Page 170 of Unforgivable

My mother, mymother, the former luna, Elizabeth, interrupts in a quiet, solemn voice. "Do you have any idea what injustice was delivered to Lyri Song by your Choice mate, Daan? She was continuously fighting an uphill battle in training, in school, in contests, all because Cloe was the future Luna and wanted her kept down. Yet, Lyri rose and fought and won, over and over, until she was broken completely in the worst way. The worst way," she ends in a whisper.

I am barely holding onto my sanity. I want to rip my own throat out. I would if I thought that any good would come out of the selfish act except an end to my own torment. I can't take the easy way out. I need to fix my mistakes.

"Your mother hated her because of Cloe. How often did Cloe speak ill of Lyri to you, Daan? How often did the poison of a jealous female seep into your head? And you allowed it. You encouraged it. Because you were too inlove with the female who believes that you shit rainbows and piss out sprinkles," Great-grandma spits out.

Daan starts to weep, "where is my mate?" he whispers.

"Upstairs, son," I barely manage to speak. I can't look around the empty concrete room. This is where my son will spend the foreseeable future. My only pup.

"No," he mumbles, "where is Lyri? Where is my mate?"

His hands grip his hair, tugging and pulling hard enough to yank strands from his head. The chains rattle as he moves, sending chills down my spine. "Where is she? My mate, my mate, my mate," he starts to rock back and forth. "They're touching her, my mate. Where is she? My mate, my mate..."

"Sedate him," I say hoarsely.

Roberta steps forward, still dressed in her pajamas, her face white. Her face is blank, but her eyes... her wolf... This is a disaster.

We leave the cell in a maelstrom of hate, anger, fear, disgust. The black cloud I felt coming has descended. My wolf. He stands, straight and true, facing the storm head-on, but with the resignation of knowing that it will kill him one way or another.

"They are toxic to each other," Grandmother throws at me as soon as we reach my office.

"Lyri and Daan?"

"No," her hand slaps across the side of my head. "Cloe and Daan. She was a weak spirit dragging him down by putting him on a pedestal, and he ate it up because it stroked his ego."

"Alpha," the mutter from Max is the first time he's spoken all day. He's sitting on the couch as if his legs can't hold him upright anymore, head bowed. Defeated. His son is locked in his apartments, without his mate. "Do we know if Cloe... if she has a truemate, who has been identified?"

Despair piles on. "I don't," I say.

Max looks up with a scowl. "We need to know. Is she a fated MateLess? Rejected? Is her mate still out there? Did Daan kill her mate? That alphason standing with them, is that Cloe's mate? What the fuck is going on over there in Genom?"

My grandmother laughs coldly, "ask the true Luna, Jax. Ask her if she knows. After all, rejected, broken, MateLess males seem to find her, don't they?"

"What is your plan for Lyri, for Daan and Cloe, son?" my dad, a silent sentinel up until now, speaks up.

I am shaking. "I don't know," I admit. "The Genom males, they have known this, clearly. What are they planning? Fuck. Is this a war? Do they want to be left alone? What the fuck am I supposed to do?" I snap out, finding strength in the rage that suddenly surges through my body.

I look at my father. "The entire pack will hate this family. We've lost the pack, and there is no one to hold it together. I've killed the future of how many wolves? For one female who was never meant to be my son's? Why..."

Holy fuck. I stagger on my feet, nearly crashing to the floor. She told me. Months ago, Lyri Song told me the truth.

'I'm his truemate, not her. Please, believe me, Alpha. Please.'

I spin around and scream at the agony slicing through me. My wolf is erupting in volcanic fury. A red haze washes over me. I want to kill that little bitch, Cloe, and my son? I'll beat him raw, just to satisfy this craving for blood.

She told me the truth, and I called her a lying whore. My son lied to me. He had the chance to confess. The pieces were there, right in front of me.

My father is holding me, Max on the other side. My mother is crying. Jessi... my mate is with her. I can hear the tears and the weeping, even though they are in another part of the house. Jess convinced me not to lock Cloe or Drew in the cells. Traitor.

"I'll kill the rankwhore. I should have known. She begged me. That poor little female begged me! 'Please, Alpha, please!'" My canines snap in fury. I howl, an alpha's fury, coming too late.

My father leans in, close, his wolf posturing violence to my younger, stronger one.

"Inuit Genom is an alphason, Jax. He is the Alphason of the Adlartok wolves. His birth name is Tarkik Ataneq. You know that bloodline."

"Goddess," I whisper. My eyes close. My wolf bows his head, defeated. My dad doesn't have to say anything else. I fully understand what he is saying.

"I can't kill my son," I murmur brokenly.

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