Chapter 26: My Involvement

CLARA

I wished the pack would just leave.

I wanted to go home. But I was trapped here until Elias had time to drive me there, and who knew how long that would be.

For now, I pulled his shirt over my head and put my own clothes back on, then returned to my sulking corner.

The voices had quieted somewhat, but I could still hear them far more clearly than I thought I should. Perhaps the sound was traveling through a vent or something?

Then I realized—it was the link.

Just like I could hear Elias, I could hear the others as well. It was super annoying, despite knowing that meant I’d been accepted and trusted.

The smell of breakfast also must have clung to my skin and was starting to make me nauseous.

A shower sounded like a brilliant way to pass the time until I could retreat to my little hole in the rock, so I entered the ensuite bathroom and stripped.

The deluge of steamy water pounding down on my head washed some of my negativity down the drain. Enough that I could start thinking about the conversation (if you could call it that) I’d overheard last night between Elias and Xavier.

Not that I wanted to, but it burst through my mental dam and danced across the stage of my consciousness.

Was I really Xavier’s long-lost daughter? While I’d often dreamed as a child about meeting my father someday, a werewolf was ~definitely~ not on my “possible father” bingo card.

I resolved to ask Elias as soon as he sent the guys packing and came to check on me—as he inevitably would.

Which didn’t take too long.

I was in the middle of squeezing some shampoo from the bottle—and somehow succeeding in getting three times as much as I needed, as if I’d managed to lose track of my own strength—when the bathroom door opened, and the fuzzy form of Elias appeared behind the frosted glass shower door.

“Mind sharing?” he asked, and I gave a positive grunt.

Moments later we were both naked beneath the stream, and Elias had wrapped his arms around me.

“Don’t worry, beautiful. I saw the way they were looking at you and gave them all a tongue-lashing. They’ll get more than that if they dare even ~consider~ thinking about blaming you for any of this.”

I could tell by the look on his face that Elias wasn’t exaggerating. My heart warmed at his protectiveness, and I rested my cheek against his damp chest.

“Thank you, Elias. For everything. I’m sorry my presence upset the status quo.”

Elias lifted my chin and glared into my eyes. “The pack isn’t allowed to blame you, and neither are you. How about we stop talking and start enjoying this shower, instead?”

I could live with that.

***

With the pack gone, Elias and I sat in silence in front of the fire.

I still had a million questions that I wanted to ask, but he didn’t look like he was in the mood to answer that many. So I settled on just one—the one weighing the heaviest on my oversaturated brain.

“Elias? Is Xavier ~really~ my dad?”

He remained silent for a long time—long enough that I thought he didn’t intend to answer. But just as I was about to say something else, he cleared his throat.

“I wasn’t sure if you were listening during the fight. I would have preferred you find out more calmly, but yes. All clues point to that.”

“What clues are you talking about?”

I furrowed my brow, a little concerned that I wouldn’t like the answer. But I wanted it anyway.

Again, he fell silent—entirely stone-faced. That certainly didn’t bode well, but I waited and attempted to keep myself from feeling nauseous due to the stress.

“It started when you showed up in town to interview for your job. Both of our packs spotted you. And you looked so much like your mother that at first, we thought Laura had returned.

“Xavier started sending members of his pack to find out where Laura had been and bring her back—not realizing you weren’t her. I don’t know the level of surveillance, but he didn’t realize his mistake until you interviewed Marius.

“After that, it was a matter of a few internet searches to find your birth certificate and your mother’s death certificate.”

Okay, that was infinitely creepier than I expected. How had I not realized I was being tailed for weeks? “Freaky creepy stalker dad” wasn’t on my bingo card, either.

“Did you stalk me too, Elias?” I accused, pulling away from him with a grimace.

“No.”

But after this whole revelation, I wasn’t sure I believed him.

“Why did you keep this all a secret from me? Would you even have told me if I hadn’t been listening last night?” Every word that came out of my mouth made me angrier—I know, entirely my own fault.

“Would you have believed me if I’d told you sooner?”

Well damn, he had me there.

“I don’t even know if I believe you now,” I admitted, feeling the wind drop right out of my sails. “How does Xavier know he’s my dad, anyway? It’s not like we took a paternity test. And maybe my mom—”

Yeah, I didn’t want to finish that sentence as it was currently structured.

“Maybe my dad is somebody else.”

“I suppose that’s true,” Elias admitted, which only made me feel the smallest bit better. “But odds are good that Xavier ~is~ your father.”

“And he wants me because he feels like he owns me?” I growled, the thought only making me angrier. “Not just because of the prophecy?”

Elias shrugged. “Sounds like it.”

I furrowed my brows and pressed my back against the couch. Elias continued to stare at me with mild eyes and his signature broody stone face, which I found incredibly annoying right now.

“How do you know all of this, anyway? I highly doubt he went around bragging that he was having me tailed.”

“He left himself wide open last night because he was so angry. It wasn’t hard to go through his thoughts while he was distracted with trying to fight me. I’m more than thirty years younger than him and much stronger. It wasn’t much of a fight.”

“It looked like a decent fight to me,” I argued, and Elias’s eyes narrowed with annoyance. I found his offense so amusing that I actually giggled a little.

