Chapter Nineteen
Ifelt my stomach drop. “Daddy?” My voice sounded small to me.
“You tell the truth, Gav, or I swear.” My mother’s angry voice rang out from his phone.
“Mom?” I looked at my dad. “Why are you here?” My father wouldn’t look me in my eyes. “What did you do this time?”
My mother scoffed. “Your father likes to play puppet master. What do you think he did?”
“Hey now.” He furrowed his brows.
“Gavin!” my mom yelled.
“Daddy?” I tilted my head, and Rowan stood from his chair, hand still clutching the bottle of wine.
My dad started to pace a little. “Look. Don’t get mad.” My stomach rolled. The food in my stomach now feeling like it was bubbling back up.
“Gavin.” Rowan barked out. “What is going on?”
He swallowed, but then he squared his shoulders like he decided. “Amy didn’t block you.” He turned to me. “And Rowan didn’t block you.”
I sighed. “I called-”
“I know.” My dad raised his hands. “I did it.” My mouth dropped open.
“What did you just say?” I staggered back to my chair and sank down.
He looked at me with a pleading look. “Please understand. When Rowan called me about your heat…I panicked.”
“Daddy.” I whispered, and I watched him wince. He heard the hurt in my voice. “Why?”
“I needed you to be focused.” He wouldn’t meet my eyes.
I laughed. “You needed me to focus?” I shook my head. “Wow.”
Rowan clenched his fists. “I came to you for advice.” His teeth were clenched. “I needed a friend, and you just took it upon yourself to what? Keep me away from your daughter?”
My dad stared at him for a second. “I trusted you with her wellbeing and she was bullied, almost taken out by Brandon, of all people, and then you left her to burn through her heat alone.” My dad growled low.
“Why would I ever trust you with her?” But then he turned to me.
“But Amy is an amazing young woman who is smart enough to choose the man she wants to be with.” He turned back to look at Rowan. “Even if it’s you.”
“Then why?” Rowan growled.
“I already told you why. I needed Amy to focus on Vince and Brandon. And I needed you focused on Verity and the council.”
“Why was that your choice?” I asked, still reeling from his confession.
“I’m your father.” He looked surprised I would even ask.
“I’m the king.” Rowan growled. “It’s not up to you who I talk to or what I focus on.”
“I knew what needed to be done.”
My mom, who I had forgotten was even on the phone, blew a raspberry. “My Gavin is a meddler. He thinks he knows best and pulled the strings to get people where he wants them. Like when he lied to me about cheating.”
“It’s not like that.” He cut in.
But I laughed. “It’s exactly like that.” I grabbed my wine and chugged half the bottle.
“Baby girl. I love you.” He seemed hurt that I agreed with my mom.
“Just because you said it doesn’t mean it takes away the pain you did.
” I leveled him with a look. “I was mad that he left, but I could understand it. When my heat muddled brain got past the pain, I even respected him for it.” My eyes cut to Rowan.
“But it was the silence after that shattered me.” I turned back to my dad.
“You shattered me and made me think it was Rowan.”
My dad staggered with my words. “Amy.” He tried to step closer, but I held up my hand.
“No.” I looked at my dad, and for probably the first time in my life, I was disappointed by him. “You interfered with my relationships. With Rowans. You pushed us and pulled our strings until we danced to your tune without concern for us. Now you don’t get to be upset because we are upset.”
Rowan was trembling with his anger. “Leave.” My dad turned to Rowan, and I think he was going to fight.
“Leave Daddy.” I tossed out as I took another long drink from my bottle.
“We played our parts. You got what you wanted. I got the information from Vince.” I looked at Rowan.
“I don’t know what he wanted from you, but at this point, it’s a moot point.
We all have a job to do.” Rowan turned to me. “I know you’re angry, but it’s done.”
“Can we just talk about this?” My dad asked.
But I just shook my head. “Maybe sometime. But not now. You made your choices and now you get to deal with the repercussions.” I cut him a look. “Please…just leave.”
My dad stared at me for a few seconds. “Okay.” He nodded. “Okay.” He turned and walked towards the door. Then he stopped at the door. “For what it’s worth…” He turned back to me. “I was wrong.” His eyes danced to Rowan. “Be brave. Be honest.” He turned back to me. “Be yourself.” Then he was gone.
I turned to look at Rowan, who was still trembling. “Hey.” His gaze was firmly on the table. “Hey.” I called again and finally he looked up. “Calm down.” I shook my head slowly. “It’s fine.”
“No.” He growled out. “I’m pissed.”
