Part 17 (1/2)

I lay there, hearing his confession, his sins against my family too many to count. And yet, as I shed tears for my parents and my brother, I also shed them for Zane, for us.

”Thing is though,” Zane wiped his face, sitting up to lean against the wall, ”Cain was telling the truth all along.” He ran his hand through his hair, staring beyond me. ”About time I found out, huh?” He met my eyes, guilt burning in his. ”Too late, though. He paid with his life. It was Ace. Ace ordered the murders. See, he didn't want Bryan alive. In fact, he needed him dead.” He paused, leaning his back against the wall. ”He doesn't want me alive. And, with me gone, he could confront Rage. Take over. He did this, and I blamed my father for six f.u.c.king years. I destroyed any love, any hope for a relations.h.i.+p with him out of anger, and turns out, it was misplaced. He wasn't guilty. It was his protege all along. Ace betrayed him. But I was the one who killed him. If I'd only -” His voice broke.

It hadn't made sense to me before. When Zane had told me the parts he'd told me, I'd wondered why Cain would order my family's deaths. He'd have had more to gain with Bryan on his side. And if not Bryan, then surely me. If truly I could birth Alphas, it would have been easy for Zane to bind me to him. I was already like a puppy in love.

But he hadn't.

I cupped Zane's face, wiping away his tears, smearing dried blood on his cheek. ”I'm sorry,” I said, kissing him softly on the mouth. ”I'm sorry he's gone.”

He closed my hand around the blade then, and we rose to stand. He brought it between us and turned it so the sharp end of it pressed against his belly. ”You have every right to hate me. And you have every right to take your revenge. My family did this to yours. I could have stopped it, if I'd listened. If I hadn't been such a blind, selfish fool.”

A drop of blood trailed down the polished blade, the tip of it having cut into his belly. Zane's hand dug into mine, hurting me as he pushed the knife deeper. For the first time since finding him, I wasn't sure how far he'd go. What he was capable of.

”Zane, no.” I shook my head, gripping the back of his neck to make him look at me. ”Ace manipulated your father. He used his love for you against him. Don't you see?” I tried to pull the knife away.

”I do see. That's just it.” He pushed the knife just a little deeper, his face contorting with the pain.

”Stop!”

”He's gone. He didn't deserve to die like that. He was Alpha. I'm here, right here.” He let go of me, rubbing his hand across his face. ”Too much of a coward to even end myself.”

”Zane -”

But I never got to say more. Clapping from somewhere in the room startled us both, and I saw Zane's eyes change, harden as he faced the intruder.

”That was...touching.”

I turned as Zane reached to place me behind him, squeezing the hand that held the blade, telling me quietly to hide it. Ace stood in the shadows flanked by too many men to count.

”I'm going to kill you, you f.u.c.king b.a.s.t.a.r.d,” Zane said, his fierceness opposite what I'd seen just moments before.

Four men surrounded us.

”Now, now, neutral zone. Switzerland, remember?” Ace said, laughing, making a point of shaking the gun in his hand at the sign above the bar. ”No fighting. Says so right there.”

”You're going to die, Ace. Today, your time is up.”

”Did you tell her everything, Z?”

”He trusted you. He loved you.”

Two men grabbed Zane as he stepped toward Ace.

”He was weak,” Ace spat.

A growl came from Zane, and a third man took him in a stranglehold from behind.

”Did you tell her your nickname when you were still Alpha's beloved son at the compound?”

Zane narrowed his eyes.

”Never told her what they used to call you?”

”Shut the f.u.c.k up, Ace.”

I felt the hatred between the men.

”Funny thing, Aria,” he began, walking toward me, giving me his full attention. I hid the blade in my hand, smearing Zane's blood from the sharp edge onto my palm.

Ace's grimace chilled me. There was pure evil in this man, and he hated Zane with a pa.s.sion. Perhaps he hated me, too.

”You want to tell her, or shall I?”

”Why are you doing this? Isn't what you've done enough?”

Ace looked at him. ”No, not enough. You were always the one he wanted, you know that? Stupid b.a.s.t.a.r.d still had hopes you'd come back. Come home. When you showed up at the compound that night, I almost believed he'd gotten his wish, which would have meant the doghouse for me, but luckily, you're not all that smart, are you, O?”

O?.

Zane's roar was deafening as he hauled the men who held him forward, forcing Ace to retreat a step. It took two more men to drag Zane backward.

”He always was the biggest and the baddest,” Ace said to me. ”Well, until now. Until you came along. Now he's just a little p.u.s.s.y.” His eyes raked me as if he were looking for a reason to justify his comment. ”You figure it out yet, Aria? Have a clue what we used to call him back when he was the great Alpha's son?” he mocked.

I stared, my brain working so hard it hurt. But then I got it. I got it and everything fell into place. And Ace must have seen it the moment it did.

I looked at Zane.

”You're Obsidian.”

Zane only watched me, neither denying nor confirming.

”You're him.”

”As black as they come - on the inside.” Ace's breath was hot at my neck as he said it. ”He might as well have pushed the knife through Bryan's heart. He led us right to him. Right to Mommy.”

My hand tightened around the blade, and my eyes never left Zane's. But Ace had underestimated me. Ace had sent the anonymous note in an effort to get me to find Zane, to come here and put this into motion again. He'd failed six years ago when I hadn't been at the house. Yes, Zane had been the one to lead the killers to my family, but that was only because of Ace's betrayal and not the fault of either father or son. Their hands were clean, in this case at least.

But Ace didn't know what I had come to understand. And Zane was wrong.

There was power in understanding.

”I wasn't going to kill you, you know. If you had been at the house that night, we could have avoided all of this.”

”What?” I asked, confused.

”Your brother couldn't live. He'd be too powerful to control.” His gaze swept me, making my stomach turn. ”But you? I'd keep your belly full of babies.”