Chapter 187
Elowen's POV
The silence after Ronan's bombshell declaration felt like the moment before lightning strikes—charged, dangerous, and inevitable.
I couldn't breathe. My chest felt too tight, like someone had wrapped steel bands around my ribs and was slowly tightening them. Lycan King. My father. The Lycan fucking King.
We have royal blood, Juno whispered again in my mind, her voice a mixture of awe and terror. Elowen, we're—
I know, I cut her off, because I couldn't process this. Not now. Not with everyone staring at me like I'd suddenly grown a second head.
My amber eyes darted around the room—Casper's shocked face, his hand still gripping mine so tightly it hurt. Cassian's ice-blue eyes had gone wide. Luna Ella was crying silently, her hands covering her mouth. And Alpha Austin... he looked like he'd aged ten years in ten seconds.
But it was Ronan who held my attention. He stood in the doorway, one shoulder casually leaning against the frame, but there was nothing casual about the intensity in his emerald eyes. They were fixed on me with a focus that made my skin prickle.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Casper snarled, and I felt Leo surge close to the surface through our bond. His protective rage was a living thing between us.
Ronan pushed off the doorframe with that fluid grace that always made me think of a predator. "Alaric and Kade are still in the basement with Drake," he said, his voice carrying that magnetic quality that made everyone listen. "Figured someone should be up here to make sure the real story gets told."
"Real story?" Cassian's voice was deadly quiet—the kind of quiet that preceded violence. Through our bond, I felt Zero's calculating presence, assessing threats. "You want to explain why the fuck you think you belong in this conversation?"
"Because unlike your parents," Ronan said, his gaze sliding to Austin and Ella with something that looked like pity mixed with contempt, "I'm not going to dance around the truth with pretty words and convenient omissions."
"Get out." Austin's Alpha command rolled through the room like thunder. His face had gone red, the veins at his temples standing out in stark relief. "This is pack business. Family business."
Ronan completely ignored him. Instead, he walked right past the Alpha—walked right fucking past him—and came to stand near my chair. Not touching, but close enough that I could smell his scent: something wild that made Juno sit up and take notice.
When he was close enough, he did something that shocked everyone in the room. He reached out and gently patted Austin on the shoulder, his mouth curving into that dangerous smile that never quite reached his eyes.
"Great suspense you've built up there, Alpha," he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "Almost had me believing you were actually going to come clean about everything."
Austin's face went from red to purple. I saw his fists clench at his sides. "You have no right—"
"No right?" Ronan laughed, but it wasn't a pleasant sound. "I have every right to make sure my..." he paused, his eyes flicking to me with something I couldn't quite read, "...my friend knows the whole truth. Not the sanitized version you're preparing to feed her."
Ronan moved behind Cassian's chair, placing his hands on either side of my chair's back in a gesture that was clearly territorial. Protective, even. Casper's hand tightened on mine, and I heard a low growl rumble through his chest.
"What the fuck do you think you're doing, Ronan?" Cassian's voice was sharp, his face still flushed from the earlier confrontation with his parents.
He's panicking, Casper sent through our mate bond. Cassian's worried about what we're about to hear. About what it might do to you.
He thinks you're going to break, Zero's voice echoed through Cassian's connection, surprisingly gentle.
My heart sank. They already knew something. Something bad enough that they were trying to shield me from it even now.
They know, Juno confirmed. They've been keeping this from us. Trying to protect us.
"You're joking, right?" Austin said, his voice cold. "This doesn't concern you."
"Actually," Ronan said, leaning forward slightly so his breath ghosted across the back of my neck, "humor comes naturally to me, Alpha. But I promise you, right now? I'm deadly serious."
He winked at me. Actually fucking winked, like we were sharing some private joke while the room descended into chaos around us.
"Ronan." Luna Ella's voice cut through the tension. She'd stopped crying, and now she just looked exhausted. "Why are you really here?"
"Because," Ronan said, his voice dropping to something darker, "I understand that Elowen deserves to know the truth without her... protective mates and your family trying to sugarcoat it." His emerald eyes fixed on me. "Don't you want to know everything, little freckle? The whole story?"
The nickname—Casper's nickname—coming from his mouth made Casper's grip on my hand turn almost painful. I felt Leo surge even closer to the surface.
"Don't call her that," Casper warned, his voice rough with his wolf's influence.
Ronan just smiled. "I understand you both want to have this conversation privately with Elowen. I respect that. But someone needs to witness this." His expression turned serious. "Someone who isn't emotionally compromised."
"And that's you?" Cassian scoffed. "The guy who broke into our territory, helped kidnap our mate, and now thinks he has the right to—"
"The guy," Ronan interrupted smoothly, "who saw your brother lose control at that dance and hurt people. The guy who understands that sometimes, love makes us blind to the manipulations happening right under our noses."
He had a point, and I hated that he did.
"Why do you think you have any right to be here?" Ella asked, her voice shaking slightly.
"Because," Ronan said, his hands still resting on either side of my chair, "I know what your dear parents aren't saying. And Elowen deserves to hear the complete truth. Not the version they've rehearsed to cause the least amount of damage to their precious reputations."
He's right, Juno said quietly. They're still holding something back. I can feel it.
I squeezed Casper's hand, then looked up at Cassian. Through our bonds, I sent a simple message: Let him stay. I want to hear what he knows.
Both of them looked unhappy about it, but neither argued. That alone told me how serious this was.
"Fine," I said, my voice stronger than I felt. "He stays. Now—" I turned to face Austin and Ella fully, "—finish the story. And no more bullshit about how 'complicated' things are. Just the truth."
Austin's jaw worked for a moment, and I could practically see him trying to figure out how to spin this. But Ronan's presence seemed to have thrown off whatever carefully constructed narrative he'd prepared.
"My mother," I said, the words tasting strange in my mouth. The woman I'd called 'mother' for twenty years wasn't my mother at all. "Who was she?"
Ella's eyes filled with tears again. "Elowen, sweetheart—"
"No." I stood up, pulling away from both Casper and Cassian. My whole body was shaking, but I needed to do this on my own. "No more 'sweethearts.' No more stalling. Who. Was. She?"
"This is..." Ella looked at Austin helplessly. "It's so complicated—"
"That's not an answer." The words came out sharper than I intended, but I was so tired of being treated like I couldn't handle the truth. "You said I'm the daughter of the Lycan King. That means my biological mother was either his mate or..." I trailed off as a horrifying thought occurred to me. "Or what? Did she choose him? Was she forced? What happened to her?"