CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Scarlett
Thankfully, I managed to get to the gym without running into anyone. By the time I made it inside, I was breathing hard and I felt like I was going to explode from the emotions tearing into me.
Tears stung my eyes as I tried to take a deep breath and expel it. A couple of tears slid free and I brushed them away angrily. I hated being so emotional; it made me feel vulnerable.
I stood in front of the punching bag. I swung my fist and hit the bag hard. I repeated the motion again. It was a way of expelling some of the anger building up inside of me.
If I had a brother, it meant that my parents had lied to me. The betrayal was too much to deal with. No matter how hard I hit the punching bag, it didn't ease the feeling of betrayal. Why had they kept it from me?
I hit the punching bag again and again, the sweat pouring down my face as I kept at it.
I closed my eyes and held the punching bag as I tried to imagine what Kyle's life was like without our parents. I swear I felt my heart break for him. I was getting upset over the fact that our parents lied to me, but what they did to him was far worse.
He'd grown up without a family.
The tears I'd managed to hold up to that point broke free and I began to sob. I didn't hear anyone come in, but I felt hands turn me around gently. Through my tears, I looked up to see Cade looking at me with concern and understanding.
Another sob trembled through me as he pulled me into his arms and held me close.
"It's okay, Scar," he soothed as he rubbed my back gently. I clung to him. He was like my anchor to Earth while everything spun out of control.
Slowly my sobs began to ease and finally the tears dried up. I rested my cheek against his chest as he continued to hold me. I felt like I'd cried so much and experienced so many emotions all at once. Now that I'd stopped crying, I felt emotionally exhausted.
Gently, Cade pulled back slightly and tilted my gaze to his with his finger under my chin. He brushed the tears from my cheeks as I closed my eyes.
He led me to Hank's small office and made me sit down in one of the chairs as he got me a drink of water. He handed me the cup and I took a sip. He sat down on a chair across from me and leaned forward with his elbows resting on his thighs.
"Talk to me, Scar," he pleaded gently. I couldn't even look at him at the moment so I dropped my gaze to the floor.
I took an emotion-filled breath and released it like it would help me let go of all the negative emotions I was feeling, but nothing eased them. One minute ticked into two. I don't know how much time passed as I sat there feeling like my whole life had been a lie.
They hadn't told me I was a werewolf. They hadn't told me I had a brother. What else had they kept from me?
I set the glass of water down on the table and stood up. I began to pace back and forth as I tried to come up with a reason why my parents had done what they did. But I couldn't come up with an acceptable excuse.
"Scar." Cade said my name and I turned to face him. I crossed my arms across my chest as I held his gaze. I didn't like people seeing me exposed and vulnerable like I felt at the moment.
"I hate feeling weak and emotional," I said to him.
He let out a sigh then he stood up and walked over to me as I held his gaze.
"It's okay to feel weak and emotional," he said as his eyes softened and I bit down on my lip to keep from crying again. "You don't always have to be strong and in control. You just found out that you have a brother you knew nothing about. I can’t even imagine what you're going through."
He paused for a moment.
"I'm here to be strong for you when you need strength. So feel what you need to, fall apart if that's what it takes. I'll be there to pick up the pieces."
I pressed my hands to my mouth to stop another sob that was provoked by his beautiful words. He reached for me and pulled me against his chest. His words covered me like a blanket, making me feel safe and protected.
"I think you'll feel better when you've talked to Kyle and found out why your parents did what they did," he suggested. "Maybe they had a good reason."
He was right. I couldn't guess why they didn't tell me about Kyle. I needed to sit down with my brother and find out what he knew. Maybe somehow he knew why our parents had left their pack and covered their tracks so well that Gary hadn't been able to find out anything.
I hugged him for a moment before I pulled back.
"Come on, let's go and find my brother," I said. It still felt so strange saying that. My brother.
Cade held my hand as we walked back to the house.
"Where's Gary?" I asked Cade as we entered the house.
"I think he's upstairs," he answered.
"Please, would you get him to meet me in the study?" I asked.
"Sure," he said. He pressed his lips to mine and I savored the brief kiss.
While Cade hurried up the stairs, I turned to face the door of the study. It was time to get answers.
