Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen
Eli
Adeline is completely unaware of the danger my father poses; I don’t care what he says. He hasn’t changed; no one would change that much. We tried for years to get him to see reason, leave my mother, and help save us all. But he always chose her. Chose her over his own flesh and blood.
Walking into the living room, my father is at the counter. His back is to me as I approach him. He is talking to Emery while she drinks her coffee. Picking up my scent, he looks over his shoulder at me before he sighs.
“If you have come to hit me, at least wait for me to turn around,” he says.
“Why are you here?” I ask him, and he turns on the stool on which he sits to face me. He looks at me, though I don’t see any of the rage I was accustomed to when I was a child. No, now all I am seeing is an aging man. Someone who looks like the light within is slowly flickering out.
Yet I know this man. Know what he is capable of.
He would sell his own kids like they mean nothing to him, condemning his own for defending his sisters and being with another man.
He had his pack hunt us for decades, not to capture but to kill.
His own blood because we didn’t represent or become the people he wanted.
He blames us for our mother’s withering mind, the insanity as it crept in over the years, slowly making her unstable.
I never knew her as anything but crazy, but before us, apparently, she was a decent woman and not an animal that would slaughter her own kids and have them raped to death for financial gain.
“I don’t understand. In this house?” he asks.
I shake my head at him. “No. I mean, why, after all these years, did you suddenly walk back into Emery’s life? Why now?”
He looks perplexed for a second. “I’m her father. Yours too, Elijah.”
“No. Fathers don’t try to kill their kids. Fathers protect them, not watch them slowly die at the hands of another. Now, why are you here?”
“Your mother died. I only meant to tell you both. Emery contacted me. Ask her if you don’t believe me. She never had to reach out. Though I am glad she did,” he says, looking at her.
For the first time in my life, I actually see his eyes soften.
“I’m here because I want to be here, Elijah. I have no ill intentions. I just want to be in your lives. Is that so hard to believe?”
I scoff at his words. “In our lives? You didn’t even want us when you had us. You were happy to be rid of us. Clarissa, you remember her, right? Your first born? The one you gave to that savage to be killed?”
He flinches at my words. “I never intended for that to happen. You know that wasn’t my doing. Your mother picked her suitor. I never wanted any of that.”
“Yeah, but you stayed silent and then made us pay for that mistake. Her blood is on your hands. Do you have any idea what they did to her?” I ask him.
Finding her that day would be forever ingrained in my memory and haunt me for the rest of my immortal life.
The dead look in her eyes, her naked, mutilated body, and the horrid things she endured; no part of her was left unmarred, all their scents on her.
They dumped her like garbage. Something no child should come across.
No person should see their sister like that.
She should never have been entrusted to that monster, never should have been forced to endure what she had, and this man let it happen.
I remember going home and my mother looking at me as I explained how I’d found her.
The look she gave me was so cold before she shrugged and called my father and told him I was on another territory; she didn’t even care.
All she cared about was that I was in another pack’s territory and told my father to punish me.
He nearly killed me, and I prayed he would, just to stop the agony that was him.
“You think I don’t know? You think I wouldn’t give anything to go back and fix it? Your mother was my mate. You should know how hard it is to go against your mate.”
“Mate or not, we were fucking kids. Clarissa was your daughter, your own flesh and blood,” I scream at him, my claws slipping from my fingertips.
“Please, Elijah, just stop,” Emery cries, making me look at her.
Tears slip down her cheeks as she clutches her mug of coffee.
She is biting her lip, something she only does when I know she is on the verge of breaking.
Gone is the strong, fearless woman she has become; instead, here is the fearful girl I grew up with.
I nod to her, letting her know I mean no harm by my words.
“I mean no harm, Elijah. I just want a second chance, a second chance to be the father I was meant to be, the grandfather I could be,” my father tells me.
“I won’t have my child raised the way you raised us. I will protect them with my life. I am not a coward like you. I protect my own, even if it means protecting them from you.”
“As you should, but please, for the sake of Adeline and your child, see reason. You know we can keep them safe out there.”
“And Cyrus. If he isn’t welcome, we aren’t,” I tell him.
“I have no issues with Cyrus. I have changed, Elijah. We even have a few same-sex couples at home now. I made mistakes. At least let me try to mend them,” he says when the door opens up in the hall.
Looking toward the hall, I see Addie walk out, going to the kitchen. She grabs a glass from the cupboard and turns the tap on.
“Oh no, don’t drink that. I have bottled water,” Emery tells her, grabbing a bottle from the fridge and handing it to her. Emery uses her shirt to wipe her face, not wanting to alarm Addie, though I can tell she knows we are arguing.
“Thanks,” she says before walking over to me.
“Are you coming to bed?” she asks, looking up at me. She looks uncertain, and I know she can pick up my anger through the bond as she nervously glances at my father before looking back at me.
“Please, come to bed, Eli,” she whispers, and I can tell she is scared, scared I would get hurt.
I am not a boy anymore; this pathetic man no longer instills fear in me, only rage.
Hatred so strong I would feel nothing upon his death, but he is right about one thing—his place is safe.
Not even hunters dare set foot in that forest or near my father’s pack.
They are called savages for a reason, but could things have changed enough that she wouldn’t run upon us taking her there?
“We can talk more tomorrow, son. Go be with your mates,” my father says before looking at Addie.
“Go rest, dear,” he tells her before getting up himself.
He nods to me, and I watch him head down to the other end of the house.
I escort Addie back to the room before closing the door and locking it; I am not sure I would be able to sleep, knowing he is under the same roof with her.
