I was jerked awake.
Not because of a bad dream but because of Dad’s furious yells coming from downstairs.
Rolling off the bed, I hurried out of the room and down the stairs towards the living room.
“You fucking shot my daughter!” Dad yelled.
My eyes widened when I rounded the corner.
Lucas was on the floor, nursing a bleeding nose with Dad being held back by Granddad as he loomed over him.
Dad was struggling to hold skin which was shocking because he was not one to easily lose his temper, but considering everything that happened, it wasn’t all that surprising.
“She’s already healed,” Lucas said. “Being shot is a lot fucking better than what Oliver had planned for her.”
“I’m going to—”
“Should I have allowed him to kill her instead?” Lucas asked as he slowly got to his feet. “It’s not like you love her as much as you love Ariana.”
Dad jerked out of Granddad’s hold.
“Daddy no!” I cried as I hurried forward.
He had one clawed hand raised and ready to strike.
I jumped in front of Lucas to block Dad, but he was already too far gone. Squeezing my eyes closed, I mentally prepared myself for the pain.
Only it never came.
Hands gripped my arms and jerked me backward.
“You need to calm down.”
My eyes snapped open when his voice penetrated my brain.
“Move,” Dad sneered.
“Calm down.”
Lucas shifted, pulling me closer to his body. I glanced up at him but my eyes immediately snapped back to the man who had stopped Dad from hurting me.
Ethan stood toe to toe with him. He had a strong grip on Dad’s wrist which prevented him from moving.
“Get control of yourself, Silas,” Ethan growled, “before you hurt your daughter.”
Dad’s lips slowly curled up into a sneer. “Get the fuck out of my way. He shouldn’t have placed her in danger in the first place!”
“It wasn’t his idea,” I told him. “It was my idea but I was supposed to go, not Eva.”
His eyes snapped to me at the same time as Ethan turned slightly to frown at me over his shoulder.
I swallowed. “I-I thought that it was a g-good idea then. I just want things to end with Oliver before anyone else got hurt or more people died because of me.”
“Are you fucking serious?” Dad hissed. “What the hell were you thinking? Do you have any idea how wrong your plan—” he broke off with a growl. “She was shot! The bastard had a knife pressed to her throat! Do you have any idea how easily he could have killed her?” Dad ripped his arm free and spun away. He ran a hand through his hair before he spun around to face me again. “Haven’t you paid attention to the things I taught you?”
“Daddy, I—”
“I did not raise you like this, Ariana,” he interrupted. “What happened to you? All I see standing in front of me is a pathetic little girl who’s so fucking weak that she—”
“That’s enough,” Lucas interrupted him.
My lips parted but the lump in my throat prevented me from uttering a word. I couldn’t take the disappointment I saw in Dad’s eyes as he stared at me.
“You need to stay the hell out of our family business!” Dad took a step towards Lucas but Ethan stepped in front of him.
“He’s part of the family,” Ethan hissed. “Are you going to push your daughters away by refusing their mate?”
“Their?”
Lucas tensed.
I sucked in a breathed and reached out to touch Ethan’s arm to stop him, but it was already too late.
“Eva and Ariana,” Ethan answered. “They share a mate. I’m surprised that you haven’t already figured it out by now. How blind could you possibly be, Silas?”
My eyes fluttered closed for a few seconds. I had told Eva that the truth was going to come out. A part of me was glad that things had been thrown out in the open, but the other part wished that it had happened differently. I wasn’t ready to deal with the complications after everything that had happened.
“Eva said that Grayson is her mate.”
Dad was staring at me but I refused to look at him.
“He is her mate, isn’t he?” he snarled, making my body jerk in fright. “Answer me, Ariana!”
I gripped the material of Lucas’s shirt as I swallowed. Eva had lied to everyone. She should be the one to answer all the questions, not me!
“Let’s just—”
“Ariana.”
“S-she lied,” I whispered. “Grayson isn’t her mate.”
“Why did she lie about it?” Ethan asked softly.
