Chapter Sixteen
“Oh, this just keeps getting better.” I did nothing to hide my exasperation. “When were you planning on mentioning this, and why the hell would your daughter be on a murderous rampage? What did you do to her?”
My words ended on a squeak. Instinctively, my hands balled into white-knuckled fists. Adrenaline blazed through my veins, and I forced myself to breathe deep and calm.
“Oh, that is so typical.” He fixed me with his black stare, but instead of vehement, he was only weary. “You immediately assume it’s my fault that somebody else chose to take lives? I’m not pulling the strings here, Alexa. I didn’t think your feminist side went so far as to condone murder.”
He was right. I was out of line. “Hey, I am not a feminist. I’m an equal.” I took an awkward step back but didn’t apologize. “You’re right though. I shouldn’t automatically accuse you, so keep talking.”
With a half-hearted shrug, he said, “I met her mother more than twenty years ago. She was the first of only two women that I truly loved. I’d just turned twenty-one. She was a few years younger, and though I knew I should stay away from her, I just couldn’t resist.” He smiled then, but it lacked his usual arrogance and sarcasm.
“Her name was Naomi,” he continued. The love in his eyes shocked me. “She sparkled with such life. I’d only been a werewolf for two years and was still struggling to come to terms with my wolf, but it was worth learning to have her in my life.”
A long heavy sigh escaped him. He sounded so defeated, and I reminded myself that I had no reason to feel sorry for him. Not yet.
“So what happened?” I asked with feigned casualness.
His eyes roamed around the small room, and I could feel his blood pressure increase. “She actually fell in love with me. We dreamed of having a picket fence life and living happily ever after.” He laughed bitterly and wiped the corner of one eye. “I was an idiot to think I could have that.”
“She didn’t know, did she?” I could see where this was going.
“No. She told me she was pregnant, so I had to tell her. I was so goddamned scared.”
I would have been too. Weres are generally sterile. However, rare fecundity led to offspring like Jez, a natural full-blooded Were, and hybrids, a wolf and human combination. Neither is common by any means.
I sat as Raoul paced the office. I perched on the arm of the couch and followed his movements with my gaze. “So, you told her.”
“And, she hated me. She screamed and cried. She thought I was crazy until I showed her.” His voice grew thick with unshed tears. “Then, she simply feared me. Her pregnancy was full of complications. Zoey was a parasite that tried to consume her. Still, Naomi refused to see me. She finally called me during labor, when she realized that it was killing her.”
Raoul stopped pacing with his back to me. I said nothing, as his heart-rending pain reached me. My heart ached for him, but I didn’t let his emotions influence my reactions.
He took one long shuddery breath. “By the time I reached her, she was barely hanging on. She begged me to take care of Zoey, no matter what, and I swore that I would.”
When he turned to me again, unshed tears glittered in his ebony eyes like diamonds. I couldn’t imagine how hard it was for him to face me like that.
“I failed her, Alexa. God help me, I thought I was doing the right thing for her at the time.”
“Tell me what you did with her, Raoul.” He trembled. How many had he told this secret to?
The need to comfort him won out. I went to him, bridged the distance between us, and reached out to grasp his large hand. It was warm and slightly damp. I leaned in, just enough to rub my face gently alongside his. I nuzzled him with a teenage affection that wouldn’t die after all these years.
He surprised me by grabbing me in a big hug that pulled me off balance. The scent of shampoo, cologne and musky wolf filled my nostrils, and the sudden desire to run on four feet struck me.
“I went to an older wolf that I trusted for help,” he continued in a sudden rush. “I didn’t know how I’d manage to work and raise a baby while being a damn shifter. I was overwhelmed. I didn’t know what to do.”
When I pulled back gently, he allowed me to disengage myself from his grasp. I was afraid to speak, afraid he would stop sharing.
“She helped me locate a tight-knit pack down south that was willing to care for her while teaching her about her mixed blood. They had women to nurture her in ways that I never could. But now, it seems like a mistake.”
It didn’t sound like a bad choice to me considering his options at the time. But, I wasn’t Zoey, and she obviously felt betrayed. The girl was on a damn rampage.