Page 115 of Empowering the Wolf's Heart

I touched Shen’s shoulder, feeling the muscles roiling beneath his fur, readying to pounce.

“His children are behind us. Please…,” I whispered.

Shen turned his head, his eyes meeting mine. There was murderous rage in the depths so profound I had never seen the like. But he slowly nodded. He turned to Rey and Bill, both of whom were hemmed in by the people they’d manipulated. A slow grin teased my lips. Those people wouldn’t let him get away any more than I would. Anna wasn’t the only person they’d manipulated and abused.

Shen curled his tail around my waist as he walked by. His steps were slow and languid, belonging to a hunter who knew his superiority. It was a thing of terrifying beauty to watch.

I nearly stepped forward, but I needed to trust him as he’d trusted me and let him handle this.

As he moved, Rey fell on his butt and crab-walked backwards until he hit the front of his dad’s store.

Shen pulled his lips back, his eyes never leaving his prey, and a low growl rumbled in his chest.

Rey whimpered, curling into a ball at Shen’s feet.

“Daddy!” cried a little voice.

Jess jumped out of Mom’s arms and scrambled around me. She got between Rey and Shen, holding out her little arms with tears racing down her cheeks. “Please, don’t hurt my daddy,” she said. Her tears washed twin white streaks down the dirt on her face.

My heart cried out in pure, screaming pain.

Some people didn’t deserve the love of a child.

And the child didn’t deserve the hate of the parent.

Shen immediately dropped to his stomach with his nose to her feet. He licked her bare feet—we can never keep shoes on those toes—and she giggled in surprise. Shen’s posture morphed from killing intent to puppy in that split second. He gently reached up and licked her cheek. She recoiled from him, and his whimper broke what was left of my heart.

Jess wrapped her arms around her quavering father. I glanced back helplessly as a child loved a manipulative bastard who was still her father.

Was there any hope for their relationship? One could never know, but I hoped someday, somehow, things would change and the sweet little one would have her happily ever after. Hopefully, it would be before she was scarred inside from a father who didn’t know love and couldn’t give it to her.

Dad met my gaze, and in the timelessness and wisdom of his eyes, I saw that he understood. Mom had tears down her cheeks so much like her granddaughter that it caused a spasm of pain in my chest.

Shen turned as if he felt the pain of my soul.

Rey looked at Shen. “Don’t,” Rey hissed. “I know you. I know what you’ve done. You killed him?—”

“Howdareyou!”

I nearly jumped out of my skin at the shout directly beside me. I was so engrossed and honestly shocked beyond measurethat I hadn’t even realized my family had come up beside me. My sister had released a yell so loud I feared my eardrum might have burst.

“You’re a piece of scum. How I didn’t see it until now is beyond me. Are you so very stunted you’d seek a way out regardless if it’s at the cost of another secretItold you?—”

“If you weren’t a harlot, it never would’ve come to this. If you weren’t too sickly to provide, we never would’ve come to this point. No matter how you make me the bad guy in your mind, never forget how all this started: you were a runt born with magic who wanted to fall in love and live a normal life. You never will, because you aren’tnormal.”

While he was speaking, Shen stayed still, but my family was moving. So was my town.

It was time to pull myself together and be the leader this place needed.

Shen darted his eyes at me. They were golden, not red.

“Daddy?” the little girl asked. Her voice was soft, nearly numb except for a little quaver.

“It’s alright, darling. You want Daddy to be ok, right? All these people want to kill Daddy. Will you help me get out of here?”

As the girl nodded her little head, the blood boiling in my chest burst into my extremities.

Never had I known that one could see red. Never had I been so filled with rage it seemed as if the heart in my chest would combust. Never had I seen a man so broken that he first kidnapped his daughter and then asked her tohelphim escape punishment for it.

---