I nodded, telling him it was okay.
“You’re welcome.” Winter smiled sadly. “A friend of Sadie’s is a friend of mine.”
Titan appeared from the tree line with a large frown on his face. He joined us on the back porch and looked at his mate. “Maybe I should stay out here with you.”
“No, go on to the library.” Winter straightened her shoulders, leaving no room for argument. “I’ll let you know if I need you.”
Egan opened the back door into the kitchen. “Cassius and Dawn have been combing through the library for a way to defeat the fae and found a few books they want to go over with us. It’s like the answer is in code.”
“You know those fae are tricky sons of bitches.” Titan stepped into the house and shut the door, leaving me and Winter alone.
We stared toward the woods, not knowing how to begin. If she was my mother, wouldn’t this be natural?
She inhaled sharply. “First off, I just want to say it means the world to me to find out—”
“Just stop.” I didn’t want to hear how she was happy or how she hoped we could make up for lost time. I wasn’t interested in any of that. “I want to know who my father is. Does he know about me?” He was probably another deadbeat dad who didn’t want to protect his daughter.
“No, he didn’t know about you.” Winter’s voice softened with regret.
“Didn’t?” That sounded so final. “Is he dead?” That would be my luck.
“Yes, he is.”
Winter reached out to touch me, but I stepped back and countered the movement, letting her hand fall. I wasn’t trying to be a heartless bitch, but I had my own emotions to deal with. “He never knew about me? You left and didn’t tell him?”
“No, no.” Winter lifted a hand. “Just give me a second to explain.”
I nodded and didn’t say anything else, hoping to encourage her to continue.
“I grew up in Tyler’s pack.” She paused and huffed. “Well, his father’s pack at the time. I was one of the strongest females they’d ever had, which made Tyler want me. Obviously, the two of us together would make an even stronger heir.”
“Okay.”
“You see, they didn’t give me an option.” She stepped back and leaned against the brick wall. “I was informed at fourteen that I’d been promised. Even if I found my fated mate, it wouldn’t matter. I was to sacrifice everything for my pack.”
“Even a fated mate?” Fated mates trumped everything, but I could see Tyler thinking he was above that.
“Yes, and I had to agree.” Mom shivered. “They threatened my parents.”
I bet they had. What Tyler wanted, Tyler got. He didn’t care who he had to screw over. “How did the fae get involved?”
“I told them I had to go off to college.” Winter ran a hand through her hair and sighed. “That was my condition if I had to give up a fated mate. They agreed. It was a local community college, but a fae also attended there. We had some classes together and started dating.”
“Even though you were promised?” That had obviously been a terrible idea. “And I thought fae were forbidden to date outside their race.”
“We’d never been attracted to someone before, and we were each promised to someone we didn’t want.” Mom placed a hand on her chest at the memory. “It was only meant to be a friendship, and it turned into so much more.”
“And I’m assuming Dad found out?” I grimaced at calling him dad. It felt wrong to call Tyler that when we were talking about my actual father.
“Tyler did.” She nodded, ignoring my mistake. “It was right after Rook and I had sex. He found us at Rook’s temporary apartment.”
Gross. I got that sex had been required to make me, but I still didn’t want to visualize that with her.
“He brought a special knife and five other pack members.” Winter sniffled as she stared off, lost in memories. “They burst through the doors. Luckily, we were in the kitchen, getting something to eat. Tyler grabbed me and put a knife to my throat. He made Rook stand down to save me. Then a pack member took the knife and stabbed Rook in the heart. He died right in front of me.”
I couldn’t even fathom someone killing another person like that. It seemed so cold. Rook hadn’t deserved that. Out of everyone, he’d been the most innocent, but it proved that Dad had been a narcissistic asshole even back then. “What happened after that?” I needed to hear it even if I knew how the rest happened.
“Tyler forced me back to the pack.” Winter wrapped her arms around herself. “He threatened my family, so we consummated the promise that night, and a few weeks later, I found out I was pregnant with you.”
And here was the question I really wanted to know the answer to. “Does he know?”
“No, Tyler thinks you’re his.” Winter met my eyes once more. “The alternative never crossed his mind even with your rose-gold hair. He would’ve thrown it in my face otherwise. And had he figured it out, you wouldn’t be standing here. He wouldn’t have allowed you to live.”
I’d hoped for that answer, but it left me cold. There was still one thing I really needed to know, and I hoped she’d answer me the way I needed her to.
Chapter Twelve
I turned to face Winter, wanting to see her reaction. “How could you leave without confirming I was really dead?” The whole believing the maid that I was dead was a little too far-fetched.
She pursed her lips and fidgeted. “You have to understand.” She pushed off the wall and stepped closer to me. “I was young.”
“That excuse doesn’t work.” Blaming youth was a cop-out. Maybe she hadn’t made the best decisions, but she would have to face the consequences with me. “I want to know why.”
“Okay.” She nodded. “I was eighteen …”
“Again, that excuse won’t work with me.” Maybe I was being rude, but I didn’t give a flying fuck. Her age was irrelevant. I deserved to know the whole truth and not the story she told herself to sleep better at night. “I need the facts outside of your age. I realize how young you were. No reminder needed.”
“Fine.” She huffed and met my gaze. “Then, let me explain how I was forced into a relationship with a man I hated and who killed my first love right in front of me. We were supposed to be mated weeks after Rook had died, but when he found out I was pregnant, I got him to put it off. I pretended to have severe morning sickness.”
Great, so she had used me to her advantage even before I was born. “And he couldn’t tell you weren’t sick?” There was a foulness to the air when someone was actually ill. It was something a wolf could call bullshit on.
“I was sick, so it wasn’t a lie, but it wasn’t because of you.” She shivered. “It was guilt, and I was mourning Rook, but if Tyler had known it was related to that, the mating ceremony wouldn’t have been postponed.”
“You were safe while pregnant with me.” It made sense, kind of. “That doesn’t seem like something Dad would do, though. He’s not known for his caring spirit.”
“I told him I might get nauseous and puke during the ceremony.” Winter snorted, the corners of her mouth tilting upward. “You know the type of people who would have shown up at that ceremony.”
“The top elites of the supernatural races.” He’d want to gloat that he was mating a strong female wolf he could control. It would have strengthened his family’s status. “So, puking would be frowned upon.”
“Exactly.” She rubbed her belly as if she were living in the past. “It was pushed to two weeks after your due date.”
“Not right after?” I figured he’d be gunning for it as soon as I’d popped out.
“I had to have time to slim back down to my pre-pregnancy form,” she said bitterly. “He couldn’t have a cow in a wedding dress.”
“That sounds like a direct quote.” Dad had a way with words.
“Oh, it is.” She dropped her hands to her sides and faced me again. “But there was more anxiety than from those reasons. You see, I felt something strange while pregnant with you.”