Chapter 22
"Niece! Fillian is my cousin." Alex said to his father. I was no longer shocked by my past twists and turns. Apparently, Adrian had kept a lot from his son.
Adrian laughed at Alex. "Dane leave, you have served your purpose for now. Alex will link you to pick up your mate."
"He is not my mate," I said. "I rejected him, and he accepted. I am sure the goddess will not let us take it back."
"Oh, she will when you are mated and marked by him. But for now, Dane leave, I need to talk to my son and niece." Adrian said. "On your way out, let my wife in."
Luna Rebecca walked in with a drawn look. She looked at me and half smiled. You know one of those smiles people give you when they wish they could help. She turned to her husband.
"Adrian. What have you done now?" She looked mad. "You should have let her be. You know my brother knows she is alive and is trying to get her back. He may challenge Alex for his rightful spot as Alpha of this pack."
"My father was/is your brother? And is he alive?" So many more questions started to arise. But Alex beat me to the next question.
"What do you mean rightful spot? I am the born Alpha, next in line," he said. "It is mine now. Not Father's, not Danes, and certainly not some traitor."
I looked from Alex to his mother to Adrian. He just gave a wicked laugh. "All of you sit down. I brought Fillian back so we can finally rid of your brother and that ambitious Dane once and for all. If you let me speak, I will tell you my plan."
"Fillian do like you used to. Fade into the background. If you don't put up a fight, there may be a way to get us out of this. If he divulges too much information." Sasha was eager to come forward, but I agreed that the more Adrian talked the more likely he would give us a clue to our escape.
Everyone sat around Adrian. "Dear niece. I am sure you are confused. As is my son. Let me start at the beginning."
"Your father was next in line for Alpha of the dark moon pack but he had bigger ideas. He wanted to override all royalty and rule all the mystical and human worlds. On his 18th birthday he vanished, taking with him a few members of the pack. I took your aunt as my wife and easily killed your grandfather to become Alpha of the pack." A tear dropped down my aunt's face.
"We thought we had rid of your father. But rumors spread. He had mated with a witch to create a hybrid monster as a child and was running experiments on other children mixing the races. Dangerous it was for everyone involved."
"Once you were born, I guess they were on the run. Your mother and father broke many laws. Not just the royals wanted them dead. When he arrived with you, he said he had failed. That you were human, and your mother was thrown out, striped of power and killed by her coven."
It made sense why the witch who had bound my powers was so focused on killing me. I was the stain on their coven. Sins of the mother in their case.
"Why wouldn't you just kill us?" I asked Adrian.
He smiled. "Your father was very strong and I was curious to see if you would ever develop as a wolf or witch. He made a deal to be my Beta as long as we kept you safe. I made the agreement. It was going well until you started to develop your power. It was little things at first, mainly when you were mad. He started to attempt to align other packs against me. I put a call out for his execution but nothing."
"He had small numbers working with him. All became rogues except your sweet Katie's parents, who stayed to protect you. They had seen the horrible path your father had taken and no longer wanted anything to do with it. They died fighting him."
I gasped as the realization hit that all the Rogue attacks throughout the years had been about me. All those people in Dark Moon and Violet Moon that died, died unknowingly because of me.
"Yes, I see you realize the rogues are your father's pack. A pack not recognized. That is why we need you. My son is not strong enough to run the pack. Dane is not a leader. I need a strong power. You will defeat your father's pack for us." "Why would I do that? You have done nothing for me."
"We will release Katie." This statement made me pause. Sasha brought me back. "What about us?"
"What will happen to me?" I asked.
"You will either win or die trying. If you win, you will marry Dane as already promised and he will promise not to challenge my son. With you as his mate, he could easily take my son. Hell he could probably do it without your magic." I glanced at Alex. I could sense his anger at his father's dismissal. This was my out. Could I turn to Alex and get him to help me?
"Alex is a better Alpha than any of you. Adrian, why do you think I would ever help Dane win against you?"
Adrian laughed at this and Alex stormed out of the room.
"Why Dane? Why not just let me go?"
"Power my girl. If you are not dead, you must be ours. If you cannot by blood marry my son, you will marry the next Alpha. The pack will quiver at our feet. Even the royals will bow and not be able to restrict us." "Stop talking, Filli, listen only," Sasha begged. "We need a plan."
"Enough with the questions. I will let your father know that we have you and that we are willing to trade. Peace for you. Once you get there you must kill him, or I will kill Katie." "No!" My aunt and I said in unison.
"The plan will be to trade you in the forest close to the Violet moon line. This way you can skip over, use your powers and cross back without too much trouble."
"I want to do it today."
I hear Alex howl, suddenly Sasha pushes forward. Link Vincent, your power is back.