Chapter 13
1770 Words
Kane closed his eyes and breathed out. Slowly.
I too blew out a shaky breath of my own, slightly relieved that he was managing to keep Albus under control.
A second later, I shook my head. "I already know that story."
Kane opened his eyes and regarded me with a slight glare. "Does not everyone?" His tone held a tinge of hate.
Warily, I moved my body sideways, inching almost invisibly across the corridor in order to create a bit of distance between us.
Of course, everyone knew the story of how Albus' precious mate managed to break away from their bond, leaving it one-sided. It might have been unexpected, but the reason behind that impossible act wasn't.
Everyone knew, from stories told or by witnessing, that Alba hated having a mate, hated being bound to only one person for eternity. She'd wanted to be free. Free to be with whoever she wanted whenever she wanted. However, one could neither break the mate bond nor be able to seek pleasure from another because it was a decree made by the incorporeal being who had cursed Albus and Alba in the first place. But somehow, Alba had found a loophole in that curse and broke away from the connection she'd once shared with Albus.
How the hell she was able to do that, no one knew.
"I already know the story of how she betrayed you," I repeated despite it being obvious. "But my father isn't the bastard child. It's his omega, Lucas."
"No. Not the omega, it is your father."
My mind whirled at the possibility, but I shook my head again in denial. "No, Dad told me-"
"From what I have witnessed so far," he cut in before I could finish my statement. "You do not have a very trust-filled relationship with him, do you?"
At that, I pressed my lips tightly together. Of course, I didn't, I thought with a glare, not dismissing the fact that it had been intended as a rhetorical question.
Begrudgingly, I forced myself to accept the truth. "So you're telling me, that you're not my grandfather?"
Kane leaned away from the wall before taking a step towards me. "No," he replied as his pupils gradually dilated. "Even if Alba had not cheated, I still would not be your grandfather because I am not the hunter. He was the first vessel Albus was incorporated into right after your father murdered him. I am the second."
I felt my forehead wrinkle as I took in each word he spoke. "So then, who's my real grandfather?"
Kane stood silent for a moment, not drifting his gaze away from mine. Without thinking, I shifted uneasily to the side again, my heart rate increasing by the minute for unknown reasons.
"All I know about your grandfather is that he was human, no one important, and that Albus killed him right after Alba's betrayal," he stated blankly without expressing any remorse. Even though I'd expected that from him plus the answer he gave, nevertheless, my heart sank a little at the prospect of him not getting to fully live his life.
I mentally shook the feeling away. "Fine, but how did my father guess that you were his 'father' if Albus' spirit entered your body after he'd killed his first fake father? And how come he recognized you last night at the clearing when you morphed back to human? Who were you before? How come the others didn't recognize you?" Ironically, I was getting even more confused as I proceeded to ask, so I decided to sum it up in one question;
"Why did my father call you Dad if it isn't true?"
His eyebrows rose an inch. "I am surprised you did not hear the clear mockery in his voice while he had called me that." He c****d his head to the side, sight still affixed on me, unwavering. "I am Albus', or specifically the hunter's firstborn. I was his Beta until the moment your father tore his body apart, automatically entrapping Albus' spirit back within the moonstone. I was loyal to my father, so I touched the moonstone which had been in my protection at that time, knowing that Albus' spirit would merge with mine and take control over my body."
My eyebrows furrowed as I digested every syllable. This was a part of the story I'd never heard before. "So that means we're still related."
"No, I doubt it," he said defiantly. "There is something wrong. Something wrong with your blood relation to Alba, to us. I can feel it. Albus could feel it, but I cannot point out what it is."
"Then your theory is false," I simply interjected, casting his insane notion aside and focusing instead on getting the answers for the million questions racing in my mind. I certainly did not want any more complications to tie me down.
Kane didn't say anything for a while, but with a deliberate clear of my throat to grab his attention once more, he continued, "Your father and I - or rather Albus, since he was in control - fought after my act. But since my body was weak at that time and unused to another wolf taking over from my original one, your father managed to overpower me before pushing me off the edge of a cliff. And naturally, he had assumed I was dead." His lips thinned.