I opened the door to find Kyle alone, sitting in a chair with his hands clasped together. His eyes met mine and he stood up. He didn't strike me as the type to be nervous, but I could tell he was.
"Hi," I said. It felt inadequate, but it was the best I had.
"Hi," he replied, shoving his hands in his pockets.
"We need to talk." I stated the obvious.
He nodded his head in agreement as he sat back down and I sat down across from him. I felt nervous as Gary entered the study, looking a little confused.
I stood up and gave him a hug.
"How are you feeling?" he asked as he scanned my features. The last time I'd seen him was before I'd mated with Cade and shifted for the first time. It hadn't been that long ago, but it felt like a lifetime.
"I'm good," I lied. He was asking about my physical well-being, not my emotional state.
Kyle stood up as Gary turned to face him.
"Kyle, this is Gary, he was our dad's best friend and my guardian," I introduced.
"Gary, this is my...brother."
Gary took a moment before what I said sank in and he turned to me. It was like he wasn't sure he'd heard right.
"Yes, he is my brother," I confirmed.
Gary and Kyle shook hands briefly before Gary sank down in the only other empty chair. He looked shocked. I wondered if that was what I'd looked like the first time I'd heard the news.
"I don't understand," he mumbled.
"I'm hoping Kyle will be able to shed some light on it," I said as I sat down and faced Kyle. At that moment, the study door opened again and in walked Cade. I smiled at him as he came over to me and stood beside me.
"So how do you and Cade know each other?" I asked.
"I'm an alpha of a neighboring pack," Kyle answered. It made sense. That was how Cade and he knew each other so well.
A few questions raced through my mind at that snippet of information. Cade had said I had alpha blood. Did that mean that my father had been the alpha of the pack that Kyle now ran?
But to me there was a more important question than why my parents had done what they had.
"Who raised you?" I asked, bracing myself. It had affected me deeply that I had grown up—even if it was just for a short time—with our parents while he'd been alone.
"Our uncle, Nate, Dad's brother," he answered.
Just when I didn't think there was anything more that could shock me, I had an uncle—another family member. Somehow, I knew there would be a few more shocks before this conversation was over.
I rubbed my hands over my face as I contemplated that the man who was my father had a sibling I knew nothing about. I wondered if they looked similar.
"How old are you?" I asked.
"I'm twenty-two," he answered. I was still trying to get used to the idea that I had brother who was five years older than me.
"How old were you when they left?" I asked, feeling nervous and apprehensive about the answers I was about to get.
In my mind, they had always been good and loving parents, but that image would change if the reason they’d left Kyle hadn’t been good enough. Even though he'd had our uncle to look after him, it still didn't make me feel any less sad that our parents had left him.
"I was four," he answered. Seeing my visible reaction to that, he pulled his chair closer and took my trembling hand in his. I hadn't been born yet. Was my mom pregnant with me when they left?
I still couldn't shake the feeling that the people I'd known as my parents felt more like strangers to me because of what little I really knew about them.
"I don't want you to feel sad that they left me behind," he began as he used his free hand to run it through his hair. "They did what they had to."
His words didn't make the sadness in me ease and I felt the sting of tears again. He squeezed my hand gently as I tried to keep it together.
"I can't understand how they were able to leave you behind. Why would they do that?" I whispered while struggling to hold my tears in again as an image appeared in my mind of Kyle as a little boy standing on his own as my parents walked away from him.
I felt Cade's hand rest gently on my shoulder.
"It was the only way to protect me," he answered. "Let me start at the beginning."
He had my undivided attention.
"Mom and Dad knew each other their whole lives. They'd both been brought into the same pack and when they discovered they were mates, they were deliriously happy. They were in love and as soon as they were old enough, they mated."
Hearing that made me more emotional and I bit my lip to stop myself from crying like a baby.
"Dad was the next in line to be the alpha and when our grandfather died, Dad took over. Then Mom fell pregnant with me. They were so happy."
What on Earth could have happened to tear them away from their families and son? What had made them run and never look back?
"One day an alpha from another pack came to visit. His name was Victor."
Kyle glanced up to Cade and they shared a look.
"What has he got to do with this?" I asked, growing impatient.