It was on the tip of my tongue to tell them what she had told us that day when I found out, but Eva answered the question herself.
“Because I don’t want Lucas as my mate.”
I raised my head to look up at Lucas to find out how her words affected him. He was staring straight ahead with his face blank.
Maybe he wasn’t feeling anything.
Or maybe it was because he didn’t want anybody to see how much her rejection was hurting him.
Granddad who had been watching silently stepped forward. “We all have had a rough night. Let’s get some sleep and continue this conversation tomorrow.”
“That’s a good idea,” Ethan agreed.
“No.” Eva carefully took a seat. “I think it’s a good idea to talk now since everything has already been thrown into the open.”
Our eyes locked for a few seconds before she looked at Dad.
My brows dipped into a frown. She already said that she didn’t want him as a mate. I didn’t think that there was more to talk about. What good was it going to do any of us if she told them about her accusations?
I was surprised when Lucas gripped my arms and pushed me away from him. He gave me a small smile and nodded towards Eva when I frowned at him.
“I knew the moment I met him that he’s my mate,” Eva said, “but I also felt that something about Lucas wasn’t right.”
“Eva—”
Dad raised his hand, instantly silencing me. “Let her speak.”
She avoided my eyes as she told Dad everything she had said to me in the kitchen weeks ago. She mentioned that she even considered the fact that Lucas might have been involved in my kidnapping. Through it all, Lucas just silently stood behind me.
“You know how I feel about someone making accusations without something to back of their words,” Dad muttered. “Do you have anything to back up these accusations?”
Her eyes darted over to me. “I’m sorry, Ari.”
Why was she apologizing to me? I knew for a fact that Eva has nothing to prove that Lucas was a liar. Once Dad realized that he wouldn’t believe her.
Lucas might not be like us but he wasn’t a liar.
“Granddad said that he would have Wrin look into things,” she said, making all eyes dart over to him.
He shrugged. “He hasn’t found anything yet.”
“Then until—”
“I have photos,” Eva interrupted Dad. “I found photos in Lucas’s room when we. . .found him.”
***
*She has nothing.*
I kept repeating the sentence over and over in my head as we followed Eva to her room.
Lucas wasn’t like Conner. He would never do all the things Eva was accusing him of doing.
But what if it’s true?
Dad wouldn’t kill him, would he? If it was true. . .Lucas was still our mate despite it. The bond between Lucas and Eva wasn’t as strong as the bond I shared with him.
“I was going to show it to you, but thongs happened,” she said.
I hovered at the door and silently watched them.
Dad, Ethan, and Granddad hovered near the bed. All of them wore matching frowns as Eva continued to explain why she hadn’t shown them earlier.
I glanced at Lucas when he came to a stop next to me. He was tensed but there was a small, smug smile playing on his lips.
Unease hit me.
Eva’s gasp made my eyes snap to her.
She slammed the drawer shut and pulled the bottom one open.
“It was here!” she cried. “I swear I had put it in here, daddy. I’m not lying about this, I swear to you.”
Dad pulled her away from the dresser and against his chest as a sob fell from her lips.
“It was here!” Her head dropped back and her eyes pleaded with him to believe her. “There are photos of us and newspaper clippings. There’s a map of the pack land too!”
“Princess”—Dad wiped the tears from her cheeks—“calm down. You’ve had a shock tonight. Let me take a look at your wound and then you can get some sleep.”
“The photos. . .” she trailed off with another sob falling from her lips.
Dad glanced at Granddad and then at me before he looked back down at Eva. “Your grandfather and I will take a look around the room while you rest,” he suggested. “You might have misplaced it.”
“I didn’t,” she whispered. “He’s not who he says.”
Lucas’s arm brushed mine when he turned around.
I stared at him with tear-filled eyes as he walked away.
There was no reason for Eva to lie about such a serious matter. She had made it clear from the start that something about Lucas was off.
With dread settling heavily in my heart, I waited until Lucas disappeared downstairs and then made my way to his bedroom.