The Truth Will Set You Free

BAMBI

Ekon stood across from me, his face twisting and contorting as he worked through all his thoughts.

I’d seen my mate through difficult times, and not once had he seemed so ~conflicted~.

At certain moments it even looked as if he might shift into his wolf form. His jaw would elongate, and his fangs would protrude before they would quickly retreat to their human shape.

Knowing Ekon could lose control of his feelings at any moment was a constant worry. He wasn’t someone known to be open and understanding.

But his actions were scaring me even more than usual.

Ekon tried to speak, but his voice faltered. It sounded as if he were about to cry…

I stepped toward him, but he felt my advance and retreated.

“Please,” he said. “Don’t get too close to me.”

“What’s wrong?”

My mate looked as if he might collapse under his own weight. There was nothing I could do besides stand and wait.

“If you want to know the truth about your parents,” he said shakily. “Then I suppose you have the right to know everything.”

My chest tightened as I realized that the truth was only a few seconds away. The hair on my arms stood up, charged with invisible energy.

I found myself searching for a chair and sat down, readying myself for the news.

Ekon opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted by an unexpected knock at the study door.

He hesitated for a moment as if he were going to continue. But the knocking continued, forcing Ekon to move to the door.

“Hello, son,” Rose said. “I’m not interrupting anything, am I?”

Ekon stepped aside, holding the door open for his mother.

“No,” he lied. “Bambi and I were just talking.”

~Just talking…~

I let his comment slide and stood up as Rose entered. I couldn’t help but notice a hesitant look on her face.

“Hello, darling,” Rose said to me. “I’m glad to catch both of you at the same time. I would like to have a meeting in the West Wing of the compound.”

Ekon nodded his head but remained silent. I took Rose’s hand in my own and smiled.

“We’ll be right there,” I promised her.

Rose hugged both Ekon and me before heading back out into the hall.

She hadn’t called a meeting before. I found myself actually looking forward to what Rose had to say.

But Ekon’s silence was inescapable. It hung over us like a dark shroud, covering up any rays of light.

~What is Ekon hiding?~

~What had really happened to my parents?~

EKON

In the drawing room, Tyler, Holly, Bambi, and I all waited for my mother to speak.

My mother had never done anything like this before, and it was making me a bit uneasy.

“Thank you all for coming,” Rose said.

She paused, and I assumed she was looking at every face that had gathered in her quarters. It was something she’d done my entire childhood—acknowledging others in her presence, no matter the occasion.

“The last few days have been a bit overwhelming, to put it lightly,” she said. “It’s given me a lot of time to ruminate,” Rose continued. “I’ve thought about my past…the choices I’ve made and the paths they have led me down. And I’ve also thought about the future.”

She paused again, and I wondered if it was for effect, or if she was really searching for the right words to say.

“I’ve thought about the cycle of senseless death,” she said sadly. “It’s almost all I’ve been able to think about. Which is why I’ve decided that I’m not going to kill Devina.”

A chorus of gasps erupted around the room.

My blood ran cold.

“What are you saying?” I asked angrily.

Even though I couldn’t see my mother, I felt her gaze.

“I’m saying there must be another way to stop your sister.”

I scoffed, and others in the room began to murmur. This was not why we had brought my mother back…

“What do you suggest?” Holly asked.

There was a hint of hope in her voice. It was as if Holly desperately hoped she might not have to conjure dark magic.

“I want to reconcile with my daughter,” Rose answered. “I abandoned Devina as a child. She’s done terrible things, but she doesn’t deserve to be hunted and killed like an animal.”

The same blood that had run cold was now boiling, threatening to send me into a rage I couldn’t control.

I’d had enough of this and stepped forward.

“Devina is a murderous psychopath!” I exclaimed. “If she were here right now, she would bring this compound down on top of our heads. And she would show ~no remorse~.”

“How do you know?” Rose questioned. “Or have you already decided her fate?”

I scoffed.

“Devina chose her fate when she killed you,” I replied. “And she sealed it when she tried to kill the rest of us.”

“That’s not true,” Bambi said.

I couldn’t believe my ears. Bambi had remained silent this entire meeting. Now she was standing up to ~me~.

I followed the sound of Bambi’s voice and growled in her direction.

“You’ve seen it—firsthand!” I shouted.

~Have I gone mad?~

I began to wonder if Devina’s magic had somehow infiltrated the compound, casting a confusion spell over my loved ones.