“Why?” I sighed. “Yeah. It sucks, but it’s already done.”
His eyes darkened. “You hate me.” His words were soft. “I was so mad at you. I thought you knew everything, and you were still upset. That’s why you weren’t answering me. I tried to understand your side, but some days…”
“Some days you hated me.” I finished for him. He nodded. “And now you feel a little confused.”
He blew out a breath. “Yeah.” He nodded. “I guess you are feeling the same?”
“A little.” I smiled. “I hated you for a long time. But before the graduation. I had let it all go.” He grabbed the bottle of wine, only to find it empty.
“But.” He leveled me with a look. “I know there is a but coming.”
I laughed. “But at the graduation, you decided to throw Verity at me, while she tried to paint my father as a traitor. That pissed me off all over again.”
He grabbed the last bottle of wine. Took a deep pull.
He pulled out his phone. “We are going to need more wine.” He dialed and requested more wine, and finished the bottle in his hand.
“I thought you knew. That’s why I was so confused when you looked at me and I saw hatred.
Then you shifted, and Nix was standing in front of me and Erubus was ecstatic.
He was screaming in my ear to claim you.
He was certain you were his mate. But we were confused why you hated us. ”
I furrowed my brow. “What do you mean?”
“I thought you knew, and you were just playing along with the ruse. I thought you were fantastic until you looked at me at the end. I ran after you to check what the call was about, and to hopefully kiss you. Goddess, I wanted to kiss you, just to make sure you still cared about me.” He paused when there was a knock on the door.
Clara came in carrying four more bottles of wine.
She put them directly on to the table, loaded up the cart with the empty plates and bottles, and rolled it out of the room.
“But then you followed me into a fight.”
He nodded. “And I was nervous about showing you who I was, who my wolf was, then...”
“Carl died.” I grabbed a bottle of wine. “And his kid came out.”
“You were mourning, and I wanted to support you. But when you looked back at me and you saw me, not Erubus…I knew I had fucked up. You weren’t a fantastic actor. You actually just hated me at that moment.” I nodded as I blew a raspberry.
“I hadn’t known anything. And I hated you.
” I looked at him. “I wanted to hate you so much. It drove me closer to Brandon. My dad was right about that. Once you were out of the picture, I allowed him closer. And when I found out about Verity, I allowed him closer.” Rowan growled. “But it did get us what we needed.”
“We hope.”
I snorted. “You got me there.” I drank more wine. “But it did get us more information. It unveiled the Brotherhood, and it got me out of there.”
He nodded once. “But now you hate me.” He scratched at the grain on the table. “And I don’t know how I am supposed to recover from that.”
“You lied to me.”
He blew out a breath. “I did…but in my defence. I didn’t think I was.”
I snorted. “How do you fucking figure?”
He raised his hands. “I wrote you a letter every week to cover some of the miscommunication. But I also thought your dad was telling you all of his plans. And I say his plans because I was following his lead. He was able to move in the shadows, while pretending to be dead, and I was stuck in the limelight.”
“So you were playing your part thinking that I was too, only to find out afterwards that I wasn’t.” I slumped.
“Yeah.” He chugged. “Look, I have been taught all of my life that I have to be careful. That I have to keep myself hidden. So when I am me, I don’t talk about my wolf’s name unless I am with family. When Erubus is out, he does the same.”
“Why?”
He tilted his head at me like I was being foolish.
“I am the last Lycan.” He blinked at me.
“Well, I thought I was the last Lycan. My kind were hunted down, my father was killed, and I was raised by backstabbing assholes.” His phone rang, but he silenced it.
“But even before my world fell apart, it was the same. I am a Lycan male. I have to hide my scent or I will drive females crazy.” I rolled my eyes, which made his lips twitch.
“You can roll your eyes. But until you have seen an unmated female scent a Lycan male, you wouldn’t understand. ”
“Come on.” I shook my head.
“The first time I saw it was when I was nine. A male thought it would be funny to release his scent in a pack. Thankfully, it was a small pack because there were only twelve unmated females. But all twelve went insane.”
“What do you mean?” I leaned onto the table, ensnared by his words.
“I mean it literally. Four killed themselves when he found his mate. One plucked out her eyes. The rest had to be shipped out of the country so they would stop chasing him.”
“Holy.”
He nodded. “One of the women actually snuck back to America. And when the man and his mate were rushing to the pack doctor to deliver their first pup, they were hit by her car. She made sure the mate was dead and then dragged the man from the crash. She took him, and when he refused to mate her, she killed him and then herself.”