Chapter 60: Chapter 59

“Dad?”

“My baby girl. I’m so sorry. For everything. I tried to find a way back to you..”

I pull away from where my face is held close against his shoulder, and look him in the eyes.

This wolf, who is my father, is looking at me tenderly, tears in the eyes that I have dreamt about a thousand times since I last saw them. So warm and brown, swirling with honey and delight, mirth and amusement, comfort and love. Not all those emotions are in them now, and I can well imagine why.

“But I watched you die,” I begin shaking my head, refusing to believe it’s really him. “The rogues tore you apart.” I pull back further, trying to stay standing on my feet which is a struggle due to my wrists still being bound and my legs weak with fatigue.

“Cyril, get those cuffs off her!” he growls at the demon at my back, and I flinch when cold fingers pry the elizenthium bonds loose. I rub my wrists, pushing feeling back into them, and am shocked when warm hands encase them in his own.

My father then speaks in a broken voice. Rich and deep, like I knew so well, but cracked like a hundred years of grief have etched it with hopelessness. “I know that’s what it seemed like, darling, on that horrible day Alpha Chesca’s pack was attacked. I fought with everything in me to protect you and your mother, my sweet Aliyah…” He pauses and takes a shuddery breath before continuing, “But the rogues stunned me. They came without warning and before I could get myself together, they had bound me and were wrestling me away.”

“But you were dead!” I wail, tears filling my eyes once more and beginning to stream down my face. With the appearance of my father, I am being forced to relive my most terrible nightmare. The day my world shattered around me. The day I saw my parents ripped to shreds by disgusting rogues, their bodies littered amongst others who’d died protecting our pack from invasion by the cruel Alpha of the neighbouring pack. I can still remember the tangy metallic scent of their blood and the glassy surfaces of their lifeless eyes.

The silence of their unmoving chests as I clung to them for comfort, before realising I would never again feel their warmth and love.

My dad shakes his head sadly. “I almost wish I had died. The rogues injured me severely, and it took months for my wounds to heal. They held me captive, only allowing me to heal so I could do their bidding. I’ve had to work with them for years, but I was always trying to find a way back to you. I’m so sorry—” he reaches for me again, but I pull back.

“No! You can’t be alive. It’s not real. My father would never give up and be captured. He’d never work for rogues…” I trail off, my sobs overtaking my words.

“Darling, I’m so sorry,” he pulls me close against his chest again, but I fight him, beating him with my tiny fists upon his firm chest. He doesn’t stop me, just holds me tight until I’ve depleted my store of anger and sorrow at the injustice of our situation. For years, we have been kept apart. For years, I have grieved everything I’ve lost. For years, he’s been trying to come back to me.

Now he has, and I give up fighting this impossible reality. I sag into his arms and let him stroke my hair and whisper soothing words against my ear. His masculine and rugged scent envelopes me and seems to reconnect all the severed bonds between us. I snuggle into the warmth of my father--my father!--and for a moment everything is right in the world. I am okay. I am not in pain, I am not lost, I am not deserted and rejected. I am a daughter in her father’s arms and nothing is going to take him away from me again.

“Now, listen to me carefully, Ari,” he takes my shoulders and speaks seriously, and I feel the familiar feeling of dread seep back into my heart. “Tonight is very important. You need to come with us, but promise to do as I say. Can you do that for me, baby girl?”

I nod numbly, “Anything. As long as I can stay with you.”

He smiles at me broadly, his white teeth gleaming despite the red glow around us, then pulls me to my feet and takes my hand in a comforting way. It makes me feel like I’m seven years old again, my own small hand trembling yet secure and cherished in his firm grip.

We push through the forest again, yet this time I am not running blindly towards Malachi’s estate, but following my dad’s lead with a few shady demons behind us. They make me nervous, but I feel safe beside my dad. And besides, I still have the dagger tucked in my dress should I need to slay any more demons.

I feel the scent change in the air, the weight of it growing stronger and heavier. It isn’t only rogues, but something darker. Something I recognise from Seneca and even Malachi, and especially the black beings following me.

There are more than a few demons ahead of us, and I shiver in pure fear as we step into a clearing that is surrounded by tall trees. It is a place on Malachi’s territory that I’ve never been to before, so the landscape is unfamiliar to me. I edge closer to my dad, staying hidden in his broad shadow as the light of a raging bonfire blazes towards us from the centre of the clearing.

A number of silhouettes stand between us and the flames, and even more figures hover around the edges, their bright glowing eyes reflecting the light like burnished coins. I shudder and wish I could shrink under their harsh and scrutinising gazes.

“Seneca, look at the stray dog we found wandering lost in the woods,” the demon called Cyril shoves me in the back, making me stumble forward. I gasp, and look up in time to see Luna Seneca twirl around to face me. On her face is a superior smirk, not of surprise, as if she knew I would show up all along.

“So, you finally made it, dear girl. Just in time, too,” her obsidian gaze flickers upward, and I follow it to see the moon nearly completely eclipsed in the sickly red shadow.

