Chapter 129 129

Chapter 129 129
Amy's POV

He didn't let go of my hand.

He held it and he looked at me and he said, "Sit down, Amelia."

I sat on the edge of his bed. I didn't want to. But my legs weren't feeling very reliable right now so I sat..He took a breath. And then he told me.

"Your real parents were the Lycan King and Queen. That they were part of the royal bloodline, the highest authority in the entire lycan world. That they were dying, poisoned, though I didn't know that at the time, I just knew they were sick and declining fast and that in their last days they came to me specifically. They trusted me. I had been connected to the court in a small way through his role and they knew my character so they chose me."

"They asked me to take their daughter if something ever happened. It was afraid they were already prepared for that war."

"They asked me to disappear with you, to raise you as mu own, to never tell anyone who you are or where you came from. To keep you hidden and safe until the world was ready for you or you were ready for it. Whichever came first.

I said yes. I said yes immediately without hesitation and that I have never once regretted it."

I was listening to all of this very carefully. I was keeping my face as neutral as I could manage. I don't know if I was succeeding but I was trying.

Then he told me about the wolf.

"You were not even three years old when it happened the first time. A burst of power that came out of nowhere, the room shook. A lot of things broke. You didn't even know what you had done, you were just a toddler, you kept crying because the loud noise scared you and you had been the one who caused it. I was terrified. I was not scared of you, never of you, but for you. I was terrified of what would happen if anyone saw it. Of what would happen when you got older and stronger and still didn't know how to control it."

"So I sealed it. I found someone who knew how and I had it done and I told myself it was temporary. I told your mom that I would release it when I was ready. When it was safe. When you had your mate and your stability and the support around you, you would have needed to handle what you actually were."

He just kept waiting for the right time and the right time never felt right enough and then years passed and I was growing up thinking I was wolfless and he watched me suffer for it and he hated himself for it every single day.

He said that last part quietly. He didn't dress it up. He just said it plainly — I watched you suffer and I hated myself every day.

I didn't say anything.

He told me how he kept the secret because he didn't want me to feel like I didn't belong to him. He was scared that if I knew the truth I would feel like a responsibility he had taken on instead of a daughter he loved. He didn't want that. He wanted me to just be his. So he kept it.

"You were always mine," he said. "From the first week. You were always completely mine and I was always completely yours. That part was never a lie. That part was the most real thing in my life."

He stopped talking. The room was very quiet. I sat there for a moment.

I nodded slowly. "Okay," I said.

He looked at me. "Okay?"

"I heard you," I said. "Thank you for telling me."

I stood up. My legs worked fine. That was good. He was still looking at me with that expression. He was definitely worried and uncertain. He looked like he didn't know what I was going to do next.

I leaned down and I kissed him on the forehead the way he used to do to me when I was small. "You need to rest," I told him. "We can talk more tomorrow."

Then I walked out and pulled the door closed behind me. I made it about four steps down the corridor. Then I sat down on the floor.

I didn't plan to. My back just hit the wall and I slid down it and I sat there on the cold floor in the middle of the night and I stared at the wall across from me and I felt everything I had been holding in for the past forty minutes come apart all at once.

I wasn't crying exactly. It wasn't like earlier outside my dad's room when everything came out clearly. This was different. This was quieter and worse somehow. Like something fundamental had just shifted and my whole body was trying to figure out what to do with a floor that felt different than it did an hour ago.

I was the daughter of a king and queen who were murdered before I could remember them.

I was raised by a man who chose me and loved me and kept a secret that hurt me because he was scared of losing me.

I had spent my entire life feeling like something was missing and the thing that was missing was so much bigger than I had ever imagined that I didn't even have the right thoughts to think about it yet.

I just sat there.

I felt the warmth before I heard anything.

Someone sat down beside me. Not in front of me, not crouching down to check on me. Just sat down on the floor right beside me, shoulder to shoulder, and didn't say a word.

I didn't have to look to know who it was.

Damien sat there with me on the floor of that corridor and he didn't ask if I was okay and he didn't tell me it was going to be fine and he didn't try to fix anything. He just sat there. We were sitting like we were homeless and didn't have anywhere else to go. He abandoned all his principles just to sit down beside me.

I don't know how long we sat there. But I felt like we sat there for a long time without thinking about everything else. Just didn't want to face him at all yet he was there for me.

I stood up slowly. He stood up with me. I looked at him.

"You already knew," I said. "Didn't you."

He nodded. "I told you I only found out recently though."

I looked at him for a second. "Why didn't you tell me yourself?"

He held my gaze. "Because I wanted it to come from someone who loves you."

I heard exactly what he said and I heard what was underneath it and I stood there in the corridor looking at him and something landed in my chest that was warm and very clear.

Someone who loves you. I looked at him and I thought, you do, don't you? And then immediately after that I thought... so do I.

I didn't say any of that out loud though.

I just looked at him standing in front of me at whatever hour of the night it was, hair not perfect, expression open in a way he almost never let it be, waiting to see what I needed next.

And I thought, I am completely in love with this person and I have absolutely no idea when that happened. At least he knows how crazy he was driving me. But how do I face him after all this?