Page 117 of Princess Redeemed
“I was wrong to deceive you, Hannah,” he says.“I was wrong to underestimate you.I had my reasons, as you’ve know doubt guessed.But love won out over fate.Together, you and Rogan have achieved what should have been impossible.”
I swallow, listening to my father’s words.
There’s an honesty to them I’m not sure I’ve ever heard from him.
“You managed something I never could,” he continues.“You have singlehandedly united the worlds of the vampires, the lycans, and the humans,” he continues, lowering his gaze to my belly.“Your son is special.He will be a great?—”
His voice breaks off.
Not in emotion.
In pain.
A staggering wince ripples through his face.He reaches for his chest.
“Daddy?”I step toward him.
He blinks once—slow, deliberate—but doesn’t respond.
The scent hits me before anything else.Iron and smoke.Something burning from the inside out.
Blood.
And not just any blood.His.
He falls to his knees.
“Daddy!”
I drop to his side, cradling him.His heartbeat is faint, but I hear it.Each thud is a hollow echo of a man whose body is giving up long before his mind is ready.
“I knew it was coming,” he breathes.“Ending Richard would…end me.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”I whisper.
“Because I needed you to hear the truth first.To see me as something other than a monster.”
I hold him tighter.“I never wanted this.I never wanted you to die.”
“You didn’t,” he says.“ButIdid.”
His eyes flicker open again, just for a moment.Clear.Focused.On me.
“I deserved to be feared,” he says.“And I struggled for decades to prolong my life.But I always hoped that one day…you’d see the man I could have been.”
I press my forehead to his.My voice cracks.“I forgive you.”
He exhales, sharp and shaky, as if those words carry weight no spell could ever match.His body softens in my arms.
“I forgive you,” I repeat, firmer now.“For the lies.The control.The pain.I forgive you, Daddy.Now, please forgive yourself.”
He smiles then.
A real one.Small.Tired.But real.
“So much I should have told you,” he says.
“Yes, please.Alara said you had to tell my why the blood gene?—”
