Part 8 (1/2)

He sat down on the edge of the bed, our smell still on the sheets, and patted the s.p.a.ce next to him. Once I sat, he picked up my hand, turning it over to study my palm, rubbing circles onto it before letting it go.

”You understand that Bryan and you both belong, technically, to both pa -?” Zane started.

”Gangs. We'll just say gangs.”

”Fine, gangs. You understand what I'm saying?”

”I don't think I belong to anyone or anything, but if you mean by birth, I understand.”

”Good enough. Well, Bryan was the one who was...important...to Cain. Cain is my father. He is the Alpha of Savage Blood. Derek, your father, was his foster brother. Not a blood relation. His father had taken Derek in as his own when his parents were killed. Derek and Cain were close for a long time. Cain came into power, taking over, at eighteen.”

”Why so young?”

”His father died.”

”I don't like this pattern of short life spans.”

”It's a violent life.” He stood and paced the room, running his hands through his hair, lost in thought.

I was prepared to hear whatever it was as long as it was the truth. I'd had too many years of nothing.

”I think - no, I know - that Cain felt responsible for Derek's death.”

”Why?”

”Ah, Aria.” He shook his head, running his hands through his hair, gripping and pulling for a moment. ”Just let me tell you my way, okay? I only hope you don't hate me when I do.”

I went to him, taking his face in my hands. ”I wouldn't. I couldn't hate you.”

He turned away. ”I hope that's true.”

”Please go on. I need you to tell me.”

”I didn't meet Bryan by accident. I was sent to hunt him. To find him and to bring him home, as my father said.”

”Recruit him?”

”Yes.” He paused, sitting down, again taking my hand in his, studying the lines on my palm. ”Back then, things were good. I was my father's son. Next in line to take over. I was only eighteen myself,” he said, his gaze finally meeting mine as if he were waiting for something, for me to tell him it was okay.

I nodded. I needed for him to continue.

”I never meant for any harm to come to anyone, but I was naive. I see it now. Doesn't change anything, but I see it. I met Bryan at school and we became friends, as you know. My intention was to do whatever it took to get him to come back with me, but then I realized I wasn't faking the friends.h.i.+p. He was a great guy. I liked him. I liked your mom, even though I'd been told she was the one keeping him away from us. That she would take him to Rage. That was an outright lie though. I don't think your mom had any intention of ever telling you about the packs...the gangs. About where you came from. At least not you. She'd have had to tell Bryan, for obvious reasons. Unless the change didn't happen.”

His expression hardened at that and he released my hand, standing again. He paced, wearing only a pair of jeans, his feet bare, his chest bare. Seeing all that hard muscle, the power beneath the skin, it made me want him all over again, the ache between my legs not important. I wanted him inside me again.

He stopped and turned to me with a small smile. ”And you. I liked you. You were a kid when I first met you, but within a few months you'd changed. Grown. That draw to you, I don't know if it was right or wrong, but it was - is - irresistible. Just as powerful now as it was then. More so.”

I made to stand and go to him, but he held up his hand.

”No, I owe you the rest.”

”Okay.”

”I reported back on my progress weekly, and my father was growing anxious, irritated that it was taking me so long. Thing was, though, I was having doubts by then. If Bryan decided to come back with me, he'd have to leave you behind. Heather would try to stop him, and I wasn't even sure how he'd say good-bye. If we'd leave in the middle of the night. I didn't feel good about that. It didn't feel right, and I put it off and put it off. But then, Bryan came home with that tattoo. He hadn't told me he was going to do it. He'd just done it. He'd decided. He was killed two weeks later. Two weeks after I'd told my father that he was in. That he was coming home with me.”

He stopped talking as if waiting for me to catch up. To catch on. My mind worked at putting two and two together, trying to understand what he was saying - what he wasn't saying.

”Do you think your dad...ordered it to be done?” My voice shook as I asked it, understanding now why he'd said he hoped I wouldn't hate him.

He nodded once, making every hair on my body stand on end.

”But I don't understand. Why? If he wanted you to recruit him?”

”That's just it, Aria. I don't think he ever wanted that. I think it was a lie. He used me to find you. To make all of you trust me.”

I stared, trying to understand the manipulations, the layers of betrayal.

”He denies it still, the b.a.s.t.a.r.d.”

Something wasn't right though. It didn't make sense. Why would Cain have bothered with having Zane befriend Bryan? Why not just carry out the plan to kill him?

But Zane was convinced. And he hated his father.

”That night, after the hotel - you think I ran away.”

”You disappeared. I didn't know where you were. The police wanted to talk to you, too, and no one could find you.”

”When I saw the black roses, I couldn't deny who'd done it. I knew it had been a pack kill. There was a reason my dad sent me to find Bryan. I was good at it, good at finding people, good at hunting them down.” His voice sounded lower as he spoke, the words fired with disgust. ”I did what I was so good at. I hunted the b.a.s.t.a.r.ds who'd carried out the order and I killed them. I beat them with my bare hands, and I didn't stop until their bones cracked and they lay dead at my feet.”

Emotion drained from his eyes, leaving only darkness behind as he spoke of that night, of what he'd done. He kept his fisted hands at his sides, and although he remained facing me, I wasn't sure he saw me at all. All the while, I sat, unable to move, trying to understand it all, to make sense of something so wrong, so horrible.

He kept staring at a s.p.a.ce on the floor as he continued, and this time, I rose and went to him.

”I never went back after that. I'd finally seen what kind of man he was. What he was capable of. I never saw my father again - not until I went to him to find out if he'd left the black rose in your car.”

”Zane.” I reached for him, but when I touched him, he shook me off and stepped back.

”It's what I come from.”

”This wasn't your fault,” I said, not allowing him to push me away this time, taking his face in my hands while his bloodshot eyes searched mine. ”He used you. He manipulated you.”

”And my stupid desire to please that man, to be the son he'd be proud of, got your family killed, Aria.” He pulled my wrists behind my back, gripping them tightly. ”I'm the reason they're dead. Do you get that? If it wasn't for me, they'd be alive today.”

I shook my head as he walked me backward toward the bed.

”It's my fault. All of it. And if it weren't for that d.a.m.ned rose in your car, I'd take you as far from this place as possible and make you stay away. Make you stay away from me. Your grandfather was right to keep you out of reach of either pack. It's the only way for you to have a chance at a normal life.”