Page 134 of Wrath

Yet I needed to do this for myself.

I wasn’t the type of woman to cower.

Steeling my resolve, I pushed past my mates. “Hello…Peter.”

Peter’s smile faltered at my use of his fake name. I didn’t know what he expected. I wouldn’t call him Father, and I certainly wouldn’t use his angelic name, Gabriel. He didn’t deserve an ounce of my respect.

Peter regarded me for a long moment, but I couldn’t read the emotion in his eyes.

After the silence became almost too stifling, he said, “You remember.”

He didn’t need to clarify what, exactly, I remembered.

“I do.”

Peter released a heavy sigh, his shoulders sagging, but before he could say anything, I demanded, “Why are you here?”

His eyes widened. “Excuse me?”

“Why now?” I asked.

He hadn’t been a part of my life in the twenty-some years I’d been on this earth. Not when my parents were slaughtered in front of me. Not when Lin left me. Not when I’d lost S, my human boyfriend. Not when I’d joined the Damning. Not all of the times I was nearly murdered. Not when I’d first confronted Aaliyah.

Peter’s lips pursed. “Your mother was meddling in your affairs. It seemed only fair that I should be allowed to.”

A shocked, garbled laugh escaped me. “That’s why you’re here? Because of Lilith’s trials?”

“You shouldn’t trust Lilith.” Something icy and insidious slithered into his tone. “Everything she does has an ulterior motive.”

“As if you’re not the exact same.”

I wanted to kill him.

I really, really wanted to kill him.

After everything he’d done to me…

To Aaliyah…

To my mates…

I wanted him dead.

“I can help,” Peter continued, “and all I ask is for?—”

“Not fucking happening,” Bash interrupted.

Peter’s eyes turned steely. “You don’t even know what I want.”

“And it’s not happening,” Dair snapped.

Peter turned his attention to me, ignoring my mates entirely. “If you want my help, you just have to give it to me.”

What the fuck?

“Give what to you?” I demanded, annoyed and confused by his vague statement.

“You’ll know what it is when it comes. And when it does come, I want it.” Once again, something dark shadowed his gaze, turning the blue of his eyes to obsidian.

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