“She needed a blood transfusion when she first arrived. The doctor asked everyone to get tested to find a more direct match.”
“Anders was the only one who came close,” Chris adds. “The doctor only asked Anders out of desperation.”
“Then, a few weeks ago, Jessica reacted to the blood transfusions using Anders’s blood,” Elias explains. “One of the specialists asked if Anders was a direct blood relative. Of course, he denied it.”
Anders looks away. “I don’t have a daughter. I would know,” he mumbles.
“That you know of,” Chris argues. “Look, you can stay in denial all you want, but you know deep down that it’s a possibility. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have agreed to the paternity test.”
Anders drops his chin to his chest, looking at the photograph in front of him. A crimson flush creeps from beneath his collar. “Aside from the hair and eyes, she looks just like her mother,” he finally admits softly.
“It’s a 99.9 percent match,” Elias informs Anders. Elias shows me the test results.
I think Anders already knew, even before the blood typing. He didn’t want to face the truth, especially given the way she was found.
His shoulders tense, jaw clenches, and the flush turns to an angrier red. He slams his fist down on the desk. “Dammit! I can’t believe she would do this!” He looks over at Elias and Chris. “Was this some kind of retaliation against me?” he shouts.The two men stare at him, unblinking. “When I find her, I will fucking end her!” His breathing becomes labored, and the temperature in the room drops dangerously low.
Chris hops off the edge of the desk. “Wait! You don’t know the whole story. You’re jumping to conclusions. At this point, we still don’t know what really happened or how.”
“What really happened?!” Anders yells. “You saw what she looked like when she arrived at the clinic. You heard the doctor! Years of abuse and malnourishment. She was tortured. Her back was filleted. They cut off her hair and marred her face. She was beaten, strung up, and hanged from a tree, barely alive! Multiple failed surgeries, and even after all of that, she still nearly died only a few weeks ago.”
Standing, I lift my hands to distract Anders before ice shards start flying. “Chris has a point. We don’t know what happened. We can’t storm into a territory and start killing people without any proof of who attacked her. All we—I mean, you—all you can do is focus on right now. That’s what we—you—can do for her right now.”
Why the hell do I keep saying we? This isn’t about me right now. This is about Anders and the young woman, and as much as I am on board for killing the fuckers who hurt her, we need to keep our heads. I mean, his head. Shit!
Anders glares at me, chest still heaving.
“We can figure out the rest later,” I assure him.
He stands, leaning forward with both hands planted on his desk. Frost forms on the wooden surface, and his harsh breaths puff into clouds.
I turn toward Chris and Elias. Worried expressions mirror my own. I have never seen Anders like this.
Still hunched, he closes his eyes and takes several slow, deep breaths. The room temperature begins to return to normal. “I will kill the asshole responsible for hurting my daughter, and notone of you better stand in my way,” he promises with a deathly calm.
“I’ll stand by your side, my friend,” Elias commits.
Chris nods. “No one deserves what she endured. We need to be logical about this and develop a plan. A plan to take care of her right now and keep her safe.”
Once calm, Anders slumps into his chair. “What the fuck am I going to do? I can’t have a daughter. I just can’t. Every female in my bloodline carries a curse.” He sighs and rubs his temples. “Pretty fucking obvious—the curse is already affecting her.”
Chris begins to pace. “Technically, it’s not a curse. It’s a bunch of greedy bastards who think they can gain something by hurting others. Just so happens the females in your bloodline are their main target.”
“I have to take her to Ryukyu. I don’t have a choice.” A pained expression crosses Anders’s face. “She’ll never forgive me, if I take her away from here and dump her at the school in the Asian territories, the same way my boys were dumped, the way I was dumped, away from the bonds she has developed here.” He closes his eyes and shakes his head.
Chris interjects, “Save that as a last resort. You saw the way Ean and Charlie are with her, not to mention the twins. Don’t forget about us. We have all formed some kind of bond with her as well. And if Shakti hears about this…”
Anders hesitates. “If I am completely honest with myself, I want her here. But who the hell am I to raise a daughter? I have only ever raised sons—well, here anyway.”
“Why can’t you do it all?” I ask.
“What?” three voices respond at once. When I look around the room, three pairs of eyes gape at me, like I grew an extra head.
I shrug. “You said that Shakti formed a bond with the girl. She’s a woman. I’m sure there is some womanly instinct therethat can help you raise her. So have an honest conversation with the Alpha King and the Luna Queen and ask them to adopt her. That way you can still be a part of her life and stay involved with pertinent decisions that affect her.”
Chris snaps his fingers. “Like hiding her out in the open. No one will question the Alpha King about an adoption.”
Elias slowly nods.
