Page 15 of Drowned By the Dreadnought

“They were arguing the night before your father killed my parents. I heard them from down the hall, so I took you to market with me instead of dropping you off at home.”

I shake my head and fight back useless tears as my father’s cruel words ring through my mind.

“No, I clung to your sleeve and begged you to take me with you. I didn’t shed any tears, but I batted my lashes until you caved. That’s one reason my father said you didn’t want me anymore, because I was too clingy and needy and—”

Russt sets the glass down on the table a little too hard and cups my face. The turmoil and sincerity in his expression drop the bottom out of my stomach.

“I’m so fucking sorry I said that to you, Morwenna. I was blinded by rage. An unfounded rage. A rage built by your father.” His fingers tremble against my face as he swallows and pulls me closer. The world fades away. Nothing matters beyond the alpha who holds me as though he’ll fly apart if he lets go. “He lied, little mouse. I never thought you were anything but cute and precious when you showed me your needy side, and I sure as hell never said I didn’t want you anymore,” he says as he brushes his thumb over my cheek.

I want to believe him more than my next breath, and with my defenses shattered, I can’t hide behind my anger anymore.

“Then why did you leave me?”

He brushes his thumb along my chin in a gentle, intimate caress. The regret shining from his eyes heals me more than I care to admit.

“I wish I hadn’t. If I’d known your mother wasn’t there to protect you anymore, I never would have run away. Even as heartbroken and angry as I was, I would have come for you. I would have fought your father again, even if it meant my death and even if you didn’t want me anymore.”

He moves his thumb to my cheek and catches the first tear as it slips from my lashes. Heat rushes up from my toes and leaves an incessant ache in my organs.

I swallow the lump in my throat and close my eyes, dredging up every ounce of my courage to voice questions I don’t want to ask.

“Why would my father do that, Russt? Why would he kill your parents, murder my mom, lie to us, and abuse me for years?”

Warmth chases away the chill in my bones as he offers me a deep, soothing purr.

“He made me believe he attacked us because I let you get hurt at the market, but now I think it was because he felt threatened by me.”

I take a shuddering breath and tilt my face into his hand.

“That makes sense,” I say through a throat hoarse from abuse and thick with emotions. “You were only thirteen, but you fought off three fully grown beta males who were hardcore tweaking. It’s a miracle we came home at all, much less with only cuts and bruises.”

Those moments where I witnessed true violence for the first time in my life meld into the years of abuse from my father. They feel like a lifetime ago.

“In that aspect, it is my fault. Your mother tried to warn me, but I misunderstood.”

“What do you mean?”

“I think she knew your father had been wary of me for a while.”

Nausea grips me as I recall the tension between Russt and my father. My juvenile heart had always insisted it was because they each wanted what was best for me, not because my father was plotting to kill my suitor.

“And I’m certain she also knew I wasn’t the only one he had his eyes on,” he says.

“What do you mean?”

“I heard your mother scream my mother’s name while they were fighting the day before.”

Horror spears through me as the pieces fall into place.

“Did he… when you found him standing over your mom, had he…”

I can’t speak through the disgust clogging my throat.

He shakes his head and kneads my scalp as he answers.

“I don’t think so. She fought back.”

I push my hand through the front of the towels and grab his wrist as I recall the last time I saw my mother. “My mom sensed it through the mate bond. I thought she rushed away because she felt my father in danger, but her expression… she was furious, not scared.”

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