Page 83 of Beta Lies and Cursed Lives
As I look at him in question, Nyx and Arlowe get closer to me, protectively. I feel my Alphas look at me, reach out through our mental bond, and I send them a silent message to stay where they are.
I don’t know what my father’s hostility is about, but adding more Alphas to the conversation will only make things worse.
“Your daughter is a very capable warrior,” Jory tells him, his tone very calm. “I’ve seen what she is capable of. I believed in her, even if I couldn’t be honest with her.” He turns to me then, his voice and steel eyes soft. “I’m sorry about that.”
“You let them risk their lives, not knowing the truth!” my father shouts. “For what? To save me? To save all Cursed everywhere? What is the plan here?”
I open my mouth to protest against his absurd behavior when Colt shouts from behind us, “You’re one to talk about secrets, Isaac.” All eyes whip to him, and my heart races.
There’s something...something inside Colt’s mind...something he’s been hiding from me.
His pained, mismatched eyes turn to me, but he addresses my father. “I don’t care if this is the right time or not. I can’t take this anymore. Either you tell her, or I will.”
I look at my stricken father, the man I always thought the world of. The man I’d do anything to save, anything to never part with. “Tell me what?”
But I already know.
I look at my father, his silver eyes like mine, then to Willow, her fingers pressed to her trembling mouth. A mouth and face so like mine. Hair like mine. And I know.
I swallow, my voice coming out like air as I look at the woman before me. “Your sister was…”
Tears stream from her eyes, dropping off her jaw and chin. “Miranda,” she whispers. “My sister’s name was Miranda.”
The world around me goes dark. I faintly hear the gasps of my friends at my side, feel the grip of one of their hands tight on my forearm.
My Alphas are coming closer now, and I know I can’t stop them.
I turn tear and rage-filled eyes on my father. “You lied to me.” My body shakes, my mind numbs. “You lied to me about everything. My entire life, every fucking thing you told me was a lie since the day I was born.”
“Miranda—” he reaches for me, and I step away in fury.
“You let me believe I killed my mother.”
“I never said—”
“It doesn’t matter what you said!” I scream. “I believed it. Then I killed the woman who raised me with my curse, and I carried the weight of both their deaths.” My fists clench, ice crackling along my skin as I stare at the man who called himself my father.
“You had a choice,” I croak. “You knew you and my mother were both Cursed. You knew I was going to be, too!”
His voice is broken, defeated. “It’s never a sure—”
“Bullshit,”I seethe. “You knew and you chose a life of comfort for as long as you could, instead of joining Willow and the rebellion.”
“I thought you would be able to hide your curse, like me. Like your mother.”
“You thought wrong, though,” I say on a humorless laugh. “I must have been such a disappointment to you. The dirty, Cursed secret you couldn’t hide.”
“That’s not true!” he shouts.
“No? I made it impossible for you to keep hiding and living your beautiful life. And your plan was what? To run forever? Until you died and left me alone to keep running?” I shake my head in disbelief at him.
His wary silver eyes flick across the room at the people around us. “Maybe we should—”
“They are the last people you should be worried about right now.” I snap my ice claw in front of his face, and he flinches, eliciting a modicum of satisfaction inside me.
“Do me a favor,” I say, stepping away from him and the others. “Stay far away from me.”
Miranda
