My Fated Mate Rejected Me In Public — Then I Discovered Who My Father Really Was
Part 2
His grip was like a crushing steel vice, but he didn’t call out for the royal guards.
He just stared intently down at the silver blade, his breathing completely and eerily steady.
“You took your time.”
Craig’s voice rumbled low in the darkness, devoid of any alarm.
I planted my boots and yanked my arm, but his grip remained completely immovable.
“You knew?”
The question caught in my throat, betraying the intense, lifelong training meant to keep my pulse steady.
He finally released my aching wrist, taking a deliberate step back instead of violently attacking me.
“I recognized the distinct scent of a tribrid assassin the moment you stepped onto my territory.”
He turned away from me, running a weary hand through his dark hair as he looked into the dying fire.
“My mother was brutally murdered by a tribrid sent by the Vampire King when I was just a small child.”
The entire room seemed to violently spin as his heavy, devastating words landed.
“Brian and I hid silently under the bed and watched the horrific slaughter happen,” he continued, his strong voice cracking slightly.
“That is exactly why I rejected you in front of the pack.”
My breath caught painfully in my throat as the terrible, jagged pieces finally clicked together.
“Dan always told me the wolves killed my mother,” I whispered, stumbling back a step.
Craig slowly turned back to me, his bright golden eyes filled with deep, unmistakable sorrow.
“The wolves didn’t kill her, Megan; we actually gave her desperately needed sanctuary.”
Crossing the room, the Alpha King approached a large wooden chest resting at the foot of his massive bed.
From its depths, he produced a worn, carefully preserved leather-bound journal and carried it back to me.
“Your mother fell deeply in love with Dan, but when he realized she wouldn’t give him an army of assassins, he sent his own guards to eliminate her.”
The fragile, aged book felt incredibly heavy as Craig pressed it into my hands.
I recognized my mother’s delicate, flowing handwriting instantly on the very first faded page.
Every single emotional entry detailed her absolute, paralyzing terror of the ruthless Vampire King.
She had desperately run to the werewolf territory for protection, but a fatal vampire sickness had already taken deep hold of her.
The Vampire King had built my entire life upon a foundation of malicious lies.
My innocent childhood grief became nothing more than raw material to mold a living weapon.
Dan sent me here to destroy the only people who had offered my mother genuine sanctuary in her final days.
I dropped the poisoned dagger, the sharp, metallic clatter echoing loudly in the silent, tense room.
Craig stepped closer, gently resting his large, warm hands on my shivering shoulders.
“You need to run, tonight,” he urged, glancing anxiously toward the heavy, bolted oak door.
“Brian knows exactly what you are, and he is using your presence as an excuse to violently purge the pack.”
Before I could ask what he meant, a terrifying, blood-curdling howl tore through the night sky outside the window.
The deafening sound of heavy boots and drawn steel echoed violently down the stone corridor right outside the door.
If Craig wasn’t the monster I was raised to destroy, then who was actually hunting us?
