SWNOVELS Chapter 44
Morgan pov.
There is a tense silence around us as we all settle in the giant living room, Isa and Luca blinked us to. River is seated next to me and Rain towers behind us, still in his wolf form. He's calmed down enough to not growl every time Benjamin moves but he's not calm enough to shift back. This day has been nothing but dramatic and honestly, I would rather sleep than deal with all of this but we're here now, wherever here is and there are too many things that need discussing before any of us think of resting.
"So, just to recap what's been happening. We have Sinclair and the Commander after us because there is no way secret experiments are being conducted in the Bio-Glaze and he doesn't know about it. We have a potentially dangerous hybrid who's helping us but could be a secret agent for Sinclair on our trail. There is a war brewing between humans and everything supernatural. I'm some type of hybrid sired by a man who's still alive but doesn't care enough to show himself to me and Rain's parents are alive, but they also need to stay hidden because their lives are in danger. Does that sum up what's been happening?" Everyone nods and I feel something heavy settle upon me. "This is fucken fantastic. We're not even at the end of this week and so much shit has happened." Rain nudges the back of my neck with his snout and while it doesn't do much to make the dread in my body go away it does alleviate some of it.
"Your father does care about you, little one." Benjamin sighs and I glare at him.
"He's not my father and now is not the time to be playing devil's advocate. You have secrets and a lot of them. I'm not even sure I want to know because I'm honestly starting to hate you more and more as they get revealed." The vampire looks pained, but I don't care. When I first met him, he reminded me a lot of my father. Stern but too caring to know what's best for him. He didn't mind my straight forwardness and didn't think me rude at times when others did. He's become a comfort and working with him has been wonderful and he's gone and ruined all of that. Something I had thought was happening naturally, a bond I didn't think I needed in my life, all built on lies and it's crumbling faster than I can decide if I want to hold onto it.
"I kept them to protect you." He insists and I shake my head.
"No, you kept them because you didn't want to deal with the fallout. Would you have told me if Sinclair wasn't planning this expansion? If there wasn't another war looming, would I know any of this or would you simply just have removed Rain and I from each other's lives again? Warped our memories to keep your dirty waters running?" Rain rises to his feet the same time Benjamin does, watching the vampire with narrowed eyes.
"There was always going to be a war. We just didn't expect it to come from their side first." Isa pipes up and I sink back into the couch, my body suddenly feeling like lead. "We would have told you. Everything." She looks almost sincere but nothing inside of me wants to trust any of them.
"Can I ask something?" River clears her throat. "If our parents are alive but Rain and I have the same memories and his are wrong, does it mean mine are too or are mine a result of what he told me, and I just accepted it that way?" Her question is valid and by the look in Benjamin's eyes Rain and I's memories weren't the only ones messed with.
"This is sick." I mutter, my stomach twisting violently. "Do any of you have kids or are you just content in playing games with other people's kids?" Silence falls over the room and I nod.
"So, our parents are alive?" River asks and Agness nods. "But they won't come see us even though the war has technically already started, and they'd be in danger anyway?" I look between the three representatives in the room, willing them to come up with stupid answers for a perfectly logical question.
"There's a lot of things that need to happen for the war to officially start." Luca hovers down from where he's been perched on an invisible seat in the air. "First, we would need to declare it and right now we're all just buying time. Feeling out who we can trust and gathering information to convince people of our respective truths. To give them a choice on which side they want to take." Rain huffs and I second that.
"We don't have a choice though. You made sure of that. Despite everything Sinclair has done wrong from the start if she had the brains, the brilliant idea to come to be first before kidnapping Rain. If she presented her facts, no matter how twisted they may have been, I would most likely have made another choice. If she viewed me as an ally, rather than a threat to her job security, I wouldn't be sitting here right now faced with trying to unravel the lies you've been spreading since before I was born." The uneasiness in the air rises with every word but no one can deny the truth of any of it.
"Morgan..." I shake my head at Luca, knowing he knew all these secrets and so much more. He wouldn't be part of this inner circle if he didn't.
"No, you were the one who reminded me of my unsteady position when the expansion first got proposed. You were ready to throw me to the wolves, or at least you made it seem that wat. Reminded me of how I knew nothing sitting in my glass castle. Those were your words. You told me minds could be changed and then you played with mine so I wouldn't be able to go another direction. If Sinclair hadn't been stupid, I would still be sitting in my glass castle, fighting for people who so clearly don't value me and I'm not talking about the humans." River's fingers intertwine with mine and my heart beats a little easier. We might get to liking each other faster than I thought.
"I think we should all turn in for the night." Agness's soft voice fills the silence that's fallen over us. "It's been a long day. Luca, why don't you show them to their rooms."
"Yes, by all means, do that. It'll give you all more time to come up with more ways to fuck us over and then expect us to fix your messes." I give them a dead smile as I rise from the chair. Luca flutters to a set of double doors and pushes them open, disappearing through them. Rain, River and I follow behind and I leave the room knowing that I can't trust the people I leave behind.