The Alpha Wolf's Enemy (Wolves of Anchorage 2)

"Yes, he forbade him from seeing her, at all. Ever.”

“And obviously your father refused since you're here,” Derek said. He paused and leaned against the tree. She wanted to beg him not to overexert himself, but she assumed her comments would not be welcome.

"You would be right. My father was incensed that the Alpha would not take his feelings seriously. The Alpha was quite prejudiced against humans and made several derogatory remarks about them. It made my father more determined to sneak out and see my mother,” she said. Her voice broke, and she took a minute to compose herself.

“Take your time,” Derek said.

She could feel nothing but compassion coming from him, which helped. “My father was exiled from the pack,” she whispered.

"Why didn't I know about this?"

“You were six years old. And it happened twenty-five years ago. So you would have been a child. And even if you’d been older, the Alpha didn’t make it public, you wouldn’t have been aware,” she said. “At first, my father thought he might use his situation with my mother as an example to everyone else. But since he kept it quiet, my father assumed that the Alpha was at least partially embarrassed at what he’d done.”

“I’m sorry,” Derek said.

She nodded. “Thank you.” They were still stopped on the path, and Kyra bent down to pick up a small yellow wildflower. She held it carefully in her hand. “So, he married my mother, and I began to live as a human. I grew up in the human world for the first ten years of my life. I never got the chance to be a part of the pack."

“So you guys were without a pack. What happened next?” Derek asked.

“We bounced around. We couldn't find a single pack that would take us in. Everywhere we went doors were shut in our face. Actually, slammed is more like it, no one would even talk to us. So we did travel. My father worked as a human, but it was hard for him because he was awkward. Thanks to your tribe always being so remote he didn't have a clue about humans. So he came across as ignorant or backwater. Luckily, my mom was able to keep us afloat. Then we came across the vampires. They started tracking us. And my father did what he could, but…”

This was the part that was tough to say. “He went back to Roman’s father. He begged for help. He showed the Alpha proof of what we were going through. How the vampires were after us.” She rubbed her face. “It didn’t matter. Nothing mattered to him but our bloodline.”

She felt Derek’s hand skim over her shoulder for just a moment. "What did they want with you?" he asked.

"The same thing that Victor wanted with your group. He wanted hybrids. And you know, that was a big fucking revelation for me. I just found out four days ago that he knew that a coven had targeted my parents. Victor could have saved them. Just as much as the Alpha.” She sniffed. “It’s really hard to grasp that something you’ve believed in, all your life, could be so wrong.”

She took a minute to breathe, chest heaving. “Victor wasn't involved in stalking my family. At least not physically, but he was connected, and the same coven had a responsibility for my parents’ deaths. I've had to come to grips with that. That the person who raised me didn't just happen to find me. It had been orchestrated all along. Back then, he told me he was from a different coven, and that he didn’t know the bad vampires. And since I was a young child, I believed him."

“Kyra… Wow. I don’t know what to say. You’re saying that your father told the Alpha what was going on?”

“Yes. And the Alpha believed him. He just didn't care. He told us to get out of sight and never come back. He said that my father had been exiled, and if he came back again, he would be killed on sight. Along with me and my mother. Then he called me an abomination and a mistake.” She slumped over, letting her shoulders roll forward. Just remembering it was terrible. She'd been standing behind her father when the Alpha had said those things.

And he had done as the Alpha said, and her father had gotten his family out of there.

“And then my father told me and my mom that it was up to us to take care of ourselves. Then when the vampires came for us, my father fought them – he tried his best. They killed my mother first. They didn't even try to change her into a vampire. Now I know it was because she was a human, and they wanted only shifters to add to their ranks. So they murdered my mother. My father was grief stricken. She was his mate, even though she was human, and he could barely function. But he got me and we ran. Luckily, I had received all the strength that any shifter pup would have. And then, of course, they caught up to us,” Kyra said.

“They killed my father right in front of me. I climbed a tree and I hid, but the vampire found me. But my father gave me a potion to use – he said he only had one. And I used it to poison the vampire temporarily, and while that vampire was howling and screaming, I ran. I was alone for days." She shuddered remembering it, and Derek picked up her hand. She wondered if he could feel her emotions through their fledgling bond link.

"I had no idea the Alpha was like that,” he said.

“How could you?” she asked. “He didn't advertise it. He kept his prejudices to himself.”

Getting it all out, in front of her mate, had taken an emotional toll on her. She finally bowed her head and let the tears flow.