"Victor is an alpha of one of the most powerful packs in the country. He is ruthless and unpredictable, which makes him a very formidable opponent."
I didn’t like the sound of this guy already and I hadn't even heard the full story yet.
"He was mate-less. His mate died just after they met. He didn't take the death well and started to become emotionally unstable."
Ruthless and unpredictable added with emotionally unstable sounded really dangerous. But what did he have to do with my parents leaving?
"The day he arrived to meet with our father, he saw Mom for the first time," he began to explain and I could feel the dread beginning to grow inside of me.
"The fact that he wasn't her mate and that she was already mated to another alpha didn't matter to him. He was so taken with her that he had to have her no matter what. He swore he'd do everything in his power to get her."
Holy crap!
"At first they didn't think that he was serious about it. Then he tried to kidnap Mom, but thankfully he didn't succeed. They tried to reason with him, but nothing worked."
"But why would he want someone who wasn't interested in him?" I asked out loud.
"Just because we are werewolves doesn't mean that we aren't susceptible to being bad," explained Cade.
"I don't know what it was about Mom that made him want her so badly," Kyle said with a shrug.
"So they left?" I asked.
"They didn't want to put the rest of the pack’s lives on the line trying to protect Mom. Victor was more powerful and his pack was double our size. If we'd gone to war, he would have won and in the process our pack would have been slaughtered," he explained. There wasn't a lot of emotion in his words.
"Why did they leave you?" I asked the question again. They could have taken him with them when they'd taken off.
"They didn't want to leave the pack without an alpha was what they told Nate, but honestly, I don't think they wanted to risk my life. Victor never knew about me so when they left it was easy to pretend I was Nate's son and not theirs. By doing that, they kept me safe from him."
I pulled my hand free from Kyle's and rubbed my face as I tried to understand what he was telling me.
My parents had given up a son that they'd loved in order to keep him safe. My heart broke at this thought. I didn't have kids of my own, but I knew it wouldn't be easy to walk away from your own child, even if it meant they would be safer.
Everyone quietly watched me as I stood up and began to pace. So they had left the safety of their pack and they'd left their son behind to keep them safe. I knew deep down that my parents wouldn't have abandoned him without a good reason.
They fell pregnant with me after they left so they kept me with them.
"Who killed them?" I asked the question bluntly. I knew the answer already, but I needed him to say it out loud for me.
I turned to look at Kyle and his eyes met mine.
"Victor."
I felt Cade's concerned gaze on me as I continued to look at my brother.
"He was livid when he found out that our parents left the pack and disappeared. He swore he'd hunt them down and kill them for it," explained Kyle.
It was hard to think that my parents had left what little safety that the pack provided to face Victor's wrath on their own and that they'd died for it. I put my hand to my forehead and tried to breathe.
Suddenly the room became too hot and I couldn't take in a breath. He'd murdered my mom and my dad. Their deaths had been hard on me, but knowing why and who had killed them was too much to handle.
"Sit down," Cade gently instructed. I felt his hands on my arms as he led me to my seat. I sat down as my knees gave way. It was at that point that the emotion I'd been able to keep a lid on finally bubbled to the surface and I felt the tears beginning to slide down my face.
"It's okay," Cade soothed.
I felt like I was mourning my parents all over again, but at least now I knew the truth behind their deaths. They hadn't done anything wrong; they died because some madman had seen my mom by chance and it had led to them having to run for their lives. But somehow he'd still found them.
If I'd been with them that night, I would have been murdered as well. My tears eased and I sniffled as I contemplated the new questions, and thoughts began to take hold inside my mind.
"I'm okay," I assured a worried-looking Cade.
"Is he still alive?" I asked, hoping that he wasn't.
"Yes," replied Kyle. It wasn't fair that he was still alive, because my parents had died at his hands.
Another thought occurred to me. If my parents had gone to such lengths to hide Kyle from Victor, what would Victor do if he knew about me?
Granted, it had been years, but would that matter to a guy that had been ruthless and determined enough to hunt my parents down nearly eleven years after they'd disappeared?
"Does he know about me?" I asked Kyle and I felt Cade stiffen beside me.
"We don't know," he answered and I could see the worry in his face.