Chapter Twenty–Nine
“That was grandmother’s,” Layla gasped aloud, astonished by the piece of jewelry resting on my wrist.
I fingered the bracelet, “Sarah was like a second mother to me, she became my friend and confidant over the years. She gave me this bracelet the Last birthday of mane that we had together, that I’ve kept all these years.”
Larken glared at the evidence I wore around my wrist, seeming angered that I had proven my story. “You really expect us to believe that my mother gave you that stone, it’s been in our family for hundreds of years i rightfully belongs to my sister, not to be adored by someone we didn’t even
know expied”
“Larken stop,” his father growled.
“You’re right,” I found myself calmly agreeing to the claims the man had made, the same thoughts I had for years. “Something of such importance does belong to your family, your sister is free to have it if she wishes. I would never dream of disgracing her memory. It’s the same thing I’d of said to her, but unfortunately, I never got the chance to tell her.”
“No,” twin denied
He glared. “It’s only right, Layla”
“I said no Larken,” Layla ein him off before he could think to finish, refining to look in the direction of the stone. “Mama gave her the trane fora
reason. If the wanted Von to have the bracelet, then I want that too.”
“But-
“Larken Nathaniel Black!” Kadden’s warning growl rumbled deep in his chest, his wolf making his presence known at that moment. His glowing yellow eyes centered on the boy, daring him to challenge him further than he had. “I don’t care how you want to live your life and the disgrace you want to become, but you will not disrespect the memory of that woman. She was your mother and my wife. She deserves better than this.”
Rolling his eyes, he muttered something.
“What was that?” he snapped at the boy’s refusal to speak louder than a whisper, less than pleased he’d think to try. “If you are man enough to think it, then speak loud enough to be heard.”
Haring the anger thard erupted during dinner due to my presence, I regretted having allowed him to convince me to come. Because of my presence, Larken was placed in a foul mood, causing the two of them to argue. My heart clenched at the pained expression on Layla’s face, witnessing the tears coating her eyes. Slowly I rose to my feel. “li was a mistake for me to come. Why don’t you four continue on with dinner.”
“Where are you going?” he growled.
“To the minor,” I mured hims
He grabbed my wrist. “You’re not leaving.”
Layla immediately leapt up to her feet as she too realized the decision I came to, seeming to come to a decision on her own. Then to my astonishment, she walked around to the other side of the table, forcing me into the chair. “Daddy is right, you aren’t leaving. If you were Mom’s family, then you’re my family too. If Larken is displeased, then he and Blanca are free to leave. Now Von, tell me a little bit about yourself”
“Tah” I scammered.
She smiled. “You don’t need to get tongue tied. I want to get the chance to know someone that had played such an important role in my mother’s life. So tell me about yourself.”
Instarsly growing insecure in the face of her string of questions, I frantically searched for an escape. “I thought this was supposed to be a famdy dinner to inspect the sanity of your father. After all, he’s the one that’s locked himself away inside of the manor.”
“You do make a valid point,” Layla mused thoughtfully as her gaze shifted to the man in question, a curious light growing in her eyes. She tapped a finger thoughtfully on her cun “So Daddy, why exactly did you decide to imprison yourself in the palace?”
Shooting the woman a withering glare that promised retribution, Kadden offered her a soft smile. “I haven’t imprisoned myself anywhere. As I’ve told you a million times I am dealing with your mother’s death in my own way.
Larken was working on his second glass of wine, proving what kind of drunkard he really was Slurping away the last traces of the alcohol, his res laced with anger focused on his father. Or more exactly the woman at his side. “Yeah, what a way to be dealing with mom’s death. Barricading yourself inside of the house, in the presence of her long lost old friend. A stunningly gorgeous young woman at that. It causes talk.”
“Don’t start,” his sister warned.
Just when it looked like there would be a complete blowout between the men, a man came upasins. He went straight to the table, ignomat of the argument between the family. “Alpha you and the children need to leave. Now
He frowned. “What is it, Alex?”
The man who still looked perpetually thirty, though his dark hair had hints of grey and stress line proved his age. The last two years hadn’t been good to him, making him looker older than he ever had before. “They broke through the barriers. They look to be headed to town. I’ve summoned the warnors, but I would feel safer if the royal family was in the caule”
o retrieve the
The words barely came out of his beta’s mouth when Kadden was wrapping arms around my waist, ordering the man to that moment something seriously bad was about to happen, heightening his fear. “What’s going on Kadden?”
