“You two are like children. This is literally life or death. I am going to keep you alive despite the fact that you seem to have a fucking death wish.” He took a deep breath and blew it out, his frustration clear. “They think Alec is dead. I started the fire in his holding cell. They’ll find a body. Please don’t ask me for details.”
I blinked a few times, letting the words sink in. “What did you do?”
“What I had to. I told you, I will protect my alpha,” Kyle said.
My chest felt tight. I wasn’t sure how to process this. Kyle had never been as aggressive toward me as the others, but he was still part of the trauma of my past. But he got me out. And he killed a member of the pack to do it. He was in even deeper shit than I thought. They could come after his family if they made that connection.
Kyle was all in with me. Even if I didn’t trust him, I was all he had now. His family would have to disown him to have any chance of maintaining their lives. They were likely going to be ostracized and that was a best-case scenario. If Ace knew the extremes of Kyle’s actions, his whole family could end up in the caves. Including his sister.
I wanted to believe him. I wanted to trust him. But I’d been too hurt for too long. I wasn’t sure I could ever move on enough to form a friendship with him.
“I don’t know if I can ever forgive you.” I looked from Kyle to Ace. “Either of you.”
“You don’t have to,” Kyle said. “I told you, I’ll earn your trust eventually. I don’t expect absolution.”
Somehow, his words were exactly what I needed to hear. How the fuck had I ended up in a car with a former enemy and the man who broke my heart and betrayed me? I covered my face with my hands for a moment, taking a breath before dropping my hands. “What’s your plan?”
“Thank you,” Kyle said. “Alec said you have friends at his camp. The spy returned to Wolf Creek, so we should be relatively safe, but we can’t stay long. What we need is time for you to finally get a handle on your shifting. Then, we have to deal with your father before you can challenge Ace to claim the pack.”
“Wait, what?” My pulse raced. “I didn’t agree to that. What if I don’t want to go back to Wolf Creek or have anything to do with my father? And I have to point out how there’s nothing in your plan about breaking my mating bond with Tyler.”
Both males were silent and they turned away from me. I got the distinct impression they were avoiding the subject on purpose.
“Don’t you dare,” I threatened. “There is no option besides severing that bond. I will not live with that forever.”
“I heard how you saved him,” Alec said.
“So? That doesn’t mean I want to be with him. It means I’m a good person. I don’t let others die, even if I don’t like them,” I said.
“The bond between the two of you is strong,” Kyle said. “Tyler was already changing his mind about forcing the bond. He wanted you to get there on your own. It was Ace who pushed.”
“I don’t care. There will never be anything between Tyler and myself. Ever. Do you understand?” I was pissed. How dare they even suggest such a thing.
“Well, once you re-claim the pack, you can do whatever you want with him. Send him to the caves, banish him. The choice will be yours,” Kyle said.
“I want the bond broken.” I wasn’t even about to go into detail about the wholeclaiming my packthing.
“And what is all this about my father?” There was far too much going on right now. “How does everyone else but me know this information? Does everyone in Wolf Creek know?”
“He told me,” Kyle said. “And trust me, nobody else in Wolf Creek knew or your life would have been very different.”
“But you know now?” I asked. “Who my supposed father is?”
Kyle nodded.
“My mom said I should stay away from him. She said the reason she never told me I could shift was because if I did, he’d find me.” Not that my mother had a great record as a parent. For all I knew, she was lying to me. Or maybe she didn’t even know who my father really was.
“He knows about you,” Alec said.
My breath hitched. My father knew about me and who I was? A little part of me was furious that he never came to look for me. I was also a little disappointed. He probably didn’t want me. Anger surged. I didn’t need him, anyway. “What if I don’t want to know who he is? It’s not like he tried to help me.”
“You might not have a choice,” he said.
“How do you know?” I asked, my tone accusatory. “Another thing about me that you knew before we even met?”
“Yeah, sort of,” he admitted. “I’ve been trying to find the recipe for the toxin for years. My research led me to your father.”
“So you’ve been obsessed with my family for years? And then you seduced me? What the actual fuck is wrong with you?”