Cole's Redemption (Alpha Pack #5)(53)

This was it. The moment she’d waited so long for, when she’d learn the truth about her mother’s death. And now she found she wasn’t ready at all, because she knew the facts would somehow be different from what she’d been told all her life. It would be a dull knife rending open a scab to expose ugliness and pain.

Part of her no longer wanted to know. But she couldn’t back out now.

Opening the door to the study, she stepped in and closed it behind her. Nick was alone, sitting in a chair near the large antique desk that dominated the room. For a moment, she thought it would be easier to fall back on the old hatred. To blame him for her past misery and simply walk out, refusing to hear. But the anguish on his face stopped her cold.

“Sit down, please.”

Granting his request, she took a seat on the antique chaise longue closest to him and waited for him to continue.

“I can’t protect you anymore, though God knows that’s all I ever wanted to do,” he said, voice catching. “I’ve put this conversation off for too long, and now I’ve run out of time.”

“Run out of time, how?”

“That’s not important right now.”

She swallowed hard. “Okay. Protect me from what, then? Tell me, and don’t leave anything out.”

“From the past. Leaving you was the very last thing I ever wanted, but I had broken clan law and made a mistake too horrible to be rectified. I was banished from the pack forever.”

Selene gasped and gripped the arm of the sofa. “What? I was told you ran like a coward after Mom was killed. And you didn’t care enough to take me with you.”

“No. I made a grave mistake that caused your mother’s death, and I deserved to be punished. But I didn’t run away, and I didn’t leave you voluntarily. Damien rallied the support of the clan and stripped me of my title of Alpha and took over. He forced me to leave—without you.”

“I can’t believe that!” she exclaimed, voice rising. “Uncle Damien wouldn’t lie to me!”

“But he did,” Nick said quietly. “Whether or not you believe me, it’s the truth. I imagine my brother lied in part because he knew that believing the worst of me would make your life more tolerable. You would be accepted and protected by the clan, and you were. I don’t blame him for telling you and the others what he had to in order to make things easier for you.”

Her mind whirled in confusion. “Do you hear yourself? You actually expect me to buy all of this?” Desperately, she cast about for another explanation. Her lifelong beliefs about her uncle Damien and what a great man he was, that he and his mate and family were her own, were suddenly crashing around her feet.

“I have a hard time buying that your motives for leaving me behind were so altruistic,” she countered. “If you didn’t kill my mother, why didn’t you just take me with you when you left? You could’ve gotten us away, and we could’ve had a good life together!”

Nick hung his head for a long moment, breathing hard. It occurred to her that he was trying hard not to cry, and her heart stuttered.

“I couldn’t, baby. When Damien confronted me, he brought a witch with him. He said if I didn’t go peacefully, without you, he’d have the witch strip you of your gift. He wasn’t bluffing, and my sight had told me that someday you’d need your special ability desperately, so I left.”

“Oh my God,” she whispered.

“I don’t expect you to believe my story overnight, but I’m telling the truth. I didn’t leave you out of fear for my own life, or any other selfish reason. I hoped to see you again one day, but if I didn’t . . . I did what I had to do to protect you.”

Staring at Nick, she struggled to process all he’d told her. Her soul grieved for all the time they’d lost, even as hope sparked anew. Still, there was plenty she didn’t understand.

“What gift are you talking about? I don’t have any special abilities.”

“That’s where you’re wrong.” One corner of his mouth hitched in a half smile. “You have a very special gift that will manifest when you need it most. I can’t tell you what it is and risk swaying the future again.”

“Again? What do you mean?”

“I want you to remember that I knowingly broke clan law and Damien felt he had no choice but to act. He’s not a bad man. He did what he believed he must at the time to discipline me and protect you.”

Steeling herself, Selene asked the tough question. “So, what did you do? And what does it have to do with Mom?”

Here it was at last. Her father looked her right in the eye and gave her the rest.

“I had a vision. It showed me one of our clan members being snatched off the street by a rogue vampire, assaulted and brutally murdered. I used my gift to change the outcome.”

“Oh, no . . .” Tampering with the future was a grave offense, and obviously his interference had gone terribly wrong. “What happened?”

“My vision showed that the victim, a mere child, was going to be snatched off the street by a rogue vamp after a dance lesson while waiting for her mother, who would be running late. I made certain the woman knew of my vision, and then I picked the child up myself as a precaution, thwarting fate. Or so I thought.”

He cleared his throat, obviously fighting to keep it together. She waited, heart pounding, dreading what he was about to say but knowing she had to hear it.