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Yet I didn’t doubt her claim. I knew it on some fundamental, instinctual level. There was no denying our similarities–same small nose, high cheekbones, and full lips. Same silver hair. Same blue eyes, although hers were lighter and filled with malice and contempt.
“I… Why?” I whispered. Why did you abandon me? Why did you blackmail me? Why did you kidnap me? Why didn’t you love me?
It didn’t take a genius to figure out she was my blackmailer. Why else would I be here?
“Why? Because you were an asset, and we needed the money.”
“We?”
“My pack. I’m the leader of the Silverwolf Pack. All women.”
I shook my head, confused. “I thought there was a hierarchy. Alphas at the top, Omegas at the bottom.”
Shannon’s lip curled in disgust. “A hierarchy of males, where the females were considered the lesser sex. Compelled to mate and bear their young. Like me. I was given to the pack leader when I was sixteen and forced to bear his offspring. Forced to bear you.”
My throat tightened. “You didn’t want me?”
“Want you? Why would I want you when I didn’t want him? You were the product of a dysfunctional relationship. Something I had to endure.”
Pain ripped through me. There had always been a small part of me that hoped my parents had abandoned me because they’d wanted to protect me, but the utter lack of emotion in my mother’s eyes killed that spark of hope.
“What about children? You said you’re all female?”
Shannon’s laugh echoed through the cabin. “Oh, child. Just because there are no men doesn’t mean we can’t find our pleasures outside the pack. But it’s our choice, not something forced upon us. We have offspring, some almost as old as you.”
“And my father?”
A snarl rumbled up her throat. “Your father cared nothing for me, nor I for him. He was a cruel man.”
“Was?”
“He’s dead. I killed him before I fled with the other females and established our own pack. It’s amazing how you can take down an alpha when you have the element of surprise on your side. ‘Hell hath no fury like a woman wronged,’ isn’t that how the saying goes?”
“I think you’ll find it’s ‘scorned,’ not ‘wronged.’” I felt sick as I tried to process her words. My mother was a murderer.
Shannon waved a hand dismissively. “Same result.”
“So all this, the blackmail, was about money?”
“My pack needed resources to keep our location safe and provide for our needs. I put out the word that I was looking for a certain type of computer specialist. A hacker who could siphon small amounts from billion-dollar companies. Amounts that wouldn’t raise any red flags. And who should come highly recommended but my own daughter? Providence is a wonderful thing, don’t you think?”
“So, that’s the only reason you sought me out. To blackmail me. Force me to steal money for you under the threat of exposure.”
Shannon’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t play the martyr, child. It’s not like you didn’t gain anything from your Gray Hat activities. I simply took advantage of the situation to forge a fifty-fifty partnership. I could’ve taken it all, but I’m not a greedy woman. My priority is the safety and comfort of my pack.”
She paused, tapping her finger against her chin. "You and I had a good run in the cyber world, Mila. We were the perfect team until Magnus came into the picture. I must confess, I didn’t see that one coming. Never expected you to mate with him. His scent is all over you,” she said as if the mere thought were disgusting. “My little girl has been riding the boss like a street woman.”
“You know he’ll come for me. Magnus will find me no matter where I am, what you do, and how far apart we are. And when he does–”
“When he does, it will be too late,” she said, cutting me off.
Ice slithered through my veins. “What do you mean?”
“Nothing you can do now will fix what is already done. Even now, you carry his spawn. I smell the abomination growing in your womb. The offspring of a wolf and a bear. We don’t commit crimes against nature, child. It screws with the balance, and once the balance is off, we need to fix it.”
A child? I was pregnant with Magnus’s baby? It was too soon, wasn’t it?
Her expression darkened, and the madness in her eyes gave way to something more sinister. My breath hitched as she walked to a small table tucked in the corner and retrieved a knife. Moving toward me, she twirled it and pressed the edge of the blade against her palm. Blood bubbled from the wound, a testament to its razor-sharpness.
