Alpha (28 page)

Gary and Kyle shook hands briefly before Gary sank down in the only other empty chair. He looked shocked. I wondered if that was what I'd looked like the first time I'd heard the news.

"I don't understand," he mumbled.

"I'm hoping Kyle will be able to shed some light on it," I said as I sat down and faced Kyle. At that moment, the study door opened again and in walked Cade. I smiled at him as he came over to me and stood beside me.

"So how do you and Cade know each other?" I asked.

"I'm an alpha of a neighboring pack," Kyle answered. It made sense. That was how Cade and he knew each other so well.

A few questions raced through my mind at that snippet of information. Cade had said I had alpha blood. Did that mean that my father had been the alpha of the pack that Kyle now ran?

But to me there was a more important question than why my parents had done what they had.

"Who raised you?" I asked, bracing myself. It had affected me deeply that I had grown up—even if it was just for a short time—with our parents while he'd been alone.

"Our uncle, Nate, Dad's brother," he answered.

Just when I didn't think there was anything more that could shock me, I had an uncle—another family member. Somehow, I knew there would be a few more shocks before this conversation was over.

I rubbed my hands over my face as I contemplated that the man who was my father had a sibling I knew nothing about. I wondered if they looked similar.

"How old are you?" I asked.

"I'm twenty-two," he answered. I was still trying to get used to the idea that I had brother who was five years older than me.

"How old were you when they left?" I asked, feeling nervous and apprehensive about the answers I was about to get.

In my mind, they had always been good and loving parents, but that image would change if the reason they’d left Kyle hadn’t been good enough. Even though he'd had our uncle to look after him, it still didn't make me feel any less sad that our parents had left him.

"I was four," he answered. Seeing my visible reaction to that, he pulled his chair closer and took my trembling hand in his. I hadn't been born yet. Was my mom pregnant with me when they left?

I still couldn't shake the feeling that the people I'd known as my parents felt more like strangers to me because of what little I really knew about them.

"I don't want you to feel sad that they left me behind," he began as he used his free hand to run it through his hair. "They did what they had to."

His words didn't make the sadness in me ease and I felt the sting of tears again. He squeezed my hand gently as I tried to keep it together.

"I can't understand how they were able to leave you behind. Why would they do that?" I whispered while struggling to hold my tears in again as an image appeared in my mind of Kyle as a little boy standing on his own as my parents walked away from him.

I felt Cade's hand rest gently on my shoulder.

"It was the only way to protect me," he answered. "Let me start at the beginning."

He had my undivided attention.

"Mom and Dad knew each other their whole lives. They'd both been brought into the same pack and when they discovered they were mates, they were deliriously happy. They were in love and as soon as they were old enough, they mated."

Hearing that made me more emotional and I bit my lip to stop myself from crying like a baby.

"Dad was the next in line to be the alpha and when our grandfather died, Dad took over. Then Mom fell pregnant with me. They were so happy."

What on Earth could have happened to tear them away from their families and son? What had made them run and never look back?

"One day an alpha from another pack came to visit. His name was Victor."

Kyle glanced up to Cade and they shared a look.

"What has he got to do with this?" I asked, growing impatient.

"Victor is an alpha of one of the most powerful packs in the country. He is ruthless and unpredictable, which makes him a very formidable opponent."

I didn’t like the sound of this guy already and I hadn't even heard the full story yet.

"He was mate-less. His mate died just after they met. He didn't take the death well and started to become emotionally unstable."

Ruthless and unpredictable added with emotionally unstable sounded really dangerous. But what did he have to do with my parents leaving?

"The day he arrived to meet with our father, he saw Mom for the first time," he began to explain and I could feel the dread beginning to grow inside of me.

"The fact that he wasn't her mate and that she was already mated to another alpha didn't matter to him. He was so taken with her that he had to have her no matter what. He swore he'd do everything in his power to get her."

Holy crap!

"At first they didn't think that he was serious about it. Then he tried to kidnap Mom, but thankfully he didn't succeed. They tried to reason with him, but nothing worked."

"But why would he want someone who wasn't interested in him?" I asked out loud.

"Just because we are werewolves doesn't mean that we aren't susceptible to being bad," explained Cade.

"I don't know what it was about Mom that made him want her so badly," Kyle said with a shrug.

"So they left?" I asked.

"They didn't want to put the rest of the pack’s lives on the line trying to protect Mom. Victor was more powerful and his pack was double our size. If we'd gone to war, he would have won and in the process our pack would have been slaughtered," he explained. There wasn't a lot of emotion in his words.

"Why did they leave you?" I asked the question again. They could have taken him with them when they'd taken off.

"They didn't want to leave the pack without an alpha was what they told Nate, but honestly, I don't think they wanted to risk my life. Victor never knew about me so when they left it was easy to pretend I was Nate's son and not theirs. By doing that, they kept me safe from him."

I pulled my hand free from Kyle's and rubbed my face as I tried to understand what he was telling me.

My parents had given up a son that they'd loved in order to keep him safe. My heart broke at this thought. I didn't have kids of my own, but I knew it wouldn't be easy to walk away from your own child, even if it meant they would be safer.

Everyone quietly watched me as I stood up and began to pace. So they had left the safety of their pack and they'd left their son behind to keep them safe. I knew deep down that my parents wouldn't have abandoned him without a good reason.

