Chapter 43
Chapter 43
It felt as if a brick was thrown at my guts; the sudden hit took my breath right out of me and made me want to hurl all over him because of that truth bomb. I at least hoped it was the truth, otherwise that was just malicious and evil, all to try and get a reaction out of me.
“You’re lying.” Whispering, I shook my head sideways repeatedly, not wanting to believe that he was the reason that I did not know my family, was left to fend on my own and always felt lonely and abandoned all my life.
But, the deeper truth was that my family was dead because of him.
“Nope. I'm not lying. I decimated them.” He drawled slowly, now gaining some confidence in telling his biography, taking a couple of delicate steps towards me as though I was a wounded animal that could flee any second.
Beta Neil’s head dropped, apparently ashamed of what they had both done so many years ago. They should be though. What they had done was sickening, especially when they had decided that it was ok to harm children.
Reid and Dane were hanging onto every word that was being said, obviously not having heard this story before, and both seemingly unimpressed with what Corbin had to say. The two men stood frozen, studying every single move that he made, every little detail that would indicate if he was being honest or not.
My eyes filled with unshed salty tears, pushing against the edge to try and cascade down my sunken cheeks. I tried to stop them from falling so that they did not see any weakness from me, so that HE, did not see that what he was saying was hurting me. But, deep down, I felt like my life was falling away from me and it was all completely out of my control.
“Aren’t you going to ask who it was that I kept alive? I did say that I kept a few of them. Brought them back here, just like I did with you and the others. Just like I do with every pack that we attack.” Corbin gloated, impressed with himself.
“Who? Does it have something to do with that man?”
“Yup, he was one of them. Any guesses on who you think that he is?” Now he was being suggestive, teasing me about something that I was clueless of, and it was starting to really get on my nerves.
I shook my head indicating no, that I had no ideas or guesses on who the poor tortured soul was, or anyone else that he would not have slayed that unfortunate night.
“Come on now, surely you have at least one idea?”
I shook my head again.
“Very well.” He huffed, disappointed that I was not playing along with his game. “You should have been able to figure out that it was anyone that held a position of power; it’s what I did with yours. But the man that you saw? That was the Alpha.”
I was astonished; my jaw pretty much hit the floor. Why the hell had they kept this man alive for eighteen years when they could not keep themselves from killing off others within a week? This Pack was filled with a bunch of pure savages that idolised the brutalism of physical punishments and tortures of other wolves like they got off on it. I will not pretend that this wolf had it easy over the years; he has most probably endured things that others could never even have thought of. Being the Alpha was most likely the only reason that they would not have gotten rid of him before now.
“What about the Luna, Beta or whatever?” As soon as the thought had come to me, I spoke it out aloud, throwing it out there in one breath.
Corbin started to clap his podgy little hands, giving me a phony round of applause, and stepping a little bit closer to me again.
“Ha! Well done, that’s my girl.” He was amused that I was finally starting to play along. “The Luna is dead. So is the Beta female, the Gamma male and female, I think? Neil?”
“Yes, my Alpha. It is only the Alpha and Beta that are still kicking, sort of.”
“Ok, so back to the beginning. The Alpha and Luna had not long mated and had a baby. He was a weak Alpha, running his pack just like your Alpha Brock did. Don't get me wrong, he was a really powerful wolf; the strongest that I had ever seen, besides the King. He just didn’t run his pack as it should have been.” He spat the word ‘Alpha’ with venom, reluctant to call Dad by his title because he thought of him as not worthy of it.
“The baby was just a few months old when we snuck onto their territory that night. But, at the beginning of the attack, the Luna managed to escape with her baby and a couple of omegas. It took a couple of days, but we found everyone. Everyone except for the baby anyway.”
Sick started to slither its way up from my stomach, threatening to have me vomit in front of everyone. With where Corbin was going with this, in my head things started to click into place. It was like I now had all the puzzle pieces, and they were slowly beginning to make a whole picture; the pieces that had been missing my whole life.
“Of course, we killed the omegas that had helped the two to get away, and we spent weeks looking for that little runt. That was, until we found out through the grapevine that the baby was found near the pack of a different Alpha many miles away, and that he had decided to take in this baby and raise it as one of his own. The Luna lasted a while in the Packhouse, working away and such. But the depression from not knowing anything about her pup drove her to kill herself about a year later. It actually helped me to get her mate under control though, so I’m not complaining.”
Everything started to spin, nothing seemed like it would come back into focus ever again. Hearing Corbin speak of my origins in an unnervingly confident and grotesque way was spine-tingling, it was hard to hear the truth of my past but even more so from him. All that I needed now was for him to say the actual words, to confirm what my racing mind had concluded.
“Are you there yet, my little Olivia? Have you figured it out?” The sinister man spoke to me as if he was speaking to a scared child. But then again, that is exactly how I was feeling.
Looking right into his sneering ugly mug, I composed myself just long enough to answer.
“The Alpha and Luna of The Midnight Pack were my mum and dad. And, you are the one that killed her and imprisoned him.”
Corbin laughed. Full, blown, belly laughed. My misery was amusing him, to the point of him hysterically laughing and being on the verge of pissing himself.
“Congratulations, my girl. Now that you know, how does it feel?”
The man is detestable, telling me that he was the one that was responsible for my mother’s death and deprived my father of a life without torment or basic things such as sunlight, then cracks up when I find out what I have been longing to for so long.
My simple bitterness swiftly morphed into an intense rage. And to show him the change of my emotions, I curled my fingers, fisting my hand and punched him hard in the face with everything that I had. I continued to lash out at him, drawing my sharp wolf claws out and slashing at his face and neck repeatedly.