“I was taken and spared. I’m not sure why. My grandmother eventually tracked me down by discovering the group of men who killed my family and saved me. Instead of bringing me to her new pack, she sent me to live with the family who raised my mother.”
He pauses, glancing first at me and then back at Christian. My father squeezes his shoulder.
“I was an angry kid. I felt abandoned and hurt that my own grandmother wouldn’t take me in, so I acted out. I started fights and even joined an underground fighting ring. My adopted family didn’t know what the hell to do with me. Finally, my grandmother sent for me to return home. By then, she mated with an Alpha who had children from a previous mating, and together they returned to the LS territory. I was still so angry with her, more so because she mated a man who had children. She raised them as her own, yet she didn’t raise me or my mother.”
My heart breaks for him. I picture a young boy with anger and hurt from feeling abandoned.
He runs a hand down his face. “I didn’t make it easy for her. I hated her façade of being an older woman who mated a younger man, of being weak. I wanted revenge on the ones who killed my family, who killed her mate. She tried to talk me out of it and said that things would fall into place, but I refused to listen. I left our territory. Not caring if I put myself at risk, I went in search ofthe Resistance. Instead, I found a group of rogues with the same goals as me—to take down the Resistance and the monarchy so that the white wolves could return and seize what was taken from them.
“I was almost seventeen at the time. On one of our runs, we encountered a fight. From my standpoint, I immediately recognized the guards—outnumbered and losing. I didn’t know who they were fighting, though. But I knew for sure it wasn’t the rogues, even though people usually blamed us for every random killing that occurred.
“I was tired of it—tired of being labeled as the bad guys—when we were the ones searching to defeat the Resistance. I made the decision to assist the guards, to prove everyone wrong about us. I motioned to my group to help.
“As we approached, I saw three shifters in wolf form surrounding a woman huddled on the ground, using her body to protect a little boy. I ran, zeroing in on the three shifters. I attacked them, using my magic to build a wall of ice in front of the woman to shield her and the boy. I killed the shifters, ripping out their throats with my teeth, and more of them attacked me and the other rogues. When the guards realized we were on their side, they changed tactics and focused on the ones they were there to protect.
“The rogues and I killed many shifters that night. Slowly, the others understood they wouldn’t win, so they retreated. I brought my wall of ice down, but when I got close enough…”
Anders closes his eyes briefly and clenches his free hand into a fist. Turning toward my father, I read grief and sadness in in his expression.
“I was too late. The woman died protecting her son. We were also too late to save the head guard. He was killed in the attack. We helped the guards collect their own party, and without a word, we disappeared into the night. For days, I couldn’t ridmyself of the image of the mother huddled around her son, bleeding to her death. I replayed my actions, my decisions, over and over in my mind. If I had reached them sooner, if I hadn’t delayed in my decision to join the fight, I could have saved her. Her son would still have a mother. That boy was now like me, without a mother, all because of the Resistance. After that, I pushed and trained my group of rogues harder. I was even more determined to take down the Resistance.”
I clear my throat. “How did you know it was the Resistance?”
“One of the rogues investigated them. He learned of the origins of the attack. They planned on overtaking the Alpha King and his family.”
I gasp and clap my hand over my mouth. “That little boy you saved…”
“It was me,” my father answers. “That night, he saved my life. His group saved my father, as well as Duck. My father sustained many injuries. He never quite recovered to his normal state, but he and my uncle survived. I lost my mother and grieved her loss, but I still had my family. I will be forever grateful for Anders and his group. We lost our head guard, Elias’s father, that night, but he was killed before Anders’s group even arrived. The Resistance was smart. They eliminated our strongest guards first, weakening our defenses, to ultimately reach my family.”
Carmen quirked a brow at Anders. “Okay. So you saved the Alpha King and his father with your group of rogues, but that still doesn’t explain how you came to be the head guard.”
My father smiles. “Anders wasn’t the only one who knew how to obtain information. Duck tracked the rogues. He trusted someone in the group. He discovered that a teenage boy led the rogues to aid us, and he and my father traveled to Whitemore plantation, known as Parker territory back then, and spoke to Alpha Agnus. When my father learned of Anders’s situation, he decided he wanted to bring Anders into our home, offer himguidance, serve as a role model, and fill in as a father figure, which he felt Anders needed. Anders is a natural Alpha. It was obvious he needed another Alpha to help him understand himself.
“Anders came to live with us a few days later. At the time, the head guard and Duck’s family also lived in the mansion. He was close to Elias and Chris’s age. Over time, he grew close to the pair. I was ten and maybe a little bratty, before life circumstances changed me. Chris and Elias usually ignored me, even though I looked up to them. But Anders was my hero. Still is.”
My father smiles and slaps Anders on the back. Anders smirks, lowering his gaze.
“I was a pain in the ass, following him everywhere, copying everything he did. I wanted to be just like him. But he never made me feel like I was a bother. He never told me to leave him alone. He talked to me all the time and taught me how to fight, to protect myself. So, I became his shadow. In my eyes, he was my big brother.”
Anders grunts. “You’re still a pain in my ass.”
My father laughs. “I love you, too. Anyway, Duck took over as interim head guard. He and my father decided to recruit the rogues, who fought alongside the guards.”
“Who are the rogues?” I ask.
“You’ve met them. In fact, two of them work as part of the household staff,” Anders clarifies.
“Joe’s a rogue?”
Anders chuckles. “He’s a guard now, but yes, he once was a rogue. When he learned that I came to stay at the mansion, he took a job on the staff. He was the first friend I made when I moved to the LS territory. He became protective of me, knowing I didn’t make the best decisions, considering where my head was at, at the time. He wanted to keep an eye on me. He also becamevery protective of Nathan. When he completed his training, he decided to remain as staff in the household. He served as both guard and butler. Xavier took the chauffeur position.”
I smile, thinking of Joe and Xavier. “They’re older than you. You just jumped into their group and bossed them around?” I tease Anders.
He grimaces. “I didn’t boss anyone around. They had a goal, one I shared, so I used my training from the Asian territory, even though I wasn’t done yet, and taught them.”
My father adds, “Even at a young age, Anders was quite skilled. Both my father and Duck were pleasantly surprised to see the rogues in combat training, even more so because, in a short time, they learned to fight, strategize, and work together as a unit. All their training came from a young teenage boy. They allowed Anders to oversee some of the training, under their guidance, of course. It became pretty evident what Anders was meant to do.”
“Yes, but wasn’t that a role meant for Elias?” Carmen interjects.
