Marked By My Best Friend's Dad

075

Sorry, the previous chapter is chapter 074.

~ Iris POV

Night swallowed the estate whole by the time Duncan took me to his study.

The door shut behind us with a soft click that sounded final, like there was no going back after this. The fire was low, shadows crawling along the walls, the room smelling like leather, ink, and Alpha power.

I stood there, hands shaking.

Duncan didn’t rush me. He didn’t sit. He just leaned against the desk, arms crossed, eyes burning,not with anger yet, but with restraint so tight it scared me more.

“Talk,” he said quietly.

And something inside me broke.

I was going to tell him the whole truth, I was tired of lying.

The words poured out of me like blood from an open wound. I told him everything,how I’d always known myself as a lesbian, how loving Alice had felt right, safe, simple. How I’d built my whole identity around that certainty.

“And then you happened,” I whispered, voice cracking. “And nothing made sense anymore.”

I told him about the bond. How it didn’t ask permission. How it rewrote me from the inside out. How I’d hated myself for wanting him, for responding to him in ways I never had with anyone else.

Duncan didn’t interrupt. His jaw tightened, his hands clenched, but he let me speak.

Then I told him the worst part.

About Eunice.

“ She had always wanted me from day one, the day I came into this house for being suspended was because I refused to let her sleep with me.”

I also told him,How I’d overheard her and Cassian. The silver weapons. The ambush. The plan to kill him,and Alice. How fear had hollowed me out so badly I couldn’t think straight.

“I didn’t know how to tell you,” I said through tears. “If I warned you and they changed the plan… if they moved faster… I thought..”

My voice broke completely.

“I thought I could buy time.”

The silence in the room turned suffocating as I told him what that price had been. Not in detail. I didn’t need to. The truth was ugly enough on its own.

“Night after night,” I whispered. “I let her touch me. I let her think she owned me. I let her f**k me, I did it so you’d live.”

My knees gave out. I would’ve hit the floor if Duncan hadn’t crossed the room in two strides and caught me.

I was shaking violently now, sobbing into his chest.

“I’m sorry,” I cried. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know what else to do.”

~ Duncan POV

Chapter 74

~ Iris POV

Night swallowed the estate whole by the time Duncan took me to his study.

The door shut behind us with a soft click that sounded final, like there was no going back after this. The fire was low, shadows crawling along the walls, the room smelling like leather, ink, and Alpha power.

I stood there, hands shaking.

Duncan didn’t rush me. He didn’t sit. He just leaned against the desk, arms crossed, eyes burning,not with anger yet, but with restraint so tight it scared me more.

“Talk,” he said quietly.

And something inside me broke.

I was going to tell him the whole truth, I was tired of lying.

The words poured out of me like blood from an open wound. I told him everything,how I’d always known myself as a lesbian, how loving Alice had felt right, safe, simple. How I’d built my whole identity around that certainty.

“And then you happened,” I whispered, voice cracking. “And nothing made sense anymore.”

I told him about the bond. How it didn’t ask permission. How it rewrote me from the inside out. How I’d hated myself for wanting him, for responding to him in ways I never had with anyone else.

Duncan didn’t interrupt. His jaw tightened, his hands clenched, but he let me speak.

Then I told him the worst part.

About Eunice.

“ She had always wanted me from day one, the day I came into this house for being suspended was because I refused to let her sleep with me.”

I also told him,How I’d overheard her and Cassian. The silver weapons. The ambush. The plan to kill him,and Alice. How fear had hollowed me out so badly I couldn’t think straight.

“I didn’t know how to tell you,” I said through tears. “If I warned you and they changed the plan… if they moved faster… I thought..”

My voice broke completely.

“I thought I could buy time.”

The silence in the room turned suffocating as I told him what that price had been. Not in detail. I didn’t need to. The truth was ugly enough on its own.

“Night after night,” I whispered. “I let her touch me. I let her think she owned me. I let her f**k me, I did it so you’d live.”

My knees gave out. I would’ve hit the floor if Duncan hadn’t crossed the room in two strides and caught me.

I was shaking violently now, sobbing into his chest.

“I’m sorry,” I cried. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know what else to do.”

~ Duncan POV

Holding her nearly broke me.

Her scent was wrong,fear, shame, pain layered so deep it made my wolf snarl in agony. Every instinct in me screamed to tear my sister apart, to end her existence for what she’d done.

But I forced myself still.

Because an Alpha who reacts without thinking gets everyone killed.

I lifted Iris’s chin gently, making her look at me. Her eyes were red, swollen, terrified,waiting for judgment, waiting for rejection.

“There is no excuse for this,” I said, voice low and controlled.

She flinched like I’d struck her.

“You should have come to me the second you heard them plotting,” I continued. “The very second.”

Tears spilled down her cheeks. “I know.”

“I would have handled it,” I said. “Quietly. Strategically. Without you sacrificing yourself.”

My restraint cracked for just a moment then. Anger bled into my voice,not at her, never at her,but at the situation, at the failure that had allowed this.

“You are my mate,” I said fiercely. “No one touches what is mine. No one uses you.”

Her breath hitched.

“I thought you’d hate me,” she whispered.

“For letting it happen.”

I cupped her face, forcing her to hear me.

“I hate that you suffered alone,” I said. “I hate that you didn’t trust me with the truth. But I do not hate you.”

My wolf surged, possessive and furious.

“What Eunice did ends tonight.”

I straightened, Alpha authority flooding the room like a storm breaking loose.

“She is finished,” I said coldly. “And Cassian will regret ever breathing my name.”

Iris clung to me like she’d been drowning and finally reached air.

And in that moment, I stopped being just an Alpha reacting to betrayal.

I became a war leader preparing to destroy everyone who had dared to hurt what was mine.

I was going to lock Eunice up. And that was final.

Then something struck me, my daughter Alice.

So she dated Alice. And now they've broken up, but what will happen if she found out I and was sleeping with her Best friend.

I put that aside, I need to take care of Cassian.