“Bailey!” Sebastian shouted.
I wanted to chase after her, but she needed to be alone. It killed me to see her in pain. Sebastian started to take off after her, but I stepped in his way. “Let her go.”
He glared at me. “She needs to know the rest.”
“And she will. Right now, she wants to be alone. She just found out that her pack was most likely slaughtered.”
“Fuck them! They weren’t her pack. She was their goddamned prisoner; a pawn in their plot to be united with your psycho, piece of shit brother,” he thundered.
“But you allowed that to happen, didn’t you? You stood by for fifteen years, watching her—letting her—be used.”
Jaw tense, he huffed and his eyes tracked Bailey’s movement toward the water. “I never wanted her to get hurt. I did what I did to keep her safe. Joining the Northern pack was the only way to be with her. I made an oath to her father before he died. He told me to protect her.”
“What happened to them?”
He tore his gaze away from Bailey and looked at me. “Greed. I’m not sure of your knowledge about the royals, but we’ve always been more powerful than the rest.”
“Are all royals related?” He shook his head, but kept his focus on Bailey. The way he looked at her, I could tell there was something there. “Are you in love with her?”
He chuckled, but it didn’t sound humorous. “Even if I was, it wouldn’t matter. You’re her mate. That’s why you were banished from your pack. Rollin made sure of that.”
“My uncle? How do you know all of this?”
“Because I was there, watching from a distance. You had Bailey, but I couldn’t get to her with that damn witch of yours casting her voodoo shit everywhere. Your mother had seen the mating signs between you two and went to the council. Unfortunately, Rollin had staked his claim to Bailey first, promising her to Kade. Your parents fought it. Your father even challenged Rollin for his position as alpha.”
“But he never got the chance,” I said.
“No, he didn’t. From what I could tell, he would’ve won the fight. I don’t understand why your father wasn’t alpha to begin with.”
“He didn’t want to kill his brother.”
I remembered the morning of the duel, as if it was burned in my brain. My father sat at the kitchen table with his morning coffee, only to fall over dead. It was soon discovered there was wolfsbane in his drink, masked by magic. It was Maret who killed him for my uncle. If either were still alive, I was going to make sure my face was the last they ever saw.
“But given the chance, you would’ve killed Kade?” he questioned.
“In a heartbeat.” Visions of him forcing himself on Bailey flashed in my mind. I would’ve done more than kill him; I would’ve tortured him until he begged for death.
“Sometimes I wonder what would’ve happened if your father was alpha. The attack on my pack probably would’ve never happened. After your family was murdered, Rollin sent Bailey off to the Northern pack. Her memories were wiped clean so it didn’t matter where she was taken to. She didn’t even know me when I joined them.”
“How did she escape and end up lost in the woods?”
Releasing a heavy sigh, he lowered his head. “When your uncle led the attack, no one knew they were coming. Maret used a masking spell to catch us off guard. By the time we realized what was going on, it was too late. Marrock and Tala, Bailey’s parents, stayed and fought ‘til the end. Bailey disappeared into the woods, lost with no memories. I tried to catch up to her . . . but you found her first, taking her straight back to the people hunting her.”
Eyes wide, I stood there in shock. Her life was a clusterfuck because of me. “You have got to be shitting me,” I grumbled. Out in the distance, Bailey sat down on the sand and stared at the horizon. Her feelings weren’t all over the place, which was good, but I could still feel the pain of her loss. Even though the Whitehill’s weren’t her parents, she still mourned them. I felt like complete and utter dog shit. “Basically what you’re trying to say is, if I wouldn’t have found her, none of this would’ve happened.”
“Who knows at this point?” he answered honestly. “Maybe she might’ve been killed. I don’t know if I would’ve found her in time. Either way, we can’t change the past. What’s done is done.”
“And she’s paid the consequences.”
He nodded. “That she has.”
I could feel her in my mind, listening to my thoughts. She knew everything. I just hoped she wouldn’t blame me for fucking up her life.