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Tristan
He was so done. He understood that she had suffered a lot. And he tried to always keep that in mind. But he was not going to lose his daughter because she was a fucking liar.
“I promised you that I would not try to interfere with the decisions you made. But I'm done. If you didn't think this would damage her, then you're wrong. She will remember it. I'm done with your self-serving selfish decisions. I want custody of her. You're not leaving with her.”
“How exactly are you going to stop me?” she asked.
He could hear the tremble in her voice.
“I have plenty of ways to stop you. I can take all of us in front of the pack. Or if you'd rather try your luck in a human court, we can do that too. Do you think a human judge, one who is impartial and doesn't know either of us would look kindly on your decisions? Do you think anyone is going to think you did the right thing?” he asked.
“Would you like to explain to a judge how you found out you were pregnant and then just didn't tell me? Even though you knew where I lived, and you had my cell phone number. Would you like to tell him how you never looked for me? And then when you finally did happen to randomly stumble upon me, you were about to die in a fire? Sure, you were about to save someone, and that's very noble, but you would've left our daughter an orphan. And I would've had no idea that she was out there in the world, alone,” he said, struggling not to yell.
“You would've left her alone without a mother or a father. Do you think that will impress a judge? And then at that point, you still wanted to get away and not let me get to know her. You didn't want her to get to know me either,” he said, not caring how harsh he was.
He watched as her eyes widened and filled with tears as each of his words hit home. But he was done being kind and understanding. At least about their daughter. He would be patient about her in their relationship forever. She did not owe him any romance or any part of herself. But she did owe him a relationship with his daughter. Just as she owed Arabella the same.
“I'm sorry,” she whispered.
“That's not good enough. Over and over I do my best to show you that I'm not a monster. And yet you just refuse to listen. You don't want me – fine. But I want my daughter. And I'm not going to let you stop that. Do you realize that you spend all your time trying to protect her from me and my pack? But you never thought about protecting her from yourself? You need to think about that because you are depriving her. You are hurting her. She has me and a whole family out there that would adore her. She has grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins. I was prepared to be patient. I was prepared to be very very understanding because of your past. But you blew it. You’re squeaky, and you’re a liar. So now I'm going to talk to a judge and make sure you can't fly out of here with her. I'm going to make sure you can't cross the border with her.”
She would obviously be able to sneak out as a wolf, but there was no need to mention that. His pack had contacts in homeland security and the FBI. He wasn't sure if they would actually implement any checks for him, but it didn't hurt to scare her. He did not want to punish her or see her suffer. He just wanted to finally make his point that he was serious and that he was done being manipulated by her.
“You have no idea what it's like,” she said. She wasn't hateful. She just seemed sad. And resigned.
“I am not your enemy. I just wish you could understand that,” he insisted.
“Look! Watch! Mom, Dad!” Arabella jumped in the air, doing a cannonball. She splashed into the water and resurfaced, waving madly. They both waved back. “Come in. Come in,” she commanded. “Let's swim like wolves!”
“We’re coming soon,” he called out to her.
“You have all the power here and I have none,” she said.
“That is absolutely not true. It’s the opposite, in fact.”
He had said his piece. Now he intended to swim with his daughter. He couldn't believe what a narrow miss it had been. But at least it had cleared up one thing up for him – Violet was not going to be his mate. Now he could accept that. He no longer wanted her to be his mate either. He might not be perfect, but he didn't deserve the kind of nonsense that she was full of.
He deserved to have someone treat him with some measure of respect, and she wasn't capable of that. He would be better off alone than chasing after her.
They all transformed and spent the next hour splashing happily in the moonlit lake.
He escorted them back to the cabin where Austin was already out on the front porch getting ready to leave for work.
He swept his daughter up into his arms, giving her a fierce hug. “I hope you have a great day. I had a great time swimming with you, and I'll see you soon.” He kissed her on the top of the head and put her down. He looked at Violet. “I'll talk to you tonight; we can work out the arrangements ourselves if you're willing to stick to it.”
He wasn't goingto give her another chance to lie, but he would try to compromise with her and negotiate.
She nodded but said nothing. He waved at her pack mate and left. It had not been pleasant calling her out like that, but it had to be done.
He was just lucky that he had felt her turmoil. He'd felt her panic through their bond, and it had woken him up. That's how strong their connection was. But he was done trying to convince her of that. He would be a father to his pup and that would be enough.
