Chapter 192 Going back home
Chapter 192: going back home
milo pov
"I can see it in your eyes."She said with a wry smile.
"You destroyed my life."
"I saved your life. And his." She looked out the window at the passing forest. "If I hadn't intervened, your newly awakened powers would override you, and you would have no choice than to fulfil your responsibilities. The power surge would have triggered the prophecy immediately. Damon would be dead now."
"You don't know that."
"Don't I?" She turned those pale violet eyes on me.
I know a lot of things that your mind couldn't comprehend. Our grandmother and her mate. Both were true alphas, she had no choice than to answer her calling, both were dead within a day of her bloodline awakened. The mountain still bears the scars of their battle."
I touched my stomach, where our child grew. "And the baby?"
"Insurance." She smiled. "A child of two such powerful bloodlines will be extraordinary. If raised properly, they could unite all packs under one rule."
"Your rule."
"Our rule, brother. Despite everything, you are still family. You are still a royal blood."
"I rejected that life, I rejected you."
"And look where it got you." Her voice hardened. "Mated to a man you will destroy, carrying a child who will never know their father, trapped by a prophecy you can't escape."
"There has to be another way."
"There is." She leaned forward. "Complete submission. Damon surrenders his alpha power to me, becomes ordinary, lives as my subject. You both survive, raise your child in safety, and grow old together."
"He would never agree to that."
"Yes," she agreed. "He would rather die fighting. Which is why you are going to convince him otherwise."
"What!... no, i won't."
"You will." She touched the amulet at my chest, and it burned with cold fire. "Because the alternative is watching him die in agony as the prophecy tears him apart. And we both know you're too weak to let that happen."
She was right. I was weak, weak enough to love him, weak enough to want our child, weak enough to hope for a future I knew couldn't exist.
"Why?" I asked finally. "Why all this manipulation? Why not just kill us both and be done with it?"
"Because you are my brother," she said simply. "And despite what you think, I do love you. This is me trying to save you from yourself."
"This is you trying to control everything."
"Is there a difference?" She smiled. "Father always said power was a burden. He was wrong. Power is a weapon. And love? Love is the greatest weakness of all."
The transport stopped, and I looked out of the window,
My jaw dropped.
The pack I have grown up in all through my life, never looked the same. The Northern Palace rose before us like a massive structure of ice and stone that seemed to grow from the mountain itself. The haggard looking huts scattered around, were no longer there, in place, were tall renovated structures that formed a L shape in the middle of the pack square. This was my childhood home, or rather my supposed home.
"Welcome home, Prince Mikhail," Millen said formally.
I forced the scoff from coming out. The pack that was laid out in front of me, didn't look like home.
"Your rooms have been prepared. Your introduction ceremony is tomorrow."
"Introduction ceremony?"
"The pack needs to know their lost prince has returned." She stood as guards opened the door. "And Damon needs to know exactly who he mated with. The omega he thought he saved was actually the weapon meant to destroy him."
Her words continued to echo inside my head, as they escorted me inside, I felt the bond with Damon stretching thinner and thinner. But not breaking. Never breaking. Like a flickering candle that refused to go off no matter what.
Wherever he was, he was still hoping, he was still fighting for our love, our bond and for our baby.
Millen was waiting for me at the entrance.
Millen was waiting for me at the entrance when two figures emerged from the grand doorway. As if they couldn't bear to wait any longer.
I stopped breathing.
My parents.
I have seen them in the photographs Millen had shown me on our way, but seeing them in person was different. My father was average, he looked pale, and more famished than I remembered. I almost didn't recognise the man that had stared back at me as I was tired and bundled away from home to a foreign land. My mother, the luna of my father's pack, stood behind her husband, trembling hand clasped on her chest. She had a look of surprise, her sunken face lit up as she set her eyes on me.
"Mikhail." My mother's voice broke, and she rushed forward, pulling me into an embrace before I could dodge her advance. She smelled of laundry and detergents. "My baby. My sweet boy. You have come home."
