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113 Chapter 113 Hidden Blood Ties
113 Chapter 113 Hidden Blood Ties
A new question burned in my mind. “Does Dorian know? Does he know Seraphina is his sister?”
But calm was the last thing I could manage. “Calm down?” I shouted, jerking away from his touch. “How can I calm down when I just discovered that you killed my mate’s biological father?”
My chest tightened. “They switched Seraphina and Roxanne?”
I stared at him, trying to make sense of his words. “Okay. But what does any of this have to do with Seraphina? How does this connect to my mate?” I wasn’t stupid. I could see where this was heading, but I desperately wanted to be wrong.
Everything was starting to click into place. They kept her away from me to prevent whatever destiny the prophecy foretold.
The truth hit me like ice water. “So Alpha Maxwell knew the whole time? He knew Roxanne wasn’t his biological daughter?”
The plan. Our original plan. But the thought made my stomach turn. “That was always the plan,” I said quietly, my voice barely audible. “But how can I kill my mate’s brother? Seraphina will never forgive me.”
The room felt like it was spinning around me. My father had just delivered news that shattered everything I thought I knew. “No,” I said, shaking my head hard. “We know exactly who Seraphina’s parents are.” The whole switched-at-birth thing was what started this mess in the first place.
“This isn’t about forgiveness,” my father said, his voice like steel. “This is about saving lives. Dorian will keep killing and destroying, just like his father did. Someone has to stop him. In this case, that someone is you.”
I couldn’t sort through all the emotions battling inside me. I wanted Dorian dead. I wanted him to pay for everything his obsession had put Seraphina through, and especially for keeping us separated from our daughter for five years. Maybe I hadn’t missed as much since I got to watch her grow, but Seraphina had been robbed of all those precious moments.
The reality of it crushed down on me. “They used Seraphina’s life like she was nothing more than a chess piece,” I whispered, the words bitter on my tongue.
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My father looked at me with eyes that held years of exhaustion. He shook his head slowly. “Julian,” he said, his voice heavy with weight I’d never heard before. “When Alpha Maxwell found his mate, she was already carrying another man’s child. He loved her so deeply that it didn’t matter to him. He was ready to raise that child as his own.”
“I want him dead.”
“Why not?” I demanded. “I refuse to keep secrets from my mate.”
My father nodded grimly.
“A seer,” my father said, his voice dropping to an almost whisper. “A seer told them the child would be born as a white wolf. A wolf who would either bring destruction or salvation to the world. The prophecy said she could only fulfill her destiny with her true mate. It even suggested that mate would be you.”
“Yes,” he confirmed. “They swapped the children. I don’t know if they did it to protect Seraphina’s life, or if Alpha Maxwell just couldn’t handle raising his mate’s child with another man. Maybe he preferred a child with no blood connection to either of them.”
Julian’s POV
“Don’t worry about telling your mate,” my father said, staring past me at something I couldn’t see. “When it comes down to it, Seraphina will have to accept that her father was evil. A monster. This decision, this slaughter, will haunt me for the rest of my life. But I have no regrets about what we did.” His piercing gaze returned to me. “Seraphina cannot learn the truth about her parentage.”
“You’re the one who’s mistaken,” my father said, frustration creeping into his tone. “You’ve been believing fairy tales and lies. Do you really think an Alpha would spend eighteen years raising a child without knowing whether that child was his own blood?”
“Maybe killing him was justified,” I said, my voice shaking with rage and grief. “But you massacred his entire pack. Innocent children, women who had nothing to do with his madness, men who were just following their Alpha’s orders. There’s no justification for
that.
I’d always thought I was losing my mind because I could see how uncomfortable and distant Seraphina was with her parents. I could see how much closer they were to Roxanne. Part of me had believed Seraphina wasn’t giving them a fair chance because she resented their absence during her childhood. Now I understood they never truly loved her at all.
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113 Chapter 113 Hidden Blood Ties
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“But if Seraphina was Luna’s biological child,” I pushed on, my voice getting louder, “why did they give her up? Why did they send her away?”
My first instinct was brutally honest. She would have every right to want revenge.
“Julian, you need to calm down,” my father said, reaching for my arm.
The words slammed into me like a freight train. “What? That’s impossible,” I stammered, my mind reeling. “There has to be some kind of mistake. None of this makes sense.”
“It was a secret sworn by every man who participated in that massacre,” my father said firmly. “We all promised we would never speak of it again. I don’t believe anyone would break that oath. So no, Dorian doesn’t know.”
“And could you look your mate in the eye,” my father continued, his voice dangerously quiet, “if she ended up killing her own father in her quest for revenge? If she murdered me? Would you be able to forgive that?” He knew the answer before I could speak. “You need to think like an Alpha here, Julian. Not as a husband or a mate. The future of all werewolves hangs in the balance.”
“The seer warned us,” he said again, urgency creeping back into his voice. “Seraphina is destined to become an incredibly powerful white wolf. We haven’t seen the full scope of her abilities yet, or how dangerous they might become. What if she discovers the truth about her biological father and decides to seek vengeance?”
My father’s expression hardened into something cold and final. “Then you’re going to have to kill Dorian yourself.”
His expression turned to stone. “Alpha Victor had to die,” he said without a trace of emotion. “He was destroying lives, murdering innocent people, all for his twisted experiments with dark magic. We made the right choice.”
He leaned closer, his stare burning into me. “Because Dorian’s father, the former Alpha of the Ruined Fang, is Seraphina’s biological father.”
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