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That all started with eliminating Hawthorne from the equation. I glanced at the ticking clock again and realized it was time to meet with Sebastian to discuss just that. I picked up the chair I’d knocked over, then headed out the door and down the long hallway.
Sebastian’s office was on the opposite end of the hall from mine. As I walked down the plush red runner spanning the length of the wood-planked floor, it struck me that my life had taken so many unpredictable turns. I never would’ve imagined that I’d be back living here on the clan lands I’d been banished from so many years ago, and not only that, but working side by side with Sebastian, my alpha. My father.
It was still a lot to wrap my head around. Sebastian had offered some space after telling me he still wanted me as his heir, but it was something I hadn’t let myself think about too much—not with Tomas being the priority. Besides, like I’d told Mariah, Lucas was here the whole time I was away. It made more sense for him to succeed Sebastian.
I knocked on the carved wooden door, entering when Sebastian said, “Come in.”
He smiled as I crossed the sunlit room and sat in the chair opposite his desk. The truth that he was my father continued to hit me in the face every time I saw that smile, so similar to my own. It was unnerving to see so much of myself in him.
“Good morning, son.” He eyed me, seeming to see right through my facade when he said, “You hanging in there?”
I rubbed my jaw, a gesture I’d noticed Sebastian made often as well. “I’m just tired of waiting around. It’s been two weeks since we got Mariah back. Two weeks with Tomas going unchecked. I don’t like so many unknowns.” Agitation crawled up my spine. “I can’t keep sitting on my hands. I need to do something.”
“I get it. Believe me.” Sebastian’s dark eyes were gentle as he leaned forward, clasping his hands on his desk. “But one of the first rules of being an alpha is to know how to control your urges. To think past the primal instincts, control your dragon, and remain rational.”
“Easier said than done when it comes to a threat toward my mate,” I said through clenched teeth.
Sebastian sat back in his chair. “All the more reason to remain in control. You can’t afford to slip, Evan. Not when so much is at stake.”
He was right, and the rational part of me knew it, yet I was feeling more and more irrational with every passing day when it came to this.
“I received a letter from the courts in New York this morning,” I said, wanting to share what was on my mind. “The courts set our first hearing for a month from now. If I’m being honest, Sebastian, this whole custody battle feels like a distraction.”
He steepled his hands and pressed his forefingers to his chin. “How so? Tomas has much to gain by winning custody of Sofia. Seems to me it’s his end game. Having control of the heir to our clan would give him everything he wants.”
I ground my teeth together, my dragon snarling in the back of my mind. “But why go about it like this, following the human laws in the court system? It doesn’t seem like his style.”
“Tomas Hawthorne is a shrewd, cunning man,” Sebastian said, “with plenty of legal counsel on his side, both shifter and human. Whatever plans he has for Sofia, he’s also covering his ass.”
Rage stirred within, and I had to forcefully shove it down and take a deep breath. Just thinking about the plans that monster had for my daughter made me see red, the flames flickering at the edges of my vision.
I glanced at Sebastian, but he only watched me calmly, and if he was aware of what was going on inside me, he didn’t let on. There had to be a way around this custody suit. While my lawyer was highly competent, Tomas would’ve built a case with his own top notch legal team. I was under no illusion either that Rosalind was calling the shots. Tomas were using his own daughter as a game piece.
Still… Rosalind was the one who filed the lawsuit, and Rosalind was technically the one suing for custody. Which meant…
“Do you think we could get Rosalind to drop the custody case?” I said, wondering why the idea hadn’t come to me sooner.
Sebastian tilted his head. “I’m listening.”
“She doesn’t even want to be a mother,” I said in a rush, hoping I’d landed on something. “Everything she’s done has been on Tomas’s orders. What if we could convince her to drop the suit?”
Sebastian shook his head. “I’m not sure she’d go up against her father like that.”
“Neither am I.” I sat back in my chair, tapping my fingers on the arm as my mind worked.
I walked to one of the floor-to-ceiling windows and stared out at the vast clan lands sweeping out in all directions.
“Sure, she does anything he asks of her. But what if she’s tired of being used by her father? Maybe she’s acting out of fear rather than loyalty.”
I frowned as a memory surfaced of Rosalind running after us when we’d left the Hawthorne lodge, after he’d summoned me to bring Sofia to see him. She’d been in a near-panic. Desperate.
“What is it?” Sebastian said as he came to my side.
“When Mason, Mariah, and I took Sofia to see Hawthorne, after his summons, Rosalind was acting strangely. She seemed desperate for me to accept her father’s offer of mating with her and becoming the new Hawthorne alpha.”
Sebastian’s fists clenched. “How so?”
“She followed us out of the building, practically begging me to reconsider. Telling me it was best for Sofia, and to think of what it’d be like to grow up as a dragon without a clan.” I shook my head. “Everything she said, even the way she said it, was so out of character, like she was frantic at the idea of me refusing.”
