Maisie
A small laugh of disbelief escaped . "You’re lying. My father was—is the kindest person I know."
But fear knotted in my stomach, as the bond flared in my chest, ringing Soren’s words as true.
I shook my head.
No.
No, that wasn’t possible.
Dad couldn’t have been an assassin.
My father braided Lana’s hair because Mom always pulled too hard. He knew exactly how much cinnamon went into pancakes because he made them every Sunday. He sat us on his lap and told stories where kindness won and cruelty lost. He kissed scraped knees. He cried during sad endings.
He loved us. He loved Mom.
He had warm brown eyes that always looked a little sleepy when he smiled.
How could a man like that sneak into a child’s bedroom with a knife? How could a man like that be a killer?
"Two truths can co-exist," Jericho said, his gaze heavy, and perhaps it was the quality to his tone as he spoke, but I knew, knew it in my gut, that he was speaking about more than just my father.
Those hands that ran along my skin, that had explored every inch of my body, inside and out, had blood on them.
I knew I was too far gone from being saved when it both frightened and shot a bolt of arousal straight between my legs.
Goddess. I had to be the first woman in history who had sex and terribly needed rehab and therapy after.
Shoving the vile thoughts from my mind, my gaze returned to Soren’s as he said, "You would be surprised how little you know about people, unless they decide to show it to you."
I gave the four of them a dry, pointed look. "You don’t say."
They all cringed at the indirect hit, but Soren continued smoothly, letting out yet another sentence that took off balance.
"Richter Adams was not always Richter Adams," he said. "When I t him, he was called Silas Thorne. And before that, he was one of the best rogue assassins the Exiles ever used."
Right. My father wasn’t just an assassin. He was a rogue.
It felt like the world had shifted. I sat, because I wasn’t sure I could take anymore surprises today. "Exiles. You ntioned they were like Lycan rogues before."
The air in the room turned hostile and frosty. "Worse," rcer said. "Because of our dwindling numbers, the death penalty is rarely issued for serious cris. Like treason. Instead, they are exiled, ostracized from our society, and permanently erased from our books."
"And my father worked for these people," I said quietly.
Quinlan nodded. "Along with many others. It is a commonly known fact that werewolf rogues cannot live outside the pack for very long. So they form rogue packs, or the more attractive option: they beco a part of the Exiled. They spy. They steal. They kill when the job requires it. Slip into courts, into houses, into beds, and they brought back information. Or blood. Whatever is asked of them."
My fingers trembled as I tried to connect the image being fed to with what I knew of my father. It didn’t fit. At all.
Soren said, "One of those jobs was ."
I went still. Soren looked at , but he wasn’t really looking at . His eyes were distant. Hard. And I felt sick, so sick in my stomach.
"He was dressed as one of my personal guard. He ca into my room while I slept with an ashen knife. He had already reached before I woke fully. The blade was at my throat. One movent, and he would have ended ."
Soren’s jaw tightened. "But he did not."
I had forgotten how to breathe.
Soren’s voice turned rougher, lower. "He looked down at . And his hands shook."
He looked like he was reliving it as he added, "I have never quite seen such horror in a person’s eyes. He said sothing I have never forgotten," Soren continued. "’I can’t believe she asked this of .’ And then, ’Goddess have rcy. You’re just a boy.’"
My stomach tightened as he continued, "He could have killed . It wouldn’t have taken much. But he took the dagger off my neck and went to my bathrooom and retched."
Soren blinked slowly, face stoic. I didn’t know how anyone could recall sothing so horrifying without showing emotions. Like it was sothing he was used to.
"I couldn’t call for help. Or move. I was still recuperating after being poisoned two nights before." His nostrils flared. "I was a sitting duck until he returned."
Sothing sparked in my heart. Amidst all of the anger and the rage. It felt soft. I felt a different urge this ti. To reach across and cup his cheek. To feel his warmth. To feel that he was here and alive.
My Lycan roiled at the thought that I could’ve lost him without ever eting him. The feelings confused deeply.
If he felt it down the bond, he didn’t show. He took a sip from the glass of liquor. "When Richter ca back, he sat on the floor beside what should’ve been my death bed. And he started speaking to ."
"’They say sothing changes irrevocably in a man when he holds his child in his arms. A boy makes him feel proud. A daughter makes him softer. I got two daughters, and that has apparently made develop a conscience.’"
Soren let out a small laugh. "He told about his daughters. They’d only been born that week. He gave your nas and told to rember them. And then, he gave the dagger."
My brows drew together. "Why?"
"He showed the emblem etched into the blade. He told I owed him a life debt, and that one day he would call it in. When that day ca, he said, I would receive another dagger, just like it. And I would understand exactly what he was asking."
His fingers absently swirled the whiskey in his glass. "A few years later, I learned that emblem belonged to the Hunts. A royal line exiled for the treason committed against my mother and her mates. For murder."
My skin went cold.
Pieces had started clicking into place, one after another, ugly and horrifying in their implications.
And with each piece, a new understanding of who I was to Soren began to take shape.
He went on, "For years, I hunted for answers. I hated the Exiles. I hated the Hunts. I hated anyone connected to the deaths of my mother and her mates. My mother was wounded with an ashen knife. The healers said she held on just long enough to bring into the world."
His gaze drifted sowhere distant again.
"That history shaped my entire life. All I was left with was a dagger and a debt I did not understand. I wanted revenge, yes. But more than that, I wanted to know why Richter spared ."
My breathing had turned shallow.
"When I finally found the Hunts’ fortress near the Ridge years later, it was impenetrable." His mouth tightened. "I was angry, but not stupid enough to break in blindly. And Richter was gone by then.
"I learned that he’d vanished from the castle on the sa night he failed to kill . He fled. He hid. He built a life far from the people who would have killed him for what he stole."
His eyes held mine.
"The daughters of the woman who called herself the Exiled Queen. His daughters. The daughters of the woman who helped kill my mother."
I flinched.
Soren’s mouth tightened before he looked away.
"Finding Richter was almost impossible," he said. "But my aunt sent to Night Shade to extend her goodwill. That was how I found him."
A beat passed.
"And how I found you."
My breath caught.
"You were sitting on the steps of the small house in a pink dress that made my eyes ache," he said. "Your sister had fallen and you were wiping her tears with tiny thumbs. You handed her your stuffed doll and she took it and shoved you to the ground, laughing."
"You scraped your knee," he continued. "You were bleeding, and she was laughing at you."
His brow lifted, almost imperceptibly.
"And then you started laughing too."
The smallest softness touched the corner of his eyes. "I did not understand how anyone so cruel could have created sothing as pure as you. I knew then, why he’d chosen to spare ."
The room seed to go quiet around that.
"And then," Soren said, his voice lowering again, "you turned and looked right at where I was hidden in the shadows.
"I spent a long ti trying to understand why I could not look away from you," he said. "I did not understand what you had done to until I started dreaming about you. Searching for a reason your face would stop following into sleep."
His gaze hardened again. "Because you looked just like her. And I despised you for it."
My pulse pounded in my ears.
"I did not realize it then," he said. "But you had imprinted on ."
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