"After I had revived, I went in search of Alba, the woman who had betrayed my father and her mate - now my wolf. I knew that your father would suspect that I would come after them, so he took our treacherous mother, the pack, and fled. It was at that moment that I let Albus take full control over my body, permitting him the privilege to slaughter those cowards once found."
"And that took you years? A century even?"
A ghost of a sadistic smile appeared at the corner of his lips. Small, but definitely visible. "Yes." Kane didn't elaborate further, yet I probed him for more information.
"How come?"
Kane lightly shrugged his large, muscled shoulders. "Albus and I found my mother's body distorted a week later. It was after that that the notion of Alba's spirit being incorporated into different female bodies in order to use as a cover became clear. We then began suspecting every female and she-wolf that we came across in these woods for years. Though we realized years before that that was what they wanted, for us to get distracted at each turn and not know who Alba would be hiding in."
Like a switch, something in my memory clicked. "That's why you came onto me like that and accused me of being your mate," I said, understanding dawning.
The muscles in his jaw flexed. "Albus would have killed you on the spot, added to the fact that you look exactly like Alba's first vessel, my dead mother." Kane's eyes narrowed. "But your pleas and weakness at that moment gave him doubts, the same as with the other few she-wolves we had come across. We both knew, Alba never showed any weakness."
"You've said that before," I stated, reminiscing the time where Albus had spared my life, before adding, "How is Albus able to control himself? I thought he'd go mad. How come he didn't kill me?"
"Because I would not let him." Kane closed his eyes for a moment before reopening them. "It is a battle every day for Albus to survive without his mate, and we have been searching for a solution since we began our chase. But with Albus' yearn to kill Alba's incorporate body, I have always had to fight for control so I could find out if that person is truly Alba before forcing out answers. Although I do not always succeed, in your case, I managed to."
Not being able to help it, I swallowed. Albus had been on a woman-hunt for years, being tortured each minute with the nonexistence of his mate by his side and yet, Kane's body was still alive when other werewolves would've committed suicide. That alone showed me just how powerful Albus was, even if he was a werewolf spirit.
A sudden movement snapped me out of my thoughts and made my heart skip a beat.
Kane had taken another step forward. A wide, threatening one.
"But all that has paid off, I believe. Because now I - we - have you." His eye colour subsequently deepened to a familiar and enthralling shade of silver. As soon as I noticed the change, I shut my own eyes, preventing myself from being captivated like the previous times that I had regretfully been.
But sadly, my protective act didn't appear to move Kane at all as I heard him say, "There is something special about you, she-wolf. Something that just pulls me in, calls to me. Something that makes me want to lay you on the ground and drive us both beyond the boundaries of ecstasy without any curse binding us from it."
Right on cue, my breathing stilled. Oh no.
"It might be the effects of the blood moon coming up tonight," he continued without acknowledging my state of confusion and duress. "I am not sure. But at least now I feel I have the chance to ease Albus' longing and give him the pleasure he has been deprived off for a century and more."
My mouth dried up as fear slowly began to travel up my spine, but I pushed the feeling away. "W-We've already been through this."
Dammit! I cursed inwardly as I forced my voice to remain steady.
I hated it when I stuttered because it made me feel helpless and weak. And I obviously didn't want to feel that way since I believed that I was much more strong-willed than I appeared to be at that instant.
Taking the risk, I opened my eyes and didn't waver from his gaze. "I am not Alba. I don't care how much I look like her and how you think you feel about me," I said through clenched teeth, speaking the words out carefully. "I am not your father's mate."
Kane's nostrils flared. "No."
Before I could blink, he closed the distance between us in a flash and pressed me flat against the wall. I immediately stiffened in shock at his nearness and shamefully gasped when I felt his lips descend and brush lightly on the right corner of my own, trailing a seductive path to my right ear before whispering in his suddenly roughened voice:
"You are mine."
- Writer
