked. Itâs like I knew, but I didnât. I canât explain it.â
Heâs slowly coming back to that swoon-worthy high school jock as he talks, hints of regular Colton shining through, but it doesnât dampen my hurt feelings.
I allow my eyes to stray back to him, holding my outward cool and trying not to let all Iâm thinking spew out at him while focusing on the crucial issues in this conversation, not on him and me.
Iâm trying to absorb his words and that other slight issue that has been getting to me.
âAt least itâs not a vampire. Canât say that was welcome news,â I answer sarcastically, a little more edge to my tone than I intended.
Iâm watching that slight change to his expression and am completely unable to read it.
He half frowns, his jaw tensing a touch, but he doesnât have any kind of overdramatic responseâno instant hatred or recoiling in disgust.
âIt is what it is. It doesnât change who you are. Itâs just something to figure out, I guess,â he says.
He doesnât look my way, and I can tell heâs not as okay with it as heâs making out, but heâs also not freaking out and calling me a monster, either.
I expected a more significant reaction, to be honest, and this seems anticlimactic. I probably took it worse than he is.