The door to his office opened, and the scent of his mate hit him like a gentle breeze. Even in haste, she moved with grace and calmness. He could feel her worry through their bond. She knew something was very wrong, but he’d been keeping his mind blocked from her. She rarely questioned him, but killing two of your pack mates caused intense emotions that were hard to hide. He turned and slowly let his eyes meet hers. Jeremiah hated that he saw disappointment there. It was worse than seeing anger.
“What have you done, Jeremiah?” She held her hands clasped in front of her, and he heard the worry in her voice. Rose held her chin high and her shoulders back, looking every bit like the confident alpha female that she was. Some might mistake her meekness and gentle spirit for weakness, but they would be fools. His mate was as fierce as any dominant wolf. The difference between her and him was that she didn’t feel the need to exert her dominance over anyone. It was something he both admired and resented.
“What I had to do in order to protect Tanya,” he answered coolly. “She deserves better.” Jeremiah kept the secret of the child tucked away in his mind, but he allowed her to see the knowledge that he believed Dillon to be Tanya’s mate.
“This is a cause for celebration.” She stepped farther into the room. “And it isn’t for us to judge who the Great Luna has for our daughter. You know this, Jeremiah.” Her voice was sharp as a whip and stung just as badly. Her dismay bled into him like poison, burning to his marrow and bone.
“He doesn’t deserve her, dammit,” he snapped. “Don’t you see that?” Jeremiah rested his hands on his hips and leaned his head back, closing his eyes as he pictured his daughter as a young child. He remembered when she was born, how hard the labor had been for Rose. They had no gypsy healer, and the risk of birth complications was high. When he’d laid eyes on Tanya, his heart had never been fuller. He and the woman he adored had made this precious being. The Great Luna had blessed them, and he knew there would come a day when he’d have to give her away to her true mate, but he’d imagined a man of integrity, a man whose actions dictated him to be worthy of Tanya. Not a man … a man like … him. Jeremiah felt bile rise up in his throat as his own past came back to bite him in the ass. It was a memory he faced every single day. And not because he wanted to but because his sweet, forgiving, gracious mate had a heart of gold, and he didn’t deserve her for even a second. But he’d never give her up.
“Can you really judge him?” Rose knew exactly where his mind was. “I love you, Jeremiah Ellis, and I forgave you a long time ago for your past. I have embraced the result of that past. It wasn’t her fault. She didn’t ask to be the result of a union that should have never happened. She didn’t ask to be rejected by her mother, and I wasn’t about to turn away your own flesh and blood.”
“Don’t,” he growled as his hands dropped and his wolf pushed forward. His eyes would no doubt be glowing as he glared at his mate, both bitterness and awe inside him for her. “You didn’t have to let her stay here. We could have turned her over to the human adoption agency, and she could have found a family that would have been better for her than here.”
Rose growled as she stomped over to him and shoved him hard. “She is your daughter, just as much as Tanya, dammit.” She pressed her finger into his chest and punctuated her words with pointed jabs. “No matter how she came to be, she is ours. Penelope deserves love just as much as a child brought into this world between two people who deeply love one another. It was your foolishness that led to the circumstances, but that does not mean she is a damn mistake. And I will never treat her as one.”
“And that is why you’re my mate,” Jeremiah whispered. “Because your goodness balances out my wickedness.”
Rose lifted her hand, the very one that has been so violent moments ago, and cupped his face gently. “You let your wickedness rule where it doesn’t have to. That has always been a choice, my love. I have tolerated many things from you. But you will not rob our daughter of her true mate.”
Jeremiah could rarely tell his mate no. It was the reason his illegitimate, dormant offspring lived in their home. Because the human he’d lain with had dropped her off at his door and hightailed it out of there before he could shove the kid back in the car. He’d been ready to hand her over to the humans, just drop her off at a police station or some other place of human authority, but Rose wouldn’t have it. She’d known that he’d been with a human before meeting her, though it was nothing as deep as what Dillon had with Lilly Pierce. Jeremiah had a one-night stand. He’d given in to a moment of weakness, not years of himself to another woman. And as a result of that hour, Jeremiah saw a lifetime of regret every day in the halls of his own home.
The phone on his desk rang, and he met his mate’s eyes. “I love you, Rose. But you will not interfere in this. And if you do, I will send Penelope away.” Her face blanched. Despite how Penelope had come into this world, Rose claimed her as her own, though they’d never told Tanya the truth of the dormant female. It had been his stipulation for letting her stay. Jeremiah was a coward, but he didn’t want to see judgment in his daughter’s eyes. As a child, she’d always looked at him as if he’d hung the moon. He never wanted her to see him as anything less. Though in recent years he was pretty sure his tight hold on her was beginning to make her resent him.
He picked up the phone and blocked his thoughts from his mate. “Hello?”
“Alpha.” Daniel’s voice came through. Jeremiah didn’t miss the hesitancy in his tone.
“Is Dillon Jacobs Tanya’s mate?” He didn’t bother beating around the bush. There was no point. “Don’t make me give you an alpha order.”
“Yes,” Daniel said quickly. He never liked to be forced. It was what made him a good beta, though Jeremiah still didn’t trust him with everything. He couldn’t. The secrets Jeremiah kept were too dangerous to his reputation. His pack might have forgiven him decades ago, but keeping Penelope a secret all these years would be seen as a betrayal of their trust. It could never be allowed to get out.
“I’ve learned much about him,” Jeremiah told his beta. “He’s not who he appears to be. And he certainly isn’t good enough for my daughter.”
“Alpha, with all due—”
Jeremiah cut him off. “He had a years-long relationship with a human, Daniel,” Jeremiah barked. “He cared so little for the feelings of his future mate that he dared to share himself with another woman, loved another woman for years.” There was silence on the other end of the phone. Jeremiah imagined Daniel must be in a phone booth, considering he didn’t hear the sounds of people at a gas station or wherever else he might have stopped to return his alpha’s page. “I will not allow him to sully her with his disloyal hands.”
Daniel let out a sigh. “She’s an adult, Alpha. Isn’t that her choice to make?”
Jeremiah’s wolf growled. “I am her father and her alpha. As long as she is a member of this pack, she will follow my rules. Dillon will not claim her. When will you be back?”
He felt his beta’s hesitation.
“I order you to tell me the truth,” Jeremiah snarled. Daniel could not lie.
“A little over an hour,” he finally answered.
“Bring her straight to my office.” He slammed the phone down and looked back up at Rose, who still stood in the same place.
“Don’t do this, Jeremiah,” she begged. “She will never forgive you.”
Jeremiah thought of the child Dillon had made with another woman. He remembered the crushing pain Rose had felt when she’d learned of Penelope, and he vowed that his daughter would not endure that. “She will one day.”
He walked past his mate and mentally prepared himself to do what he knew he had to. It was the only option to ensure that his daughter would not endure the embarrassment and pain of knowing her mate had betrayed her. Dillon Jacobs had to die before he could be allowed to complete the Blood Rites with Tanya.
Chapter
Sixteen