Cyrus, I know, is safe from him and can handle anything my father dishes out.
Addie, however, is human and fragile in more ways than one.
* * *
Adeline
Climbing into bed, I expect Eli to climb in beside me. Cyrus is reading his book, flicking through the pages quickly as I watch his eyes slide down the page, and he looks up as I climb in beside him.
Eli, however, sits in the chair beside the bed, staring at the door. Well, he is actually glaring at it, his chest rising and falling heavily. The feelings through the bond are tumultuous and angry; he is a ticking time bomb.
I pat the bed beside me, and he looks at it before shaking his head and looking back at the door.
“Go to sleep, love,” he says, and I can feel his tumultuous feelings running through him, which only scares me.
Cyrus tugs me over to him, draping his arm across my waist. “Go to sleep. You don’t need to worry about Eli,” he whispers before kissing my jaw.
I close my eyes and hear Cyrus doze off, yet I can feel Eli is awake through the bond, keeping me awake. I don’t know how Cyrus can sleep through it. Maybe he is so used to his behavior after centuries that it doesn’t matter anymore, but knowing he is awake and in a bad mood frightens me.
Opening my eyes, he is still staring at the door, his entire body tense like he expects it to burst open any moment. I wriggle out from under Cyrus’s arm. Eli’s eyes snap toward me from the movement. I climb off the bed.
“You should be sleeping,” he says but moves, giving me room as I climb on his lap and rest my head on his shoulder.
“I can’t, knowing you’re awake,” I tell him.
“You wouldn’t be able to sleep either if you knew what he let happen,” Eli whispers.
“Then tell me. Might help you go to sleep.”
“No, Addie. Some things are best kept to yourself,” he says, looking away.
Yet, I can feel whatever it is eating at him, haunting him, churning within him, making me wonder if it is to do with his older sister. His emotions are everywhere, guilt being the main one, which makes no sense when he does nothing wrong.
“Clarissa?” I ask him, and he turns his face, looking down at me.
“We should have run before he took her,” he says, looking away.
“Weren’t you a child?” I ask him.
“I was ten. I knew he would kill her but was too scared to run from him.”
“That isn’t your burden to carry. You did what you had to to survive,” I tell him, and I feel him shake his head, not agreeing with me.
“When Sam took me, sometimes I would just go along with it, do what he wanted, so he wouldn’t hurt me.
I thought it was my fault because I didn’t fight back.
I just let him have his way so he wouldn’t hurt me.
But now? Now I know it would have happened anyway.
You do what you have to do, Eli, to survive.
Fear is the strongest emotion of all. Sometimes, no reaction is the best action if it means surviving.
What happened to her is not your fault. You couldn’t save her, and it wasn’t your place to.
Those monsters did that to her, not anything you did or didn’t do. ”
He doesn’t say anything, but I feel his lips press against my forehead. Eli shifts slightly, pulling my legs onto his lap.
“I can’t lose you or Cyrus,” he whispers.
“And you never will,” I tell him.
“You’re human, Addie. It is rough out there. Once we leave, we will be stuck out there. It is dangerous, and you will be surrounded by Lycans.”
“But you and Cyrus will be there,” I tell him.
“I don’t trust his intentions. If we go, you need to promise to stay with us every second of the day, no wandering off.
Those woods are not safe, not even for Lycans or vampires, and you are human,” he whispers, rubbing my cheek with his hand.
“I know you want to remain human, but I can’t promise that out there. ”
“Then, after the baby is born, Cyrus can change me,” I tell him, though the thought scares me. I don’t want to die, but I know I’ll never want to be without them.
Eli tilts my chin up, making me look up at him. “My father won’t do anything while you’re pregnant. It’s afterward I am worried about.”
“I meant what I said, Eli. Cyrus can change me,” I tell him, and he watches my face carefully.
“You know you won’t be able to go home. Not until you can control your bloodlust, and I am not sure how long that will take.”
I nod at his words, my eyes going to Cyrus. “Cyrus will help me.”
“You sure?”
“Positive. I don’t want to be without you or Cyrus, and I will grow old and wrinkly anyway.”
“I would still love you all the same, but I would rather forever than a few more decades.”
“Yeah, but it would look pretty creepy kissing someone that looks like your grandmother.” I chuckle, and he laughs softly.
I yawn, and Eli suddenly stands, lifting me with him before lying on the bed and rolling on his side so he is facing me. I stretch, getting comfortable as I press my face between his shoulder and neck. I love the smell of their skin.
He pulls me closer, wrapping his arm securely around me. “Go to sleep, love,” he whispers, and I let my eyes flutter shut before finally drifting off.
* * *
Waking the next morning, I stretch, Eli rolling into me before draping his leg over mine.
Cyrus also moves in his sleep as they sandwich me between them.
I can’t understand why I am awake. I feel like I have hardly slept at all.
My eyes feel like sandpaper, yet my body is alert, almost like a live wire runs through me, jolting me awake.
My mouth is salivating at the sweet smell perfuming the room and wrapping around me. Eli moves before opening his eyes.
“Why are you awake?” he mumbles before pecking my lips softly. Sparks rush across my face making me moan, and Eli pulls me closer.
“So hormonal,” he whispers.
He is right, arousal flooding me but also another sensation, the same sensation from yesterday, that weird hunger, and I can feel his pulse beating beneath his skin against my lips.
I am human, yet am craving blood, which embarrasses me; I know it isn’t my doing but the craving is affecting me.
Now I understand what Cyrus means, why he usually feeds on me—arousal and bloodlust going hand in hand with each other.