I’m trying to figure out what she means when my ears are arrayed by another sound.

“Ariella?”

I hear the strangled voice, recognising the deep timbre twisted with anguish, and everything within me freezes in horror.

“Malachi?” My eyes search for my mate, and my frantic movements come to a halt as I see Malachi to my left a dozen yards away, strapped to a wrought iron post by bindings that shine a dull jade. Or corn blue, depending on the light.

He writhes against them, his wrists, stomach, and biceps burning red where the ancient and rare element holds him captive. His face is strained, glistening with sweat, his bare chest heaving as he takes ragged breaths. His feet slide in the mossy bracken underfoot as they try to gain purchase, but fail dismally. He is thoroughly at the mercy of whatever morbid scenario is about to play out.

And I am too shocked to say a single thing.

“Ariella...” he weakly says my name again, the sound breaking whatever is left of my heart. All else around us fades to unobserved oblivion as my attention focuses solely on him. He throws his head back and grimaces in helplessness as obvious pain wracks his body. I clutch my own chest as the weak bond between us leaks some of his misery to me. When he calms enough, he whispers to me through clenched teeth, “You were never meant to be here for this.”

My eyes are on his, the navy hue sparkling somewhere beneath the tossed strands of his inky black fringe that hangs fallen over his face.

Then his irises change to crimson, and the throaty growl that is ripped from his throat sends everything within me screaming in response.

A few hours earlier…

Malachi stared at the door that just slammed. The door to his office through which is mate had just left.

Left wouldn’t be the right word to describe it.

She’d been dragged—shocked, angry, and relentlessly asking why he’d rejected her.

That was a very good question, one he hated admitting to himself. He knew exactly why, but what cut him up the most was the fact he had to do it. It was beyond his control. Out of his hands.

For her sake… he repeated the words that had kept him grounded the last few weeks. Everything was for her sake…

“Are you an idiot?” Hendrik asked, his accusing tone slicing through the silence that reigned in the office since Ariella’s departure. Her plaintive sobs still echoed in his mind, but otherwise all was silent except for the ragged breaking of his heart.

“You just rejected your mate, the woman who was made for you. Why? Can’t you see how much she cares for you?” Hendrik pushed, his words sounding like grating knives clashing together in Malachi’s tumultuous brain.

“Ariella has to stay away from me!” He turned and suddenly shouted, a loud growl reverberating from him just as Hamilton returned.

He made eye contact with his Alpha, and Malachi realised he’d left Knight to deal with Ariella. He could only hope that what Ariella said about Knight wasn’t true, that he wasn’t the traitorous dog who had betrayed them and abducted Ariella and Alpha Chesca before the rogue attack a few weeks back. He trusted Knight, and didn’t want to believe he was working against them. He had so many other things to worry about, and trusting Ariella’s outlandish words was sadly at the bottom of those priorities. She may have seen things and drawn pictures of their future, but it wasn’t a future he could afford to believe in.

His consisted of darkness and pain, and keeping her away from that was the best way he knew how to protect her.

“Then you’re a bigger fool than I first thought,” Hendrik continued, objection in his tone that bordered on disrespect for his Alpha. “I wish I myself had escorted her away from here, far away from such an ungrateful mongrel as you,” he said harshly, causing Malachi to growl and Hamilton to clasp his shoulder firmly.

“Gamma, remember your place!”

“No, it’s alright Hamilton. Let him continue. I want to know exactly what he thinks,” Malachi said with threads of steel in his voice. He gritted his teeth and clenched his fists, fighting the urge to go after Ariella and prevent another man from laying a hand on her.

“You are a coward. Ariella is the kindest, most sweet and compassionate shewolf I’ve ever met. All she’s ever done is care for you and love you with all her heart. I’ve seen it in her eyes since the day she moved here. She is stronger than any of us think, and would have made a brilliant Luna. Yet what have you done? You threw everything she did back in her face and kicked her out for no damn reason!”

The words were like poisoned arrows piercing Malachi’s already scalded skin. He couldn’t deny the truth of them. Yet, what his command didn’t know, was that saying those harsh words of rejection to Ariella had been like shoving his claws into his own chest and ripping out his heart. He could see the pain in Ariella’s face, could hear the despair and disbelief in her voice, and then the rage that bubbled out of her usually temperate nature.

And he’d been the cause of it.

But she’d be far worse off if he’d let her continue loving him. He had to let her go, and make everyone believe he truly didn’t care for her. He had to make her hate him.

Hendrik, oblivious to the conflicting turmoil in his Alpha’s head, kept prodding, poking as with a cowpoke. “You know who you remind me of? Your father.”

“Don’t bring Dennison into this!” Malachi growled roughly, but Hendrik chose to ignore him.

“He never cared for Luna Krystal, God bless her lovely soul. And he couldn’t even protect his own daughter from his crazed enemies who never should have existed. And everyone knows he never made Seneca happy. I used to think the only good thing that came of his life was you, but I was wrong. You’re as callous and cold as—“

“That’s enough!” Malachi rushed at him and gripped his neck, slamming him into the wall behind. “Don’t ever compare me to my father!” He snarled murderously, his heated veins now throbbing even faster with a thirst for blood. Anything to assuage this hunger and pain inside.

