Page 90 of Secrets and Ruin

“Father, what is he talking about?” Niko asked, breaking my stare.

“We met!” Dirk told everyone, pointing between him and Hasan. “Years ago, when you went off to deal with something and he was visiting. I found him and bothered him. I was a stupid kid—”

“You still are,” Hasan snapped. “Stop wagging your tongue before I remove it.”

“You want me dead right now, admit it,” Dirk retorted.

Landon did nothing, made no move, only standing there, giving Dirk silent support.

Hasan made a choice at that moment, and it was simply to give no response.

That was the only response anyone needed.

Zuri pushed to her feet, knocking their table around, drinks spilling, and glasses rolling off to the floor. Amir made a sound as though he was about to cry, only to be quickly comforted by Aisha. Jabari stopped Zuri from storming toward her father, keeping her on our side of the room.

He stopped his sister, but he couldn’t stop me. I was walking, the rumble in my chest growing as I stopped in the middle of the room.

“You’re a monster,” I accused. “You condemned that young man before he even understood what you were doing, and you made him the guilty party in it.”

“Unless you want to admit to telling werewolves something they shouldn’t know, you should mind your tongue as well,” Hasan warned, taking slow steps to the center. When he stopped, we were ten feet apart, glaring at each other.

“Well, I never needed to tell Dirk, did I? You did that all on your fucking own when you told him he would never be able to join this family. Maybe you should have watched yours.”

“That’s evil, Father,” Zuri snarled. “Even foryou.”

“It’s my information to do with as I will,” he countered. “And if the people who know can’t be trusted, they need to be handled.”

“If you want Dirk, you better be ready to kill me,” I hissed.

“What of you, wolf, Landon Everson, second son? Will you put yourself in the line of fire to save Dirk?”

“Absolutely. My mate matters more than you,” Landon said. “He mattered more yesterday, he matters more today, and he will continue to matter more than you tomorrow.”

“You seem to be very confident in his worth,” Hasan said, tilting his head to the side.

“Bigots aren’t worth much, so it’s not like he needs to clear a very high bar when it comes to being better than you,” Landon explained as if he were reading it from a dry textbook. His tone only made the context much more impactful.

“Bigot?” Hasan’s gold eyes narrowed.

Hasan had just opened a can of worms he didn’t want to have. I stood there, the wall between him and my werewolves, letting Landon finally say his piece.

“Bigot. Do you need a definition? I’ll teach it to you while explaining why you are one. You are unreasonably attached to the belief that werewolves are your enemy and beneath you, and therefore, you go out of your way to be prejudiced against or antagonistic toward anyone who happens to be a werewolf, whether or not that werewolf has done anything to you.” Landon snorted when no one immediately said anything. “What? Did I say something none of you knew? Is this new information? Surprising, though maybe it’s not. I have a lot of experience with bigots. I’ve met more than my fair share, so I guess they’re easier for me to identify—”

“Your father isn’t here to back you up, boy,” Mischa hissed.

“I know,” Landon growled, sounding all too pleased. “Which means he isn’t here to remind me to be polite. Do you know what your father reminds me of? He’s every parent who has kicked their gay kid out of the house. He’s every racist I’ve ever met. He’s every bit the piece of scum my mother died fighting against, and they weren’t fucking werecats. They were just shittyhumans, and he’s no better than the lot of them. Crack open a fucking history book, bitch, and find out who your fatherreallyis.”

Mischa lunged off the couch fast and hard enough to send it sliding ten feet across the floor, but she didn’t reach my werewolves. Zuri blocked her path and shoved her back. There was nothing said as they glared at each other, but I knew the sides. Mischa was defending the honor of her father. Zuri was forcing all of us to hear the painful truth.

“Did that hurt to hear, Hasan?” I asked, turning my gaze back to him. “Was it difficult?”

“You are my daughter, and you will distance yourself from the werewolves immediately. You can return to your territory when they have left. I won’t take any action against Dirk as long as I can verify he has told no one—”

“I told Landon,” I said, facing that now before it could come out later. “Because your secret was keeping them from being happy together. That’s how insidious and awful you can be, and you refuse to even see it. You said something to a child and destroyed everything Niko was trying to build with him. He distanced himself from his father and turned his back on trying to grow close to the family. It took me years to begin unraveling that damage, and I didn’t even know what the cause was until the night Dirk became a werewolf. And through it all, after destroying his chance to be a part of this family, you were still standing in the way of him finding one who truly loved him.

“You won’t even apologize for it, will you? You won’t take any responsibility, will you? All you care for is your fucking secrets, yet you are here with one goal this morning…berating Niko for keeping his own! We haven’t even gotten tothatyet!”

“He—”

---