Chapter 127 Not My Blood

Chapter 127 Not My Blood

Aphrodite 

“Tell me. Please.”

Days had passed and I still had not found the courage.  

Since the afternoon I learned the truth I had not spoken a single word. Silence felt safer than the risk of the whole ruinous secret spilling out the moment I opened my mouth. So I sat at the table each evening and pushed the food he placed in front of me from one side of the plate to the other. I was not hungry. The hollow ache under my ribs had nothing to do with food.  

Tonight was no different.  

“Please?”  

I lifted my eyes. He sat across from me, shoulders slumped, worry and sadness written plainly across his face. I licked my dry lips and shook my head once. He sighed, looked down at his own untouched plate—and then everything exploded.  

The plate flew sideways and shattered against the wall. His chair toppled backward with a crash as he surged to his feet. Both hands slammed down on the table hard enough to make the wood groan. His eyes glowed molten gold when they locked on mine.  

“I’ve been nice. I’ve been patient. But I’m fucking done waiting. Tell me what the fuck happened before I walk down to the pack house and kill Vivens for ever making you cry. Maybe I’ll ask him myself and then kill him anyway. I don’t care that I grew up with him. Tell me now, Aphrodite. Maybe I can still do something about it.”  

The growl under every word pinned me in place. Fear slid cold down my spine—not only for myself, but for Vivens. I swallowed hard. His glowing stare never wavered. I would have stood and walked away if I had not felt the threat rolling off him in waves.  

“I… I—”  

One eyebrow lifted. He waited.  

My gaze flicked around the dining room. The only door was behind him. The window sat to my left, close enough to reach.  

He growled again. I shoved the chair back and bolted.  

My fingers fumbled with the latch. The window stuck, then scraped upward. I had one leg over the sill when the heavy table screeched across the floor. A hard hand closed around my ankle and yanked. In less than a second my back hit the wall and his body caged me there, both of us breathing hard.  

There was nowhere left to run. Alphas loved the chase; everyone knew that. I dragged in a shaking breath and forced the words out.  

“We cannot make a pup. This pack will not have an upcoming Alpha. And there is nothing you or I can do.”  

Tears slipped free as the last syllable left me.  

The scowl melted off his face. The gold drained from his eyes until they looked dull and empty. His hands fell away from the wall. He took one full step back and simply stared. I could not bear the expression that settled over him. It hurt worse than the scars. I wanted to wake up and discover the entire month had been a nightmare, but reality had sharper teeth than any dream.  

His gaze dropped to my stomach, then climbed slowly back to my eyes. He drew a long breath, squared his shoulders, and locked some careful, blank mask into place.  

“Well. I can either mate with someone else or we find a pup with no parents and call him our own.”  

The tears drying on my cheeks turned to fire.  

“What?!”  

“I said—”  

I growled and stepped into his space, shoving both hands against his chest. “You are not going to mate with someone else, Valdus.” Another shove. “And we are not going to—”  

The sentence died. My mouth stayed open while the memory crashed through me.  

“Ekon,” I whispered.  

I looked toward the door, then back at Valdus, sudden relief cutting through the grief.  

“What?” He frowned down at me.  

“When I took control of my pack I killed the Alpha and his Luna. They had a pup. I didn’t know his name—well, I did, but I renamed him Ekon. I started raising him to become my Beta, but he was too young, so Byrcin took the title first. He’s still there.”  

I started for the door. His hand closed around my forearm and jerked me back.  

“How old is he?” His expression had not changed.  

“He’s ten now.”  

He only nodded, then straightened. “We’ll go tomorrow morning—”  

“Tomorrow mor—”  

“Tomorrow, Aphrodite.” The volume of his voice jumped without warning. “I’m not in the mood to go look at this pup you raised. I’m still furious that you hid this from me. I’ve been telling myself for weeks that our pup was growing inside you—and it wasn’t. Now my pack will be run by a child from a fallen pack. I wanted my own blood. My own DNA. Not someone else’s.”  

The growl that followed vibrated through the hand still locked around my arm. I felt the tips of his claws break skin.  

I growled back and ripped my arm free. The claws dragged deep, leaving burning lines down my forearm, but I barely noticed.  

“You don’t think I’m upset that we can’t have a pup of our own? You don’t think I wanted to stand on that podium and watch our child slice their palm and bind themselves to the pack? You don’t think I wanted that?” My voice rose with every word.  

“Clearly not, if you hid the fact that we can’t have one and then turned from heartbroken to hopeful the second I reminded you about this other pup of yours!”  

“Yes—because at least I know there is a child who can carry both of our titles instead of watching you run off to mate some desperate she-wolf! If that’s what you want, Valdus, then go do it. I’m not stopping you. Now I know exactly what I mean to you. So go fuck whoever you want while I go back to my old pack and train Ekon to become the best Alpha he can be.”  

I spun on my heel and strode for the door. His answering growl and the heavy sound of his footsteps followed, but neither slowed me. I wrenched the door open so hard it slammed against the wall. He growled at that too.  

Fuck him.  

“Aphrodite!”  

“Oh, now you’re yelling my name. I’m surprised it isn’t some whore’s.” The words left me in a snarl. My blood felt like it was boiling. I wanted to turn and hit him, but I knew that would only give him the chance to grab me again. I took the stairs two at a time. I was already reaching for the shift when fabric yanked tight across my shoulders.  

I twisted and shoved him hard enough to force a step backward.  

“Don’t fucking touch me, Valdus. I don’t want you near me right now. If you want your own DNA running this pack, then go ahead and make it happen. Let me go back to my pack and train Ekon to become Alpha there, since you don’t want him carrying both titles.”  

“I don’t want anyone else carrying my pup,” he said, voice rough. “If it can’t be you, then no one should—”  

“Then why even make that an option?”  

He stood silent.  

I growled low. “That’s what I thought.”  

“Aphrodite—”  

“Go make a pup, Valdus.”  

“Aphrodite, listen—”  

“Oh, I’m listening!”  

“Tomorrow.” The word came out strained. “Tomorrow I swear. I swear I’ll go with you to your pack. And yes—he’ll become the Alpha of my pack. But I’m angry that he isn’t mine. He isn’t my blood. He isn’t my genetics.”  

“Don’t you think I feel the same?”  

“I’m sorry.”  

I stared at him for one long second.  

“Fine. But I don’t want to be near you or talk to you right now.”  

I looked at him once more, then turned and walked away.  

Fuck. You.