Five.

Nate

Her eyes are wide as she stares at me. “He was turned?” Her voice breaks as she asks the question.

“Yes, it would seem so. But it was a long time ago.”

She pushes herself up off the chair. Her hand grips her ribs as she frowns. “You’re wrong! He would have told me! He told me everything.”

“Elsa…”

“Don’t Elsa me. I knew my Dad. He wouldn’t hide that. He would have told me. He was my Dad. She is lying to you. She's just making up shit like she always does.”

“He wanted to, he was just waiting for you to be old enough to understand.” Kyra mumbles. But she is glaring at Elsa.

Tears are threatening and with a single blink, they burst over. Elsa quickly wipes them away. Embarrassed by her outburst.

Her blue eyes search mine. She wanted me to tell her it was all lies. That it was all made up, but I couldn’t do that. She needs to know the whole truth. She needed to hear what Kyra was hiding from her.

“Tell her the rest.” I growl

“I’ve told her.” Her stepmother cries.

“What about the other bit, where you had her father killed?” Mason chirps

Elsa’s lips part just a little. Her breathing becomes heavier. Her eyes focus on Kyra.

“You…. You had him killed?” Her hands ball into fists. Wrapping my arm around her, I prepare myself for the attack. She may not have her wolf yet, but she had all the other abilities. The strength, the rage, the sharp teeth. She could kill Kyra in an instant if I let her.

“You don’t understand. I had to protect Sadie. I had to protect my little girl.” Kyra cries. 

“And what about me? He was MY Dad. You took him away from me.” Elsa yells as her hatred fuels her. Pushing against my arms. I had forgotten just how much strength new wolves had.

“I couldn’t risk him killing my daughter.”

“Mum? How could you do that? Dillon was a great dad.” Sadie mutters. She looks shocked by the revelation. “He took me on as his own. He would never have hurt me. He loved me like he loved Elsa.”

Elsa pushes against my arm. Her baby blue eyes shift to a darker blue. 

“I paid someone to go after him. There was no way I was going to share a house with a beast.”

“What does it matter when you became the beast?” Elsa snaps back. It was taking all of my strength to hold her back.

She wasn’t coping with the information, I needed to get her out of here.

“Elsa, you’re coming with me!” I tug her hand but she pulls it away.

“No, I’m going to stay here and make their lives hell for what she did to my Dad!”

“You can’t, they are human. It’s best to stay away from them.”

“She needs to pay for what she did for my Dad!”

“And there will be time for that. Right now, you need to allow yourself time to heal. Mason can deal with them.”

“You want me to go to your home?”

“Black Forest, yes.” I murmur in her ear, hoping that my voice was enough to calm her anger.

Her eyes flicker back to her stepmother.

“Maybe you are right.” She relaxes a little. “Maybe I do need a break.”

While Elsa is packing her things, Mason pulls me to one side.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to kill them? It’s not right that the humans know about us. If word gets out…..”

“No, I don’t want you killing them.”

“But Alpha…..”

“It’s not negotiable, Mason.” I flick my eyes up to the ceiling. I could hear Elsa pottering around. “They have hurt her. The day will come where she will want revenge for what they have done to her. And when that day comes. I am not going to stop her.”

“And if they talk?”

“They won’t, if they know what’s good for them. Why do you think she never spoke of Elsa’s father and his secret? It makes her look like she has lost the plot.”

“Okay, But who could have turned him?”

“Not someone from my pack. All the ones that have been turned by my pack, live in Black Forest. It has to be another pack. I want you to keep quiet about this.”

He nods his head at me and moves back into the kitchen without saying another word. Kyra and Sadie squeal about something. I didn’t care. I had lost interest in them. I only cared about one thing, her.

Elsa sits in the car in silence. Her small amount of belongings barely filled the back seats.

Every question I raise, she refuses to answer.

“Will I see them again?” She whispers after a few miles of silence

“In time, if that is what you want. For now, you need to let your body accept the changes.”

She snorts. Folding her arms across her chest, she lets out a whimper of pain. I hated seeing her in pain. I hated knowing what she had spent years going through. It wouldn’t happen again.

“The pack doctor might be able to offer you something stronger to help with the pain.”

“Pack Doctor?”

“They keep an eye on the Wolves and Lycans that have injuries.”

Her eyes are wide and she nods her head. I knew it was a lot of information. And she wouldn’t learn everything overnight.

At the packhouse, her eyes are wide as I show her around. Whenever someone was near, she would step closer to me. Her hands gripping my arm as fear took its place.

“No one will hurt you here.”

Her blue eyes find mine “You don’t know that.”

“Trust me. No one will touch you.”

“How can you be so certain?”

“I am the Alpha of Black Forest.”

She lets out a laugh. “Is that supposed to mean something?”

“It will, after the full moon. But for now, I would like you to meet Lola. Lola is a werewolf too.”

“She was bitten, like me?”

“Yes.”

“You bit her?”