AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Sina squeezed my hand tighter and stared down at me with tears in her eyes. “Do you hear that, Calder?” she whispered. “You … you might be able to get a bit of yourself back. I hate seeing you look so upset over the way things are.”
Thayer shot me a look that I couldn’t quite decipher, as if he knew something that nobody else did about Sina’s father and the help that he was offering us as an entire pack.
He cleared his throat and stepped forward. “So, that means you won’t be able to fight.”
“In this war?” Sina’s father clarified. “No.”
My mate’s face dropped. She glanced back at her father and furrowed her brows. “If you heal Calder, you can’t help us defeat the man stealing, abusing, and raping innocent Paragons? Your power has dwindled that much?”
“Don’t worry about defeating them,” her father said. “You’re strong enough to do it yourself. I can tell just by sitting in the same room as you that you have my power inside you, but you’re afraid to use it.”
Sina suddenly dropped my hand and stood, furiously shaking her head. “No. No, I can’t do it. I could try a million times to kill him and stop this madness, but I … I can’t. I’ve seen it play out in my head so many times.”
He walked over to her and gently grasped her face. “You can do it.”
“No, I can’t.”
“You can. You have my power. That’s why they want you.”
“Wh-what’s your power?” Sina asked, voice trembling.
“To lead.”
Sina laughed emptily. “You thinkIhave the power to lead? Who am I going to lead if we have nobody but ourselves by our—”
“Leading Paragons is different from other species. Leading Paragons means you inspire them internally to fight. Leading Paragons means you can not only save them from the horrors of this world, but you can also control them.”
“Control them?” she repeated, voice just above a whisper.
“If they’re using a baby to create soldiers with Paragon blood rushing through their veins, you have the power to control them. That man needs you alive so you can lead his army. They might follow him into a couple of battles, but he can’t command them. Only you can.”
Sina parted her lips, then pressed them back together about a dozen times. Then, she shook her head, as if she didn’t believe it. “M-me? But I—”
Sina’s father grabbed her face again. “Stop waiting for him to come to you. The war has already begun, and it’s time for you to stand your ground. You’re a Paragon warrior, and we never stop fighting.”
88
the beginning
sina
I spentthe next two days training with Dad and Thayer, desperately trying to become stronger in order to end my abuser’s life once and for all. I refused to think of his name anymore and cursed myself for ever calling him Dad before.
Now, I stood in my bedroom, where Calder lay, with my mates and my father, about to embark on the scariest fucking thing in my entire life—facing the man who had pimped me out and used me for my power.
“As much as I wish to travel and fight alongside you, I must stay here,” Dad said, cupping my face in his large, cold hands and forcing me to stare up at him. His eyes glimmered under the sunlight that flooded in through the back windows. “You will thrive, my daughter.”
While I had only just met him a couple nights ago, I couldn’t wait to return from this war and live out the rest of his years with him. He had mentioned that he had become weaker over the past couple of decades, and I didn’t know exactly how long Paragons lived.
Whatever the case, we would make the best of it.
After pulling him into a lasting hug, I closed my eyes and enjoyed it. The man who had raised me never once hugged me, and I honestly couldn’t remember the last time Mom had hugged me either. It had been over a couple decades at least.
My stomach fluttered. For the first time, I felt like I had my life together, like everything was actually beginning to make sense, like I had found what I was fated to do in this world—save Paragons from those who hurt us.
When Dad finally pulled away, he nudged me toward my mates. I found my way to the bed and sat on the side next to Calder, staring down at the alpha-hole who had forced me to live with him weeks ago. I was so fucking glad he had.
“You must all go,” Dad announced to Thayer, Gaian, and Darius.
