Page 49 of Captive Nanny to the Wolf

Frederick continued to threaten them. “I can’t wait to see the look on your face as they die, but not yet. Let’s savor this, shall we,brother?”

Rollo’s head snapped up. The emphasis on the word was unmistakable. And something about it struck at his core.

“Don’t call me brother, Frederick. You corrupt the term using it with me.”

“Oh, I do? Is that so? And what is the term supposed to mean? Connected? Loved? Trusted? Maybe respected? Surely, cherished at least?” The words rolled off Frederick’s tongue.

“What the hell are you talking about? I am here, fight me. Isn’t that what you want?”

He could feel his wolf winning the battle to shift. Distantly, he remembered Bloom’s father. But all that was second hand. He could feel Frederick pulling him in, manipulating him.

“Enough with your worthless words and games?” His patience was wearing thin. He wanted this guy dead now. Consequences be damned. He couldn’t escape. “To think I cared about you once, Frederick. I even tried to understand you, but now I realize there is no understanding the insane.”

“Oh, did you?Brother? I guess you are right, in a sense. No one understands me. Well,hedoes. But no one else. Father certainly didn’t. Not when he discarded me, not when he threw me away like trash. Certainly not when my mother begged him to help after my little accident. You are right, there was no understanding.”

“No…” A horrible suspicion was beginning to appear to him. Maybe a terrible truth. But his heart held no space for sentimentality.

Frederick threw his head back and laughed. “You always were the smart one, Rollo. I can’t believe you never saw the resemblance. I suppose this didn’t help” he said, gesturing at his scars. “But look at me now, Rollo. Really look at me!”

Each word he said was pronounced carefully and clearly. Rollo had no choice but to look at him, analyzing his face for commonalities. And he found them alright, but this man was no brother of his.

“You want me to believe we are brothers, Frederick? How’s that work? My mom is your mom? Or are you saying it’s my dad?”

Frederick stepped toward Rollo menacingly.

”My dad.” He practically spit the words. “Yes, father dearest dicked around, evidently, and here I am, a Wright through and through. But did I get a part of the spoils? Was I a revered son? Did I get the Wright name?” He uttered a maniacal laugh, “See what I did there? The answer is no, Rollo, I didn’t, in case you were wondering. You never even knew I existed obviously. And you and your precious brother James got all the respect, all the love.” He was fuming, yelling at Rollo, “I got nothing! Nothing!” He took a deep breath then. “But I didn’t give up. I tried to be the good boy. On the few times he visited, I tried to get him to love me, but nothing worked. He didn’t just ignore me. He despised me.”

Vaguely Rollo assessed the scene around him. Dax must be just out of sight behind him. Perhaps with Bloom and Lora as well. The others holding the perimeter. Winona and Julie were too close to him. In an instant Frederick could kill them both with his bare hands. He wouldn’t even have to shift. He refocused on him as he continued his depraved little monologue.

Frederick’s voice dropped a couple of octaves, “When I got hurt, in the fire, he could have saved me. Did you know that? Of course, you didn’t. Cause you don’t know shit!” He screamed suddenly.

Then just as abruptly he was back in his almost sing-songy conversational voice. “He could have saved my face. All we needed was some money for the operations. But did he step up as a father? As a man?” He spat to the floor. “And by the way, had he provided even the most meager funds to my mother to raise me, we could have had a proper home. We wouldn’t have had to live in squalor, burning what we could to stay warm in the cold. This accident would have never even happened! He was a filthy rat. A coward. He pretended I didn’t exist, turning a blind eye…” He let out another maniacal laugh as he realized his own unintentional word play and pointed at his own ruined eye. “No, he ignored us, he ignored me, all the while you and your brother, the golden family took it all. Now look at me! Look! Your ‘dad’ might as well have done it himself. But this insult was just the cherry on top!”

Frederick’s voice was shaking with fury at this point. “And then, when my own mother died, well, that’s when the real fun began. He took me in. The dark one. He taught me all kinds of fun things. Dark magic I think you would call it. Well, I call it fun times, that’s what I say…He has more to teach me…you know that? Much more! And I will use it all to destroy you and all you and your precious pack hold dear!” Spittle was flying with every word now.

Rollo was shocked. So, there was his dark magic link. But who was he speaking of? Likely as not, it was more ravings of a man totally unhinged. But if what Frederick was saying was true, then his father had cheated on his mother. Unhinged or not, as painful as it was to contemplate, from what he had said, the source of all his pain was finally clear. But nothing could justify Frederick’s actions as a result.

Maybe once, blood had connected them. A father with a complicated, hidden side, it seemed. But Frederick did not have to take this path. He could have come to Rollo and James later on and told them the truth. They would have welcomed him as their own. The moment he made the choice of killing James and Cindy with the babies in the car was the moment he had severed any chance of making things right.

Rollo had adopted the little ones when they were still using diapers, Bucky was weeks away from turning one and Jaye was on his way to his second birthday. Frederick almost killed them too.

Winona made a slight movement and Rollo watched from the corner of his eye.

What is she doing?

“Frederick. What fucking good did it do you to kill my brother,ourbrother? You betrayed the pack, you betrayed your own blood!”

Frederick was coming unraveled. He stepped forward again, now within a mere foot of the women.

Just then he heard Bloom’s cold, but shockingly controlled voice, “Was it you? Did you kill my father?”

“Bloom, what are you doing?” came Dax’s voice immediately as he entered the room.

“Oh, I see you have brought so many more friends,” Frederick said. But even as he spoke, Rollo could see his mind was spinning, he imagined trying to make sense of Bloom’s words.

“I have to know,” Bloom said in that same cool and controlled voice.

“Killed your father? Hmm…well, I don’t really know…Your father, your father…” But then his face lit up with a glow of pleasure. “Ohhh,Yourfather! You must mean the one he sent me after? Oh yes, I most certainly killed him. Ripped him up good, actually. Medium build? Fae? Little bit of a dad bod?”

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