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Dad’s face began to contort. There was disbelief at first, but it quickly melted into fury.
“You’re lying,” he growled. He stood up and leaned over the table at me. His face turned bright, red as veins pulsed in his neck. “You’re fucking lying! You are a fucking traitor! I’ll kill you!”
Minerva pulled my father into his seat before she looked back at me with a smirk. “I knew it was a waste of magic making you those potions. Calm down, my Love. This isn’t the end. Look at it this way. The Chios bloodline will be within the alpha line now. The Fates themselves have blessed this. There’s still a possibility for your mate’s revenge.”
I looked at the witch with doubt, but noted the way Dad calmed down and listened to her. He looked at me with disgust, but he didn’t have the same anger spilling from his lips.
“You are no longer welcomed here,” Dad growled. “Your mission is over. I accept that you and that hybrid bitch are mates.Minny is right, however. Your sons will have Chios’ blood. Your mother’s heirs will sit on the Alpha seat; and when they do, I will come and sit at their sides, just as I did for your mother and uncle.” He looked past my shoulder to the front door with curled lips. “Take whoever wishes to follow you. I don’t want the likes of them in my ranks.”
Minerva patted Dad’s arm and smirked back at me as I stood to leave. Tristan laughed as he leaned back in his seat and watched me turn to leave.
I felt defeated. I had hoped so much that Father would at least be happy that I had found my fated mate. For The Fates to give you a mate of their choosing was an honor. And to be the second generation in a family to find your fate was rare. It meant that our blood line was chosen for great things by The Fates; yet all he seemed to do was hold onto this anger.
I suppose I could understand it. If anything were to happen to Liberty, I probably would be just as bitter as Dad… just as vengeful. Perhaps more so. Unlike my father, I had true alpha blood from my mother’s side. With that alpha blood came the alpha emotions, always bigger than that of a normal person.
If I were to feel vengeful, truly vengeful, as my father had been feeling for the last two decades, I wouldn’t have stopped till the entire world burned.
I stepped outside of the bar and found Keith and the others gathered close by. They all watched me with widened eyes as the door closed behind me.
“He knows,” I revealed. “He knows now that Liberty is my mate. Not just in name, but in fate. The call for bloodshed is over. Anyone who wishes to return peacefully to the Rigel pack with me may do so. Pack whatever you cannot live without and meet me at the edge of the pack territory. I’ll go on ahead and prepare the Alpha family for your arrival.”
Half of those outside the bar began to move. The other half snarled and growled, swearing their oaths to my mother and uncle as I walked past them.
“Are you sure they will welcome us?” Ginger asked. She had grabbed my arm as I passed by, nervousness in her eyes. “Will they really want us there?”
I smiled at my friend and patted her hand. “I met your grandma at breakfast the other morning. She asked me if I knew her children. She is eager to meet you and Rory both.”
“But what about the alpha? I thought we had to wait until you and your mate were coronated,” Keith asked.
“They won’t turn you away,” I promised, although I felt nervous doing so.
Liberty and I had discussed bringing the rogues back to the pack. I had told her that many wanted to be reunited with their families and friends in the pack. Some regretted leaving, while most were not given the choice and had been taken by their parents to be rogues.
She had assured me that her family had always had an open-door policy for any who wished to return and pledge their loyalty to her family. All they ever had to do was come and ask. Still, it felt like I was pushing my people into the pack now. I wasn’t sure how well they would take the sudden new additions in the midst of the coronation planning.
“Go and pack. You have my word. You all will have a place in the pack.” I reassured my friends.
They nodded and turned to do just that while I made my way back into the forest. I walked slowly as I thought of a way to tell Liberty and her family what had happened and why the rogues were joining us. I could only hope that Liberty wouldn’t be upset that I had come here without telling her. How was I going to explain why Father had called me to a meeting that resulted in many of the rogues being banished from the bar?
No matter what plan I came up with, the result was always the same. I had to come clean about everything. I was going to have to tell my mate that I was meant to be her assassin the very night I marked her.
Chapter Eighteen
Liberty
The shock of the truth shot through me like lightning straight into my heart. All of my worst fears had come to light with the knowledge that came from listening to Xander and his father. I wasted no time exiting the bar the same way I had entered. I had been careful not to let him see me leave when he stood up and made his way to the front door.
I was pissed. I felt an overwhelming anger toward everything. My brother and Xander had both made me angry – my brother for advising me to trust Xander and Xander for confirming my suspicions…and at myself for pushing those suspicions aside and trusting him blindly, as my brother had advised me.
He and his father had planned to kill me. Not just me. They had planned to kill my entire family. And Xander. Xander was a Chios. He was the child of the woman who had facilitated my grandparents’ death. Maria Chios. The sister and acting Luna during the Chios reign over the pack before my father took it all back. My mate was her son.
I wanted to scream at The Fates for their terrible sense of humor. How could they do this to me? To my family? How was this fair?
The Chios had not only killed off both of my parent’s parents, but they had subjected the witches of the city to a life of indentured servitude. And now my child held their bloodline.
Tears burned my eyes as I ran back to the packhouse. My mark tingled as well, a trickle of Xander’s emotions bleeding in with my own. As soon as I detected him, I shut him out. I didn’t want to feel him. I didn’t want to feel anything for him.
As I reached my bedroom, I slammed the door closed and sank to the ground. Tears flowed freely as I clutched my stomach and questioned if I shouldn’t return to the crones and fix this. I had the choice. The crones had said as much, and they were as close to The Fates as any powerful being could be. Some even thought they were The Fates in human form.
