Sebastian went down to get his mate a snack when his cell phone rang. He pulled it out of his pajama pants pocket and glanced at the screen. Kellen.

“What’s wrong?” Something had to be wrong for Kellen to be calling him at four in the morning.

“We lost Christian.”

“What do you mean you lost him?” he roared. He’d had Christian under surveillance day and night. How in the world had he gotten past them?

“He went to the house he’d been staying at, when we didn’t see him come out all day, someone went in and didn’t find him. He was gone.”

Fuck!

“You know he’s dangerous. I don’t want him anywhere near Harper.”

“We’ll double the security. He won’t come near her.”

“She has no idea what he can do. What he has done,” he growled. “I’m trying to save her from heartache.”

“I know, Seb. I’m sorry. I will keep looking and we’ll flush him out. Wherever he is, we’ll find him.”

He knew Christian wasn’t just going to go away. Not when Harper was with Sebastian. Christian hated Sebastian as much as he’d hated Sebastian’s father.

He left the plate he’d been ready to put together and decided to talk to Harper. There were things she needed to know about her father.

A loud thump stopped him on his tracks. He went down the staff hallway toward the noise. He opened a door and the scent of blood hit him in the face. He turned on the lights and saw Mrs. Patty on the ground, her throat slit open, bleeding to death.

He dropped to one knee and tried to stop the bleeding. “Mrs. Patty. What happened?”

She gurgled blood and pointed toward her open balcony door before she was gone. There was a notebook on Mrs. Patty’s desk. He glanced at the half-written page and stopped. She’d been writing an apology letter.

Dear Mr. Roarhart,

I’m sorry for having lied to your family. Right after I started working here, I became involved with a man I thought loved me. He told me he needed me to do him a favor. I thought putting the poisoned tea was going to be simple, but when she didn’t drink it, things became difficult. The snake was hard, but pushing Ms. Burns down the stairs was the worst feeling in the world. Tonight, I’m going to see him and explain I can’t do this anymore. I love him, but he is going too far. I can’t stay here, I’m s-

She clearly hadn’t gotten a chance to sign the letter when Christian had taken her life. Sebastian rushed out of the room, his focus solely on finding Burns and keeping him away from his mate.

Harper had just left the shower in her robe when she walked into her bedroom and found Christian standing there, only a few feet from her.

“What are you doing here?” she demanded. From what she knew of Sebastian, he hadn’t been invited.

“I came to help you,” her father said, his voice cold and hard. His gaze locked on her robe. “You’ve been sleeping with the dog?”

She narrowed her eyes. “You better watch what you say. That’s my man you’re talking about.”

“He’s a dog. I hoped Patty would've kill you before he had a chance to dirty you, but I see she couldn’t get the job done. She was useless. I had to get rid of her too.” He pulled out a gun and closed the distance between them. “I’ll make sure that dog doesn’t ever touch you again.”

“Let her go, Christian,” Sebastian said from the door.

She glanced at his eyes. They glowed with his animal. She knew how badly he had to be fighting the urge to shift and kill him.

“I’d rather see her dead than with you. I told you this the first time you came to my house,” Christian yelled at Sebastian.

Harper frowned, wondering what he was talking about. “When did he come to the house?”

“You were a kid. Only eighteen. He showed up trying to talk to you.”

Her gaze focused on Sebastian’s face. “Why did you come to my house?”

His eyes locked with hers. “You invited me. At the prom.”

She gasped. He was the boy she’d met that night. The ballroom had been dark, but she remembered how sweet he’d been and how interested he was in her.

“Disgusting,” Christian roared. “Just like your father.”

“Oh god. What do you mean?” she asked, her throat closing up.

“He killed my parents,” Sebastian told her, his gaze never leaving hers. “He’s the reason I’m scarred.”

“What?” She tried to jerk out of Christian’s hold but he pressed the gun to her side.

“They deserved to die. Your father bad mouthed me to all the banks. Nobody wanted to give me a loan!” he spat.

“You stole from him,” Sebastian said. “You’re lucky all he did was tell others about your shady ways. He should have killed you himself!” Sebastian growled and prowled closer.

“Don’t push it, dog. I will kill her myself if it’s the last thing I do.”

“Christian, stop.” She tried to talk some sense into him. This was the Twilight Zone. How could her father be guilty of killing Sebastian’s parents? How?

“That’s not all he did,” Sebastian said. “Why don’t you tell her what you did to your wife.”

Harper gasped, horrified. She yanked herself away from him.

“No. No. No!” She screamed and shook her head violently. “You didn’t.” Christian tried to come closer, but she darted away to Sebastian. “What did you do to my mother?”