Twenty–t
y–Nine
“Rogues,” he spar in disgust.
The second we arrived at the front entrance the Bentley was already waiting for us, the valet having fetched the car. I was surprised when Kadden ensured I was placed in the car as if he was frightened for me. “Get in,” he ordered them.
Bunca balked. T’d prefer to go to my parents.”
“Get her home then be ordered.
The second that Kadden was behind the wheel the engine roared to life and he sped away from the restaurant. All the while an uncomfortable feeling settled in the pit of my stomach, knowing something was wrong. I didn’t know what it could be, but my senses were on high alert, warning me of encroaching danger. None of which had to do with the rogues, having grown used to dealing with them in the years away from this place.
Layla screamed, “Watch our.”
We were half a mile away from the safety of the palace when a cluster of men stood in the street. Instantly I knew them to be rogues, recognizing the glazed blood red eyes and unkempt appearance Kadden slammed down on the brakes to keep them from crashing into them, only nothing happened. It was in that moment when the reality dawned on me, what my instincts had tried to forewarn me about. The brake line was severed.
In the next moment, the wheels were blown out by something sharp in the middle of the road. Kadden tried to regain control of the vehicle as it span out, but nothing could forestall the events. I watched in wide–eyed terror as the car found itself flipping over, and jolted right into the air. As watched the vehicle head toward the trees, I knew there was no hope of surviving it. Even as werewolves we weren’t above physical ailment and none of us would survive the fiery crash.
In my last moments as the vehicle crashed toward our doom, I thought of the man and woman in the car. Both who’d come to mean so much to me in the time we spent, though for different reasons. I was astonished by the blinding white light that brightened inside the car, and then a barrier seemed to wrap around us. As I watched in continue to stretch out, placing us in a bubble of sorts, I was too stunned to react. My thoughts were thrown off their axis at the car slammed into the tree, hearing the crush of metal.
The collision tore the fabric of the seatbelt confining me into the vehicle, up righting me from the seat. I crashed through the surface of the window feeling my flesh tearing from the glass, until I slammed into the ground. Groaning in pain at the collision, I climbed to my feet surprised I wasn’t hurt as badly as I should’ve been. Then staring down at my arms eyes widened as I watched the inch deep gashes magically Heal up. Faster than any
Only I wasn’t given the chance to think about what was happening, at the memory of what was going on. Sensing the presence of the rogues in the area. I hurriedly raced back to the car, to see I was almost half a mile away. A panicked cry escaped me at seeing the rogues closing around the car, Kadden’s unconscious body on the ground. Layla was slowly beginning to come around in the back seat, though still too dazed to understand what was going on.
Terrified at the thought of the dangers brought into our lives tonight, I immediately switched modes. Once again becoming the mighty warrior I’d trained to be, claws extracted were sliced across a throat Together Diamond and I worked as one to take these fiends out of the equation, unable to allow another to be hurt because of them. I’d managed to take out the majority of them, only two left standing, when I was distracted by the scream. A man used my distraction to come up from behind me, but he wasn’t counting on the man coming to then. I turned back around just in time to witness Kadden ripping the spine from his back, discarding his body on the ground.
In the next moment, he was yanking me into his arms, as if the thought of me in danger affected him. “Are you okay?”
“I’m good,” I promised.
Assuring I hadn’t come into any undo danger while he was unconscious, he walked to the other side of the car. Literally yanking open the door. Kadden assisted his daughter out of the back seat, who was pretty banged up. “Are you okay, sweetie?”
“I’m fine Daddy.” Layla breathed.
It was only then when I’d been assured that both of them were safe, when I felt dizzy and light–headed. Just when I would’ve collapsed a pair of strong arms came around me, but it wasn’t the alpha. It was Beta Alex. My daddy. The father I hadn’t seen in almost two years, and for all purposes believed that I had died. For the first time in two years, he held me in his arma and the man didn’t even know I was his daughter.
“You’re okay,” he promised me. “Alpha, I think the wreck took more out of her than she thought.”
Handing his daughter over into the care of Gamma Thorn who swung her up into his arms, Kadden did the same to me. I tried to assure him it wasn’t necessary, I was capable of walking, but he refused to listen to my complaints. “Be quiet, Von. For once you’re going to listen.”
I didn’t dare argue.