I stood frozen, unsure how to respond. Part of me wanted to melt into her arms, to accept the comfort of a mother I'd never known. But the larger part remembered that particular night like it was just yesterday. The same woman had watched her only son being taken and she couldn’t do anything. I remembered the lies, remembered that these people had let me grow up thinking I was nothing.
"Let the boy breathe, Sera," my father said, but his voice was warm, almost gentle. He raised his hands, but at the last moment, it fell at his sides. "Welcome home, son. We have waited eighteen years for this moment."
"Have you?" The words came out bitter. "You waited all this while, after you didn't hesitate to give me away, like trash, you made me.think i was."
My mother's face crumpled. "We had no choice. The prophecy… Your father owed the monster…"
“You call him a monster? But that same monster is the man that has shown me that I can still be what I want to be. He gave me life that you failed at, he made me realise that I was still a human being…” my voice rose, same with my anger, “that same monster is my mate.”
“Mikhail…”
“My name is Milo, mother,” I corrected her, while glaring at them.
“My boy,” my father finally spoke, “you are right, we did everything you talked about, and even more, but know that you did it for your pack, it was a needed sacrifice”
“Sacrifice?” I repeated, not believing what I was hearing.
“No, Mik…milo, what your father is trying to say is that…”
“Is okay, I don't want to hear it.” I suddenly felt so tired. I turned to my sister who had been standing silently all this while, her face carefully masked from any emotion, but I can see she was enjoying the whole show.
“Where is my room?”
“ boy, you should be proud that your sacrifice was what our pack needed to rise, look at your sister, she is leading the council now, she has accepted her fate. I did what I had to do. The prophecy…”
"Always the prophecy," I spat. "Everyone keeps talking about this prophecy like it's some kind of gospel truth. What if I don't want any part of it?"
"Then you condemn everyone you love to death," my father said bluntly. "The prophecy isn't a suggestion, Mikhail. It's a certainty. You can either embrace your destiny or watch it destroy everything in its path."
"Please dear," my mother chided softly. She cupped my face in her hands, I fought the urge to growl at her. "You must be exhausted. And hungry. Come, we have prepared a feast in your honor."
"I'm not hungry."
"The baby is," Millen interjected smoothly. "And whether you want to admit it or not, you need to keep your strength up."
My parents exchanged a glance.
"Baby?" my mother whispered, and her eyes lit up with something that looked almost like greed. "Omg, You are carrying?"
I instinctively placed a hand over my stomach, as to protect it from danger. "It's none of your concern."
"None of our…nonsense" My father laughed, but there was no humor in it. "You carry the heir to two of the most powerful bloodlines in existence, and you think it's none of our concern? This changes everything."
I felt nauseous at their behaviour.
"The child will need protection," my mother said, already moving closer. "Proper care. Royal physicians. We have healers here who specialize in high-risk pregnancies of power."
"I said it's none of your concern," I repeated, backing away. "This is my child. Mine and Damon's."
The temperature in the room seemed to drop at the mention of his name. Nobody spoke for a minute or two. My parents exchanged looks with Millen, before my father stepped forward, his smile looking as creepy as his sudden friendliness. His hostility was nowhere to be found.
“You just came back from a long journey son, you need to rest.”
Before I could reply, Millen stepped forward, placing a hand on my shoulder that was meant to be comforting but felt more like a shackle. "Come. Let's get you settled. Tomorrow will be a long day."
Everything suddenly felt wrong, and twisted, but I couldn't place a hand at it. I hesitated, feeling the bond pulse weakly for the hundredth time
“Are you rethinking our agreements? Do you want your baby to know his father is a murderer ” her eyes trained on me, suspiciously, as if she could feel the bond calling for me.
“Noo!” I said, with conviction, And in that moment, I shattered it myself, completing the betrayal that would save his life and destroy his heart.
The amulet pulsed against my chest, and for a moment, I thought I heard Damon's voice calling my name. But it was just the wind, howling through the mountain passes like a wounded wolf