Her reassurance cracked something inside me, but I still couldn’t react.
My mind wouldn’t let me.
I stayed in her arms, breathing, existing.
Hunter got off the call with Slater and tried to talk me through the shock.
Time warped.
Hunter told me the Supernatural Council’s agents were after my father now and that they wouldn’t let him disappear or hurt me or my brother and his mother.
Pandora told me that I wasn’t alone.
The others also said some encouraging shit, but I couldn’t process any of it.
Time distorted again before reality finally crashed down on me.
Janet Hemlock, the demon who’d given birth to me, was gone. Harry Hemlock, my own father, had killed her.
Ironically enough, despite everything, some part of me had always held onto the hope that she’d eventually give in to her maternal instincts and save me. That one day, she’d pull her head out of her own ass and change for me. I’d dreamed many times that she’d stand between me and my father instead of stepping aside. Or worse—joining in.
But that never would happen. It never did happen, and she had plenty of chances to do so.
“Janet Hemlock watched silently and detached as Harry Hemlock berated me. She watched himbeatme. She only joined in after Grandpa died. The first time she did…” I swallowed what felt like glass. “When she lifted her hand and struck me herself…that was the moment I knew she had chosen him over me. It’s when Ifucking knewshe hated me as much as my father did.”
Loss, regret, and rage slammed into me all at once. It tore through the numbness, leaving me shaking.
I barked out a painful chuckle. “What I would do for a sip of fae whiskey right now.”
“You’re better than that,” Hunter said, causing me to nod.
“You’re right. I am.”
But fuck, the desire was there.
Pandora held me tighter, her fingers trailing through my hair. “You survived them both, Bram,” she whispered. “You’re healing. That doesn’t mean you have to carry guilt for her choices.”
I couldn’t stop it.
The moment her arms tightened around me again, the composure I’d chaotically held together for so long shattered.
A sob tore from my chest. It wasn’t just sadness drowning me—it was exhaustion, grief, and a loneliness so deep that I hadn’t even realized how it had hollowed me out.
She fixed that, though.
Pandora’s caramel scent centered me. My body shook with the force of emotions I’d buried for so long, my breath hitching between gasps that felt like they might never end.
But through every sob and cry, she stayed.
They all did.
Pandora, Dex, Skel, Hunter, and fuck, even Reed woke up and just supported me.
Through my emotional torment and vulnerability—I felt something in my heart shift. The bond between us, between me, Pandora, and even the others, solidified into something more than it was.
For me, at least, a bond formed stronger than before. Not just from our matebond with Pandora, but from the understanding that none of us had to carry our burdens alone anymore. For the first time since Grandfather died, I wasn’t alone. No matter what came next, I hadthem. Plus, Slater and even his mother.
And that was enough to keep me from falling apart completely.
