Chapter 47
FORTY-SEVEN
Z
I always thought I was stronger than my past, stronger than my memories.
Yet, as I stared up at the arresting face of a man who’d allowed me to be raped and tortured centuries ago, I felt nothing but stone-cold terror. It enveloped my entire body and made thinking impossible. All I could see was his sad, disapproving face as he left me to my fate—all because I dared to fall in love with men he didn’t approve of.
Of course, he didn’t look exactly like my father. There were minuscule differences between the man standing before me versus the one from my past. But there were enough similarities to make a cold chill spread through my body.
Magic flared to life in Bash’s hands, and Lupe released a threatening roar. Devlin stepped closer to me on one side, while Jax took my hand on the other side. Dair wheeled his chair closer to me. Killian’s tail began to twitch.
My “father”—though that term didn’t fit the man before me—tilted his head to the side curiously.
“You seem to be missing one,” he mused.
He was talking about Ryland.
“Don’t talk to her,” Devlin growled. “Don’t even look at her.”
“Back the fuck up,” Bash added.
I appreciated my mates standing up for me, but this was my battle.
Those memories that haunted me? They weren’t mine. Not really. They belonged to a different woman. A dead one.
I was Z now, and everything that had transpired in the past shaped me into the woman I was today. I was strong and confident and capable of anything I set my mind to—including standing up to this pathetic excuse of an angel before me.
Was I scared? Absolutely.
I didn’t know what could set him off. Hell, I didn’t even know what he was capable of. He could smite me where I stood without so much as breaking a sweat.
Yet I needed to do this for myself.
I wasn’t the type of woman to cower.
Steeling my resolve, I pushed past my mates. “Hello…Peter.”
Peter’s smile faltered at my use of his fake name. I didn’t know what he expected. I wouldn’t call him Father, and I certainly wouldn’t use his angelic name, Gabriel. He didn’t deserve an ounce of my respect.
Peter regarded me for a long moment, but I couldn’t read the emotion in his eyes.
After the silence became almost too stifling, he said, “You remember.”
He didn’t need to clarify what, exactly, I remembered.
“I do.”
Peter released a heavy sigh, his shoulders sagging, but before he could say anything, I demanded, “Why are you here?”
His eyes widened. “Excuse me?”
“Why now?” I asked.
He hadn’t been a part of my life in the twenty-some years I’d been on this earth. Not when my parents were slaughtered in front of me. Not when Lin left me. Not when I’d lost S, my human boyfriend. Not when I’d joined the Damning. Not all of the times I was nearly murdered. Not when I’d first confronted Aaliyah.
Peter’s lips pursed. “Your mother was meddling in your affairs. It seemed only fair that I should be allowed to.”
A shocked, garbled laugh escaped me. “That’s why you’re here? Because of Lilith’s trials?”
“You shouldn’t trust Lilith.” Something icy and insidious slithered into his tone. “Everything she does has an ulterior motive.”
“As if you’re not the exact same.”
I wanted to kill him.
I really, really wanted to kill him.
After everything he’d done to me…
To Aaliyah…
To my mates…
I wanted him dead.
“I can help,” Peter continued, “and all I ask is for?—”
“Not fucking happening,” Bash interrupted.
Peter’s eyes turned steely. “You don’t even know what I want.”
“And it’s not happening,” Dair snapped.
Peter turned his attention to me, ignoring my mates entirely. “If you want my help, you just have to give it to me.”
What the fuck?
“Give what to you?” I demanded, annoyed and confused by his vague statement.
“You’ll know what it is when it comes. And when it does come, I want it.” Once again, something dark shadowed his gaze, turning the blue of his eyes to obsidian.
“No way in hell.” I shook my head.
I wouldn’t make a deal even if I knew what he wanted.
Peter’s lips quirked up confidently. “You will. You won’t have a choice. You’ll ask for my help, my darling daughter, and then I’ll take what I’ve been waiting for.”
With that ominous statement, he turned on his heel and disappeared inside.