They fell pregnant with me after they left so they kept me with them.

"Who killed them?" I asked the question bluntly. I knew the answer already, but I needed him to say it out loud for me.

I turned to look at Kyle and his eyes met mine.

"Victor."

I felt Cade's concerned gaze on me as I continued to look at my brother.

"He was livid when he found out that our parents left the pack and disappeared. He swore he'd hunt them down and kill them for it," explained Kyle.

It was hard to think that my parents had left what little safety that the pack provided to face Victor's wrath on their own and that they'd died for it. I put my hand to my forehead and tried to breathe.

Suddenly the room became too hot and I couldn't take in a breath. He'd murdered my mom and my dad. Their deaths had been hard on me, but knowing why and who had killed them was too much to handle.

"Sit down," Cade gently instructed. I felt his hands on my arms as he led me to my seat. I sat down as my knees gave way. It was at that point that the emotion I'd been able to keep a lid on finally bubbled to the surface and I felt the tears beginning to slide down my face.

"It's okay," Cade soothed.

I felt like I was mourning my parents all over again, but at least now I knew the truth behind their deaths. They hadn't done anything wrong; they died because some madman had seen my mom by chance and it had led to them having to run for their lives. But somehow he'd still found them.

If I'd been with them that night, I would have been murdered as well. My tears eased and I sniffled as I contemplated the new questions, and thoughts began to take hold inside my mind.

"I'm okay," I assured a worried-looking Cade.

"Is he still alive?" I asked, hoping that he wasn't.

"Yes," replied Kyle. It wasn't fair that he was still alive, because my parents had died at his hands.

Another thought occurred to me. If my parents had gone to such lengths to hide Kyle from Victor, what would Victor do if he knew about me?

Granted, it had been years, but would that matter to a guy that had been ruthless and determined enough to hunt my parents down nearly eleven years after they'd disappeared?

"Does he know about me?" I asked Kyle and I felt Cade stiffen beside me.

"We don't know," he answered and I could see the worry in his face.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Scarlett

I was silent as I processed all I'd just heard. Kyle and Gary watched me with concern and Cade bent down on one knee beside me as he covered my hands with his.

Feeling fear starting to build up in me again, I couldn't sit still anymore. I stood up and Cade let go of me. I brushed my hair out of my face as I walked over to the window. The silence continued as I tried to fit all the pieces together.

"How did you know about their deaths?"

Even now, years later, it was still hard to say it without the grief surfacing. I hugged my arms around my waist as I waited for Kyle's answer.

"Dad stayed in touch with Uncle Nate. Dad didn't want him to know too much in case Victor found out, so he would only tell Nate which area. He usually only called from a payphone."

He paused for a moment. It was like stuff out of spy movies.

"Then one day the phone calls just stopped."

I closed my eyes to keep the emotion from escaping me and I swallowed.

"Nate knew something was very wrong."

Our parents were dead.

"He found out our parents were murdered. To us, there was no mystery. They had been murdered by another werewolf."

I turned to face him. It was like each revelation brought new questions I needed to ask.

"Did he know about me?" I asked as I dropped my arms to my sides.

Kyle looked uncomfortable with the answer. He couldn't look at me. His eyes dropped to the floor.

"Yes."

I don't know why I felt hurt at his answer, but I was. It felt like my family abandoned me when I'd needed them the most.

Cade was watching everything play out, but the twitch in his jaw was a telltale sign he was angry as his eyes remained on Kyle. It was like he was debating whether to hit him or not.

Don't.
His eyes shot to mine.

It's not his fault.

He studied me for a minute before he answered me via the mind-link.
Fine
.

He unclenched his hands by his sides and I couldn't help loving his protectiveness over me. Kyle's eyes were on me. As hard as I tried to stay unaffected by what he'd said to me, he could read the hurt on my face.

"He didn't want to leave you. He saw that our parents had picked a good guardian for you and he decided that you were safer with him. You hadn't turned sixteen so another werewolf couldn’t find you by your scent. It was for the best."

That explanation eased my hurt a little and I shot a weak smile to Gary. I couldn't dispute that Gary had been the best person to look after me.

"If he had brought you back, there was always a chance that Victor would find out who you were and then you would have been in danger. Our pack isn't big enough to go up against him."

He stood up and walked over to me under the watchful eye of Cade. He came to a stop in front of me.

"I know you don't know us that well," he began as he ran a hand through his hair. "But that doesn't make you any less our family and that doesn't mean we love you any less."

I bit my lip as he held my gaze.

"Everything we've done up to now has been to keep you safe," he finished as his eyes implored mine to believe his words.

I was never the affectionate type, but I felt myself hugging my brother again. His arms wrapped around me and hugged me back. I rested my head against his chest for a moment and took a deep breath. Everything he was telling me was a lot to deal with, especially when it opened up the grief I'd kept bottled up.

After what I'd just found out, I'd remember my parents as heroes who sacrificed their lives to keep their children and pack safe. I pulled out of my brother's embrace and looked up at him.

"How did you know I was here?" I asked.

"We've been keeping tabs on you, watching you from the time you turned sixteen," he revealed softly. And there was that betrayed feeling again.