Chapter 68: Chapter Sixty-Eight

The Full Death Moon.

A soul-shattering shout filled the room, so loud it threatened to tear my skull in two.

It was Aimes, his scream filled with rage and betrayal and horror. On and on it went, and the sound was like a dagger in my chest, plunging in again and again.

I should’ve seen this coming. Connolly was absolutely the type of man who would kill his own son after he’d proved his usefulness and was no longer needed. He’d killed his own brother too.

Numbness crashed over me as I stared down at Stride’s lifeless body, the blood which had flowed freely from his wound now a faint trickle as his heart stopped pumping.

Connolly turned to me with the blade still in his hand, dripping with fresh blood. “Let that be a lesson to you,” he snarled, breathing hard. “I could just as easily decide to end your worthless life as I did his. It seems you both forgot who's holding the cards here.”

“I thought I was your big chance at finally claiming all the power you think you deserve,” I spat.

“Please,” he said with a slight chuckle. “As if I couldn't start a new family. As if I couldn't find the rest of my progeny out there. You think a little too highly of yourself.”

“How could you kill him?” Aimes shouted. “You’re his dad! Why would you—”

“Shut up, you useless orphan.” Connolly charged at him, the knife held high.

I threw myself between the two of them with my teeth bared. “Don’t you fucking dare.”

The way my dad hesitated told me all I needed to know. He had no intention of killing me. That was the last thing he wanted to do. He still hoped he could get through to me somehow.

“I will kill him,” he snarled. “I will slit his throat from ear to ear.”

I stared him down, my attention never far from the blade he still held high. “You’ll have to get through me first.” My voice came out eerily calm. I would have no problem killing this man with the blades hidden in my boots if he so much as touched a single hair on Aimes’s head.

“If you do as I say, I’ll spare him.”

I leaned in close so he’d be sure to hear me. “When have I ever followed anyone else’s rules?”

He bared his teeth at my face. “Then say goodbye to your mate.”

With a growl, he swept me aside with surprising strength. I stumbled, then fell to my hands and knees at his feet.

But then.

Then.

I knew Mom and the coven had broken the spell Connolly had placed over the mansion. I heard my wolf’s psycho-bitch growl. She had awakened inside me once again.

And she was furious.

Blinding white light erupted from inside me.

The guards surrounding Aimes gasped in surprise.

Connolly gasped, too, throwing up an arm to shield his eyes and dropping the blade.

A shockwave burst through the room, starting where I knelt and exploding outward. Connolly, the guards, and Aimes flew backward and landed halfway across the ballroom. The barred windows shattered all at once. The floor shook.

Then, silence.

I lifted my head, looking around, pride bubbling in my chest.

Especially when I saw the sweetest sight in the world—my white wolf circling Connolly. Her long fangs glistened in the chandeliers’ lights.

“How is this possible?” he demanded, scrambling backward, his feet and hands sliding over the marble floor. “How?”

The guards hauled Aimes to his feet, but he was no longer cuffed. They dangled from his wrists, the key he’d stolen from one of Brandon’s goons stuck in the lock. His movements fluid and graceful, he punched one guard and then the next. They both plummeted to the ground.

He turned and met my gaze, and the most beautiful smile blossomed over his face.

Two more guards came rushing into the ballroom, pale and wide-eyed.

“Blood suckers!” one of them screamed an instant before he was taken down from behind.

The other guard sprinted away toward us.

The vampire moved with lightning speed, almost tearing the first guard’s head off in his frenzy to sink in his fangs.

It was a terrible sight, but also one I couldn't tear my eyes from.

Ronan soon followed, then Parris, while Cassius drank his fill.

Ronan crooked a finger, smiling at the second guard who backed away, shaking his head.

“No, no!” The guard turned, shifting as he did, and started running for the broken windows like he was going to jump out.

He didn’t get the chance. Ronan landed on the wolf's back, taking him down, laughing the instant before he began to drink deeply.

Connolly’s high-pitched, almost insane laughter rang through the ballroom. “You think this makes a difference? You think you’ve won? You’ve won nothing. Nothing!”

Cassius tossed the dead guard’s body aside then offered a blood-soaked smile. “You talked about a signal,” he reminded me with a laugh. “That was one hell of a signal.”

Anything I might’ve said faded away at the sight of my mom entering the ballroom, followed by her coven.

My heart soared, swelling in my chest. I had never been so happy to see anyone in my life.

Mom gave me one single look full of love and pride before turning to Connolly, who slowly tried to get to his feet while still watching my wolf circle him.

“I would say it's nice to see you again, Connolly, but we both know that isn't true,” she said.

“You,” he said with a laugh. “You hid her well.”

“I did what needed to be done to keep her away from you. And I would do it again. You know, I warned my sister about you.” Mom sounded so sad, heartbreakingly so. Her eyes welled with tears. “That you would hurt her, that you were using her.”

“Who?” he barked. “Harlow?”

“No,” another voice replied. “Me.”

The voice kicked me in the stomach. Familiar, like I’d heard it in a dream. Only this time, it didn't sound so faint.

Mom, Ostera, and Penelope stepped aside to reveal who had been standing behind them.

It was like looking in a mirror. We could have been twins. She was thin, with silver streaks in her blonde hair, but she looked and sounded strong as she faced the man who had ruined her life.

“Mom?” I whispered, because my heart knew.

The last missing puzzle piece of my life clicked into place.

She glanced my way, her mouth lifting at the corners—but briefly, so briefly.

She turned her attention back to Connolly, who stared at her open-mouthed. “No. How is this possible? You were never… It was not—”

“I was never supposed to escape? Yes, I'm sure you're right about that. You did your best, didn't you? Leaving me half-dead, having those pitiful sycophants of yours lock me away in your dungeon all these years. Drugging me. Keeping me dazed, and thus suppressing all location spells.”

In the dungeon… But I’d been in the dungeon and had never once seen her.

“I should have killed you when I had the chance,” Connolly snarled. “One flash of decency in my entire life, and look where it got me.”

“Indeed.” She laughed—a cold sound that somehow warmed me just the same. “But I woke up. I woke up when my daughter found her wolf. I knew it. In my bones, I knew she had awakened to who she is. And then, my coven removed all Moon wolf charms and spells from your home and found me.”

She slowly approached Connolly. “You destroyed my pack,” she growled. “Sent the Moon witches into hiding all these years. You destroyed so many lives, not only those of ones we loved, but countless others. But you have committed your last crimes.”

She turned to me, extending a hand. I went to her without thinking about it, with no conscious will. Something carried me—the connection between us. It had never gone away, even though I spent almost my entire life not knowing she existed.

I placed my hand in hers, and the warmth that sprang up between our clasped palms was like an electric current working its way up my arm, through my body.

“Would you like to do the honors?” she whispered.

Would I? Nothing would give me more pleasure.

I nodded, and her smile beamed with pride. She let me go, stepping aside.

I turned to my wolf, who met my gaze with that psycho-bitch gleam in her eyes.

“Harlow,” Connolly whispered. “I’m your father. This is unnatural.”

“So is asking me to sleep with my half-brother and killing your own son,” I countered, my voice flat. “Everything that's happening to you, you did to yourself.”

With that, I let my wolf do what she was so desperate to do. Kill.

Blood sprayed in violent arcs. Bones snapped. My wolf was ruthless as she bit and tore and maimed.

It didn't take long for Connolly’s shrieks of agony to go silent.