Chapter 22.
Chapter Nineteen: Answers Will Be Given Part Two
Phera POV:
The tension in the room was so thick you could cut it with a knife, a tangible weight hanging heavily in the air between us. Axel, Damon, and Zane sat across from me, all equally formidable in their posture yet visibly different in their expressions. Their faces were etched with a mix of anticipation and trepidation as if each was bracing for an impending storm. The walls of the office, usually an epitome of clinical
professionalism, seemed to close in on us, drawing the focus to the emotional vortex at its center-me.
Damon was the first to break the silence. His jaw clenched as he took in a deep breath, and then he locked his gray eyes onto mine, as though trying to search for something only he knew.
“Phera, we’ve owed you an explanation for a long time, and
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tadaayhhere and now, you’re going to get it. And I hope you’ll abdowssitiis moment to speak freely, without interruption.”
Hisswoodsscarried atone of vulnerability I had never associated with hirimaare earnestness that seemed to belong to someone elsleet-leganceddaAxel,whose face mirrored his own emotionaaturirblaenceAAxet cleared his throat and took over, leaning sigotivlydorward omhis arms.
“The women you saavuswithpover the years they were never intended to be subsstutdescor you. They were smoke screens, distractions named aakseering you out of the limelight. After our parents’ deaths, there were @elernents within the pack who wanted to ssizecontrobl heewwoldd have seen you as a pawn, a leverage point agamissusslvassiparamount that we made sure you weren’t targeted.”.”
Every word feitlike an echodnia@evernous void, each syllal eresonating with years of pent-up guessonss and heartbreak.
Damon picked up where Axable cofhiss occeitigged with ar elemotion d couldn’t quite place was stireegret Beroorse?
WWhen our parents died, we were den steeringgabippris stormy wataters. Our pack was fractious, brokenpanddipeddoreèbellion. Byy autting you out as painful as it was we believeedweewere
Chapter 22
sparing you from becoming collateral damage in a power struggle we were fighting tooth and nail to contain.”
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Silence reigned for a moment, a brief interlude that allowed the weight of their words to sink in. Then Zane finally spoke, his voice laced with a sorrow so palpable it nearly shattered me.
“Signing those papers, cutting ties, disappearing from your life- it was all a self-imposed exile. Not for our sake, but for yours,”
Zane confessed, his eyes clouded with a mix of sadness and an indescribable complexity.
“Even after you came of age, the situation remained perilous. The pack’s dynamics hadn’t stabilized, and we were still not taken seriously by our neighbouring packs. Bringing you into such volatility would have been the epitome of irresponsibility.”
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I could feel the ache spreading from the pit of my stomach to the farthest reaches of my soul. I wanted to scream, to cry, to vent the storm that was raging inside me, but Damon’s initial plea for uninterrupted listening kept my lips sealed, for now.
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Finally, Damon looked at his brothers, a silent exchange passing. between them, before settling his gaze back on me.
“As for that night we kissed Newmara…” His voice faltered for a moment, as if weighed down by the gravity of the revelation to come. “We thought that the only way to ensure you’d stay away from this chaotic life we were thrust into was to make you despise us. So, we did the unthinkable. We staged that scene. with to turn your love into loathing. It was a cruel,
your s desperate act, one we’ve regretted every single day since.”
Each word was a hammer strike, demolishing the wall I’d built around myself, turning my carefully constructed emotional. defenses into rubble. The room went dead silent again. Each brother seemed lost in his own churning sea of emotions-guilt, sorrow, regret-all laid bare in their eyes.
Yet, they sat in suspended animation as if waiting for the axe to fall.
And there I was, at the center of it all, feeling like an anchorless ship caught in a tempest. I understood them, and yet I didn’t. I was awash in a flood of new information, each revelation bringing its own unique shade of pain, understanding, and unbearable complexity. It was a lot to take in, almost too much, and the next words out of my mouth would tip the balance, one
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Chapter 22
way or another. But those words, for now, remained unspoken, festering in the depths of my soul, awaiting the right moment to emerge and define our fates.
My heart pounded so hard it was as if a drum were echoing in my chest, each beat synchronized with a surge of emotion too vast and tumultuous to name. It felt like being on the edge of a precipice, staring down into an abyss filled with uncertainty, regret, and revelations that were as difficult to digest as they were to hear. My eyes flickered between the three of them- Axel, Damon, and Zane-each face mirroring an emotion that churned inside of me. Drawing a shaky breath, I finally found my voice, though it trembled with the waves of feelings crashing against my mental shore.
“You say you did all this to protect me, but did any of you ever think how your actions would affect me emotionally? How they’d make me feel?” My eyes moistened, threatening to spill over. “You cut ties, you made me watch as you kissed my sister, and you let me believe I was forgotten. Do you have any idea what that did to me?”
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