Chapter 87 no longer control me
The word settled over me like an iron brand.
A Warden.
It felt foreign, yet something inside me recoiled as if it had always known. As if my body had been waiting to hear it.
Lena sucked in a sharp breath beside me. Even Logan, who had been ready to tear my throat out minutes ago, looked momentarily stunned. The warriors shifted uneasily, glancing between each other as if they weren’t sure whether to attack or run.
I clenched my fists, the fire flickering wildly in response to my turbulent emotions. “You knew,” I said, voice sharp with betrayal. “You knew, and you still tried to kill me?”
My father’s gaze remained steady, cold as steel. “It was necessary.”
The flames at my fingertips surged higher. “Necessary?”
He took a step forward, unfazed by the heat scorching the air between us. “You don’t understand what you are, Elias. What you will become.”
“Then why don’t you enlighten me?” I growled.
A flicker of something—hesitation, regret, or maybe just calculation—crossed his face. But it was gone before I could grasp it.
“You are dangerous,” he said. “A Warden should not exist in this world. Not anymore.”
Lena stepped closer to me, her presence grounding, but she didn’t speak. Not yet. She was waiting—for me, for my reaction, for the moment everything would explode.
I exhaled, forcing myself to stay in control. My father was testing me, watching to see if I would break. If I would prove him right.
I wouldn’t give him that satisfaction.
“So that’s why you tried to have me executed?” My voice was quieter now, but no less dangerous. “Because of something I had no control over?”
His jaw tightened. “Because if I hadn’t, others would have. And they would not have been merciful.”
I laughed—a sharp, humorless sound. “Merciful?” My hands burned as I took another step forward, until I was only a few feet away from him. “Is that what you call what you did? Leaving me to die in the dirt like a wounded animal?”
His expression didn’t change, but there was something else there now. Something unreadable. “I did what I had to do.”
“No,” I said coldly. “You did what was easiest.”
Silence stretched between us, thick with everything unsaid.
And then my father sighed, his shoulders shifting as if he carried a great weight. “You shouldn’t have come back, Elias.”
I held his gaze, unwavering. “And yet, here I am.”
For the first time since stepping onto the porch, he hesitated. Just for a second. But I saw it.
That was all I needed.
“Now tell me,” I said, voice steady, “what is a Warden?”
A muscle in his jaw ticked. For a moment, I thought he wouldn’t answer.
Then, finally, he spoke.
“A Warden,” he said, “is the last line of defense between this world and the things that should never be unleashed.” His silver eyes darkened. “And you, Elias, were born to be a weapon.”
The fire in my veins roared.
I had spent my whole life trying to understand why I was different. Why I had never truly belonged.
And now, I had my answer.
I wasn’t just a wolf.
I was something else.
Something more.
And if my father thought I would let him control me now?
He had no idea what I was capable of.
The fire inside me pulsed, responding to the storm raging in my chest. A weapon. That’s what I was to him. Not his son. Not even a person. Just something to be used or destroyed.
I took a slow breath, forcing myself to steady the rage burning beneath my skin. “And what exactly does this weapon do?”
My father studied me, his silver eyes unreadable. “It destroys the things that should never exist.”
A bitter laugh escaped me. “Funny. That sounds a lot like what you tried to do to me.”
His expression didn’t change, but I caught the flicker of something—something almost like regret. Almost.
“You weren’t supposed to survive.”
There it was. The truth laid bare.
Lena stiffened beside me, and I could feel her eyes flicking between us, gauging the tension. Logan hadn’t moved, but his hands were clenched into fists at his sides, his golden eyes narrowed. The warriors surrounding us weren’t sure if they should still be treating me as an enemy or something else entirely.
Good. Let them be afraid.
I took another step forward. “Well, I did.” My voice was quiet but sharp. “And I’m still standing.”
For the first time, something shifted in my father’s gaze. The weight of his authority, his control, pressed against the air between us. “You don’t understand what that means.”
“Then explain it to me.”
Silence.
I saw the hesitation in the way his jaw tightened, the way his fingers flexed like he was debating whether to tell me the truth or bury it beneath more half-answers.
Then, finally—
“You are the last of your kind,” he said. “A bloodline that should have died out generations ago. The Wardens were meant to guard the boundaries between our world and the things that should never cross it.” His gaze darkened. “But power like that always comes with a cost.”
Something cold slithered down my spine.
“What cost?”
My father’s lips pressed into a thin line. “The Wardens weren’t just protectors, Elias. They were executioners. They were created to hunt the things that could not be controlled.” His eyes locked onto mine. “And they were never meant to live long enough to question their purpose.”
A strange, twisting feeling settled in my gut. “You’re saying I was born to die.”
He didn’t deny it.
The flames at my fingertips flickered, responding to the surge of emotions clawing at my chest. Anger. Confusion. A sharp, aching betrayal that I had no right to feel—not after everything he had already done.
Lena shifted beside me. “Then why did they stop existing?”
My father exhaled, like he was bracing himself. “Because they turned against the ones who created them.”
The words hit me like a blow.
Lena’s breath caught. Even Logan looked caught off guard.
But I—
I just stared at him. At the man who had condemned me to death, who had tried to erase me like I was nothing.
And I finally understood.
“You were afraid,” I said softly.
A flicker of something—annoyance, maybe even guilt—crossed his face.
“You knew what I would become,” I continued. “You knew that if I lived long enough, I would realize what I was capable of. And that scared you.”
My father’s eyes darkened. “Fear has nothing to do with it. This is about control.”
I bared my teeth in something that wasn’t quite a smile. “Then that’s your mistake.”
The fire surged around me, a living force of heat and power, unchained and untamed.
“Because you don’t control me anymore.”