AllFreeNovel
Share Us
So much about Sebastian made sense now. Such horrific, heartbreaking sense. “You still have time, Seb. It’s a promise I can help you keep.”
He got to his feet, dusting off his hands. “I know. And with you in my life, it’ll be easier than I ever imagined. I just need to stop running from the memory of them.”
“You’re doing so well already,” I whispered. “All the stories you’ve been telling me, bringing me here… This is all progress, Seb.”
He lifted his head to the clouds. “Dr. Tyler will be so proud.”
I bit back a grin. For all his griping about his therapist, Sebastian hadn’t missed a session.
He dropped his head, his gaze going to our left. “Now, for the worst part.”
I sucked a breath in sharply. “We haven’t had that already?”
“No,” he said sadly. “It broke my heart to lose them…but learning why obliterated it entirely.”
His earlier words about betrayal came slamming back to me. “Laurent.”
“Laurent,” he confirmed heavily. “The man I was ready to tie my eternity to was the reason my entire family was dead.”
“How?”
“He was planted in my path,” Sebastian said bitterly. “The wolves knew I had a soft spot for humans, especially injured ones. I couldn’t help but take Laurent in. It wasn’t long before he seduced me, before I was falling for him harder than I had anyone before.”
He gave me a wry smile. “Seems funny to think of it now. My happiest moments with him pale in comparison to even the mundane ones I spend with you. I was such a naive fool, so desperate to find the love my parents shared that I leapt at the first opportunity that presented itself.”
“How could he betray you?” I asked in disbelief. “If you were in love, how could he do that?”
“Ah, I was in love, and so was Laurent. Just not with me. Something that became abundantly clear when he kissed the alpha of the wolf clan.”
My stomach swooped. “No.”
“Yes,” Sebastian said grimly. “Turned out he’d never been mine at all. He was playing me, using me to get close to my family and learn our routines. He told the wolves when we’d all be gathered for Amelie’s birthday, alerting them to that being the best time to strike.”
Amelie’s birthday. “Sebastian, I’m so sorry.”
He kissed my head. “He lured me away from the house so they’d have one less member to contend with. Even so, my family should’ve been able to overpower them with ease.”
“Why couldn’t they?”
He closed his eyes. “Laurent had poisoned the wine they were drinking. It sapped their strength and powers, leaving them defenceless.”
That level of betrayal…it left me speechless.
“The wolves with Laurent, they believed I’d drunk the wine too. They assumed I’d be just as easy to kill.”
“But you hadn’t?”
“No.” He snorted bitterly. “I wanted a clear memory of the night that would change my life forever. I was right about that, but not in the way I thought I would be.”
“You killed the wolves.” It wasn’t a question.
“I did. In fact, I killed Bessie with her own dagger.” He reached around his back, pulling his dagger from its sheath and studying it closely. “Ironically, Bessie has served me well over the years.”
“You named your dagger after the wolf who murdered your family?”
“Every time I killed someone, I wanted to remember who made me this way. If my family hadn’t died, I never would’ve become what I am. Using her dagger, naming it after her, it seemed fitting. I wanted to make sure I never forgot why I became what I am.” Sebastian returned it to its sheath, eyeing me warily. “Do you think that’s a little dark?”
“No. I think it’s so perfectly you that I could cry.”
