Chapter 68 Dinner with enemies
DARIAN
My heart pounds against my ribcage like a war drum. I stand frozen in Iris’s grandfather’s living room, “You!” hanging in the air.
When he saw me, the flash of recognition in his eyes hit me like a blade. And suddenly the stories I’d heard in whispers, half‑digested, fell into place.
He betrayed my grandfather’s pack.
Not simply fleeing, not merely hiding, but actively turning on them, under cover. Because of pride. Because he envied us. Because he lost a bride in a political game and decided revenge.
I understood then: Iris’s grandfather and mine were rivals, two Alphas of large packs bordering one another. Both vying for influence. Both courting the same powerful pack’s princess to form an alliance that could secure peace. My grandfather won. The marriage altered the balance of power. Political alliances shifted. Packs that had stood with Iris’s grandfather drifted away.
He didn’t just accept defeat. He plotted. Secretly he built up a force, soldiers loyal to him but unseen, disloyal to the council, disloyal to the codes. Under cover of night, he lured one of my grandfather’s lesser but allied packs, wolves who trusted peace, who believed in oath, into vulnerability. Promised sanctuary, promised safety. Then betrayed them. When they arrived, gates closed. Aid withheld. Some packs slaughtered, some captured, many died. Families torn apart. The Forgotten Packs.
That massacre is still talked about in quiet hunts, in tear‑soaked nights. Names lost. Families destroyed. Honor torn to shreds. And for years, my grandfather and my soldiers haunted your grandfather, tracked him, demanded justice. Battle reports, council meetings. I was too young to understand fully, but I felt the weight of it. I heard the words: betrayal. Blood on hands. Promise broken.
Now I look at Iris’s grandfather, older, softened by years,. But the past is too loud to ignore. I swallow hard, pain sharp in my chest.
Iris stands beside me, turning toward the house. I feel her unasked question in her eyes. I want to tell everything to her, but I'm not sure how to voice what has been swelling inside me.
“My grandfather…” I begin, voice low. “He spoke of your grandfather only in bitterness when I was a boy. The betrayal. The Packs that were promised protection… you were never told?”
Iris shakes her head. Shame and hurt pinch her face. “No. I didn’t even know wolves existed until I met you.”
I inhale. The sky above is bruised with evening. “Your grandfather attacked my grandfather’s allied pack. Slaughtered them. Families. Elders. Children. You know how that shapes generations.”
Her cold hand touches my arm. I stiffen for a moment, then let it stay. Guilt and anger jostle inside me like caged wolves.
“He fled among humans afterward. Marrying one. Trying to hide the wolf inside. Thought distancing would erase the stain. Didn’t realize it would awaken in his second generation.”
Her eyes widen. “It awakened in me, didn’t it?”
“It did. The prophecy called it forth. You saw me, marked me. The dormant gene stirred.” My voice cracks. I taste salt on my lips.
I turn away from the house. Iris walks with me, silent.
“You hunted him all these years.”
I look at her. “We did. My soldiers. My father. The council. We believed removing him, rendering justice, would cleanse the stain on the Packs. But justice… sometimes it demands more than a blade. Sometimes it demands life.”
I pause. The moonlight behind her makes her silhouette soft. I want to ease the burden off her shoulders. But knowing the betrayal, the prophecy, the danger… I can’t unsee.
She speaks quietly. “So if prophecy says I’m punishment maybe… aren't you supposed to hate me?”
I spin, grip her shoulders gently. “No. Hate isn’t justice.” My voice is harsh with both anger and sorrow. “You are not your grandfather’s mistakes. You are you.”
She looks up, eyes full of tears. “But the world sees his betrayal. They see prophecy. Do they ever see Iris?”
I swallow, pain twisting. “Not enough.” I let my hand drop. I look toward her grandfather, standing at the threshold of the house. Honor and shame balanced on his spine.
“I need to protect you,” I say. “Even if protecting means going against everything I believed.”
Her breath shakes. “Even if it kills you.”
My heart lurches. “If it comes to that… I still fight.”
The forest around us sighs. The night is heavy. I can’t pretend ease anymore.
She grips my arm. “Where do we go from here?”
I stare at her.
It’s a simple question. But it carves through my insides like a blade.
There’s no protocol for this. No royal handbook that tells a future Alpha what to do when he finds out the girl he’s bonded to is the granddaughter of the most hunted traitor in Lycan history.
There’s no law that makes room for feelings.
But I don’t care.
I take a slow breath, eyes still locked on hers. The shadows from the trees nearby stretch over her face, but her gaze is steady.
“I should be taking you to one of the safe houses,” I say finally, my voice hoarse. “Somewhere monitored. Controlled. Official.”
I pause, waiting for her to flinch, but she doesn’t. She just waits.
I step closer. “But I’m not doing that.”
Her brows lift slightly.
“I’m breaking protocol,” I continue. “And not just protocol, my father’s orders, the council’s expectations, everything.”
“Why?” she asks, not moving away.
“Because in this moment, I trust you,” I say. “I trust your instinct. I trust that you being here, off the grid, with people you care about, people who care about you, is the best chance we have at keeping you safe.”
I glance back at the house. “Even if one of them is the man I’ve spent most of my life wanting to drag before the Alpha Council in chains.”