Chapter 184
Casper's POV
The silence after I shoved Mom's hand away felt like a physical weight pressing down on my chest. Leo stirred beneath my skin, restless and wary, his presence a constant reminder of everything that had been revealed tonight.
They're still hiding something, he murmured through our bond. I can smell it.
I forced myself to take a breath, to push down the rage that threatened to consume me. Through the mate bond, I felt Elowen's hand slip into mine—warm, steady, anchoring me to something real when everything else felt like it was crumbling.
"So explain," I said, my voice coming out rougher than I intended. I kept my gaze fixed on Mom, deliberately avoiding Dad's face. "Explain why you thought it was acceptable to let other children suffer while making sure your own son was protected."
"Casper—" Mom started, but I cut her off.
"No." The word came out sharp enough to make her flinch. "You don't get to use that tone with me. Not after what you've done. Not after what you've let happen."
Cassian shifted beside Elowen, and through our twin bond, I felt his cold fury—the kind that ran deeper than mine, more calculating. "Mother," he said, his voice like ice. "Why was Cassian in danger?"
The question hung in the air for a long moment. Dad's jaw tightened, and I saw his throat work as he swallowed. When he finally spoke, his Alpha authority bled through every word.
"Twin brothers are typically rivals," he said carefully. "It's in your nature to compete for dominance, for position within the pack. But you two..." He paused, and I could smell the lie beginning to form. "You broke that pattern. We did what we did to protect you both."
Bullshit, Leo growled. I can smell the lies dripping from his mouth.
I couldn't help the bitter laugh that escaped me. "Protect us? Is that what you're calling it now?" I shook my head, feeling Elowen's thumb stroke across my knuckles in a silent gesture of support. "Because from where I'm standing, it looks a lot more like you were protecting your own reputation."
"That's not fair—" Mom tried again, but Cassian's cold voice cut through.
"Isn't it?" He took a step forward, and I felt Zero's presence surge through our bond—that icy, calculating intelligence that made my brother so dangerous when he wanted to be. "You're saying you did this because twin alphas are naturally competitive. But that doesn't explain why you went to such extreme measures for Casper specifically."
Mom's hands twisted together, knuckles white. "Even without a wolf," she said softly, "Cassian didn't want to inherit the leadership alone. He needed—"
"Shut up, Ella," Dad barked, and I saw Mom flinch at the harshness in his tone.
But she continued anyway, her voice trembling. "He needed Casper as an equal partner, someone he could trust to stand beside him. But that went against everything the Thornwood Pack tradition demanded. One Alpha. One leader. One—"
"One worthless human," I finished for her, and Leo's snarl echoed my own. The words tasted like ash in my mouth. "That's what I was to you, wasn't it? Before your deal with the demon. Just a worthless fucking human who threatened to ruin everything you'd built."
"No!" Mom's voice cracked. "Casper, you were never—we never thought of you that way. You were kind, loyal, you could read people better than anyone. You had so many strengths—"
"But not a wolf," Cassian interrupted, his blue eyes flashing. "And in a pack like ours, that's all that matters, isn't it?"
Dad's face had gone hard as stone. "We did what we had to do," he said flatly. "If we hadn't, the pack would have torn itself apart. Cassian would have been challenged constantly. You would have been ostracized, cast out—or worse. Do you understand what that means? What it would have done to this family?"
I felt Elowen's hand tighten around mine, and through our bond, I could sense her anger mixing with my own. The absurdity of it all hit me like a physical blow, and I actually laughed—a bitter, broken sound that made Mom's eyes widen with alarm.
"Let me sit down," I muttered, and Elowen immediately moved, guiding me to one of the chairs Dad had indicated earlier. I collapsed into it, running my hands through my hair, feeling the weight of everything crushing down on me.
Elowen stood behind me, her hands coming to rest on my shoulders. The simple touch grounded me, gave me something solid to hold onto. Through the mate bond, I felt her own exhaustion mixing with a fierce protectiveness that made my chest ache.
She's ours, Leo murmured. And she's suffering because of what they did.
I looked up at my parents, really looked at them. Mom's face was streaked with tears, her hands still twisted together like she didn't know what to do with them. Dad stood rigid, his shoulders squared, but I could see the cracks in his Alpha façade—the way his jaw trembled slightly, the haunted look in his eyes.
"Why didn't you wait?" I asked quietly. The question seemed to catch them off guard. "Why didn't you give me a chance to develop naturally? Some wolves present late. It happens. Why did you immediately assume I never would?"
Mom made a small, choked sound. "Casper, we love you—"
"That's not an answer." My voice came out harder than I intended. "If you loved me, you would have waited. You would have believed in me, given me time. But you didn't, did you? You looked at me and saw failure. Saw a problem that needed to be fixed before it became an embarrassment."
The silence that followed was deafening. Through the twin bond, I felt Cassian's grief mixing with his anger—a complex tangle of emotions that mirrored my own.
"You're right," Cassian said softly, and his voice was so cold it made me shiver. "They didn't wait. They didn't give you a chance. Because they'd already watched it happen before, hadn't they?"
I saw Mom's face crumble. Dad's hands clenched into fists at his sides.
"Do you remember," Cassian continued, his voice taking on that deadly quiet tone that meant he was at his most dangerous, "the first time Casper transformed? I do. I was there. I watched him scream for hours as his body tore itself apart, rebuilt itself, tore apart again. Do you remember that, Father? Mother?"
Mom let out a sob. Dad's face had gone pale.
"It hurt more than it should have," Cassian pressed on. "Transformations are painful, yes, but not like that. Not for days. Not with that kind of agony." He took a step closer to our parents. "Why did you let the demon put Leo inside him when you knew—you knew—it would hurt him like that?"