Elara's POV
The silence that came with my question was heavier and louder than any other sound in the apartment. The calmness from Lucian after my question was a physical weight that crushed the air from the room. He didn't attempt to make a move, but I saw the shift in him, I felt the guilt in his eye. The casual concern in his posture solidified into a guarded and ancient something.
His silver eyes, which usually held a storm, went perfectly still and terrible.
"How did you get to know about the death of your parents Elara? Where did you hear that from? Who brought the information to you" His voice was low, and yet a careful neutral that explained everything to me.
"Well…..Lucian, Marek…. Marek just left here a while ago." The words were ashes in my mouth.
"He told me that he knew my mother. He said… he said she was researching your kind of being. He told me everything about the real report. The Coroners report. It wasn't a car crash as officially reported."
Lucian took a single, slow step closer to me. The distance between us felt like a canyon. "Elara."
"Just give an answer to my question Lucian!" The scream tore from me, fueled by a grief I thought I'd buried many years ago. "Yes or no? Were my parents killed by a wolf?"
He closed his eyes, letting out a pained breath. When he opened them again, the truth poured out, a confession written in the grim line of his mouth.
"Yes."
The single word was a piercing arrow that it struck me right in the chest, and I stumbled back a step. All the air in my lungs left. Hearing it from him made it a nightmare I could never wake up from. It made everything real.
"It was a rogue," he continued with his voice rough. "A wolf, one I had not yet brought to heel when I first established my territory here lost to the madness. The hunt… it sometimes attract them into the city. Into places they are never meant to be."
I stared at him, my mind reeling. "All this time Lucian, you knew who I was? You really knew who I was?"
His jaw got tightened. "Not at the first meet. Not even in the bar. But the scent of your bloodline… it's distinctive. I knew just after the first time you came to The Glass Den. I instructed my pack to look into you. When I found out…." He trailed off, a muscle feathering in his jaw.
"When you found out, then what? What happened Lucian?" I whispered, my heart a bleeding, shattered thing. "You thought what? That it's one of a funny twist of fate? That the daughter of your monster's victims would just fall into your arms?"
"I thought it was a punishment Elara!" he roared, his control finally breaking. The force of his anger made the lights shake. "A curse from the moon herself! To have my mate be the one person in this world whose bloodline was a testament to my greatest failure! The one life I could never make right!"
Mate. The word hung between us, so much more profound than girlfriend or lover. It was a destiny, a bond. And it was built on the graves of my own parents.
"Your failure?" I choked out. "This is about your failure? My parents are no more, Lucian! They're gone because you couldn't stop one of your own!"
"I know!" he shouted, striding forward until he was right in front of me, his body trembling with the force of his emotion. "Do you think I don't regret that every single day? That their faces don't haunt me? I tracked that rogue down. I brought him to an end myself. I made sure he could never hurt another go of my sins. And I am selfish enough to want you anyway. I knew I should have sent you away. I knew I should have let you hate me. But I couldn't. The pull… our bond…..stronger than my honor, stronger than my honor."
He reached for me, but I flinched back, his touch feeling like a brand.
"Don't."
His hand dropped. The pain and hurt in his eyes was immediate and devastating.
"Marek gave me an ultimatum," I said, the numbness spreading through me, a shield against the overwhelming pain. "I will lead him to your pack by tomorrow night, or he will expose everything to the city. My mother's research. The photos. He'll destroy my parents' memory. He'll tell the world I'm with their killer."
Lucian went very still, the Alpha calculating, pushing the tormented man aside. "He will not touch you. Or their memory."
"How can you make him not do that?" I cried, throwing my hands up in despair. "You can't kill a detective! That would just prove him right!"
"I am not just an ordinary killer, Elara," he said, his voice dropping to a dangerous, quiet pitch. "I am a King in the shadows. I have spent centuries gathering secrets, building networks. Marek has secrets too. Everyone does."
He looked at me, his gaze intense, unwavering.
"The question is not how I will stop him. The question is, what do you want to do? After everything you have learned… after the truth… do you want him ended?"
I looked at the man I loved. The man whose world had destroyed mine. I saw the guilt and the love warring in his eyes. I felt the bond between us, a living, breathing thing that ached with the distance I had put between us.
Marek had manipulated my entire life. Lucian had hidden a truth that destroyed it.
I was trapped between two predators. One wore a badge, the other wore the face of the man who held my heart.
My voice was a whisper, but it was my own. It was a choice.
"I want to be the one who ends him."