Page 44 of Reign of the Beast

“Yeah.”

“And, how do you plan to overcome the seething hatred that you’ve built up toward me over the years?”

His eyes burned into mine. “I need you to tell me why you murdered my dad.”

“Knowing that will not assuage your grief and pain. It can’t be undone.”

With a huff of impatience, he pushed off the bedside table and began pacing, the subject matter distressing him immensely, so much so that he wasn’t even attempting to conceal it.

Truth be told, he wasn’t the only one who found it distressing. It had haunted me for a long time. Of all the atrocities that I had committed as Ravager, this one that had been carried out when I had been long-free of the persona, had stuck with me the most. It was because I hadcommitted the act while in full control of my conscience and my faculties, not twisted by bloodlust and a demented state.

“We need to work together and to do that, there has to be trust between us. If I knewwhyyou did it, it might help me understand what the fuck was going through your head. You weren’t that monster version of you when it happened, so I don’t get why, or how, you did it. The way it stands with me not knowing, it seems like you could flip on a dime any second and go on a killing spree. Is that what that night was? You’d lost it when you murdered my dad?”

Jaxon was already questioning so much as it was. He’d had the proverbial rug torn out from under him with losing his pack, discovering he possessed a link to Draco, that Mia Snow was his true mate. To reveal what I knew now… it could shatter his already fractured world.

As such, it had me hesitating.

“Tell me!” he roared, that Alpha temper taking hold of him. “You owe me, Lucian! You owe me that at the very fucking least!”

Alas, it had become inevitable. He wouldn’t stop now. Now he’d asked the question aloud. And he was right about us needing to be on the same page.

And so I revealed an awful truth that I’d been concealing for years, “The assassination of Hank Silver was ordered via a directive from Cornelius Martel.”

Jaxon choked and took an uneasy step back. “What? Why?”

“I was sent there amid reports confirmed by Cornelius that Hank had become rabid, a combined result of his old age and from wielding too much power for too long. As the leader of the most significant wolf pack in the world, the Guardian Movement couldn’t allow this. Immediate action had to be taken.”

“That’s a load of bull,” Jaxon started. “He wasn’t—”

I held up my hand. “I’m not finished.”

With a growl, he gestured for me to go on.

“When I got there, Hank didn’t appear rabid. I was shocked and I hesitated. Your father sensed me and attacked. A vampire on his lands without an invitation warranted such a thing, but, regardless, I had to defend myself. Your fatherreallyabhorred vampires.”

“He was definitely a speciest, yeah.”

“Come here.”

“What?”

“Lift my hair near the back of my neck.”

Confused but also curious, he complied and lifted it up. “Shit,” he exclaimed when he got a look at the jagged scar there. “He bit you,” he said, recognizing his father’s handiwork. “The scar of an Alpha’s battle bite never heals.”

“Indeed. That was the least of it.”

He moved back and regarded me with his arms folded.

“Then the mauling began,” I went on. “I defended myself with a blade I had been given by Cornelius. Non-fatal wounds.”

His brow furrowed. “What are you saying? Hedied. You must’ve delivered a fatal hit.”

“It was the blade.”

“The blade?”

“I questioned Cornelius about it once I returned to the Compound, after witnessing Hank die at my feet, just beforeyouarrived and happened upon the scene, the night you saw the face of your father’s killer.” I drew in a breath. “Unbeknownst to me, Cornelius had spelled the blade to specifically ensure the death of an Alpha, no matter where the wound was inflicted. He’d misinformed me. He’d used me. He'd wanted a scapegoat, so that the Silverwood WolfPack wouldn’t turn against him or the Guardian Movement. So, he blamed me.”

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