Chapter 60: Couldn’t save her

. I have been searching for you to free you from your tormentor. I came here with Saint because I wanted your father dead, and I needed access to his personal files to locate Jane Doe. I assumed she'd died because there were no new videos. The trail to find you just vanished, and I feared you had been killed in one of his rages. Your story confirms that you are the Jane Doe in which I've been searching. You made him stop. What I need to know is how?"

"I unleashed my rage on him, and he almost murdered me. I re-vealed that I was an alpha, and I called for my wolf to help me. Un-fortunately, we couldn't just murder him. I barely lived through it, and it signed my death warrant. He became aware that I was my mother's daughter, and when she had me, her beast followed me, protecting me. It left her unguarded."

"Fenrir," Leif stated, smirking at me. "You house your god inside of you. You are Fenrir's guard and his keeper. It was never the line that your people followed. They followed the wolf god, who attaches to the soul of the purest of his original bloodline."

"Correct, but Fenrir isn't always with me. He goes to those who need him and those who are lost so that he may lead them here, to his pack. It was at a time when he'd gone that I suffered the worst of my father's abuse. When my daughter is of age, and I have grown too old to protect the pack, he will leave me to go with her. My line is blessed because he is always within it."

"No." Leif chuckled. "Your line is blessed because his blood runs through your veins. Your mother, she was his daughter. Your grand-mother laid with Fenrir, in his true form, the kinky bitch." He smiled as if he imagined it inside his head. "He chose your line because you're his granddaughter, Braelyn. He fell in love with Brenhelda, but Fenrir cannot hold a human form. He is a beast, one that loved a princess who was pure and true of heart. She married her king, know-ing she carried the child of the wolf god within her womb. It was why I allowed your mother to live when I found her leading her pack to the shores of the Barents Sea. She saw me, and she showed no fear as I walked up to her, fully intending to end her life. The look in her pretty Nordic stare gave me pause. She didn't beg or plead for mercy as the others had done. Your mother looked me dead in the eye and told me to do my worst. She was the only one I couldn't kill because I saw Fen-rir within her when she looked into my eyes. I saw him in you, Brae-lyn. When you took the heads of the alpha females, you held your god in your eyes."

"I didn't know that," I admitted, frowning as Leif smirked.

"I'm not sure your mother even knew she held the god. Brenna lost her mother at the age of sixteen when my pack and I slaughtered most of your bloodline. They'd never needed for Fenrir to defend them, and she found peace when she arrived here before the first settlers. I fol-lowed her here, but I never encroached on her territory. Your mother had earned her place and my respect."

"Your father was a monster, and you never told me," Toralei whis-pered.

Shifting my gaze to hers, I smiled tightly. "What could you have done? My father had over fifty alphas within the pack that were in league with him. If the pack had tried to defend me, they'd have slaughtered them. Telling anyone what was happening to me would have placed everyone in danger." I reached over and squeezed Tora's hand reassuringly. "Harold wasn't stupid. He brought in mercenaries, and people like Carlson backed him up. Nobody could save me from the monster that had sired me. If I had told Saint, he would have tried to save me, and he would have died. If I had told you, you'd have tried to make me leave here. Harold would have slaughtered the pack, and that would have been on me.

"I saved myself because I didn't need anyone else to do it, putting themselves in my father's crossfire. I needed to endure until I was strong enough to take the pack by challenging Harold. He knew I was preparing a coup. That is why he gave me to Carlson. I was becoming too strong, and Carlson promised to send my father our firstborn child. Then, some asshole showed up and led a hostile takeover on the day I'd planned to murder Carlson inside our mating tent, as those outside the gates rushed in to fight anyone who stood with my father." I stared at Saint accusingly, and he frowned.

"The men outside the gates were your father's mercenaries. Your father and Carlson were fully aware of the little coup de grâce you had planned. I know because I spent an hour ripping one's ribcage apart until he told me what to expect inside and what he was doing outside the gates when the celebration was about to begin. Your father pre-pared to ship the women and children we found in the field and others from the pack, with Carlson, as your dowry. The men you paid were murdered and left in a pile to be burned at the bottom of the moun-tain," Saint stated, causing my stomach to flip-flop. "Now that every-one knows the story, my mate needs to eat and rest. If you have ques-tions, or anything else, we will deal with it tomorrow."

"Make sure you take your prenatal vitamins and drink some juice.

You need juice because you look peckish. Don't forget the vitamin D and B. Oh, and I'll see about getting apples," Toralei stated, rushing her words out as Saint smirked.

"Yes, mother," I said teasingly, placing my hand on my belly. Tora smiled, moving closer to speak low.