“Malachi! Let go of him!” Hamilton rushed to his side and laid a hand urgently on his shoulder. He’d been there many times for Malachi, and knew a firm hand and strong command were the only ways to break the enraged haze that would come over him.

The Alpha only calmed down a fraction of that rage, continuing to glare with heated fury at the wolf who defied him.

“So the rumours are true…” Hendrik whispered, staring up at his Alpha with wide eyes and a frightened expression.

“What rumours?” Malachi eased off, loosening his grip and taking a half step back. He shook his head to clear the strong emotions, swallowing hard and nearly choking on the bile that fought back. He wondered if his eyes had flickered with red sparks, the kind he’d seen reflected back in Ariella’s aghast eyes on the few occasions he’d come close to losing control around her.

“About the killer. They say it’s someone in this pack, someone we all know. They don’t believe you’ve caught him. Now I think I know… It’s you.”

“Who? Why do they say that? What makes you think…” Malachi trailed off, realising his objections to the truth were futile. It was only a matter of time before everyone found out exactly who the murderer truly was, so there was no time to waste denying it.

“Robert… Leo… Archie… Victor? They all died at your hands, didn’t they?”

“They all deserved it, those rotten scoundrels,” Malachi said hotly, not regretting those deaths even though they had been in cold blood. The wolves weren’t innocent, but reason told Malachi they did deserve a judge and jury instead of just a gruesome execution.

“And those rogues last week….?” Hendrik blinked, realisation dawning in his mind. “I didn’t believe it was just another wolf who tore them to pieces. Not even an Alpha wolf. It had to be something stronger, more wild. Someone vicious and cruel.”

“I’m not cruel. They were trespassing.”

“They hadn’t yet crossed our borders.”

“They were about to! I had to protect my pack. From killers, murderers, liars, thieves, destroyers of life. That’s what they all were. I won’t apologise for what I’ve done,” Malachi stated with emphasis on every word. He still firmly believed his actions were justified, especially when he considered how much worse it could have been. How many innocent lives he might have destroyed had he not taken out his bloodlust on deserving sinners?

“But what about Ariella? Do you think she deserved how you treated her? Where does your kind heart stop and your cruel soul begin? How many more people will be hurt because you can’t control—”

“You don’t know what you’re saying!” Malachi snarled again, and this time Hamilton agreed.

“Hendrik, just leave it. Don’t push him. Now that you know what he’s capable of.”

“Fine,” the Gamma threw a glare at his Beta, angry that he’d never been told this devastating truth about the leader of the pack he served. “I do know what he’s capable of. Which is why I will make certain Ariella knows too how pointless her love for you is,” he turned to Malachi and slitted his eyes at him. “You could never return her love, as she so innocently hopes for. She deserves the world, but all you keep doing is tearing it down around her.”

Malachi felt his muscles tightening again, preparing to lunge into motion, but he held himself in check with every restraint he had left. Hendrik was undeniably right. “Fine. You do that. Go ahead and tell her what a monster I am. She deserves the truth, as you say. I don’t care what she thinks of me.” He ground out between clenched teeth, then turned away before he could take back his words and tear Hendrik’s head off. It hurt like the fires of hell to say these things about the woman he would give his life for, but that’s what he was doing.

No matter what was to happen tonight, his sole purpose would be to keep Ariella as far away as possible.

He would die first before letting anything happen to her.

Hamilton was staring at Hendrik as silent words passed between them, and he wondered what they had planned together. He trusted his life and this pack with these men, and he knew despite his agitated state that they could be depended upon to ensure the pack’s safety here on out.

The door of the office opened and Hendrik marched out with purpose blazing in his hardened eyes, like an obedient soldier. Before it clicked shut, it swung open and Seneca glided in. Tossing her glittering black hair over one slender shoulder, she looked between the two remaining male wolves and smiled coyly as her gaze honed in on her son.

“You do realise tonight is a full moon.” Her voice dripped with something veiled, something only he would know because he knew what she really was. Riddles and hidden motives was the language she was most acquainted with.

“You don’t need to remind me.” His burning body, raging longing and desire he felt towards Ariella, the crippling pain he’d felt as he spoke the deadly words of rejection…. all were reminders enough that tonight was like no other. They should have been completing their bond, drowning in their love and passion for each other. But instead he’d spurned their destiny and denied them both the yearning of their bonded souls. He could only pray the pain he was in hadn’t killed Ariella.

Her sake….

“Well, I’m sure you feel it. The desire and urge to break free from the bondage of this realm,” Seneca leaned up close and patted his cheek.

A familiar cold feeling snaked its way down his skin from her touch, and his entire body shivered in protest.

His breath caught at the mystery beneath her words. He couldn’t piece together fast enough what she could mean.

“Soon, my Son. Very soon, everything will be made right, and this pack will worship you as the Alpha you were always destined to be.”