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“There is no turning back from this, Flora.” Draven cautioned, but he knew it was of little use. He recognized a warrior's stare when he saw one.
He may have reached a point where taking a life did little to phase him, but Flora hadn’t. It was a lesson he’d learned young, one he’d been trained in with the knowledge that as an Alpha and enforcer of the supernatural world, it would be necessary to exact justice. Then again, he couldn’t blame her for wanting to be the one to end her father’s life.
“If he was an innocent maybe, but my soul was damaged long ago by that man. I have spent years finding myself and putting back together what’s left of the fractured pieces of my childhood. Who I am now is a direct reflection of who I want to be. Not who he made me. This is my journey. This is something I would have done with or without you.”
Draven wanted to protect her, to take the pain away that would inevitably come from what she needed to do, but damn the Goddess if her strength wasn’t the sexiest damn thing he’d ever seen.
He nodded and stepped forward, pulling her into his arms once more. She tipped her head up, her eyes meeting his, and though she didn’t say the words, he read loud and clear her request for his support but also his strength.
Draven lowered his lips to her cheek and pressed a gentle kiss before whispering in her ear. “I’m right behind you.”
Flora edged forward, each step steeling her spine until she stood inches from her father.
Jimmy jutted out his chin in defiance, though Draven didn’t miss the hint of fear in his eyes. “You would kill the man who gave you life? Would you, Flora?”
“Providing my genetic makeup isn’t giving me life, Father. You made sure I was no better than the mud you tracked into the house. I was only as good as the money I could gie you. You took my childhood from me, locking me away for days at a time in a filthy bedroom. But if that wasn’t enough, you took my mother from me.”
Jimmy scoffed and rolled his eyes dramatically. “Because you cared about her so much. What kind of daughter doesn’t come to her mother’s funeral?”
“The kind who is afraid to end up in the casket beside her,” Flora exploded, her voice carrying a strength Draven hadn’t expected. She spoke of a fearful little girl, but the woman before him showed no hint of her.
“You left your mother, when those vampires took you from us. If anyone sealed her fate it was you, you ungrateful whore. You probably did spread your legs for them, that’s why they didn’t want you anymore. You wasted the only thing you had to offer the world on a bunch of corpses when you could have been providing for your family.”
Draven took a step forward to shut Jimmy’s mouth, but Kade beat him to it, his fist colliding with Jimmy’s face with a sickening crunch.
A yell tore from Jimmy’s throat and blood poured from his broken nose.
Draven leaned in until he was nose to nose with Jimmy. “I would think very carefully about your next words. For Flora’s sake I’m allowing her to take your life quickly, but I’d very much enjoy taking you apart limb by limb.” He reached up and used his pinky to smear Jimmy’s blood across his face before bringing his finger to his lips and sucking the blood from it. “I’d start with the smallest limb too, so you could watch me drink each one dry.”
Jimmy swallowed hard and pinned his glare on Flora. “This is who you’d choose over family.”
A single tear fell down Flora’s pale cheek as she raised the gun. “Every. Single. Time.”
Flora pulled the trigger, lodging a bullet between her father’s eyes.
Draven heard the thud of Jimmy’s crumpling body, but his eyes were locked solely on Flora. Her lips parted, but no sound came out. She stood frozen, staring at the man who sired her as if waiting for something epic to transpire.
Nothing did. Nothing ever did. It was the curse of revenge. The curse of righting a wrong through death.
He stepped forward, took the gun from her outstretched hand and tossed it on the bed.
She looked up at him, her eyes a window to her soul revealing both the relief and panic that warred within.
“He’s gone,” she whispered softly.
Draven silently nodded at Kade and Mateo, knowing they would understand they were on the physical clean up duty, while he did his best to clean up the mind that whirled before him. He gently scooped Flora up and headed toward his bathroom.
She nuzzled into him, seeking comfort he wasn’t qualified to provide, but would selfishly give. A person’s first kill always stayed with them and this was so much more than that. But as much as he wanted to take away every bit of pain she was feeling, she needed to face it.
He set her down on the toilet and cupped her cheek, tipping her gaze to his. “Shower and wash up. It won’t take away the ache in your chest, but it will help. I’ll be just in the other room.”
He turned to leave, his wolf tugging from within, urging him to stay.
“Draven?” Her voice was soft and unsteady. “I can’t…” She hesitated, the words seemingly stuck in her throat. She swallowed hard and looked up at where he stood in the doorway, her eyes brimmed with tears. “…Don’t leave me alone.”
