– Chapter 165

Frederic

Selene is smarter than I gave her credit for – and more stubborn. Her impromptu interview with the press outside the hospital was masterful – if it hadn’t caused such problems for me I’d even be impressed. However ever since she told the pack to start looking into my background, I’ve been doing nothing but putting out fires.

Every five minutes a different reporter is calling for my comment, while a bevy of others dig into my past. Of course, Thomas Kane only has records dating back to college – when my mother invented him. Before then everything I did was tainted by my father’s so-called “crimes”. The media has already figure out my current identity is a fraud, how much longer can I last before they learn the truth? Even the medical board has been calling me, threatening to revoke my license.

Part of me regrets throwing my mother into the basement, I’d really love to have someone to talk to right now, but I have a feeling Mom isn’t going to be too forthcoming with advice after spending two weeks in a cold dark pit. Oh well, you live and you learn.

It might be easier to stomach if I were any closer to winning over Selene. But she seems as distant as ever- if not more so. We haven’t spoken in quite some time now, and I have a bad feeling she’s onto me – why else would she have directed everyone to investigate me?

Every day that passes seems to make my situation seem more and more bleak, and I’m trying to keep my head up, but it isn’t easy. The worst comes when I learn that Selene is planning to leave the territory to chase Bastien. I didn’t realize at first, it wasn’t until my spies around the pack house began to notice a lot of movement: Selene and her witchy mentor planning and packing their bags, and Drake and his little mate talking to Lila about their plans for Asphodel.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what’s going on, but no matter the harm she’s done to my reputation or the problems it might cause, I know I have to stop her.

______________________

Selene

I’m on my way to visit Dr. Lee one last time before Helene and I depart, and I’m hoping she’ll agree to do an early sonogram test so I can take the video with me to Tartarus. I need every last bit of help I can get to make Bastien remember the truth, and if there’s a chance the new baby can convince him, I’ll gladly use it. However just before I reach Dr. Lee’s office, I smell Dr. Kane.

Stopping and looking around warily, my heart sinks into my stomach when I see the man in question step out from behind a parked van. For one terrible moment I’m afraid he intends to coerce me into the vehicle, but instead he comes to stand in front of me.

He’s wearing a grave expression, and his body language is downright somber. “Selene, what are you planning?”

Gritting my teeth I reply, “Thomas, what are you doing here?”

“I came to talk to you because I heard a rumor that you were leaving.” He says, as if the mere idea of me going away is ludacris.

“You heard a rumor,” I repeat coldly, not believing this story for a single second. “More like you have more spy cameras hidden somewhere.”

His eyes widen almost imperceptibly before he quickly covers his surprise. “What are you talking about?”

“Enough Lies, Frederic.” I answer, throwing caution to the wind. “I know exactly who and what you are.”

His entire demeanor changes at once, as if by confronting him I flipped a switch and transformed him from kindly Thomas Kane to conniving Frederic Durand. The man I’ve only ever known to be warm and earnest is gone, replaced by someone I don’t recognize at all. His green eyes narrow to slits, and he crosses his arms over his chest, sidling closer to tower over me. “And just how did you figure that out?”

“Because you aren’t as smart as you think you are.” I hiss, tilting my chin up defiantly. “The next time you want to try and ruin someone’s life, you might want to consider covering your tracks better.”

Now he doesn’t bother to hide his shock. “How can you say that? Surely you know I would never hurt you.” He moves to touch me, and I instinctively back away. A few passersby are beginning to take notice, but Frederic doesn’t seem to realize the attention we’re drawing. His focus is solely on me. “You’re a survivor, like me.”

Suddenly I realize the man is not just cunning and ruthless, but completely delusional. I knew he’d developed some sort of strange fixation on me, but he truly believes every word he’s saying. “You already have hurt me. How do you think it felt learning you were spying on me in the most intimate moments of my life? Keeping me from Bastien all that time didn’t help me, Frederic, it almost destroyed me. If you and Arabella hadn’t ever separated us, so much pain could have been avoided. Don’t pretend you care about me. You care about yourself and your own mission, not me.”

Somewhere in the back of my mind I know it’s terribly risky to confront someone who is so clearly disturbed this way, but I can’t help it now that the fight has begun. Besides, we’re beginning to gather an audience, and the more people hear, the better. “That isn’t fair.”

“Yes it is, and you know it.” I counter fiercely, keeping his attention on me. One of the people standing behind Frederic has pulled out their phone and are clearly recording our interaction. “You knew Arabella was going to try to kill me and you didn’t stop her, you got cold feet at the last second and abandoned me in a situation that could have ended up just as deadly. You made me sick so that I would stay under your control and risked the life of my baby, you separated me from my mate over and over again. You faked my death. You murdered Gabriel, who was like a father to me!”

With every word I speak, Frederic has gotten angrier and angrier, swelling up like a puffer fish and turning redder and redder. It’s sort of like watching lava bubble up in a volcano, and he’s clearly about to blow. “Gabriel deserved to die!” Frederic explodes, “And so does Bastien! The entire Durand family is corrupt and has only stayed in power this long by taking credit for other people’s achievements!”

“You’re a Durand too, Frederic.” I remind him, speaking very clearly for the cameras. “Your father tried to stage a coup and he failed because he wasn’t strong enough to lead. That’s how it works.” Shaking my head, I laugh in his infuriated face, “You know you two are just alike. He thought the world had wronged him and he was so determined to claim what he thought he deserved that it didn’t matter who he hurt in the process. Good people died in that battle, Frederic. Wolves fighting to defend their families lost their lives because of his vendetta and now you are following in his footsteps!”

“Don’t you dare speak ill of my father!” Frederic thunders. “You weren’t there that day! I was, I saw Gabriel kill him – his own brother!”

“Who was trying to kill him!” I shout back. “He was doing what good Alpha’s do and defending his pack.”

“If he cared about what was best for the pack, he would have stepped aside to allow a better ruler to take over.” Frederic insists. I swear arguing with him is like talking to a brick wall. But it’s certainly serving its purpose. Multiple onlookers are recording us now, and I’m sure the footage will be all over the evening news.

“And if you cared about what was best for me, you’d let me go and stop trying to sabotage my mate! I combat, “you’ve been trying for years now and all your best attempts have failed! Aren’t you tired of playing this game yet?”

“My plans have only failed because -” He begins furiously.

“Because Bastien deserves to be Alpha!” I interrupt him. “You sent the Geminis to disrupt Gabriel’s funeral, and Bastien talked them down. You flooded the Equinox festival, and he handled the crisis. You made him believe I was dead, and he overcame his grief for the sake of the pack. He has been outmaneuvering you for years while you hid in the shadows like a coward!”

When the final word leaves my mouth, I realize I’ve gone too far now. Frederic looks positively murderous, and I flinch away from him when he raises his hand to strike me. My eyes are clenched tightly shut and I’m still waiting for the pain to explode across my cheek when I hear a clapping sound and a new voice.

“Don’t even think about it.”

Opening my eyes, I find the bodyguard Bastien secretly hired to protect Lila and me standing over Frederic with his fist curled around the younger man’s wrist. For the first time, Frederic seems to realize that we are standing on a public street, and that our conversation was far from private. Breathing heavily, he looks around in horror and notices our audience. All the livid color drains from his face, and he looks back at me with the kind of helpless expression Lila sometimes gets when she gets herself in trouble. She would say, “uh-oh.” Frederic, on the other hand, chooses a different word. “Fuck.”