Page 105 of Claimed By Blood

I look at our girl, to see how she reacts to that statement. Evie’s sitting quietly on Draven’s lap in the arm chair in the corner, letting him play with her hair. She’s not taking this latest revelation well. Perhaps she’s in shock, or maybe she’s just desperately trying to remember something of her childhood to disprove Samuel’s story, but I don’t think it’s sunk in for her yet.

Cold Draven isn’t really the right person to help her handle this, but Finn is too worked up with whatever is going on between him and Gideon to help.

I know I’m risking life and limb, but I switch seats until I’m closer to her.

“Hey, beautiful. What’s going on in that head of yours?” I whisper.

She startles, eyes finally focusing on mine. “I don’t know,” she admits. “I thought maybe if I really tried, I’d remember something, but I can’t. If Samuel’s lying, I don’t know. And if he’s telling the truth, then I’m the reason we can’t kill Cain. Because I can’t remember the first thing about being a witch. Not even what my mother looked like.”

“You were only a child,” I reassure her, gently. “I…” I glance at my brother, and then back to her. “I can’t really remember what my mother looked like, and I was twenty-three when she died.”

I feel Vane stiffen, and I grimace in response. Our mother has been an elephant in the room for what remains of our family for too long. By some unspoken agreement, we never speak of her. Or Isla.

Perhaps in part because of the pain it will cause Gideon. But he’s up front right now, so I don’t see the harm in bringing her up. Besides, the curiosity Evie’s feeling seems to have banished a little of the confusion and shock that’s been weighing on her.

“Ma was a beta too,” I continue. “Apparently, I’m a bit like her. She loved people, so our house was always full of visitors. Vane got all of our father’s bossiness.”

Evie swallows, then asks the inevitable question. “How did she…?” She trails off. “Never mind. It’s rude to ask.”

“Our old alpha—Gid’s dad—killed my older sister.” After all this time, it’s finally less painful to say the words. It took decades to think of Isla without remembering the way her blood ran in rivulets down our front door. “Our mother was never the same. She became a shell of herself, and eventually, she chose to take her own life rather than live with the pain.”

I know my voice is bitter, but I can’t help it. For the longest time, I considered her actions selfish—cruel, even. Mia was barely fifteen. Too young to survive without a mother.

It took me a long time to understand how she must have felt. She’d already lost our father, and then to lose her omega daughter on top of that…

I’m pretty sure Vane and I kept going out of sheer spite. If Gid hadn’t stepped in and killed his own father in an official challenge, the two of us would’ve given it our best shot. Then Mia would’ve been completely alone in the world, because there was no way two betas could put down an alpha. Our instincts would’ve been fighting us every step of the way—not to mention the rest of the pack.

It was unheard of for an alpha as young as Gid to win a challenge.

Him dissolving the pack afterwards was just as incredible. Everyone thought he was insane, but he knew exactly how rotten the pack had become.

It didn’t take long for similar corruption to appear in other packs. Decades later, it turned out to be Cain’s doing all along. Weakening us from within so that lycans were in no state to interfere with the Triumph. Only a rare few—like the Echo Lake Pack—managed to avoid such a fate.

“I’m sorry,” Evie whispers. “That must have been awful.”

“It was a long time ago,” I whisper. “And they were both avenged.”

For that alone, Gideon won the loyalty of what remained of our family.

I dare a glance up at Vane, only to find he’s staring at me with a look that flickers between sadness and regret. Then he looks at Evie and those tender feelings disappear, replaced with determination.

Evie follows my gaze, and her eyes meet his. My thrall bond surges to the forefront of my mind, overflowing with her guilt and remorse. Her emotions hit me all at once, giving me a taste of what a true bond would be like.

“I’m sorry,” she says, a second time.

But I don’t think she’s talking about Isla and our mother this time. Evie has finally realised what it did to Vane when he discovered her trying to stake herself on her first night of freedom. I never saw our mother hang herself. It was my brother who walked into our house to find her dangling from the bannister. He stopped me and Mia from coming inside and dealt with everything by himself.

Afterwards, he got blind drunk—and it was the only time I’ve ever seen him do so.

Evie’s suicide attempt hit him in a raw spot, and now she understands why.

“Forget it,” Vane grunts, turning away.

Like a switch has been flicked, the burst of clarity between the vampire and me shutters, and my bond to Evie closes itself off.

Damn, I want a full bond with her. Just the thought of Finn and Draven already being at that point is making me green with envy. How can a man whose heart is made of ice have earned the right to call himself her thrall in all ways, yet I can’t seem to bridge that gap, no matter how hard I try?

“So what’s your earliest memory?” I ask, trying to get the two of us back on topic.

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