I staggered back a step, stunned.
“But then by the time you were ten, he was glad he wasn’t your father.” Linden glowered up at me. “You looked just like your mother. Used to constantly go on about how he planned to—”
With a broken cry, I lunged forward. My foot connected with the side of his head before I started raining punches on him. He was too weak and broken to fight back.
The skin of my knuckles broke open as I punched wildly and blindly, hitting and clawing even as my nails broke.
I lost track of how many times I hit him before strong arms wrapped around my waist and lifted me off of him. He didn’t move as I was dragged into the hallway.
The guard who had opened the door slammed it shut, cutting me off from the sight of my completely helpless, destroyed uncle.
I had wanted to see this man brought low my entire life, but I never imagined like this.
“Calm yourself, sweetheart,” Nikolai whispered, his voice soothing against my ear and fighting through the turmoil in my head.
The fight left me in a rush. I sagged against him, wanting nothing more than to bawl my eyes out.
“Can I do anything?” Lulu asked softly, stepping into my periphery. She wrung her hands, looking nervous.
“Leave us,” Nikolai ordered. “I will tend to my daughter.”
The guard locked Linden’s cell as Lulu gave me a weak smile. They both left down the corridor together.
“I’m okay,” I whispered as soon as they were out of sight.
I wasn’t okay, but I also wasn’t going to fall apart right now. My nerves were frayed and raw, and I worried if I started crying, I might not stop.
“All right,” he allowed, slowly turning me in his arms so that he was grasping me by the shoulders as he peered into my eyes. “Let’s get you cleaned up, shall we?”
I nodded mutely, not resisting as he took my hand in his and led me away from this awful place.
‘Away from here’ was Nikolai’s office tucked inside the mountain another several floors up. The space was massive and had a large bathroom attached that I used to wash up. It took forever to scrub the dried blood from under my nails.
I splashed cold water on my pale face, wondering how long I could hide in here before Nikolai gave up and left me alone.
By the time I mustered the courage to come out, Nikolai was already changed and cleaned. His hair was even wet like he had showered.
He pointed to the door on the other side of his office. “I have a bedroom through there with another bathroom. I took the time to clean up while you did.”
“Oh,” I said, my voice impossibly small as I hesitated in the doorway.
“Please sit,” he invited, motioning to the large sectional sofa by the fireplace. Someone had already lit a fire that was roaring and crackling, throwing off waves of warmth I wanted to wrap myself in.
I moved to the spot closest to the fire, watching warily as he sat in the matching armchair across from me.
“Skye,” he started, “I know we don’t know each other very well, but I’m hoping you’ll tell me what that was about.”
I bit my lower lip. “Why don’t you tell me why you were in there?”
Nikolai’s eyes narrowed, and I thought he would object, but he simply leaned back in the chair and folded his hands over his stomach.
“Very well,” he agreed. “I inferred enough from Dimitri to know that your former pack was less than desirable.”
I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. That was the understatement of the freaking century.
“I wished to speak with your former Alpha to ascertain what happened,” he finished. “You are my daughter, and your safety was his responsibility as your Alpha.”
“And did he tell you?”
Nikolai grinned, the look he gave me was positively wolfish. More predator than anything I had seen. “He wasn’t bleeding because he was cooperative, little wolf.”
“Oh.” I licked my lips nervously.
“He blamed your mother mostly.” He said that so aloofly that I almost missed the undercurrent of rage barely vibrating under the surface.
“He’s a liar,” I snapped.
Another thin smile. “So I figured out for myself.”
I tucked my legs up, hugging them with my arms. “Good.”
“But you said something that caught my attention.”
I froze, my gaze locked on the dancing flames.
“You said our bond was broken,” he said softly. “Not that your mother broke it.”
“She didn’t,” I replied after a beat. I finally looked at him. “I didn’t know that either until a few minutes before I found you with Linden.”
The pain and fury in his eyes made my breath catch.
“I see,” he murmured after a moment. “But I still don’t understand why she never reached out. I would have come for you. For her.”
I rested my chin on my knees as I watched him. “I told you. Where we lived … Where they kept us, we didn’t have access to things like phones or the internet.”
Or food or clean drinking water on a regular basis.
“I spent years being hurt by her refusing our bond,” he said, his voice almost detached of emotion. “I thought her the villain.”
“She’s not,” I whispered back, my voice cracking. “She protected me as much as she could. The things they did to her …” I shuddered hard enough to rattle my teeth. Those memories were lead weights tied to my ankles. I dragged them along with me no matter where I was.
I sniffled against the back of my hand. “She did what she had to so that we could survive.”
He rubbed his jaw absently, his gaze moving to the fire. “I see that now. Perhaps one day you will tell me about it.”
I hesitated. “Honestly? There’s a lot I don’t know, and what I do know? That’s Mom’s story. I won’t betray her by telling you what happened to her.”
His lips thinned. “Very well. I shall wait then until I talk to her.”
“You’re planning to talk to her?” I asked slowly.
“We share a child,” he reminded me with a chuckle. “We will always be connected by you, Skye.”
Silence blanketed the air between us for several minutes.
“Those things they did to her,” he finally asked quietly, “did they do those things to you?”
“They would have,” I said quietly, looking down at my lap. “But she got me out in time. She saved my life.”
“Then it would seem I owe her a great debt,” he replied gently.
That makes two of us, I thought. I had spent the last few days missing my mom, but also furious at her for all the truths she had kept from me.
It was getting harder and harder to feel that anger now. Not when I weighed it against everything she had been through. Especially now.
Allan had always been exceptionally, disgustingly, fond of my mother. It was her room he visited the most. The fact that he was the reason the bond was broken between my parents was a bitter pill to swallow.
I couldn’t imagine that pain. Imagine after being with Remy, having someone shatter our bond by force. Having Remy thinking I betrayed him while the pack I loved turned their backs on me. While my parents literally sold me out.