Chapter 90 Family Crisis
DANIEL'S POV
I had not slept in four days. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Viktor's face. I felt my hands around his throat and the exact moment life left his body. I killed someone and my brain could not process what that person was to me. A captor or torturer? Father figure in the most twisted way possible? The labels did not fit and the confusion was eating me alive from the inside out.
I had been drinking heavily and fighting in underground rings where illegal human fights happened for werewolf entertainment. I never shifted but I still dominated every match without trying. The violence felt good in a sick way and it was the only thing that made me feel anything besides the crushing guilt that followed me everywhere I went. Lisa had called seventeen times. I ignored them all because I could not face her right now or explain what I had become in the days since Viktor's death.
He was an evil person but that didn't excuse the fact that I had soiled my hands with his blood. Not when he had raised me for years, calling him a father figure would have been good if he had a good reputation.
I sat in a dive bar that smelled like stale beer and old wood and something else I could not identify. The bartender knew not to talk to me anymore. I was on my fourth whiskey when Dante Moretti slid into the booth across from me without asking permission.
"You look like hell," he said.
I did not even react. I just stared at my glass and watched the amber liquid catch the dim light. "Thought you would be in hiding after Viktor's death."
"Viktor and I were never actually related," Dante said casually and signaled for a drink from the bartender. "That was a cover story we used for business purposes. I'm just a collector who got in too deep with dangerous people. But I'm also someone who knows what it's like to kill the person who shaped you into who you are today."
The bartender brought his drink quickly. Dante took a slow sip and watched me carefully over the rim of his glass. "You're falling apart, Daniel. I can see it clearly. The violence, the drinking, and the isolation, you're trying to outrun guilt that will never let you go no matter how far you run or how hard you fight."
I finally looked at him directly. His eyes were calm and knowing in a way that made me uncomfortable. "Dante, what do you want from me?"
"To make you an offer that might save your life." Dante leaned forward slightly. "Leave the pack. Leave all of this supernatural drama behind. I have contacts in the human world. New identity, new life, new everything. A place where you can be violent without it meaning anything or carrying any emotional baggage. Cage fights, security work, mercenary jobs, whatever you need to work through this darkness inside you without it destroying you completely."
He slid a business card across the table. The edges were worn like he had been carrying it for a while. I stared at it but did not pick it up right away.
"Think about it seriously," Dante said.
I pocketed the card slowly and felt the weight of it against my chest. "Why are you helping me? What do you get out of this?"
"Because your sister refused my offer to escape when I gave her the chance months ago. But you? You're not trapped by prophecies or pregnancies or mate bonds or any of that supernatural nonsense that holds people, hostage. You're free to walk away from all of it. And honestly?" Dante leaned back in his seat and his expression was almost sympathetic. "I think you should take this chance while you still can. You've suffered enough for a pack that sold you as a child and never protected you when it mattered most."
I knew he was right. The truth of his words hit harder than any punch I had taken in the ring recently. The pack had failed me over and over again throughout my entire life. They sold me to Viktor when I was barely old enough to understand what was happening to me. They never came looking for me in all those years. They never tried to save me or bring me home. I owed them absolutely nothing after everything they put me through.
But as I stood to leave the bar, my phone buzzed in my pocket with an insistence that made me pause. I pulled it out and saw a text from Lisa that made my chest tighten painfully and my hands shake.
"Daniel, please. I need my brother. Ryan's father is dying. The pack is falling apart without leadership. Emma's pregnant with Marcus Krane's baby. Adrian's dying. I'm pregnant and don't even know who the father is anymore. Nathan's dead. I need you. Please don't abandon me too."
I stared at the text. Read it three times to make sure I understood correctly. Each word felt like a weight pressing down on my lungs and making it harder to breathe. I looked at Dante's card in my other hand and the promise of freedom it represented. I looked at the door leading to a life without all this pain and complications and endless drama that never seemed to stop.
My phone rang. Lisa was calling now.
I answered before I could think better of it. "I'm here. Tell me what you need."
Lisa's voice broke immediately and I could hear tears choking her words into fragments. "Come to the hospital. Please, just come."
I left money on the table and walked out of the bar without saying goodbye to Dante. Behind me, I heard him shake his head slowly and mutter something that carried across the space between us. "They never learn. Family will destroy you faster than any enemy ever could."