\[Denali’s POV\]
I swallow hard while I’m led down a long hall that is lined with metal doors. This was the place where the worst criminals to be arrested were kept so that they couldn’t attempt to escape, and at the very end of this hall was where my father was being kept.
With each step, my heart kicks up in speed, even though I know that there is no way he could hurt me. I guess all those years of abuse and suffering were still rooted deep within me, and anytime I laid eyes on the man, I expected to go back to that time.
“We’re here, Luna,” Jeffery, the one responsible for guarding these criminals, announces. “Are you sure you want to go in?”
“Yeah,” I respond, taking a calming breath. “Thank you for your concern.”
Nodding, Jeffery digs in his pocket and pulls out a keycard, then presses it against the lock on my father’s door.
Stepping back, he waits as the metal slides to the side, revealing bars, and once those bars begin to lift, my father’s head lifts and his dark gaze comes to rest on me.
“What a surprise!” he chuckles, his voice dripping with venom. “My daughter has finally decided to grace me with her presence.”
Shivering, I try to fight the fear that I’m feeling.
It’ll be okay. The small voice in the back of my head assures me as my flight or fight instincts kick in. You aren’t the same person as back then.
Right. I wasn’t that woman. I remind myself again, straightening my back and pushing away the memories of my encounter with my father after finding my mother’s will. Never in my life did I see him act so cold and ruthless. If Rosco wasn’t with me at that time, then...
Stop it, Denali. I hiss inwardly. That’s in the past, and in the end, he got what he deserved, that was what mattered the most.
“Wolf got your tongue?” My father continues now, narrowing his gaze. “Even now, you’re nothing but...”
“Shut up,” I hiss, moving forward. “I didn’t come here to listen to your insults.”
“Oh?” He asks, seeming amused. “Did you come to gloat about managing to take everything from me?”
Opening my mouth, I prepare to argue his words. If anyone took everything from someone, it was him taking everything from my mother. Did he ever truly love her back then, or did he marry her so that he could take her pack?
Those were questions for another time. Right now, the thing I needed to focus on was asking about the curse.
“I came to ask you a few questions.” I say, stopping inches away from him.
“Questions,” he repeats. “And what makes you so sure that I’ll answer them?”
“I’m not sure you will.” I admit. “However, I can make you speak if you don’t wish to.”
Although I hadn’t used the great alpha command since our battle with Alexander, I was sure that I could invoke it if I wanted. This was the main reason I couldn’t bring Rosco with me to do this. I knew if he was here, he would absolutely make me stop due to the damage my body took from the command.
Even now, we aren’t sure if what happened after was from the command or from the poison that was in my system at the time. In Rosco’s eyes, it was from the command, and that was why he didn’t allow me to test it when I was cured of the poison.
“Do you think that you are all powerful simply because you are mated and married to the great Rosco Torres? The both of you are twenty years too young to…”
“Shut up!” I repeat, letting the command erupt from my body.
Instantly, my father’s eyes widen with shock, and hatred flashes in them.
“You!” He growls, attempting to lunge at me, only to be stopped by the silver chains attached to him. “Bitch! How? How can you possibly...”
“Mom had some secrets.” I shrug, knowing this command came from her. I guess she and my father truly weren’t that close if she never let him in on this power. “I guess both of you weren’t as close as I originally thought.”
I don’t know why, but this realization leaves me both relieved and sad. It was just another way my mother suffered in the last years of her life.
“Now,” I continue when my father continues glaring at me. “I’m going to ask you a few questions. The first is, does your side of the family have some sort of curse on it?”
I could only hope that if it was due to my lineage that Serenity was cursed, my father knew something about it. If he didn't, then I was in trouble because I would have to track down members of my mother's side.
“Curse,” my father says, his expression growing blank. “I don’t…”
“Does your family have a curse?” I repeat, letting the command erupt from me.
Immediately, I feel fiery pain race through me as my mouth fills with blood. Shit. I couldn’t let my father know what the command did to me.
Swallowing down the blood, I wait as he fights the command.
“Your mothers.” He finally huffs, his eyes filled with rage. “It’s from her side.”
Dammit, this was the worst-case scenario.
“What do you know about it?” I ask, hoping that if he knew about it, he would know how to get rid of it. “Is there a way to cancel the curse?”
As the words leave my lips, my father clamps his mouth shut, clearly not wanting to help me.
“Tell me!” I growl, surging forward and grabbing his collar.
“You really have grown stronger, my daughter.” He murmurs, fixing his dark gaze with mine. “But will you be strong enough to stop the inevitable?”
“Tell me how to cancel it!” I roar, letting the alpha command explode from me. “What the hell can I do to stop it?”
“Nothing!” He cackles. “Once it is in motion, it is too late to stop!”
At his words, I begin to reel as the fear I was working so hard to keep in check starts to trickle up. No. This couldn’t be possible. There had to be a way to stop the curse! I wouldn’t accept that my child would have to suffer because of something that was completely out of our hands. There had to be a way, and I would gladly die if it meant finding it.
“Why is there a curse?” I demand, swallowing down the blood that wants to escape me and ignoring the pain that is building. “What did my mother tell you about it? Why is it there, and who cast it?”
“I don’t know!” He continues to laugh. “Your mother never trusted me enough to tell me.”
“Liar!” I snarl, hitting him with all that I have.
“DENALI!”
Gasping, I whirl around and watch as Rosco comes rushing toward me with a look of fear on his face, but before I can hear what he says next, the world disappears.