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Chapter 17 - Diana
This secret we’d kept for weeks was rendered pointless with one phone call, and my head was still spinning. Why was Colin so calm when Kaleem broke Jackson’s jaw?
With Kaleem losing his cool, I’d expected Colin to milk the situation. I think everyone expected that and was as shocked as Dad and I. Perhaps Dad’s shock was worse than everyone else’s because he vanished into the forest, and I was still rooted where I stood.
I didn’t believe Colin for a second when he was blabbering nonsense about wanting peace and what was best for the pack. This would come back to bite us in the ass, but for now, the band-aid was off, and it was official, I was a part of Silverdawn Pack.
Of course, there would have to be an initiation ceremony, but I was as good as in, as was Dad.
Kaleem laid a hand on my shoulder. “Are you okay?”
I nodded. “I am, but Dad isn’t.”
Dad was prepared to leave and return to the pack, only to hear he was no longer welcome. I wasn’t sure if he’d been lying to me from the start, but I was wounded nonetheless. At first, I’d thought I understood his reasons for being loyal to Bloodmoon, but now, I didn’t get it, not when he was ready to see me leave while he stayed behind, knowing his situation wouldn’t be made better.
“Do you still have eyes on him?” Kaleem asked his brother, who nodded. “Good. Colin doesn’t let go of an issue so easily, ever.”
“I know,” Killian replied before going into the house, leaving Kaleem and me.
I wasn’t surprised Kaleem was keeping tabs on Colin. Honestly, it was wise of him to do so. Colin wasn’t a wolf. He was a colorful snake meant to fool others into thinking he was harmless, but he was poisonous.
“I’ll go talk to him,” I said to Kaleem while nodding towards the woods where Dad went. “Now, he doesn’t have a choice in the matter, but he was going to leave Kaleem. I need to know why because honestly, it’s unclear to me.”
Kaleem nodded. “Okay, but I’m sorry our night ended like this.”
Shaking my head, I hugged him. “The night isn’t over, and frankly, Colin did us a favor. But I’ve never seen you… the way you were tonight. Areyouokay?”
Kaleem closed his eyes for a moment. “It’s not a side of me anyone sees often. But I won’t stand by and let anyone disrespect you, Diana, I won’t. Speak with your Dad, and I’ll be waiting right here when you’re finished, okay?”
I nodded and walked away, refusing to release his hand. When I finally did, I hugged myself around my stomach and ventured into the dark forest.
Although it wasn’t bothering me, it was freezing. The wind was a cool caress on my skin, and with my heightened sight, I could easily see through the trees. I followed Dad’s scent, and after walking for three minutes, I found him leaning against a tree with his head back.
He was staring at the moon through a gap in the trees, and I stopped beside him to do the same.
Neither of us talked for a moment until Dad broke the silence. “My legacy is yours even if it’s not accepted by anyone else. That was what my Dad said to me when I joined the pack at 3 years old. I can’t remember anything else from that age, I don’t even remember my mother, but I remember that clearly.”
Fog escaped his mouth as he spoke and vanished in the air.
“Were you planning to pull out a week from now when Kaleem was meant to welcome us?” I asked, and he exhaled heavily, creating a small cloud.
“I wasn’t sure,” he answered, and I looked away, pinching the bridge of my nose. “I’m sorry, Diana, and I know you don’t understand, but…”
“No,” I interjected. “I don’t, Dad. We’ve talked about this so much, about having a good life again. We’ve talked about being free of Colin so often, and you weren’t sure if you’d take the chance to be happy?”
I walked forward to put distance between us. “You said you want me to be happy, but what about your happiness? Don’t you want that too, or have you grown used to Colin’s and the pack’s treatment so that you believe you can’t live without it? I don’t understand, Dad. Explain it to me.”
When he didn’t reply, my irritation and helplessness worsened.
“You were going to leave me!” I yelled. “I don’t care that you’d be here in town still, but I know, and I know,you know, you’d live in isolation in the pack just like always. So why?”
“I promised him,” Dad answered simply, and I stilled when a tear fell from his eyes. “I promised my father before he died that I’d never give up on the pack. He—somehow knew the downfall that would happen.”
I frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Colin has always been like this, ever since he was a child. He was always angry, spiteful, filled with hate, and never satisfied. Dad knew he’d ruin the pack, but he was the firstborn and the son of the pack’s Luna. He had a bigger claim than me.”
Dad wiped at his tears. “I promised Dad I’d protect the pack, even from Colin, if needed, and I failed.” My anger dissipated, and Dad held his head back. “I failed Dad, you, the pack. I broke the vow I made.”
