His Brother's Ruin

Chapter Three: The Father

The door closed behind me with a sound that echoed through the entrance hall like a sealed fate.

Casmir led me through corridors lined with old paintings and older money, past rooms that looked like they had not been touched in decades and rooms that gleamed with modern renovations. He walked with the kind of confidence that comes from owning everything your eyes can see, and I followed because I had nowhere else to go.

He stopped in a study lined with bookshelves and gestured toward a leather chair near the fireplace. "Sit."

"I would rather stand."

His mouth curved, that same almost smile from the bar. "Suit yourself."

I stayed where I was, my back against the door and my arms crossed over my chest. The room smelled like cedar and smoke, the same scent that clung to the hotel sheets the morning I woke up alone. My wolf stirred again, deeper this time, interested in ways that made me uncomfortable.

"You knew who I was," I said. "That night at the bar. You knew I was Daniel's girlfriend."

"Ex-girlfriend." He moved to a sideboard and poured two glasses of amber liquid. "By the time you walked into that bar, you were already finished with him. You just have not admitted it to yourself yet."

"That’s not an answer."

"No." He turned and held out one of the glasses. "It's not."

I didn’t take the drink. "How did you know?"

Casmir set the glass on the table beside my chair and kept the other for himself. "A friend of mine was at the bar that night. He recognized you the next morning and told me who you were."

"And you slept with me anyway."

"You wanted to forget." He took a slow sip, watching me over the rim of his glass. "I helped you forget."

Anger flared hot in my chest, mixing with something else I didn’t want to name. "You used me to get back at your brother."

"If I wanted to get back at Daniel, I would burn his entire empire to the ground and make him watch." The words came out flat, almost bored. "Sleeping with his ex-girlfriend would barely register on his radar. He never cared about you the way you wanted him to."

The truth of it stung, but I did not flinch. "I am pregnant."

Casmir went very still. For a long moment, nothing moved except the firelight flickering across his sharp features. Then he set his glass down on the sideboard and pulled out his phone.

"What are you doing?"

"Calling my lawyer." He dialed a number and held the phone to his ear. "Marcus. I need you at the estate within the hour. There is a matter that requires immediate attention."

He hung up before Marcus could respond.

"Arrangements?" I stared at him. "I just told you I am carrying your child, and your first response is to call a lawyer?"

"My first response is to ensure the child is protected." He slid the phone back into his pocket. "Daniel will find out about this pregnancy. When he does, he will try to use it against you. He will try to use it against me. The only way to prevent that is to move faster than he does."

My hands curled into fists. "You don't get to make decisions about my life without asking me first."

"I'm not making decisions about your life." His dark eyes met mine, and for the first time, I saw something beneath the cold control. Something older and heavier, something that looked like the weight of years spent carrying a burden no one else could see. "I'm making decisions about the life of my child. If you want to walk away right now, the door is behind you. But if you stay, we do this my way."

"And what exactly is your way?"

He crossed the room and stopped in front of me, close enough that I could feel the heat radiating off his body. "Daniel accused me of attacking our father three years ago. The pack council believed him, and my father believed him, and I was exiled without a trial or a chance to defend myself. I built everything I have now from nothing, and I did it while Daniel sat in the seat that should have been mine and spent money that should have been mine."

"I know the story."

"You know Daniel's version of the story." His voice dropped lower, rougher. "You do not know the truth."

"Then tell me the truth."

Casmir studied my face like he was looking for something, some sign that I could be trusted, some proof that I was not another weapon Daniel had sent to destroy him. Whatever he found must have satisfied him because he stepped back and gestured toward the chair again.

"Sit," he said. "This is going to take a while."

This time, I sat.

He moved to the window and stared out at the grounds, his broad shoulders silhouetted against the fading light. "My mother died when I was twelve. My father remarried a year later, and Daniel's mother brought him into our family like a gift she was certain we should be grateful for."

"You hated him."

"I tried not to." He turned to face me. "I was the heir to the Hartwell Pack, and I understood my responsibilities. But Daniel never wanted to be my brother. He wanted to be me."

The fire crackled in the silence. I waited for him to continue.

"Three years ago, I discovered that Daniel had been siphoning money from the pack accounts into a private fund. When I confronted him, he laughed and told me our father already knew. He said our father had chosen him as the real heir months ago and that I was nothing but a placeholder."

"That does not explain the assault accusation."

"No." Casmir's jaw tightened. "What happened next?"

A knock on the study door interrupted him. The door opened, and a man stepped inside, tall and lean with kind eyes and an easy smile that softened his sharp features. He looked between Casmir and me with the comfortable familiarity of someone who had been doing this for years.

"Marcus is stuck in traffic," he said. "So you get me instead."

Casmir's expression shifted, the cold control giving way to something warmer. "Valentina, this is Valour. My business partner is the only person in this city I trust."

Valour crossed the room and extended his hand. His grip was firm but gentle, and his eyes studied my face with an interest that felt more curious than threatening.

"So you are the woman from the bar," he said. "Casmir has been wondering when you would show up."

"Valour." Casmir's voice carried a warning.

"What? She deserves to know you have been thinking about her." Valour released my hand and turned toward his friend. "Daniel's secretary called the estate ten minutes ago. He knows she is here."

The temperature in the room dropped.

"How?" I asked.

"Security cameras." Valour pulled out his phone and showed me the screen. A notification from a Hartwell Pack alert system, time-stamped fifteen minutes ago. "Daniel has eyes everywhere. He probably tracked your cab from the moment you left his building."

My stomach turned. "He will come after me."

"He will try." Casmir moved away from the window, and his presence filled the room in a way that made the air feel heavier. "But you are in my house now, and Daniel does not have power here."

"He has power everywhere."

"Not here." Casmir stopped in front of my chair and looked down at me with eyes that held no softness but somehow made me feel safer than I had in months. "Stay. At least until we figure out what he is planning."

I should have said no. I should have walked out the door and handled this on my own, the way I had handled everything since the night my mother died, and my wolf went silent, and I learned that being small was the only way to survive.

But Casmir was offering me something I had not had in years. Protection. A place to stand. Someone willing to fight beside me instead of against me.

"Fine," I said. "But I want the truth. All of it."

Casmir nodded once. "Tomorrow. After you have rested."

Valour showed me to a guest room on the second floor, and I spent the night staring at the ceiling, my hand on my stomach and my mind racing through everything that had changed in the last twelve hours.

I did not sleep. But for the first time in weeks, I didn't feel alone.

The next morning, I found Casmir waiting for me at the breakfast table with a folder in his hands and a look on his face that made my blood run cold.

"Daniel moved faster than I expected," he said. "Your healing licence is under review. An anonymous complaint was filed this morning."

My healing licence…the only income I had. The only thing I had built that was entirely my own.

"He’s trying to destroy me," I whispered.

"No." Casmir's dark eyes met mine, and the cold fury in them stole my breath. "He’s trying to make you desperate enough to come back to him. And he has no idea what he just started.”