“So you decided to intervene instead of telling your daughter the truth?”
“I couldn’t risk the operation. And I suspected they’d already begun influencing you. The bond isn’t what they told you it is. Lycans don’t form genuine connections with humans. They manipulate through biological triggers designed to override free will.”
“And the tea? What about Hudson?”
“I met him in town. He said he was looking for you, wanted to apologize. Seemed genuine.” Thiago’s jaw tightened. “I gave him a compound to put in your tea. Targeted to erase memories connected to the lycans. You’d wake up, move on, never know they’d gotten close.”
“You drugged me.”
“I didn’t know he’d set the fire. I didn’t know he was abusive. He told me he loved you. I believed him.”
“And the dart that hit Percival?”
“A suppression attempt. Create distance between you and the wolves during the festival confusion. It wasn’t meant to cause permanent damage.”
“It almost killed him. You shot an actual person!”
“He’s not a person. I neutralized a threat that had its teeth in my daughter.” His voice hardened. “You call it a bond. I call it an animal bite. They’ve used this biological trick for centuries to bind humans to their will. You didn’t choose them. Your body was hijacked.”
The words affected my chest and sat there, poisonous and precise.
“I just wanted to protect you.”
“From what?” I was on my feet. Didn’t remember standing. “From the men who pulled me out of the building you helped burn? From those who tracked down my abuser and made sure he’d never touch me again?”
“They are predators, Mira. Creatures that mimic humanity to infiltrate and consume.”
“You don’t know them!”
“I know exactly what they are. And when they got what they needed from you, what did they do?” He held my gaze. “They rejected you. They left. Exactly the way a predator discards prey it no longer needs.”
The silence that followed almost made me choke. Because that part was true. They had left. They had rejected me. And the irony of defending men who’d abandoned me three hours ago was so bitter I could have laughed.
“Even if everything you’re saying is true,” my voice had lost its fire, “it doesn’t justify what you did. You left me at six years old. You burned my home. You handed my memories to a man who put scars on my body. You didn’t have any right to decide for me.”
The mask slipped completely. He was colder than Solomon had ever been, smoother all the way through, because at least my mates’ walls had cracks.
“I’m not going to apologize for the choices I made. I’ll apologize for the pain they caused you. But the choices themselves were correct.”
“You’re insane.”
The study went quiet before I started to walk to the door and leave.
“You can’t be with them,” he said.
The laugh that escaped me was jagged enough to cut. “Well, you got what you want, Dad. They rejected me.”
I’d already turned to leave when his voice caught me at the door.
“That’s not it.”
I stopped. My hand was on the handle.
Every instinct was telling me to walk through the door and keep walking, that whatever came next was calibrated to control me.
“You can’t fall in love with lycans, Mira.” His voice had changed. “They’re monsters.”
“You keep saying that.”