Christian lifted the gun and pointed it directly at her. “She found out I had someone else. Got so clingy and desperate, I had to get rid of her,” he spat, venom in his voice.”

“You had someone else? Another woman? My mother loved you exactly as you were. She never tried to change you and you had the nerve to cheat on her?” she screamed at him, tears streaming down her cheeks. “You fucking lowlife. You piece of shit!”

She stumbled further away, her chest tight from trying to draw breath at the same time her sorrow overwhelmed her.

“Yeah. The witch was convenient,” he told her coldly, the gun unwavering. “I got rid of her too, eventually. When I no longer needed her. Same with Patty. Women,” he shook his head in derision. “So quick to fall for anyone who says what they want to hear.”

She shook her head in disbelief. “Mom tried to make me love you.” She wiped angrily at the moisture on her cheeks. “She forgave all you did, and you killed her? How? How did you kill her?”

“I just told you. The witch was convenient. She made problems disappear.” He glanced at Sebastian. “No matter how rich and powerful.”

Nausea rolled in her stomach. He was a murderer. Her father. How could she have not known all this time? “But you got rid of her, too?” She shook her head. “You killed my mom. My mom. You fucking asshole. You deserve to die a horrible death.”

Christian didn’t budge. “Your mother got in my way and later, the witch did, too. She trusted me so much she never saw it coming. Neither of them did.”

Harper doubled over, pain slashing at her chest thinking of her mother. He’d killed her. He’d taken the only person who had shown her love for most of her life. She believed he did it, too. When she got home and found her mother dead on the floor, she’d been told her mom’s heart had just stopped.

But her mom didn’t have heart problems and had been in great health. Everything had been too strange. There wasn’t a single doctor that could pinpoint what exactly happened. “Oh god. Oh god. How could you kill someone so good? Someone who loved you so unconditionally?”

Tears blurred her vision. She blinked them away, trying to get air into her lungs. She saw something rush from the corner of her eye. Christian shot the gun, then he went down. A massive wolf shoved him hard to the ground.

“Get off me, you filthy dog!” Christian yelled, his hands swatting at the big wolf.

The animal growled, bit down on Christian’s hands and tore several fingers off. Christian howled in pain, still trying to push the animal off him. The wolf snarled, his bared teeth bloody, and continued taking bites out of Christian’s arms and legs. Christian screamed and yelled in pain but continued fighting the wolf until the animal locked his jaws around his neck and broke the bones. Christian’s lifeless body lay in a pool of blood.

Shock held Harper immobile. She gulped bile back and hugged herself in a corner. Sebastian shifted. He picked her up in his arms and carried her out of the room. Guards rushed toward them as they left. Kellen led them in.

“Clean it up,” Sebastian told him. “We’ll be in the royal chamber.”

They continued down the hall, up the stairs, and to a floor she hadn’t been to. He opened the doors to a massive suite, then carried her straight to the bathroom. There he set her down on the edge of the jacuzzi and started filling the tub.

She let him take the robe off. Then he went into the shower and rinsed the blood off himself. Once that was done, he helped her into the tub and turned on the jets. He sat her on his lap and hugged her tightly.

“I’m sorry.” The words were hushed but packed with love.

She curled her arms around his neck and cried. Everything hurt. Her head. Her throat felt raw and full of sand. Her heart hurt for her mother. “She was such a kind giving woman and truly loved Christian. He didn’t deserve her.”

“I know. I wanted him far away from you,” he sighed, pushing her hair away from her face. “I knew he wouldn’t hesitate to hurt you if he thought you were involved with me.”

She gulped, swallowing at the thickness in her throat. “He had no heart. How could he be so cold?”

“He’ll never hurt anyone again.”

She cried harder, her heart breaking for him and her. “He left both of us without parents.”

“I know, sweetheart, but we have each other now.”

She raised her face from his chest. There was torture, sadness, and so much love in his gaze. “I love you, Sebastian.”

“I love you, too, Harper. I’ve loved you from the first time we met at your senior prom.”

She kissed him and pulled back. “I should have recognized you, but the scars got in the way. I felt this immediate connection. It was strange.”

“We’re mates. We’re linked for life,” he said and brushed her tears away with his thumb. “You will never be alone again. I’m here for you. Always for you.”

She nodded, her heart filling with love. “I don’t need anyone else now that I’ve got you.”

He hugged her tighter. “You’re all I need.”

“So why do you need me to have a baby?” She frowned.

“The witch cursed my father’s first born. I need a child to live past my thirty-fifth birthday.” He met her gaze. “I will die if I don’t have an offspring. That was always true.”

“Don’t worry,” she said with determination. “I’ll keep you alive. We’ll make it happen.”