***"Seraphina was mated to a Lycan.”***
The words echoed in her skull, louder than anything else.
My mother… was mated… to a Lycan?
She stared at her father, expecting—hoping—he would take it back. That this was some cruel trick, some tactic to manipulate her. But his expression was unyielding.
Her fingers clenched tightly around the armrest of Valerion’s chair as if she needed something solid to anchor her in this moment. The entire tent felt like it was closing in around her, suffocating her with the weight of this revelation.
“That’s not possible.” Her voice was quiet, almost fragile. “You told me the Lycans murdered her. That they slaughtered her without mercy. That they—”
Valerion sighed, his crimson gaze locked onto hers, heavy with something she had never seen before—guilt. “They did. And they had reason to.”
Azrael recoiled as if he had struck her. She shot to her feet, stepping back. “Reason to?” Her voice trembled, but it wasn’t with fear. It was with rage. “Are you saying she deserved to die?”
“I’m saying she betrayed her people.” Valerion stood as well, his towering form casting a long shadow over her. “Seraphina was my wife, your mother, the Queen of our people, and yet she laid with the enemy. She bore a half-breed in her womb. A child that would have been neither vampire nor wolf but something else entirely.”
Azrael’s stomach twisted violently, and for the first time in centuries, she felt as if she might be sick. “She was pregnant?”
Valerion nodded, his expression unreadable. “With his child.”
Azrael shook her head. “No. You told me the werewolves attacked us unprovoked. That their savagery—”
“They attacked to avenge their fallen Alpha.” Valerion’s voice was colder now, sharper. “When they discovered he had taken a vampire as a mate, they killed him for it. And when they found out she was carrying his child, they wanted her dead too. The moment they came for her, Seraphina tried to run. She knew she couldn’t fight them alone. She tried to reach me.”
Azrael’s entire body tensed. She could see it now—the fear, the desperation her mother must have felt. And the rage of the Lycans, their need to erase the dishonor of what they saw as treachery.
She swallowed hard. “Who was he?”
Valerion exhaled slowly, as if bracing himself for the name he was about to say.
“Eros.”
Azrael’s eyes widened.
Valerion’s gaze hardened. “Eros—the former Alpha of the Lycans. The older brother of the very man you have now mated.”
Azrael felt the world tilt beneath her feet.
Draven’s brother.
The mate of her mother.
The father of the unborn child her mother had died for.
“I—I don’t understand,” she whispered. “Eros was their Alpha. Why would they turn on him?”
“Because Lycans do not forgive betrayal. Their laws are absolute. An Alpha is expected to be the embodiment of their strength, their legacy, their purity. When they found out Eros had mated with a vampire, they saw it as the ultimate disgrace. They butchered him for it. Threw his body off a cliff like he was nothing more than a common traitor.”
Azrael stared at him, horrified.
“And when they discovered your mother carried his child, they knew they could not let the bloodline be tainted.” Valerion’s voice darkened. “So they came for her next.”
Azrael gritted her teeth, her entire body trembling.
Her mother hadn’t been the cause of the war.
She had been the victim of it.
She clenched her fists. “And you—” She paused, her chest rising and falling sharply. “You tried to save her?”
Valerion met her gaze. “I did.”
Azrael studied him for a long moment, searching for deception, for some shred of manipulation in his words. But there was none.
She knew her father. Knew the man he was. If he had wanted Seraphina dead, he would have been the one to do it himself. He would not have let others finish what he started.
She exhaled, the weight of the truth pressing down on her. “You said you’ve kept this secret for so long. Why tell me now?”
Valerion’s expression was unreadable. “Because history is repeating itself.”
Azrael stilled.
Valerion’s gaze darkened. “You think the court will be your only enemy? The Lycans will come for you too, just as they came for Seraphina. You mated with their Alpha. If his people ever find out, they will slaughter him for betraying their blood. And they will come for you next.”
Azrael’s nails dug into her palms. “So what are you saying?”
“I’m saying that once we leave this place, you must cut ties with him.” His voice was softer now, almost fatherly. “You will never contact him again. You will act as though he does not exist. Let this bond wither in silence, and perhaps, in time, you will learn to tolerate— to endure not being close to him.”
He paused and took a sharp breath.
“You must let him go, before you both meet the same fate as your mother and her mate.”
Azrael remained silent, her heart pounding in her ears.
“You have always been the strongest of my children,” Valerion continued, stepping closer. “Do not let this weakness be your undoing. Do not make the same mistake she did.”
Azrael swallowed hard.
Weakness.
That was what he thought this was.
Not fate. Not destiny. Not something beyond their control.
Just weakness.
She finally turned to face him, her golden eyes unreadable. “I need time to think.”
Valerion studied her for a long moment before nodding. “Take the night.”
Azrael gave him one last look before turning and walking out of the tent.
The moment she was outside, she inhaled deeply, her entire body still trembling. The cold night air did nothing to cool the fire burning inside her.
Everything she thought she knew about her past—about her mother, about the war—was a lie.
And now, she was faced with an impossible choice.
Cut ties with Draven,
Or risk sharing her mother’s fate.