The Hidden Alpha (Alma Venus Shifter Brides 2)

“I’m sorry,” he whispered in her ear.

Amelia sighed. She loved him, but right now she wanted to be alone with her own thoughts.

“Don’t be.” She looked up into his eyes and the sadness and regret she saw there made butterflies flutter in her stomach. Yes, she loved him, and he loved her. He loved her so much that he had spent the last few months looking for the truth. For her. Because he knew she deserved to know. “Thank you.” She rose on her toes to peck his lips, then took his hand and led him towards the front door. A minute ago, she had wanted to be alone, but now she knew she had been angry at the wrong people. Blake and Seth cared about her, and the fact that they had worked so hard to help her learn something about her past, something she had never considered was worth the effort, spoke volumes about how much she meant to them. No, nothing would bring her parents back. Reality wouldn’t change even if they did manage to catch the assassins one day. And it didn’t matter, really. All that mattered was that she was where she was supposed to be. If the fact that she was a hybrid meant anything for the fox-shifter faction, then she was willing to help in any way she could. To her, at least, it didn’t make any difference.

After Seth and Amelia went out for a walk, Blake stared at the closed door for long minutes, then poured herself another glass of wine and grabbed the generous stack of files. Seth had done a great job at painting the big picture for them, but she needed

to know the details.

***

Seth had never thought it would be so hard to open up to the woman he loved. It took him forever to break the silence which had settled between them the moment they left the cabin and headed towards the shore. He told himself he didn’t want to bother Amelia. She seemed lost in her own thoughts. Even though their fingers were intertwined, he had the impression that she was far away, someplace where he couldn’t follow her. In truth, it was his own fear. He had tried to hide it even from himself, but there was no use. He was afraid that Amelia would run the second she learned Seth’s father and his pure blood vixen could have well been the ones who had been ordered to kill her parents. No matter how hard he had tried, how many leads he had followed, it had been impossible for him to identify the two fox-shifters. Dead ends. That was all he had found after months of feverish research.

They reached the shore and stopped to admire the infinite ice covering the river. Amelia breathed in the freezing air and winced at the way it burned her nostrils. She hid her nose back in her fluffy scarf and snuggled against Seth’s chest. How could she be a hybrid when she was so cold? Seth was warm even if his coat was way lighter than hers. She sighed when he enveloped her into his arms and held her tightly.

“There is another thing I need to tell you.”

It took Amelia a while to say something. “I’m listening.” In fact, she was tired. She wanted to ask him if they couldn’t leave it for later, but changed her mind at the last moment. The sooner he told her all the details, the faster she could decide what to do with them and how to move on. Anything else was out of the question. She had to move on. She was going to become a mother soon. She had a family now, a wonderful man who loved her, a friend who was like a sister to her, a clan she had to take care of.

“Remember when I told you my father left when I was a teenager?”

Amelia would never forget that day. Seth had taken her out in his boat, then they had ended up at his cabin. The first time they had made love…

“Yes. And Roman’s Yako adopted you.”

Seth nodded. “He didn’t only adopt me, but he also took my mother as his bride. My father took off with his fox-shifter bride. He didn’t even say goodbye. To him, my mother and I meant nothing. I was too young to understand then. For a long time, my mother thought it was her fault, even though she had done everything in her power to be a good bride to him. She couldn’t believe that after she had done her duty and given him a son, he just left us behind like that. Then, Roman Sylfur took us under his protection, his Yako fell in love with my mother, and they eventually told me the truth.”

He paused for a long moment, and Amelia didn’t dare say anything. Her lover rarely talked about his parents and his life before becoming Roman’s young Yako after his stepfather died. She was all ears.

“I… I should have told you sooner, but I didn’t have the courage. I was afraid that if you knew who my father really was, you wouldn’t want to be with me anymore. I was selfish. I’m sorry.”

“What are you talking about? There’s nothing in this world that can make me not want you anymore. Don’t be silly.”

He smiled. “Wanna bet?”

She punched him playfully. “Stop that! It’s not funny.”

He laughed, but it was bitter. “My father and his vixen bride were Tricksters, Amelia. They had spent years infiltrating Clan Sylfur and gaining the members’ trust. Taking a human bride and having a child helped. When they realized Roman was beginning to suspect something, they left everything behind and ran away, thus confirming his suspicions. They were never caught.”

Amelia was speechless for a few minutes. She tried to imagine what it must have been like for Seth to find out his father had been nothing but an impostor. For the first time, she had to accept defeat. Her imagination failed her.

“Why would they want to infiltrate the clan?”

“That’s easy… Clan Sylfur has been the most powerful fox-shifter clan in the world since way before the war. Convincing Roman to side with the Tricksters and all those who believed the fox faction should have never signed the peace treaty would have been a great victory for them. If they didn’t manage to do that, then there was always Plan B: getting rid of him and giving the power to one of his brothers, Damon most likely. They were clever, my father and his wife… But not clever enough.”

“I’m sorry. But I’m also glad you finally told me.”

Seth squeezed her closer to his body.

“That’s not it. I have so little respect for my father, that I would have never mentioned him to you. His very existence is not worthy of being acknowledged, especially by you.” He kissed the top of her head. “However, he was a Trickster, and that makes me the son of an assassin. When I found out your parents were murdered by the Tricksters, I tried to find a way to tell you…” He paused and took a deep breath. “Who am I lying to? Not a way to tell you… I tried to find the courage to tell you.”

Amelia pushed against his chest and took half a step back, just enough to look up at his face.

“Seth, I don’t care who your real father was. Who he was doesn’t define you and has nothing to do with what happened to my parents.”

“Actually, it might.” He bit the inside of his cheek. “You see… the Tricksters are a small guild. They rarely train new members, and because fox-shifters live around 200 years, they don’t really have to. Usually, they choose from among their own children. There is a fairly good chance that the shifters who killed your parents were… my parents. I still don’t have anything to prove this theory. It’s not even a theory, it’s more of a fear of mine, a possibility that my brain can’t ignore. But, there you have it… the last thing I had to tell you.”

Amelia disentangled herself from his arms and turned towards the river. She couldn’t see much in the darkness, but she didn’t have to. She wasn’t looking at anything in particular, anyway, her attention focused within herself, fixed on her own feelings. She was trying to decide how she should feel about what Seth had just told her. The possibility that her mate was the son of the assassins who killed her parents and landed her in the social care system, and then at Alma Venus, to be educated as a Vulpes bride and sold to a fox-shifter. How ironical life could be!