“If we try to make amends with Devina, we will all die,” I said. “I know her better than most. She is pure evil.”

Another wave of murmurs circled the room.

“But that doesn’t mean she shouldn’t get another chance,” Bambi retorted. “We’ve all made mistakes. Even someone with Devina’s past should be allowed to right her wrongs.”

I was ready to fly into a rage. My veins were pulsing with adrenaline, and I felt my wolf practically ~howling~ to be set free.

But instead of shifting, I remained human. And for the first time in a long while, I wasn’t mad about Bambi contradicting me.

Her words echoed in my head…

~We’ve all made mistakes.~

“Do you have anything else to say?” Bambi asked. “Or can your mother continue?”

I shook my head and retreated to the corner of the room.

My mother continued speaking about Devina, but I couldn’t hear her words. I was lost in thought…

If Bambi could forgive Devina for her sins, maybe she could still forgive me.

But that would only happen if I gave her the chance…

…by telling her the truth.

***

We entered a private guest room on the second floor, and I locked the door.

If Bambi was going to learn the truth, I couldn’t have anyone interrupting us.

The room had been unused for some time and was chillier than the rest of the house.

I pulled the cloak tighter around my shoulders as Bambi stood silently.

“Did you bring me here to chastise me about Devina?” Bambi asked. “Because I stand by what I said.”

“I know,” I admitted. “And I expect nothing less from my mate.”

She pulled in a quick breath, and I could imagine her face wrinkled in confusion.

“What are you getting at?” she asked. “You’re never this quick to agree with anything unless it’s to your benefit.”

There was a hint of accusation in her voice, mixed with caution.

“You’re right,” I said. “It’s time to tell you the truth about your parents.”

Bambi’s footsteps moved across the room, and I heard her sit down on the bed.

“Okay. I think I’m ready.”

She was trying to prepare herself for the truth, but I knew that would be hard.

No. It would be ~impossible~.

Fear traced my spine, and I hesitated. Once I started, there would be no going back.

“This is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to say.”

Bambi remained quiet, so I took a few breaths to steady my nerves.

I hated to admit I was wrong, but it was downright torture to speak like this with Bambi.

“I was a general during the Great War,” I began. “And it was my duty to lead a squadron of elite soldiers against Matthias. Two of the soldiers in that squadron were your mother and father.”

I stopped to catch my breath but could hear Bambi’s legs twitching. She was as nervous as I was.

I could hear her breathing hitch—as if she were going to cry.

“It was ~you~,” she said, her voice cracking. “You were the general during the Battle of the Bloody Roses.”

Hearing that name took my breath away. There was a reason I’d requested all the war books to be removed from my library.

Even with all that precaution, Bambi had still managed to learn about it.

~Fucking book club…~

I opened my mouth to continue, but Bambi beat me to it.

“The squadron attacked a valley at the break of dawn,” she said. “They were flanked and massacred. Only one soldier made it out alive.”

I nodded slowly. Every word felt like another decade added to a lifetime sentence that I would never escape.

Silence hung between us like a fog, growing thicker with each passing second. Soon, it would swallow us whole, suffocating the words from our bodies.

“What happened?” she asked. “Say it once and for all. I want to hear it from your mouth.”

“We’d been following the Rogues for days,” I said. “They’d nearly managed to escape several times, but we finally found them. Their camp was just on the other side of the hill.”

I swallowed hard, trying to keep my mouth from completely going dry.

“The Rogues weren’t on the other side, were they,” she said matter-of-factly.

“No,” I admitted. “Minutes before the attack, word came in from a scout that they were packing up to move…so, I gave the order to attack.”

I heard Bambi suck in a breath, but she remained silent.

She wouldn’t fill in the blanks anymore. It was left up to me.

“But the Rogues weren’t leaving,” I continued. “They were actually preparing to counter our attack. When we charged the hill and descended into the valley, we only saw roses.”

Bambi sniffled, knowing what would come next.

“By the time I realized what was happening, it was too late. Matthias and his men were on top of us in a matter of seconds,” I said, defeated. “In the chaos, I was knocked unconscious. When I woke up, there was no one else alive.”

Bambi was sobbing. She was trying her hardest to keep the tide from coming, but it was impossible to stop.

“I’m so sorry,” I said as tears stung my eyes. “I should have known. I should have been prepared.”

But I hadn’t been.

And my actions had led to the death of Bambi’s parents.