“What? He still seemed pretty strong for someone who is supposed to be what? Sixty years old? Do werewolves have an extended lifespan or something?”

“Yes,” Elias replied.

I probably should have been expecting that, but the answer still caught me off guard. I tilted my head, and he managed to catch my question.

“You want to know how long, don’t you? Nothing too crazy. One hundred fifty years on average, though some of us have reached two hundred.”

That seemed crazy enough to me! But also, I realized that meant I had no idea how old Elias and Xavier really were. I mean, I like a good age-gap romance novel as much as the next girl, but I didn’t want to ~live~ one.

“So…how old are you, exactly? Because I thought you were around my age, but now I’m not so sure.”

“Thirty-seven.”

Relief spread through me like a warm bath. Four years was a perfectly acceptable age gap.

“So that makes you practically still a teenager,” I teased. “How long have you been leading the pack?”

“Alphas don’t tend to live as long as the rest of the pack. I’m very much an adult.” His tone carried no amusement, and I frowned at my failed attempt to lighten my mood. “I took over five years ago when my father died. Xavier killed him.”

The revelation was so cold, so unexpected, and so matter-of-fact that I spent a few moments staring at Elias with my mouth flapping like a fish out of water.

“Is that…”

“Normal? Yes. Alpha Zayne actually led our pack for an abnormally long amount of time before Xavier murdered him. And Xavier is long past due to pass on the leadership. But he made a fatal error in sending away his fated mate—he produced no heir.

“At least, that’s what both packs thought until you showed up.”

I nibbled at my lip, my brain spinning a million miles a minute. “So…couldn’t I just take over Graveridge when Xavier dies and declare the war over?”

It seemed like such an obvious solution to the problem, though one that might not have been seen by anyone but an outsider.

But Elias shook his head. “There have been occasional instances of Northfang daughters mating with Graveridge alphas, but in general they were simply banished. The Graveridge alpha either produced a new heir or was overthrown by a younger member of the pack.

“And no Graveridge alpha has ever allowed one of their daughters to mate with a Northfang Pack member, alpha or not.

“Even if you went back to Graveridge, you would most likely be forced to mate with Xavier’s beta until you produced a male child. That child would then be raised as the next alpha.”

“So werewolf packs are still operating on backward, sexist principles,” I growled, annoyed. “Did you guys forget that women have more than proven their ability to hold authority these days?”

“I didn’t say that’s how Northfang operates,” Elias replied and pursed his lips. “But no, ending the war doesn’t seem to be as simple as a political marriage.”

Elias sighed, and I thought I caught a glimpse of sadness in his eyes. It struck me how much deeper this man really was than the gruff, authoritative alpha that the pack saw.

I placed my hand on Elias’s knee and brushed his cheek with the other.

“If Xavier really is my father, I want to apologize that my father killed your father. And as much as it frightens me and as much as I struggle to believe all of this, I’ll do what I can to end this nonsense. It has gone on too long.”

Elias met my gaze, and for a long moment, we just stared into each other’s eyes. He lifted his hand to my face and cupped my chin in his large palm.

“And I will protect you for the rest of my life. Because as your alpha and your mate, that’s my job. I waited far too many years for you to come into my life.”

He pulled me closer and kissed my lips, roughly and desperately.

I couldn’t help returning his fervor. My emotions, that had already been nearing the boiling point, caught fire, turning my fear and anger into desire.

“Why do you make me feel this way?” I panted when our lips finally parted for a moment. “I never felt this way when I was married.”

“That’s our mate bond,” Elias growled low and deep. “It will only get stronger as you accept me.”

He nipped at my lip, and I felt a powerful wave wash over me.

I pushed him back against the couch and straddled him, my knees and hands pressing into the couch on either side.

Elias made no attempt to struggle, instead lifting his pelvis to give me a taste of his hardening cock.

I sat down on him and ground against his hips for a few seconds before getting a cheeky grin on my face.

“Twice in an hour is a little greedy, Elias. I’m just going to leave this with you as a promise.”

I ran my fingers lightly down his chest and stomach, feeling my own body respond as his muscles flickered at my touch. I grabbed the waistband of his underwear beneath his pants and gave it a tug, and Elias let out a moan.

Being in such total control of a man was intoxicating—especially one as used to being in charge as Elias. I slowly leaned forward, releasing the pressure on his pelvis and bringing our faces closer together.

“You’ll just have to hold on to this thought until next time,” I whispered and gave him one last kiss before getting up from the couch entirely.

He remained frozen in place, his chest and cock heaving desperately. But showing me the gentleman he truly was, he made no attempt to take more than he was given.

“Next time better be soon,” he groaned.

I giggled and started gathering my things.

“We’ll see,” I teased. “I need to get back to town, though. I still have some work to do before Monday, and you have been monopolizing all my time. You’re such a naughty boy.”

“You’re the naughty one, leaving me all worked up like this,” he complained, but he still hauled himself up from the couch and began putting on a shirt and his shoes.

He kept staring at me hungrily as we packed up the car and headed for town, but I remained firm in my resolve to let him simmer until next time.

After all, the best things need time to age.