Page 63 of The Heart of Winter

I sat there, staring at him. My parents stayed silent, focused on eating, neither of them said a word.

But it still didn’t register for me. Vren continued,

"This guy works for a matchmaking agency. He sometimes helps out with security too. He was the one who single-handedly saved Blue. He turned into a monster, with spikes and stuff, and protected Blue with his body as a shield when the bomb went off."

"I mean, I knew that part, some purple alpha saved him in a rather spectacular way, but I didn’t know it was Damien’s True Mate," I mumbled, still in shock.

My father’s brow furrowed.

"Honestly, I’m not surprised Damien hasn’t bragged about it, he probably asked Blue to keep it quiet. That guy has a record. Domestic violence. He was accused of rape and gave his ex-husband everything he had, his savings, his apartment. So clearly, there was something there, if he were innocent, he wouldn’t have settled."

"Damien’s True Mate is a criminal?!"

Vren leaned in confidentially. "But listen! That’s not even the most shocking part!"

"What could possibly be more shocking than this?!"

That’s when my father, in a sour tone, dropped the bombshell:

"That he is Winter’s biological brother."

What, what, what?

I sat there, my mouth hanging open so long that my dad finally scolded me, "Close your mouth, Sariel. You look silly."

"I—I can’t believe this. What the fuck is going on? How is he—how is that his brother?!"

Father sighed. "He is. I actually heard it directly from Winter. He told me Storm’s kind of cut off from the family. Being a purple alpha, he has that… temper. Winter swears his brother wasn’t guilty, but since he was scared of getting Red Line Agency involved, he took a plea deal and gave his ex everything he had."

Vren still had this ‘gossip-of-the-century’ look on his face.

"But who knows the truth. No wonder this news hasn’t spread through the whole family yet!"

"I’m really curious, why didn’t Blue tell me? It’s not like the secret concerns him or what," I muttered.

Vren shrugged. "No idea."

My mind was working in overdrive. "Last I heard, Blue was curious about one of those marriage contract open fairs, but he says nothing came of it. He kinda ceased contact with me after that, which is strange."

"A fair? I don’t know anything about that." My brother shrugged. "But! I did hear he has a new personal bodyguard. Someone who follows him around everywhere, that’s all I picked up. Though I doubt he found him at the fair," he added with a dumb little smirk.

I spent the rest of dinner sulking, still trying to wrap my head around why Blue hadn’t told me about Winter’s brother or the fact that he had a new bodyguard.

But then I connected the dots, he had actually mentioned that it was the guy who worked at the matchmaking agency who had told him to attend the fair.

If it was the same guy, then knowing his criminal past would only make me more adamant Blue shouldn't take advice from someone like that.

That theory was a bit of a stretch, but honestly, it did sound a lot like Blue. He probably didn’t want me to go crazy over the fact that aconvicted criminalwas inviting him to the fair…

After dinner, I decided to call Blue and break the weird silence that had settled between us over the past month.

He picked up, though only after a long pause.

Right off the bat, I spat out bitterly, "Hey, Blue, you hear the latest gossip? Damien found his True Mate, and, funny enough, it’s my boss’s brother. I guess I’m the last one to know."

Blue sighed. "I thought you knew about that ages ago. It’s not exactly a secret."

"If it’s not a secret, then you could have told me instead of me finding out from Vren like it’s some scandalous tabloid news."

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